You are listening to My Freedom Grove podcast with Gretchen Hernandez, episode 147.

Welcome to My Freedom Grove Podcast, your calm space for practical help to get your dream business up and running while being authentically you and taking care of your mental health. I'm your host, Gretchen Hernandez. I'm so glad you're here!

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Happy day before New Year’s Eve.  Hey, have you seen those 1 word intention bracelet kits?  It comes with a few strings and metal washers to make custom bracelets.  You use a little hammer and individual letter keys to stamp a word into the washer.  I used one for the first time about 5 years ago.  I loved the simplicity of choosing 1 word as a goal.

As you go into 2023, you may want to consider a 1 word goal.

I started to do this for my business last year.  In 2021 my word was “Integrated”.  I wanted to identify my contribution inside 3 Business Circles.  It helped me niche to the specific people I wanted to work with and which deliverables I’d help with.

In 2022 my word was “Settled”.  I know, “settled” doesn’t sound very aspirational, does it?

Yet in January 2022 I was very excited about the idea of being “Settled”

When you take a huge leap of faith, there’s a lot of uncertainty.  In 2019 my husband & I quit our jobs and moved to the coast.  I started my business from scratch that year.  I had no website, no audience, no income source.  What I did have was a lot of skills and belief in myself.  I also had the capacity to learn.

I chose “settled” in 2022 to represent sustainable income, routine schedule, finalized product, and settled mind.

Let me tell you.  It feels amazing to be “settled”.  Everything is calm and right in my world.  Everything is working.

My word for 2023 is “arrived”.  I want to have my retreats going and be well known in the industry.  I have some ideas for how I will be well known in the industry.  Some of it involves collaboration and some of it involves exciting new software solutions.  I’m getting giddy just thinking about what this can look like.

Are you getting excited about your 2023 Business Vision?  If you had to choose just 1 word to describe it, what would it be?  Perhaps it would help to have a handful of words.  Which one fires you up the most?

I’d love to hear what you come up with.  Reach out to me through Facebook Messenger or email me at [email protected] to share.

GET YOUR BUSINESS READY FOR 2023

I’m honored to help you get your business ready for 2023.  Some of the work we do together is practical and logical.  It might not seem that exciting.  But, by doing the practical and logical things, it creates the space for all of the exciting stuff.  Here are 2 of the practical podcast episodes you’ve already listened to. They were both workshop style.  If you haven’t done them yet, you’ll want to combine them with today’s episode. Back in October, episode #138 Yearly Business Planning covered your routine activities.  Last week, episode #146 Year in Review focused on finding all of the Gold to bring forward.  Today’s episode is going to bring excitement.  Specifically, we’re going to pull in Innovation.

Before we jump into today’s episode, I want to give you some Live interactive workshop dates.

In January I will offer 2 interactive workshops over Zoom.

January 11th - Bold and Calm Business Vision workshop. This is a repeat of a workshop I ran in December.  I had several people that asked for another chance to join live.  This workshop helps you define the 5 elements of your Vision, including Mental Health, Revenue, Schedule, Products/Services, and Sales Funnel.

January 12th - Google Calendar Vision Board workshop is specific for Creating Your Routine Schedule.  You’ll be amazed by how much Clarity this exercise will give you.  Plus, it leverages the Law of Attraction to help you get clients.  You’ll have to come check this out to see how it works.  It’s great stuff!

Add those dates to your Calendar now so you don’t forget.  You’ll also want to subscribe to my podcast on my website so you get the email with the registration link.  You can subscribe at www.myfreedomgrove.com/podcast.  

Now, today’s episode…

WHAT’S IN A YEARLY BUSINESS VISION?

Honestly, a Business Vision can include anything that is important to you.  The more detailed you make it, the more likely it will become your reality.

In the Vision Workshop I ensure you have at least 5 aspects:   Mental Health, Revenue, Schedule, Products/Services, and Sales Funnel.  These are the Highest Layer of your Vision.

When I worked in the Operational Excellence department in Biotech, we’d go down a layer into 3 specifics.  Each of these ties back to the 5 aspects I already mentioned.  These 3 specifics included:

Routine Day to Day work
Improvement Projects

Innovation

By getting down into this layer, we were able to prioritize tasks and make sure they were moving the most important Business Metrics.

It’s exciting to come up with ideas.  Especially the shiny, bright, innovative ideas.  That happens for Entrepreneurs too.

There’s so many shiny new things out there to try.  Hundreds, really.  Super exciting…and overwhelming.

Seriously, you’re just 1 person.  Ok, maybe you have a few people helping you.  There’s still limited resource hours available in the day.

That’s where ensuring this 2nd layer down ties in with the top 5 Vision aspects is important.  You don’t want to spend valuable resource hours doing things that won’t help your business move forward.  Let’s get into the 3 specifics.

ROUTINE DAY TO DAY WORK

First question, do you know what your routine Day to Day work is?  This is the work that will keep a sustainable amount of revenue coming in.

If you don’t know what your routine day to day work is yet, this needs to be your biggest focus in 2023.  This is where the Google Vision Board workshop will especially help you.

For today, I just want you to close your eyes and imagine a calm, routine work day.  You may have to think back to some of your employee jobs for inspiration.  When did you have a workday where you already knew what you were going to do each day?  You’d walk in, do the same things at roughly the same time of day.  At the end of the day you felt complete.  You were able to go home without thinking about work anymore.

I like to use one of my College jobs as an example.  I worked in a laboratory processing microbiology and immunology samples.  It was the same thing every day.  The first 3 hours would be all of the new Microbiology samples.  I’d pick them up from the Specimen Processing department, inoculate petri plates with the samples and do data entry.

Then it was time for a short break.

Next I would receive all of the blood samples.  For about 1.5 hours I’d set up the immunology tests.  Then I would take a lunch break while they processed.

After lunch I’d complete the tests and report the results in the computer.

Then I’d go on to the parasitology testing.  Slides would be ready for the Lead Lab Technologist when she got there at the end of my shift.

Everything was done when I left.  I had a clear head.  I could go enjoy life.

One of the challenging parts of being an Entrepreneur is to develop a routine schedule where you can feel done at the end of the day and have a clear head.

It’s challenging, but not impossible.

It basically comes down to being a puzzle.

There is always a rhyme or reason to everything you do.  When we are very intentional about why we do something, and ensure it ties back to our Business Metrics, everything falls into place.

So take a moment.  Close your eyes.  When did you experience having a routine workday?

Pause the podcast if you need some time to think about it.

Once you remember, I want you to fast forward to the end of 2023.  What will a day to day routine look like in your business?  Is it the same every day?  Or do you have some days where it is the same with 1-2 days that are slightly different?

Imagine you are there.  Look around.  What needs to be in place for this routine to work?  What organization is needed?

If you get a chance, write the details out in your journal or on a piece of paper.  If you can draw it, even better.  You’re drawing your workspace.  If the organization is within a computer, you may be drawing out your file structure.

If you were to write out your daily schedule, what would it look like?  If there are other people involved, what is their daily schedule?  Do you have handoffs between you?  How do you coordinate your communication and task management?

In Biotech, we had so many moving pieces.  In our Quality Control department we had about 150 people in 5 different testing labs.  There was 1 person that had the primary job of scheduling all of the sample collection, testing, review and approval.  She had to provide task assignments to all of those people so they knew exactly what they had to do and when they needed to do it.

I know it feels overwhelming to coordinate your own tasks as an Entrepreneur.  It’s possible.  You can make it easy and streamlined.  That’s where your repeatable processes and schedule come in.  I help you with all of that.

Have you ever seen those “1 Man Bands?”  A guy will have 7 instruments strapped to him at one time.  He’s able to make great music because he has everything situated perfectly.  We can all be that way in our Businesses if we are Solopreneurs.  There is an exact spot and routine for everything.  It can work beautifully.

IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS

Great news…you don’t have to be perfect at everything in your business.

What?

I know.  We all have some perfectionist tendencies.

Some of us even have the false perception that we can make Revenue in our business unless we do things perfectly.

That’s not true at all.

When I made my first $1800 coaching package sale in 2018 I was far from perfect.  I didn’t have a website.  My office was just a chair in the corner of my bedroom.  I put up an exercise mat around me to act like a cubicle wall.  I used Google Meet for video calls with my client.  My laptop screen was completely smashed up.  I accidentally left my laptop on the chair one day.  My husband got up in the dark to get ready for work.  He accidentally sat on my laptop.  I had to use that laptop for over a year in my business.  It felt so ghetto.

I was able to run my business.  I was the only one who realized it wasn’t perfect.  To my client, everything seemed fine.  It worked.  He got results.  That’s all that really mattered at the end of the day.

But, I wanted to make Improvements.

Computer upgrades

Website
A Private Office

Marketing Presence

Blog Writing & SEO

I wanted to start a Podcast
I wanted to figure out Graphic Design
I wanted Professional Looking Material
I wanted online courses to offer

There was so much.  It was overwhelming to think about all of it.

So, that’s where Prioritization comes in.

When I was in Biotech with had an Improvement Project Database.  It had over 300 projects listed.  Each project required resources.  Each project offered a benefit.  Many of them were exciting projects.  Many were projects nobody wanted to do, but they were needed.

We had to come up with a ranking system.

When I work with my clients, I have them use a Prioritization Matrix.  It’s based on Impact and Urgency.  When you attend the Bold & Calm Vision workshop, you’ll get to use this Matrix.

In the end you’ll know exactly which Improvement Projects to work on first.

For now, as you close your eyes, thinking about your Business at the end of 2023, what is easier or better about it?

Imagine yourself there.  It happened already.  Your business IS easier and better.

Feel it.

What did you have to do to get it that way?

Write down a list of activities or improvements that helped you get there.

It’s OK if the list is long.  Or, if you don’t know exactly how you got there.

On this Improvement list you can even say “I automated my work tasks”.  You don’t have to say how you did it.  Or what software you used.  You might not know that information yet.

What’s important is to list which improvements happened.

You can use that list for prioritizing on your own.  Or you can bring it to the 2 workshops in January.

The Google Calendar Vision Board workshop includes building in project time.

THE BEST PART…INNOVATION

I know you.  You like to be unique.  You like to play by your own rules.  You like to create your own stuff.

Innovation becomes the best part of your Vision.  This is the exciting part.

Up to this point, your Vision might have felt too logical and practical.  Business needs to have that type of detail.

But it also needs to have the details that make it Stand Out and Be Relevant.

You don’t want to start a business just to have it end up like Blockbuster right?

You remember Blockbuster…we all used to go rent VHS tapes there back in the day.  They were able to stay relevant when DVDs came out.  But, they didn’t evolve fast enough to keep up with Netflix.

I don’t know if you remember that Netflix started by sending DVDs in the mail.  You could get between 1-3 at a time.  You could keep them as long as you want.  It was just a monthly subscription.

Then TiVo came out with the DVR to record live TV electronically.  Bye bye VHS tapes and recordable DVDs.

Then streaming…Blockbuster was out of business.

It is critical to always include Innovation in your Vision.  How do you get ahead of the trends?

How do you make sure you have what Clients Want Next?

I’m grateful that Brooke Castillo shared about an impending Mental Health movement back in early 2018.

At the time Mental Health still had a stigma.

But she knew the Wave was Coming.  It was already a passion of mine, so I got ready for it.  I also got ready with leading workshops remotely, online courses and working virtually.

When the Pandemic hit, many businesses were scrambling.

I already had everything in place.

Before I left Biotech to start my own company, I became the coach to the 17 site heads for Innovation.  I helped them to start looking outside of their industry for new ways to do things.  One fascinating thing back then were the new Soda machines.  Did you see those?  They had touch screens that allowed 32+ different syrups to be mixed together to create your own unique blend.  How would that be relevant to Biotech?  Personalized Medicine.  Medicine mixed to be uniquely matched to 1 individual.

So, what about your Business?  What new innovations do you see in other industries?  How can they influence your creativity?

What can you create that will be completely different and exciting for your customers?

What is something that has never been done before?

Close your eyes.  Allow yourself to go to FantasyLand.  Maybe put on some funky music that gets your creative juices going.

Once you start to envision things, write them down.  It doesn’t matter how Far Out your ideas are.  You may just stumble across the next Big Thing.

WHAT’S YOUR ONE WORD?

I’m going to bring you back to the beginning now.  You’ve explored a day to day routine, improvement projects, and then the exciting world of innovation.

You get to cherry pick what you want to do this year.

What will be your 1 word that summarizes your Intention for 2023?

I’d love to hear from you.  Feel free to send me a Facebook DM or email me at [email protected] to share your 1 word intention.

The 2 workshops coming up in January will help propel you forward.  They will be offered on January 11th and 12th.  Make sure to subscribe to my Podcast on my website so you get the email announcement when I open registration.

My friends, I hope you have a wonderful and safe New Year’s Eve!  I look forward to continuing this journey with you in 2023!

Take Care. Bye Bye.


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Thank you for listening to My Freedom Grove Podcast. When you are ready to make your dream business a reality and take care of your mental health, I invite you to join the Unshakable Business Co-Lab. This is the mastermind membership you've been waiting for. There's no limits on your imagination, nor your timeline. We're with you every step of the way. To learn more, please visit www.myfreedomgrove.com/join. I'll see you there!