Catch up on some related episodes:

Today’s talking points:

Together we will run through the annual planning party and I’ll share my goals, prompts and reflections on the year gone and the year ahead. I hope this inspires you to do the same for your business this year

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The annual planning party is one of the habits that I teach to help you be the boss of your life and go from busy to boss.

I am going to walk you through an annual planning party, which is what we do before the start of each new year. It's a time to reflect on the previous year to see what supported you and what didn't, what goals you made progress on and which you didn’t and to just set some intentional goals for the new year.

I am a big believer that living with intention is truly what equips us to show up for our lives as the best version of ourselves. Having a vision is taking ownership of your life and creating the life that you want. And it's how you can be an active participant rather than just letting things happen to you and hoping for the best.

This planning party will help you do just that.

the action steps for your planning party

reflection questions

Taking time to reflect on the year just gone and the year ahead is essential.

Reflection questions:

What progress did I make on my goals this year?
What were my three biggest wins this year?
What are my three biggest challenges this year?
Are there any limiting beliefs I need to address?
Is there anything that I want to let go of as I head into this next year?
How is my ______ spiritual health / mental health / physical health/relationships/finances etc.

Preparation for the new year questions:

Are there any changes that I want to make as I head into the new year?
What goals do I want to work on in the coming year?
What do these goals have in common?

2. write out your goals

Write out the goals that you are working toward for the year ahead. Make sure you write out why they matter to you, and what the first action step is that you are taking toward them.

3. schedule goals

Determine which month, season or quarter you are going to focus on for each goal. When we schedule our goals, we are held accountable for actually doing them.

4. push seasons

When we schedule our goals, we are able to see which months are push seasons, and which months we can take a step back and have space.

5. yearly word

Choose a word that you want to live by for the year.

6. vision map

Create a vision map to support you as you work towards your goals throughout the year.

my annual planning party

I'm going to walk you through my own annual planning party in real time, going through SOME of the prompts with you.

I want you to keep in mind that things can change. This is just about setting your intention. Our schedules, routines and our goals are tools, not chains. The purpose of this is to allow you to go into the year having a game plan, having the vision, and having Q1 planned out, but then continuing to adjust as the year goes on.

Remember, these are a foundation, but you're the one who gets to build your house on the foundation, and your house can look, however, you want it to look. You are the boss of your life.

prompt 1) What went well this year & where did you grow

It blows my mind when I'm about to say this, but this year is actually my first full year back in the business after giving birth to my son.

I came back from maternity leave in the middle of July 2021 and I really wanted to treat the last six months of 2021 to get back into the groove and find my flow because so much of my vision had changed since having Jacob.

On reflection, I realise I gave myself too many goals/areas of focus at the start of 2022 and since I’ve really scaled it back. I’ve done some really big things, but it's been a slower year for me.

Another area I have grown is my confidence. My confidence after I had Jacob plummeted and I felt like I was starting from scratch. This year I have built my confidence back up which has allowed me to grow as a business owner.

prompt 2) what progress did I make on my 2022 goals

What I realise is that 2022 was about stabilisation. It was about focusing on my mental health, my physical health, my spiritual health, and the health of the business.

The one thing that I am super proud that I did was to get my income back up, which happened a lot quicker than I thought it would. I'm so, so pleased that that happened and I put things in place to help me do that.

I really stripped things back, I went at my own pace, and I took things slower. As 2022 had a big focus on stabilisation, and health in lots of different areas, I am definitely feeling the urge to step things up in 2023. I feel like I've got itchy feet, I want to move faster. I want to make decisions faster, I want to take action faster, I want to take more action. But I also know that this year of focusing on these different areas of health and focusing on the stabilisation of the business and myself was so needed.

prompt 3) what did I learn from this year that I want to take to next year?

One of the biggest things that I've learned that I want to be more mindful of in 2023 is being slack on my standards and habits.

I've realised that this is a form of self-sabotage for me through habits of avoidance. I would do things like watch too much Netflix in the evenings, scroll endlessly on social media or I would stop my journaling and not do my mindset work.

Now I can tell the difference between when I actually need to rest and when I'm not doing something out of avoidance or self-sabotage. Moving forward into 2023 I want to be really tight with these boundaries and habits.

When I do my weekly prep meetings, one of my reflection prompts is: Did I show up for my non-negotiable priorities and habits this week?

In 2023, I want the answer to that question to be yes, every single week, and I want to focus more on smaller habits, rather than huge goals.

prompt 4) My 2023 goals

My main focus and overarching intention for 2023 is to be the best mum that I can be for Jacob and the best version of myself.

When I’m the best version of myself, everything and everyone benefits. In terms of personal goals (which maybe aren’t as fixed), I’d like to:

Continue with my workout routine. I love it. I love to exercise, It's unbelievable how far I've come in a year.
The house - there's a lot that we want to do to the house in 2023, some smaller things, some bigger things, that is definitely going to take a lot of planning. And that is definitely another personal area that I want to focus on.

Business-wise, I have five goals for 2023:

Lean into my zone of genius more as a business coach and a strategic guest.
So I've really been developing this over the last 18 months and I’d love to be at the point where I’m known for productivity, planning, and business systems. I want my content, my presence, and everything that I do, I want it to be around those three areas. 2023 is going to be a big year of growth for me and my marketing plan is going to step up to reflect that.
Build out my offer suite.
My product suite is going to look fantastic. I'm starting off in January with hosting a vision workshop, there's going to be a six-week programme that I'm going to be hosting, The Busy to Boss Academy is coming back, and the mastermind you'll be in there. I am so, so excited about going through this process on this journey of putting this product suite together, I cannot tell you.
Creating my own physical products.
My clients are saying to me all the time, “Holly, you should have a planner for this.”. I have my own methods and techniques and systems I teach my clients, and it just makes sense to have a planner. The main idea is to create a weekly planner combined with like a daily to-do list notepad and potentially a journal, too.
Increase podcast downloads.
It’s my most popular form of content - so many of my clients say that they've chosen to work with me because of the podcast. In 2023, I‘d love to go up to two episodes a week, maybe adding a shorter episode earlier in the week.
Follow this intention: Continue serving my clients and building relationships with them.
I pride myself on having incredible, intimate relationships with my clients and I really get to know them as a human outside of the business. I know that's a big part of why people work with me and what people's perception of me is if they aren't a client. So I really want to prioritise and set the intention to keep serving them, keep prioritising them, and give them the best experience in 2023.

PROMPT 5) word of the year

I don’t actively search for my word of the year, I wait for it to come to me. That's when I know it's the right word.

When I was looking back at my previous words of the years, I got quite emotional because it's so powerful how these things work out.

In 2018 my word was ‘build’, in 2019 my word was ‘create’, in 2020 it was ‘thrive’ and in 2021 my was was ‘trust’. For 2022, I had two words of the year, I had ‘power’ and I had ‘love’.

My word for 2023 is ‘expansion’. It just makes me feel all tingly and so good. We're expanding our home, I'm expanding my personal goals, I want to expand my audience, expand my office, we expand the podcast, expand my client base, all of these things, I want to expand into the good times, but I also want to expand into the bad times, too.