016: Give Your Business a Fresh Start ... Anytime!

The Modern CEO Podcast Episode 16 hey, have you heard? There's a new style of CEO on the block. The Modern CEO. And she is changing the way businesses are run. She's setting her own hours and her own salary. She's creating a business around what matters most to her. Freedom, family, and impact. And her corner office looks nothing like what you'd see on Wall Street. It's a kitchen table, your grandma's lake house, a spacious home office, the living room floor maybe surrounded by kids and crayons or the local coffee shop. Your business, your way. This modern CEO is here to stay. Because when you embrace your role as modern CEO, you will have more freedom, more profit, and more fun. Most importantly, you'll fall in love with your life and a business in a way you've only dreame. Trust me, this isn't a pipe dream reserved for only a select few. You are the modern CEO. You are creating a business and life you love because a better business means a better life. Well, hello there. Welcome back. I am Amber McHugh, your host for this podcast episode, and I am coming at you from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I'm originally from Chicago, but I've spent. Prior to moving Addis Ababa, we spent about 15 years living in the Washington, D.C. area as well. So that just goes to show you, you can make anything happen from just about anywhere. And I am definitely loving living in Africa right now, and I'm so happy to be welcoming you to the New Year at the time that this podcast goes live. Now, of course, you might not be listening to this episod at the New Year, and that is totally okay. And I want to wish you a happy new Year, a happy fresh start, and much success in your year ahead, regardless of if it's the New Year or not. And we are now just kicking off our Virtual Planning Experience series. So we're gonna take you through in the next few episodes of the Modern CEO Podcast, getting some planning done for your business and for your life, because they go together. A better business means a better life, my friend. So, of course, we're kicking off this Fresh Start, talking about the Fresh Start Effect. Have you heard of it? It's an actual thing. It's not just something I'm making up because I have a book with the same name. And no, you do not need the Fresh Start Workbook to enjoy our Virtual Planning experience. We have got you covered from end to end, right here, right now. So back to the Fresh Start Effect. And of course, there's good news, and there's bad news with this fresh start effect. Let's start with the bad news. The latest research on New Year's resolutions, as I read by Dan Pink in his book, when is that? One month into the new year, only 64% of resolutions continue to be pursued. That means 36% of us have already dropped off. I can't even imagine what those stats look like as we move through the year and we hit February and then March, right? You know, you've set resolutions before. How do they go? How long into the new year are you sticking with those resolutions? Or do you get to November or December and think, man, I've really got to knock this resolution out. I got to make some progress right now. How if I am going to get this in for this year, right? And some of those you can't get in, right. If you have a goal to set up your entire business and start generating revenue, if you wait until November 15, you are going to be in trouble. Maybe you've got a goal to get in shape again. If you wait until the end of the new year. I've done this one a couple times, you are going to be in trouble. So that's the bad news. And does this mean that I don't think you should set resolutions? Absolutely not. Does this mean that I don't think you should set goals? Absolutely not. Dan in his book when continues to explain that just like people need physical landmarks to get from here to there, right turn, right turn at the 7 11, keep going till you see the bank, make a left, right. Just like you need those physical landmarks to get you from here to there. In fact, where I live in Ethiopia, there are no addresses, right? You give someone an address, they're like, I don't know what that means. They don't really use gps. They don't use Google Maps, for example. So when someone asks where I live, I say it's across from the skate park. In fact, little fun fact, Anthony Borden Dane in Parts Unknown visited the skate park directly across the street from my house. Now, not most people know where the skate park is, so I tell them Lofto Mall. Nah, that's not quite so good. It's actually quite a large mall with a very large swimming pool. Lots going on there. I don't, I don't do a ton of shopping there. I do hit up the spa from time to time, but when they don't know where Lofto Mall is, I move a little bit further out. Right across the street from lofto Mall is St. Gabriel's Church. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. St. Gabriel's Church. And if you Google Lofto Mall, which I had to do when I was giving out addresses for people who were coming to visit and needed to get their visas, when you're getting your visa, they're going to ask you what address, where are you staying? And again, no great addresses to give. So I googled, okay, what is the actual address of Lofto Mall? And the actual address of Lofto Mall is Old Airport. That's the neighborhood we live in next to Bisrich Gabriel Church, S. Africa Street, South Africa Street, Addis Ababa. Now, if you say South Africa Street. No, no, no. You're going to get a bunch of confused faces if you actually want someone to show up at your house or somewhere near your house. So that physical landmark Next to St. Gabriel's Church is really important when I'm telling people how to get to our house. So these physical landmarks, whether it's the church steeple for you, or maybe it's make a right at the 7:11 and turn left at the bank, just like those physical landmarks tell us and show us where to go and how to get there. And they keep us motivated and help us see that we are on the right track. Your brain loves using landmarks to navigate time as well. It's like a mental landmark. Just like you've got these physical landmarks now, a search for the word Diet Soars on January 1st. Mental Landmark, January 1st. Gym memberships spike on January 1st. Another activity associated with this mental landmark. And the same thing happens at the first of every month and every Monday and the first day after a federal holiday. Taking this further, the surge of momentum comes also after anniversaries, birthdays, job changes. These mental landmarks, or as Daniel Pink calls them, temporal landmarks, are used to help us identify and get some fresh starts. It's the church steeple for me, the bright shining light from the 711 for others, and maybe something else for you. But what's all this mean? What is this physical landmark turned mental landmark related to time and fresh starts mean for you now? Because we are at one of those fresh start milestones with the new year just passing. So why do we care? Right? Because I want you to know that you have the power at any time, at any point in the year to create your own fresh start. So if you feel like you're already starting to fall behind, if you feel like it's too late to plan or set goals, or if you're thinking, it didn't work for me before, why should I start now, or if you're worried that you have to do more, be more, or get it perfect, let's put that all behind. And remember, you have got an opportunity to create your own fresh start. In fact, use this podcast now as the beginning of your reset and pick a mental landmark to get your fresh start. Monday, first day of the week, is a great day to kick off your fresh start. National Donut Day sounds like a pretty good day for a fresh start to me. In fact, National Spouse's Day, another great day for a fresh start, especially if you're looking for a fresh start in your relationships. Right? You get the idea, right? First of the month, first all of first of the week, any holiday, birthday, anniversary, great opportunities for fresh starts. Use this strategy as we kick off the new year and as we move through the year ahead. In fact, let's build out some fresh starts into the year right now so you have some already blocked. I recommend you leverage the 90 day planning process we use and only plan for 90 days at a time so each new quarter brings you a fresh start. If you stumbled throughout that quarter, if you've gotten off on a rocky foot and you never regained your footing, don't worry, another fresh start is right around the corner. Put a monthly money date on your calendar, for example, the last day of every month. Make that your money date. So you start the next month with a fresh start. Right? Does this make sense? I personally love a fresh start. I've always loved a fresh start. So, you know, I was excited when I read in Dan's book when obviously I recommend it. I'm giving you guys a sliver of a preview into this book, so you've got to check it out if you want to understand what's the best time to do anything. Dan is going to take you right through all of that. But I am focused on our fresh starts and giving these roadblocks and these milestones throughout the year to get some serious momentum in your business. And that starts now. So, my friend, mission number one in our Virtual Planning experience series is complete and we are all around getting in action here on the modern CEO podcast. So at this point, you may have identified your fresh start date. Whether it's Monday, whether it's National Donut Day, National Spouse's Day, maybe you're making up a day in a holiday of your own. Whatever that is, identify your fresh start date so you can harness and recapture that momentum. We have identified milestones throughout the year so you can build in those natural checkpoints and those fresh starts as you go. And Number three, this is strictly a bonus if you don't know where to start with your goals. If you're like, all right, what's next? I want to get ahead and I don't want to wait for the next episode in this Virtual Planning Experience series. You can totally grab the Fresh start workbook@freshstartworkbook.com but again, it is not mandatory to enjoy this Virtual Planning Experience series with us. So definitely come back and stick around and watch for the next episode of the Modern CEO Podcast, where in our next episode we will take on Mission two, which will be all about checking in and doing assessment of where we are in our life and starting to identify what changes you might want to make based on what your priorities are, your values are, and the goals that you want to accomplish. Then we're also going to take a look at what it means for you to live the dream and we're going to compare that to what's actually happening in your reality and where we can close the gap and start to go from reality to dream in your life. But before we wrap up today, I want to invite you to tag me in on Instagram. Amber McHugh My tag is simply just my name, Amber McHugh and use the hashtag ModernCEO to tell me about the steps you took after this episode or what your Fresh Start milestones are. I cannot wait to follow up with you on Instagram. I am so excited to be going through this Virtual Planning experience with you and I will see you in the next episode where we are going to to complete our life. Check together. Lots of love. No singing today. Sorry about that, I didn't have a song planned. We could make up a jingle about the fresh start, but I'm going to spare you my off key singing today and I will see you in the next episode.