Inside My 2025 Plan: How I Set Goals & New Year Resolutions as a Solo Parent and Entrepreneur

Here we go. Here we go. The year is moving along and we are now at the point where I want to pause and I want to share with you how I am implementing some of the tools, the techniques, the strategies we have talked about in the preceding episodes so that you can see how I'm bringing it to life in my business. Because I know it helps me so much when I can see what someone else is doing and how they're doing it. We talk about concepts, we talk about theory, but how are you actually bringing this to life in your business and in your life? And that is where things unlock for me. So that is you too. I've got some notes here that I want to take you through today to share with you how I am setting myself up for productivity, for growth, for reaching my goals in the year ahead. So with that in mind, where do we start? I start with looking back. So one of the number one things I do as I'm stepping into goal setting, as I'm stepping into prioritizing and building out my plan for the year, I look back at where we've been, what we've accomplished. And I do a lot of that reflection inside the Fresh Start Workbook, which is a workbook and planning guide for small business owners and entrepreneurs. And there are roadmaps and, and action templates in the back to keep you on track and implementing these plans and goals as you move through the year. But that's where I start. I look back and I identify what worked, what didn't work, what do I want to change, what do I want to shift? Where are our goals? How far off are we from reaching our goals and bringing our vision to light? So just really looking through that data and honestly, this isn't a one time of year process for me. I look back and reset in July and I do this in November. But then as we're moving through the end of year and new year time frame, I'm still massaging it and really we firmly lock things in typically at the end of December, slash very early in January. However, as we look back this year, I got sick at the end of this year and actually got sick at the start of the year as well. You may still be able to hear the cold I have, so I am feeling a little bit, I was going to say behind, but you're always right on time. But I am not currently operating according to my usual year end checklist. So as we look back, I'm going through the the Fresh Start workbook and the prompts and reflective questions in there. And I also have a blog post up with some of the other steps that I take, the personal steps that I take, and I want to share that with you. And we'll pop the link up. It's Amber McHugh.com year hyphen and hyphen Checklist and these are the things that I do at the end of every year to declutter my digital world, to give myself a clean slate, to start moving towards my goals and have open space and to really be organized as I step into a fresh start. Now, honestly, you can get a fresh start and you can update your plans and your priorities at any time that you decide. But New Year is one of those times when globally we've got this beautiful energy, we've got this beautiful momentum. So that is just a great time to serve as a checkpoint and reset as well as any other time you may want to do that throughout the year. The other things I do as part of my year end checklist are getting in max zero. I clear everything, I clean it up before, before and after a big marketing campaign before summer break at year end. So I put that in a few checkpoints throughout the year. I clean off my computer desktop, I soar, I put things in the trash, I map out my ideal days, I set goals and the associated time needed. I look at my time for the week a little bit differently. I'll share that soon and break that down for you more. But essentially what I have identified is the amount of time I need to get my work done and the amount, amount of time I want to give myself to get that work done because of the other priorities that I have in my life and then I fit those things together. So there's a little bit of puzzle piece happening. I don't look at everything I'm going to get done and determine how long it's going to take and that's it. Okay, I got to work that much. And conversely, I don't just say, oh well, I have five days a week, eight hours a day available for work. There's more that goes into that process for me. So that's shared a bit in this blog post if you want to check that out. And I, you know, the other thing I do, I organize my digital photos. So at the end of every year, this has nothing to do with business. This is so this is where the business and life stuff kind of overlaps for me in my year end process. I'm doing my financials, cleaning things up, I'm updating files, including my photos. Now if you're going to use these for social media, if you use your videos for your YouTube production process, etc. This actually will pull right on over to the business stuff. But also this is personal for me. So I am going through all of my photos from the last year and then I am sorting them and putting them in folders so if I I can easily find them. There have been updates to some of the photo album apps that I use that they're getting pretty good at finding. You know, if I wanted to find all the photos from Harper or if I wanted to find a photo of our Abidjan living room, I actually could find that with a few words and a search now in Apple Photos, which is what I primarily use. However, I still like to put things in folders because it's also a good opportunity for me to go through and delete anything that was mistaken that we don't really need to keep. I don't need to keep digital spot space for that if there are 10 of the same photo. So I go through and do a cleanup round as well and get everything organized and then I also identify what images I may need to share with someone. I update notifications because I want to be intentional with my focus. I don't want to actually I use now the Apple phone functionality where you can set DND of course, but then you can also set others. So if I'm working throughout the day, some of my family messages can come through still, right? If someone from the girls school called, that would still come through. So I update my notifications and I clean up Slack channels. I update my file structures, I remove myself from any groups that don't make sense anymore. Let's say I was focused on building a house, but I'm not doing that anymore. So I'd remove myself from those groups and then of course unsubscribing from lists that no longer apply. Usually this comes up at year end because I've ordered holiday presents for other people, but it's not actually something I need to get updated on throughout the year. Like I ordered wool socks for someone one year, but I don't want those little socks updates all the time. I live in a beautiful year round hot weather location right now, so I look back to look ahead. Now before we step into my plans for the year ahead, I want to share with you how I got where I am and what I have coming up so you can have a sense of look back to look ahead and how these things fit together. So I currently live in Abidjan Cote d'. Ivoire and we live here because of my husband's job. We very. Oh, I don't know, years ago, we decided to make a shift in our lifestyle that would take us international. And we didn't know that it would be his job that would allow this or his job that would enable this or be our vehicle for this. But it worked, worked out that way, and it worked out really beautifully. So we follow based on where it is that his job will take us next. And that's what brought us here. And we designed our businesses when we knew we might want to be going internationally. I was sure to design my businesses in a way that would allow us to do that. And so there's flexibility built in. There is, of course, there are constraints, which I really value. Some things that must happen, like my client calls must happen. I must have a place to sit down and connect with clients and do that work and connect with you here. So we've got some requirements around where we move to and what that looks like. But it is ultimately his job. And so it has taken us from locations in the US locations that I have been without him when he's been away on projects, as well as to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Here we are in Abidjan, Cote d', Ivoire, now, and this year we will actually, actually be moving to a new location in the summer of this year. And we're about 99% sure on where we're going. But, you know, I always leave that little bit of a tiny percent open because anything can happen, things change. So as soon as I feel like we're at 99.9%, I will definitely share with you where we're moving. I'm very excited about it and very sad to be leaving. But that is something that I think about when I'm in the context of. Of planning for our business goals as well. Is. Is it a move year? So what big things do you have coming up throughout the year that you want to capture so that you're not overlapping a big business event or a book launch with those big personal life events as well? Because a better business means a better life, and it doesn't mean, wait, I've got these cool things I want to do in life, but I can't because, oh, sorry, go without me. Oh, I can't focus on that right now because I've got to do all these things we want to call. I want to design my business in a way that fuels one and that one fuels the other as well. So I think about these things in co creation they coexist and I don't think about them in isolation. The other thing that is important as I look back and look ahead is that I run multiple businesses when early on I was founding one business and I founded a second business very quickly after those businesses grew respectively to operate as actually I started those businesses when I was working full time in corporate and grew them as side hustles. One of those businesses grew from zero. He started from nothing, started from scratch to 80,000 in revenue while we were still working full time jobs and then grew to multimillions in revenue operating in many cities around the United States with a full team. Another business stays online, Virtual consulting with small business owners and entrepreneurs who want to decrease the time they spend in their business and increase their profit and create a business that allows them, yes, to have an incredible purpose filled career, but also allows you to live the life that you want as well. And then in 2022 I purchased my third business which is in the children's education space. It's also virtual and we run this remotely as well, serving children all around the world. So as we think about this, I've got multiple tracks and multiple things going on. I no longer have the first business that I started. I now operate exclusively the consulting business with small business owners and entrepreneurs and the children's education business. So when I'm thinking about strategic planning, if there's an event happening in the consulting business, then I make sure I do not overlap and schedule something in the education, the children's education business as well. So I think about what's coming up, what do we need to prioritize, what do we need to focus on? Where does my attention need to be? Or no, the team's got that. In addition, I think it's important context to note that I do have teams in both of my businesses right now. However, in these two businesses they're quite small teams. So we've got small, nimble, well connected dream teams that I really trust, that I really value, that I really admire the work they do and how they operate. We operate in very values aligned ways and I know that I can trust them. When something comes up in my life unexpectedly as it does sometimes, there's likely someone who has my back or if they don't have the skill or it's something I actually need to do, I can trust that there's no judgment, there's no shame coming from my team members and that we'll shuffle things as we need to and make adjustments as we need to based on those life events that come up. And granted, I want to extend the same thing to my team members. So we try and operate in a way that's very supportive. So I want to share those things so you have some context around how I live in my life, how I operate, how our teams and our businesses operate and are set up. In case any of that applies to you or in case you're thinking, oh, that doesn't work for me because I want to share with you that everything I the ways that I operate my businesses are likely applicable to you and a business owner in some way, shape or form. However, it may look a little bit different. Maybe you do have a team of 50, right? Maybe you have a team of one and you're doing all the things right now. Okay, is that how we want to continue to operate? If so, and you still need to get things off your plate, how can we do that? How can you be more efficient? I am a big fan of getting yourself some support. Just like I want everyone in employee roles, in leadership roles, in owner roles, tab tools and the resources and the support you need to do your job well. So I'm a big advocate of you getting support. But again, not huge, massive teams. In fact, I always point to the research by Louis Schiff that he presented in his book called Business Brilliant that identifies that those people who stay in the middle class have a very DIY mindset. I'll DIY that. I got this. We've got this. Yeah, I know you got it. But listen to this. If you contrast to those people who move from middle class to self made millionaire or billionaire, guess what? Those people who move into the self made millionaire or billionaire categories, if they know that there is someone else that could do this thing better, 9 out of 10 times they're going to pull in the expertise. So it may not be someone that is forever on your team. They may actually come in for a point in time to help you get your business organized so that you're not working 247 so that you can get the results that you want. I'm a big believer that if you are spinning your wheels, you're spending hours and hours and hours and hours and hours working and you're not getting the results you want. We need to look at a different strategy. So we want to look from a results driven perspective and make sure you're getting the results that you want for the energy, the time, the investment, the financials that you are putting in. So this is some context. I just want to check my Notes real quick to make sure as we look back and I share that context that I am not missing anything. Oh yes. The other thing I wanted to share with you is that I'm also a mom. I've got three girls. One is out of university and has her own career. The others are in Abidjan here with us and they travel and move from location to location with us every couple of years and they are in middle school and elementary school right now. In addition, I like to make time for volunteering, meditation, getting movement in. And over the last couple of years, I've really reset and adapted my schedule so that I'm getting more of those things that I want to do in Meaning I set up my business because I wanted more freedom, more flexibility. I wanted to be able to volunteer more. I wanted to be able to create a career and serve and give back to to people in a way that aligned with my expertise and that was limitless and that I could do really cool things with from a building, growing, scaling, developing. But I also have the freedom and flexibility to get movement in to be home with my kids and be able to adjust things very easily for events and activities that they have coming up. So I think it's important to note that I do have this family element. It is a priority and a core and you'll see this in my plans as well as we look ahead and we built the business in a way that supports our life goals and our life goals also align well with the businesses we are building. So with that, I'm sure I'm missing something, but let's take a look at how I'm using some of the tools and the resources we talked about in the prior episodes. Building up to this episode, let's look at how I'm using them in my business in case it helps give you a bit more context to use them in your business. And oh, by the way, if you are just catching this video and you haven't watched those prior episodes, they're all available for you just in front of this episode. There are four preceding episodes that break down how to think about your goals for the year and what you may be missing and how you may want to check your goals and ensure that we've got the right goal. Especially if you've got a number tied to that goal. You're like, I don't know, is this the right number? In that first episode in this series, I give I break down how to think about structuring your goals, make sure that that's the right goal, then in the second episode, we walked through how to prioritize. There are a lot of ways you can get to your goal, you can get to your destination, but what's the right way for you right now? And I'll give you a framework to think through that. Then we looked at action plans and how to go from goal idea to all right, what do I need to do to bring this to life? And then in the last episode, I shared the structure that I put in place to make sure I stay on track with my goals all year and to make sure I don't get distracted by shiny objects. So check those out. But also check out Amber mchugh.com forward slash, get. Oh, no, no, no, no, sorry. Check out Amber mchugh.com forward slash, goals done. That's plural. Goals. Goals. Done. If you want a worksheet to go with all of this and to grab the tools and the templates that I have prepared for you that correspond with this series. So with that, now let me show you what I have done to structure my plans and my goals at the highest level. There are a lot of tools, resources, templates that I put in place when I'm thinking about strategic planning and that I pull through to operationalize these plans. In our business, in our client delivery and our marketing. However, it starts with strategic priorities. This serves as a one pager that you can share with your team, that you can come back to regularly to say, wait, what were our priorities for the year? Are we still working on these things or did we just get off track? Track. Again, I check back in with our goals and our priorities regularly. So this is an example of that one pager. In fact, this is just one piece of a playbook that we share with our clients inside the modern CEO so that you can start to take all of the things that you need to do in your business, all the things your business does anyway, and get them organized so that you can operationalize them very quickly. You can share them with team members. You have a place to go for clear plans for growth. It's your go to approach for getting things done in the business. And it just makes life so much easier and it's going to help you be more efficient and be more profitable. And I use this as well. I use every single tool inside the modern CEO and I'm pulling out a few to share with you. And one of these is our strategic priorities. And at the top of this, I've got my vision. Better business, better lies. You've heard it, you've heard me. Talk about this already in this episode. A better business means a better life. That's what gets me excited. That's what inspires me. I get so hyped up. And where I get emotional is, man, can you live the most fulfilling life that you can envision? And can you bring that to life and can your business support you in that? And, yeah, your business very much can support you in that, and it can be a leading factor in ensuring you are able to bring that vision that you have for your life to life. So I look at company goals for the year. So you're seeing some company goals up there. And then I also set personal goals and I encourage that you think about this not only in the context of your personal goals, but yeah. Does your team, does your company have any goals that you're all rallying and working towards? For example, in some companies that I work with, they have a goal that everybody will have the opportunity to volunteer up to X number of hours per month, per quarter. And they track that and they measure that, and those are paid volunteer hours and time. In other cases, the entire teams have decided we'd like to make sure we sleep eight hours a week. Like, we're all committed to this as a team. I'm sorry, not eight hours a week. Oh, my gosh, that is not the goal. The goal was to sleep eight hours a night, get your sleep on. So the company and the team members supported each other in reaching that goal because, you know, life is going to be a little bit better if we can get the sleep we need in and our business will be better because we're going to have more clear thinking. We're going to be well rested, we're going to come and we're going to show up to do the work we want done, to do with a better frame of mind. We're going to be ready to go nice and fresh after getting lots of sleep. That was not always the case for me, by the way. I did not sleep well for a big season of my life. Was it stress? Was it migraines? Was it, I just can't sleep. I was waking up in the middle of the night, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I have so dialed that in now. I consistently get eight hours of sleep a night. And I'm not going to say it is the only factor that has helped me get my chronic migraines under control, but it is certainly a significant contributing factor because now I know if I don't get eight hours of sleep a night, you know, I could push that to like 7:30. But if I don't get consistently eight hours of sleep a night, I teeter into migraine territory. And it's noticeable very quickly for me. So that's a little bit more on the personal side. But, you know, this all fits together. Your business is not separate from your life. Your life is not separate from your business. It's the same thing for your team members. If your team member has something that is going on in their life and it's, it's impacting how they think, it's impacting how they're feeling in any given moment, that could also impact the work. So this is, this is personal for me. Your growth, your success as a business owner, it's personal. I want to make sure you're well taken care of too, so. And I, I apply. Oh, but let me just fix that. That was going to drive me bonkers. There's a little as I'm looking at the strategic plan that I'm sharing with you right now on the screen, if you're checking out the video, there's a little typo in there. So I got that all fixed up. And if you are listening, let's get back to it. So I have my company goals, which are the same goals that are on my goal card for the year. I have my personal goals, and I'm just going to read out my personal goal that is a part of my company plan for this year. Embrace my modern CEO role while keeping it real. Work 24 hours a week. Sleep a solid eight hours a night. Squeeze in three epic family adventures this year. Safari. Yes, it's happening. A big move. Yes. Let's go. Build strong relationships with friends, clients, and my team. Oh, and because we're always growing, I want to learn something new every single month this year. Now, I set this for myself. Before we lock it in, I'm going to check with my team and see what goals do they have that they're working towards this year. And even if they're not related to what our company has going on, I'm still curious about that. I'm definitely still curious about that. Also, in our strategic priorities, one pager, we have our values. And my values are available to check out in full@ambermacue.com forward slash values. But also I'm going to share them with you now. Top values for our company, we actually have 10 values, and they all embody and roll up to a core value. And I'm going to break these down. The first value is first things first. There's always something that can be done now. So let's do that thing. I don't want a future trip. I don't want to skip 10 steps ahead and have to circle back. First things first. Results driven or focused on results. I'm not worried about how many hours it takes. In fact, if it takes less hours, great. But we want to look at results. We want to cut fluff. We don't want to spin our wheels, which means we want to bring in expertise where we can and learn from other people. And so we are results driven. Don't stop believing. This is very much tied to optimism and pulling through optimism in the work that we do and the approaches that we take. In fact, fun fact around optimism in the book, Learned Optimism, it breaks down research that shows that people who are optimistic get better results. Specifically this research was done around sales. And I think it's so relevant for us as business owners because we've gotta. We need to be selling. You may have salespeople on your team, you may have people supporting you in marketing to bring in leads, but we have to have an eye on sales and revenue generation. And so it was interesting that salespeople who are more optimistic outperform other salespeople and they further break down in the book and in this research some of the reasons for that and some of the behaviors and the things that they're seeing. And. And in sales, you're going to hear a lot of no's. So you've got to have optimism to get back up to go again. And I've already experienced and pulled this value through and had to challenge myself to embrace this value a little bit more already in the first three weeks of this year. So don't stop Believing is a value and a belief and a behavior that we pull through our organization. Small Town vibes. I grew up in a small town and that song was just playing in my head as I said those words. And we absolutely want to bring those small town vibes to our relationships. We want to take care of people, we want to know people. I also, in that small town, worked in a restaurant. So I think, man, how did I show up for people when they were right in front of me? Because right now I operate remotely. I live on the other side of the world. So I think about how did I show up for people when they were right in front of me? What did I know about them? What did I say to them when they walked in the door? What did I do? And then I think, how can I translate that and emulate that when I'm building relationships with people online. And it's a challenge sometimes, but we pull that through as best as we can in our very virtual companies. Easy breezy. Let's keep this simple where we can. No drama for this, mama. Minimize the drama. And yeah, sometimes my head will spin. I'm like, wait a second. Bring it back, bring it back. The lucky ones. We have a belief that we as business owners, we as small business owners have an opportunity to do things different. And I feel so luckily and grateful and blessed to be able to do things the way that we get to as small business owners and entrepreneurs. We've got your back. A belief in our company that we're here for you. And if we have something that would help you, we're not going to gatekeep on that. We'll share that with you openly, freely, even if it's sometimes embarrassing or we feel vulnerable. We got you. We are family. I have a personal value of family is a priority and a core value there, and we pull that right through to the business. This is so critical because our personal values don't just get left at the door when we sit down to work. So what are your personal values? And they align with the values you have in your company. And when you're hiring, those values also align with the people that are coming onto the team. And then the core value, the value that sort of wraps around all of them is you're right on time. You are not late. You are not behind. You are right on time because it is absolutely impossible to be late for your destiny. Now, does that mean that we. We're right on 10? I can just take my time doing this? No, that is not what we believe. We believe that we still have to step into action. And you're going to see this. You've been seeing this throughout the week in this series and you're going to see this in the plans I show you. So we're stepping into action and it is right on time for you to step into action in your business as well. On those things that you want to accomplish, on those things that you want to do in your life. We got to step into action to make sure you get there because results will not magically appear. We must take the action steps that are going to get us to where we want to be going. And we're right on time to step into action on those things. So now, as we move through this strategic priorities one pager. How will we bring our goals to life for the year? And in this, we have space for you to Capture your three to five priorities is all I recommend. I have four. I typically have four. The first one is achieving revenue growth. We've got some revenue growth that actually pull through to our profitability goals as well. And we're to do that. We're going to have four priority launches. We're going to renew some effort in our marketing. We took a pause on our podcast at the end of 2023 so we took a one year break in our podcast and we're coming back as you can see in this new year on YouTube and on the podcast. And we've got some renewed efforts and energy and approaches that we are taking to our marketing now because I want to connect with you more so that is woven into that renewed marketing approach and I want to fine tune our messaging and I think that's going to also support revenue growth. As I just mentioned YouTube and podcast, we're updating our processes. I'm getting in a recording flow again. We want to up level throughout the year as we're learning and we're fine tuning and we're adjusting and we're seeing what's working and we're seeing what's not working. And we're also working with a consultant in this on those launches that I mentioned. Four priority launches, I break them down. We've created our million dollar marketing plan around those launches. We and then I've identified what those marketing campaigns and those launches are going to be. And then we also have a focus on client delivery this year. So we're making small adjustments to our client delivery process so we can be more efficient as a team and we can be more efficient for our clients. And mid year we're going to do a comprehensive client success systems review. It's tools, resources, templates that we take our clients through inside the modern CEO and we're going to go through that in its entirety mid year as well. And then we're going to identify a new solution for delivering our Fresh Start workbook. We want to freshen some of that process up as well. So this is a behind the scenes on our strategic plan and my one pager 40 year ahead. Now I also mentioned this week the strategic roadmap and before we've got a goal, we've got some ideas on what we want to do to get there and then we're going to build the plan on how we're going to get there and the next step in that process from a timeline perspective for me is looking at the year, what's going on. I've already mentioned We've got to move. So that is something I put in my 12 month roadmap so that I don't schedule anything big over it around it. Now you'll see in our move is expected to happen in the summer months and I do have events happening. I do have a lot happening this summer. So I'm staying flexible with this because I don't have our exact move dates. There are still a few things up in the air. So I've highlighted on my 12 month roadmap and my 12 month calendar. And you can grab the template for this@amber McHugh.com forward/goals done. And of course we'll link this up for you in the notes. And so I've got that move on there. It's highlighted. I don't want to forget about it. It is something that's happening this year and this year only. The other rocks that I drop first throughout the year are my kids events. So I'm dropping those big things first in the calendar that aren't movable. They're happening whether I'm present or not. But I would like to be present for them. Like the kids spring break, like my move, like summer break and like winter break. Those are sort of our anchors as a family. And then I'm keeping those things top of mind as I weave in the activities, the events, the things I will be doing from a business and a work perspective throughout the year. So you know what, even if you have to be somewhere, I operate my businesses remotely so we have a little bit more flexibility, flexibility in this. But even if you have to be somewhere, I invite you to think about what are we going to be doing in the year ahead, what do I want to be doing in the year ahead? So that if you need to tell someone and you need to get coverage on your team for that, like, hey, I want to go on safari in March and I'm going to plan this. Can someone back me up on these activities in March? Let people know in advance. My team definitely knows what I have coming up. So again we can back each other up and there's coverage for whatever is happening or if I'm going to be out for a week because I am going on safari this year with some colleagues, some clients, some friends and I, I and I've got to make sure, oh, hey girls, you're good for school. Matt, you're good with the girls. And we have to do extra coordination this year because I'm actually solo parenting this year. I am doing a year of solo parenting. I Forgot to mention that earlier. I knew I was forgetting something. I'm solo parenting because Matt is working at another location for the year and I am here in Abidjan, Cote d', Ivoire with the girls. And so I gotta check in and I gotta coordinate with him in advance. So if there are things that you wanna do, if there are trips that you wanna take, if there are things that are coming up that you need coverage and backup for, for in business and in life, let's do that in advance. Let's prepare and be ahead. So there are no, well, I was going to say no surprises, but we know they're going to be surprises throughout the year. We're just minimizing the surprises and that just makes things easier for absolutely everyone. And then after I identify those things that we're going to be doing throughout the year, you're going to put on your 12 month roadmap that you can get at Amber mchugh.com forward/goals. Done. Drop in the launches that you're going to have. Drop in the marketing campaigns. Drop in the remodel if you've got a brick and mortar and you're going to be remodeling. Drop in the. Drop in the book launches. If you've got a book coming up this year, are you going to have some events around that before, during, after, write the book launch, mark those big activities so that your priorities are locked in? Of course we're flexible. It's 12 months out, right? 12 months out from December of this year. Things might change, but I've got these things in place so that I can keep my eye on where I want to be going, knowing that there might be some detours and some obstacles and some roadblocks that come up along the way. That is why I don't plan out in nitty gritty detail a full year at a time. We are nimble as small businesses and as owners. You have to be adaptable, you have to be ready to pivot, you have to be ready to adjust. And I would prefer that you not spend hours and days creating very detailed plans all the way through to December because things may change and you know more now about what you need to be doing in the next 30 of this year. Things might change, but I've got these things in place so that I can keep my eye on where I want to be going knowing that there might be some detours and some obstacles and some roadblocks that come up along the way. That is why I don't plan out in nitty gritty detail a full year at a time. We are nimble. It's 60, 90 days because the closer we get to a time frame we can see more clearly and it is ever more evident what we need to get done now. That's not to say we're going to have some strategies, tools, templates, resources we can pull from to make that planning process go faster. And that's not as small businesses and as owners, you have to be adaptable, you have to be ready to pivot, you have to be ready to adjust. And I would prefer that you not see spend hours and days creating very detailed plans all the way through to December because things may change. And you know more now about what you need to be doing in the next 30 to say if there are some big planning activities that you need to do now if it's going to happen in December, 60, 90 days because the closer we get to a time frame we can see more clearly and it is ever more evident what we need to get done now. That's not to say we're going to have some strategies, tools, templates, resources we can pull from to make that planning process go faster. And that's not to say if there are some big planning activities that you need to do now. If it's going to happen in December, like let's say you are launching a book mid year, you're probably doing things now for that that are going to set you up for success success for that launch in June. However, you don't have to plan every single detail for June, but there might be some things we need to do in advance and we're going to like let's say you are launching a book mid year, you're probably doing things now for that that are going to set you up for success for that launch in June. However you don't have to plan every single detail for June, but there might be some things we need to do in advance and we're going to think about those things now as well. So what might this look like for us? Think about those things now as well. So what might this look like for us? This looks like either a 90 day plan, a six week plan or a 30 day plan. And I shared already in this series why you may want to use a 90 day plan if it's a big project plan. If you're building up to a big event, let's go 90 days. However, if you want to get some this looks like either a 90 day plan, a six week plan or a 30 day plan. And I shared already in this series why you may want to use a 90 day plan. If it's a big project, if you're blast momentum and or it's a milestone and there are multiple parts building up to a big event. Let's go 90 days. However, if you want to get some parts to this project or multiple phases, you might want to do it in six week increments or six week phases. In addition, I'll dial it back even more and if I want to get rapid momentum now for the next 30 days I might even do a 30 day plan. And once a few times a year we host a group accountability session called get it Done. And I am currently in a 30 day planning cycle and I have my 30 day plan right up here on the screen. So I shared our 90 day plan previously. I shared the 6 week plan template previously and now you are seeing my 30 day planning template where I have broken down fast momentum and or it's a milestone and there are multiple part what I need to do week 1, 2, 3 and 4 for the first month of this year to get some momentum, to get in flow, to get things done early on. So I set myself up for success early. Now what are the benefits of 36 week or 90 day plans? A few things. We are not planning out the full year so we're not going to waste time on things that might change. Parts to this project are multiple phases. You might want to do it in six week increments or six weeks week phases. In addition, I'll dial it back even more and if I want to get rapid momentum now for the next 30 days I might even do a 30 day. In addition, it's going to allow us to get faster momentum because we are, we're looking closely, we're like I'm going to get these things done and then we're going to move to the next thing. It builds momentum. Those action steps are clear, they are current, they are present. Because as you, if you were building out six months, even a six month plan, it's much clearer what you need to do. Now as you look six months out, the to do list might be shorter. Is it really? No, probably not. But I don't have all of the details yet because I'm still getting information. Exceptions to that would be if it's, if it's a project that you do all the time. Every year, for example, we have launches and marketing campaigns that we do on a regular basis. I'm pulling from another six week plan and once a few times a year we host a Group accountability session called 90 day plan, 30 day plan to execute that right. So it's copy paste and then it's edit that plan. This 30 day plan looks a little bit different because we're renewing our marketing efforts. So I don't typically have set up processes for recording YouTube or podcasts. Right. We're revamping our process, we're revamping our flow. So that's something that's not going to happen. I'm not get it done. And I am currently in a 30 day planning cycle and I have my 30 day plan right up here on the screen. So I shared our 90 day plan previously, I shared the 6 week plan template previously and now you are seeing my 30, 30 day planning template where I have broken down going to set up new processes for this process for this activity every month or multiple times a year. We might fine tune, we might edit, but that looks different, right? So this look, this year looks a little bit different because I'm not doing something that I regularly do. We're integrating some new stuff into the plan, into the process. So you're seeing a sample of how I take right my 12 month plans that I focus in on a shorter period of time, 90 days, six weeks or if I really want to get some momentum and get it done and get focused, sometimes 30 days. And the other thing benefit that having what I need to do week one, two, three and four for the first month of this year to get some 30 day, a six week or a 90 day plan does is that if we plan 12 months out and we get six months in, we're like man, I'm, I'm not to where I want to be at. My plans are off, I'm nowhere near my goals. I'm not getting the results that I expected from the things that I am doing. Be it your marketing, be it your client delivery, updates, et cetera. I don't want you to be six months in and realize man, we're not on track. So when we look 36 week or 90 day momentum to get in flow to get things done early on. So I set myself up for success windows. We're going to see much sooner if what we're doing is working or not. And we're going to now what are the benefits of 36 week or 90 day plans? A few things. We are not planning out the full year so we're not going to waste time on things that might change. Be able to make those edits and adjustments and pivots sooner as well. That's why we also work with our clients and we recommend every quarter you're resetting that 90 day plan, minimum, you're resetting that 90 day plan. And every month we've got checkpoints in place so we can look at what do I need to do this month to make sure I'm on track with that 90 day plan. I'm on track with my goals for the year. And this doesn't take a lot of time because you get into a rhythm around it. So every 90 days we're checking in every month we're just in addition it's going to allow us to get faster momentum because we are fine tuning and adjusting every week we pull this through as I shared in the last episode in our Monday and our Friday CEO time. So with that this has been an extended episode, an extended conversation to share how I look back to look ahead. I pause and look at year end activities. What do I go through to declutter digitally to declutter. We're looking closely. I'm get these things done and then we're going to move to the next thing. It builds momentum, the life to reset and give myself a clean slate for the year ahead. I can also because action steps are clear, they are current, they are present. Because as you if you were building out six months, even a six month plan, it's much clearer what you need to do. Now as you look six done in the spring that can be done mid year that could be done anytime that you decide you want a fresh start in that process. I definitely use our Fresh Start workbook. We'll link that up below and in the notes as well. Then we looked at the context and the constraints that I have in my business and life and why we've set certain things up in certain ways. Months out the to do list might be shorter. Is it really? No, probably not. But I don't have all of the details yet because I'm still getting information. Exceptions to that would be if it's and then I shared with you how I am very much using the resources, the tools, the templates that we talked about in this series. I hope this behind the scenes was helpful for you. I hope you got some fresh ideas around this and I am really excited to see what you bring to life in the year ahead. So definitely a project that you do all the time. Every year. For example, we have launches and marketing campaigns that we do on a regular basis. I'm pulling from another six week definitely keep me posted, tag me, let me know what you are accomplishing or how you're using any of these strategies in your business. You can find me on instagram at Amber McHugh and in generally all places at Amber McHugh. So good to be here with you. You are right on time for everything that you want to bring to life this month, this 90 day plan, 30 day plan, to execute that, right? So, so it's copy paste and then it's edit that plans quarter this year and beyond because you cannot relate for your destiny. I'll see you soon. This 30 day plan looks a little bit different because we're renewing our marketing efforts. So I don't typically have set up processes for recording YouTube or podcasts. Right. We're revamping our process, we're revamping our flow. So that's something that's not gonna happen. I'm not gonna set up new processes for this process, for this activity every month or multiple times a year. We might fine tune, we might edit, but that looks different, right? So this look, this year looks a little bit different because I'm not doing something that I regularly do. We're integrating some new stuff into the plan, into the process. So you're seeing a sample of how I take, right, my 12 month plans, then I focus in on a shorter period of time, 90 days, six weeks, or if I really want to get some momentum and get it done and get focused, sometimes 30 days. And the other benefit that having a 30 day, a six week or a 90 day plan does is that if we plan 12 months out and we get six months in, we're like, man, I'm, I'm not to where I want to be yet. My plans are off. I'm nowhere near my goals. I'm not getting the results that I expected from the things that I am doing. Be it your marketing, be it your client delivery, updates, et cetera. I don't want you to be six months in and realize and we're not on track. So when we look 36 week or 90 day windows, we're going to see much sooner if what we're doing is working or not. And we're going to be able to make those edits and adjustments and pivots sooner as well. That's why we also work with our clients and we recommend every quarter you're resetting that 90 day plan, minimum, you're resetting that 90 day plan. And every month we've got checkpoints in place so we can look at what do I need to do this month to make sure I'm on track with that 90 day plan. I'm on track with my goals for the year and this doesn't take a lot of time because you get into a rhythm around it. So every 90 days we're checking in. Every month we're just fine tuning and adjusting. Every week we pull this through as I shared in the last episode in our Monday and our Friday CEO time. So with that, this has been an extended episode, an extended conversation to share how I look back, to look ahead. I pause and look at year end activities. What do I go through to declutter digitally, to declutter in life, to reset and give myself a clean slate for the year ahead. That can also be done in the spring. That can be done mid year. That could be done anytime that you decide you want a fresh start. In that process, I definitely use our Fresh Start workbook. We'll link that up below and in the notes as well. Then we looked at the context and the constraints that I have in my business and life and why we've set certain things up in certain ways. And then I shared with you how I am very much using the resources, the tools, the templates that we talked about in this series. I hope this behind the scenes was helpful for you. I hope you got some fresh ideas around this and I am really excited to see what you bring to life in the year ahead. So definitely keep me posted, tag me, let me know what you are accomplishing or how you're using any of these strategies in your business. You can find me on instagram at Amber McHugh and in generally all places at Amber McHugh. So good to be here with you. You are right on time for everything that you want to bring to life this month, this quarter, this year and beyond. Because you cannot be late for your destiny. I'll see you soon.