Questions to Ask Yourself at the End of the Year

LIVE on WEDNESDAY, Dec 13, 2023 at 11:30am PT / 2:30pm ET / 7:30pm BST / 9:30am in Hawaii

This week I share how I recap the year. I’m not known for being super reflective on my own business and it’s something I am trying to change. Maybe it’s because I am 50, or because my mom died this year. I find that I am more able to look back and not get so overwhelmed. Or I am able to look back and see a few things I can do this next year to try and make significant change.

Is it hard for you to look back? Do you avoid it or embrace it?

I do wonder if it has to do more with my inability to measure time well, so historically I have avoided this task. Tomorrow morning I have a work-date with three close friends who are also solopreneurs. We are going to plan out our next 90 days, get some goals and projects on the calendar for 2024 for our businesses, and get live feedback as we are crafting these goals on their feasibility and if they are realistic.

Listen here

Questions to Ask Yourself to Reflect on the Past Year & Plan for Next Year

Here are some of the questions I am going to ask myself, maybe you’ll want to do this along with me.
I am going to answer these questions for different areas of my business and life.

1. What is my biggest achievement during the past year in each of these areas?
   
2. What is one thing I am glad I learned in each of these areas?
   
3. Biggest failure and what I learned or how it was resolved?
   
4. Biggest area of change this year? Why? What kind of impact did it have on the other parts?
   
5. In each area, where did I most regularly get overwhelmed?
   
6. What is my goal for my business? Has it changed, narrowed, expanded?
   
7. Favorite book, biggest takeaway?
   
8. Favorite thing I learned from conversations with others?
   
9. Biggest miscommunication and how it affected me? How was it resolved?
   
10. What was the thing I had the most fun doing this year?
    
11. Best question I got asked this year that left me stumped and had to think about it and come back later with the answer?
    
12. What will I not do again?
    
13. What will I make sure I do more of?
    
14. What have I avoided doing? How did that work out? Am I still avoiding it? WHY? Do I need to be doing it? If so can I break it down into smaller steps and not procrastinate next time?
    
15. Goal in each area for next year?
    
16. How much time am I willing to spend learning and exploring this goal each week?
    
17. What does success look like for this goal? How will I know in 90 days if I am on the right path or if I need to pivot my tactics?

I hope you will join me for Episode 455, LIVE on WEDNESDAY, Dec 13, 2023 at 11:30am PT / 2:30pm ET / 7:30pm BST / 9:30am in Hawaii

You can be part of the conversation live with us. Simply join the Creatives Ignite Family by giving me your email and get a reminder email 30 min before the show: https://creativesignite.com/signup You can also add it to your calendar so you don’t miss it. (Those links are in the emails). See you there, then you can type in the chat and ask questions live.

PowerStation Applications are Open

PowerStation is my mastermind group where we walk through a goal together. If you are trying to redesign your website, portfolio, or trying to launch a course, kickstarter, or another product. Maybe you are pivoting and need to get some clarity on your offer or want to explore some new styles of design or illustration, then this 13 week group might be perfect for you.

https://creativesignite.com/coaching/powerstation/

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Transcript

[00:00:00] diane: Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of, I was about to say design recharge. It is creative ignite, and today is the wrap up for the year. So I’m not gonna do any more episodes this year. I am gonna be recording stuff, but it’ll just be going straight to YouTube. So I’m excited to have y’all, just so you know, if you’ve never come live, I try to get, I try to come on early and see where everybody’s from and try to, um, if you keep showing up, I want you to [00:00:30] know I see you and I appreciate you.

[00:00:32] So, Brian Bundy’s here from Cleveland, Ohio. Um, Chris Danyo is from Cape Cod, and glad to have you, Chris, as always, Danielle Langdon is here from, um. I was about to say it is Missouri. You’re in Missouri, Columbia. Um, and Matt Wood is in Indianapolis or near in Indy. Uh, Maura is here in Cary, North Carolina [00:01:00] or Raleigh.

[00:01:00] We usually say, uh, Paul is here in from Minneapolis. My mom would’ve said Minneapolis. Um, so it’s good to have you. Paul Regime is here, um, bringing in the Georgia crew, uh, in Columbus, Georgia. Troy is here in C from Seattle, Washington. And Wendy, uh, you are new, and so I’m glad that you are here. Thank you for being here.

[00:01:22] Um, if you tell me what your name is, uh, or your last name, or you could just be the only Wendy ever, but, [00:01:30] um, you, if you tell me where you are, then I’ll try to remember. And, um, Brooklyn, New York. All right. Good to have you. And Brian White is in Kansas, in Lawrence, Kansas. So it’s good people kind of, you pop in.

[00:01:43] Um. Mathematically is what I was about to say. It is not mathematic, uh, it is called, uh, alphabetical anyway, and I’m in Mobile, Alabama. I, it is, uh, thesis week is what I was about to say. I’m really confused. [00:02:00] Clearly I didn’t eat lunch yet. Um, I will be eating later. Um, but I’ve been grading, so I, uh, am a full professor at, uh, I teach graphic design and I am, I’ve done a podcast, this is my 11th year, so in the end of May, the beginning of June will be 12 years.

[00:02:17] So it’s good. It’s like the half year mark, I guess. So 11 and a half years. And I appreciate so many of you that you’ve been coming. And, um, Jacob, you’re here. I think you’re in Slovakia, so [00:02:30] it’s nice to have you. It’s nice to have lots of people. And Wendy, great to have you. I don’t know if it’s your first time live or I’ve just forgotten, but I’m glad, glad to have you.

[00:02:40] So. I don’t know if y’all do this. I have a hard time planning out something that I’m going to be doing the next year, and I think part of it has to do with, uh, A DHD and not being great with, with, um, time that I’ve kind of avoided it a lot, but I’ve [00:03:00] really been more conscious of not overt, stuffing my plate.

[00:03:06] Not that I’m great at it yet, but I’m trying and not, um, and trying to say, Hey, I think I could finish this within a certain time. So I actually did got up at four 30 and um, this morning, ’cause I met with three, two of my friends, it’s supposed to be three, but one of my friends couldn’t come. Um. And that are in the [00:03:30] uk and we did a four hour planning session.

[00:03:34] And so we’re gonna kinda recap that here and I’m gonna tell you what I learned and what I got from it and what I got from it, instead of doing it just alone. Um, how I think it’s better ’cause we did do that. But then I’m also, I had prepared some questions and there’s a PDF if you want the PDF, um, there’ll be a link down below if you’re watching in YouTube or in SoundCloud or whatever.

[00:03:58] But I’m going to click [00:04:00] on it really quick and I will give everybody here just in case it doesn’t look super awesome. Um, maybe I’ll between now and uh, when I actually put this out, I’ll make this like a real form. Um, ’cause I like to do things like that. I like to write things. So everything I did today, I had some prompts, but I was writing everything by hand.

[00:04:22] And, and there is some. Science behind just the physical action of writing and taking the notes [00:04:30] that helps you to remember it, helps it to, we process. Because so much of our life when we were doing that was done manually. I don’t know all the science, don’t ask me, I just know it works definitely for me.

[00:04:42] But I thought about, okay, well there’s lots of different areas of my life. If I’m really gonna do this, then maybe I should do one. Maybe you have a, uh, a big social, um, uh, part of your life or then you might wanna do that there or your business, and then maybe the social part of [00:05:00] being, you know, the networking part that could be part of your business.

[00:05:03] Um, for me, I did the podcast, so I actually scheduled out, um, what each month. I mean, it’s, you know, it can be flexible, but I have it scheduled out for every month. Um. Next year. So that was one of the things I wanted to get done this, this morning, and I did. Um, and then things like for school, um, I didn’t really do anything here, but if I [00:05:30] was teaching a new class, sometimes I like to use them as Guinea pigs in the way of maybe I’m gonna do a, um, a workshop that is for, you know, something that I, maybe it’s a creativity prompt or it’s a, um, creativity blocker.

[00:05:49] We don’t wanna be blocked. Uh, creativity blocker buster, I don’t know, maybe too many beasts. But anyway, um, things I wanna learn. ’cause I thought for me it’s really important and I spend a [00:06:00] lot of money on my education each year and continuing to learn and grow. Um, and then just what I wanna do maybe, um, for launching something.

[00:06:10] Hey, Jen San Diego in the house. Um. Maybe it’s a product, uh, that I want to create or a new service, uh, that I wanna create. And I have had a, I’m doing a little course now, and one of the things that is, um, [00:06:30] hindering me, it was that I was, was supposed to look at my big goal every morning. And honestly it was stressing me out the point of, oh my goodness, I don’t think I can do this.

[00:06:42] Right? Like, I don’t know, I, I thought I had to be so specific and this one girl and another group said, oh, I just am focusing on am I making money, making my art? You know, I’m, whether it’s design or whether it’s like a art print or licensing something or whatever, [00:07:00] that’s all making money with her art. And I thought, okay, hey, that’s, that’s in general something I can get behind.

[00:07:07] I don’t have to have super specifics because I. Um, those specifics can change and I, I think it was just me like putting, I didn’t have to put a flag in the exact sand spot that I needed. I could be more general and then kind of have some area to walk around is what I was thinking. So I want you to answer this with me.

[00:07:27] If you’re here on the call, um, just put it [00:07:30] in the chat. If you’re watching on YouTube, you can absolutely as we go. Just keep commenting and telling me what this is. I think this, this would be really fun. Maybe this is too much to 17 questions is too many to answer on a call like this, but what would you say was your biggest achievement during, um, the past year?

[00:07:50] In, in, let’s just say, in, in your business or in your learning or in general? Overall, you could do it, but you could do it in each of [00:08:00] those sections, depending on how many sections you have in your. Um, for me, for the podcast that I kept going after my mom died, that I found a way to record when I was at their house.

[00:08:11] That was a really, um, I could have easily just been like, you know what? I’m just taking this year off, or until I get my dad settled, or I’m gonna take all this time kinda off to just breathe, but it’s really important. Y’all are really important to me. And, um, [00:08:30] it’s a way to share, but it’s also, I love to learn from people and I kept having guests and that was, that was a really big, um, I’m proud that I continued it and I didn’t just, I don’t know, fall off the face of the earth.

[00:08:45] Uh, the other big achievement I think is that I finally, after taking a course, uh, where. Um, it was a surface pattern design course. I now have a place to put my [00:09:00] illustrations and I feel like for the first time, instead of just making for no purpose, which is fun on my, in on, in and of itself, but now I actually have, um, a place to use.

[00:09:14] That’s not everything, obviously not everything. I, I’m not what Matt Wood. Everything I draw is not gonna be amazing like his, but you missed that episode. I’ll link it below. But, um, I think that those are two of my biggest achievements. Maybe we don’t have these huge, all these [00:09:30] other achievements every single time, but if you’re here and you can answer that, I would love to know what you, what you think.

[00:09:38] Um, so Jen says, gaining confidence in my talent and in what? I want to offer to my clients. See, I knew I could read your mind. Oh, hey Hannah. As she’s in, um, DC areas, Hannah says, switching roles at her current company from art director to UX [00:10:00] designer Regime says she got the volunteer job working as an art teacher for the VA and her area.

[00:10:05] Huge. That’s awesome. Um, and that was one of her goals. And she has full reign on what she gets to teach. That’s awesome. So full flexibility. Love that. Um, Troy says, understanding that I needed to redefine my relationship to work and understanding how to do that. Oh my goodness. That’s how I felt. Like Troy, when I, when I feel figured out that I didn’t have to place it in the exact, you know?

[00:10:29] [00:10:30] Right. Uh, you know, latitude, longitude, I felt like I could just have like a more wider. It really helped me to open up. I do think redefining our relationship with work is incredibly important. Um, and because it’s, everything’s changed since Covid and we change, we keep changing anyway, so that’s awesome.

[00:10:53] Um, Danielle says she figured out new creative habits on her sabbatical, yay. For sabbatical, which allowed her [00:11:00] to take a whole new, well make a whole new body of work and put up a solo exhibition. So that could have been like a goal that you had wanted to do. I love that. That’s awesome. So in this, okay.

[00:11:12] Matt Woods has, um, biggest achievement this year was completing a mural that took a year and a half to finish. Whoa. It pushed his abilities way beyond their limits. And now, and, but now he has that experience and it turned out great. And now he’s a member of a coworking studio [00:11:30] in the community where the mural is.

[00:11:31] Oh my gosh. That’s awesome. That is incredible. I think it’s good to know what that win is. Um, before we kinda get started, I also think it’s good to know what, what you wanted to do. Maybe did you have a clear goal for what you wanted with your business or, um, maybe Matt knew he was working on this mural for a year and a half.

[00:11:54] Maybe he, he wanted to finish it this time and then he wanted to have [00:12:00] an area that was near that so that he could, um, or like a coworking space or something. You know, like maybe some things are like, feel like pie in the sky dreams. But I’ve definitely put some of those things down like I am sometimes I’m not that great of a dreamer, to be honest.

[00:12:18] So, um, from the next question, so after you kind of. What was your biggest achievement? Maybe in different areas, but at least in one overall arching area. [00:12:30] What was that? And then what about, uh, and then what is your, what was your goal last year? What was your, um, what did you want to try to work on? Or, and, and were you able to do that?

[00:12:42] So Danielle was able to do that ’cause she just explored during her sabbatical. As a result, she was able to have a solo exhibition, which is awesome. Um, sometimes we don’t always go in, especially if we’re an exploratory, um, place in our business. We don’t know what the outcome’s [00:13:00] gonna be, but we have to be, um, consistent in.

[00:13:05] Pursuing just the exploration. So Maura says her first licensed product, woo-hoo. And she started a creative coaching business, which she had been mentoring for years. So that’s awesome that you took that, that stab. That’s awesome. I’m so excited for you. Awesome. Lots of wins. Um, so then what is one [00:13:30] thing that I’m glad I learned, you could say in each of the, these areas, um, this kind of connects to, um, the failure question, which is later.

[00:13:41] Because sometimes we don’t always learn from our wins. We learn from when we got bloody. And, um, I can’t even find where the failure question is, but, um, it’s in there somewhere. Why can I not find it? It doesn’t matter. Um,[00:14:00] 

[00:14:03] oh well. I know it’s in there, but I, I do think, oh, there it is. Number four. Number three, the next question. So one thing I, one thing glad I learned is I finally have a outlet for those illustrations or all that work that I do every night that play that I do, I have a place for it, which is really helpful to me.

[00:14:24] Um, and then the next question, I don’t know if anybody has anything for that. Anything [00:14:30] glad that you learned? Sometimes maybe we’re just glad that we now have the confidence because we were able to offer it or we were able to test it, and then, um, that does gain our, our build our confidence for sure.

[00:14:43] I’ll just kind of, I’m gonna keep going and y’all can just put it in the chat. Um, the biggest failure, um, and what I learned or how it was resolved. This is a hard one. Um, Jen says, uh, and maybe this is for the last one, things [00:15:00] she learned is what? Others are charging for the same work. Oh my goodness, that revolutionized me.

[00:15:06] When I remember somebody was, um, said to what they were charging for a logo, and um, I was like, oh my gosh, I have 10 more years of experience and you’re, you’re charging way more than what I would charge. Um, and granted, it’s not like, uh, tit for tat, right? Uh, that person might’ve been a better, uh, [00:15:30] illustrator or better logo designer or whatever it was we were designing.

[00:15:33] Um, but just that maybe I need to rethink my prices or maybe I need to rethink instead of just being in the area and mobile prices I needed. If I have a global or a more national reach, then maybe I have a different kind of price and what I, I’m able to offer how that’s gonna help their business. I don’t want something that they’re gonna really.

[00:15:57] You know, not have any money to do anything else [00:16:00] because they’ve done this thing with me or built a website with me or whatever. And, uh, regime says she was gained confidence and, um, Jen realized that she was way undercharging. I think we do need to realize where we are and what that’s attracting to some extent.

[00:16:20] Um, and then regime says for number three, the failure thing was never starting was her biggest failure. And that’s a really, uh, [00:16:30] in this and this morning, and some of these, I have really thought about what was holding me back. I wrote down, um, I wrote this morning when we were talking about our why, and I said, okay, so here’s what I wrote down for my why, which I do think is the really should be.

[00:16:49] The second question is, I wanna create a place where people can learn, um, create with me or are inspired to create by what I’m creating, um, where they can [00:17:00] connect with others and they can shine. Um, why is because, I’m sorry, I’m reading. I’m looking down. Chris will be like, you were looking down all time.

[00:17:09] Like I just, it’s really heavy book. Um, it says why, because I hate seeing people struggle that don’t need to be. Um, and they’re struggling because they don’t know if they’re doing it right, um, because they’ve been doing it alone and they don’t have a community, a safe community to maybe ask some of those questions.[00:17:30] 

[00:17:30] Um. To get, they don’t have a place to get trusted feedback. I think that that’s huge. That’s huge for me. Um, and I think when I started doing the podcast, I started learning. So I then started, I was able to have people that I was able to ask that I thought were thought leaders, you know, and or I know our thought leaders and um, and I guess I just don’t want anybody to feel lost.

[00:17:56] That’s what I said. And I, maybe they feel lost and they don’t [00:18:00] know the next steps to take in their business or to get out of creative block. And sometimes it’s just talking through it and asking some of those, and what holds me back, which I think is funny. That, uh, regime said, just never starting.

[00:18:15] Biggest, biggest failure. I said, what holds me back is the, and this is literally what I wrote. I know you can’t read it, but it says, what if I tell them wrong? They do what I say and they don’t get to their desired [00:18:30] destination. And then I thought, well, okay, now that I wrote that down, that doesn’t sound that bad.

[00:18:34] Um, like I said, you’ve gotta use this typeface or use this color or don’t, you know, whatever. I don’t think I would ever do that, but, but, um, it would just be like we were driving together and I told Jacob to go left and he went left and it was the wrong way. And we just have to circle back. And maybe something, there’s something in the circling back.

[00:18:57] There’s something in the what, how did I [00:19:00] get so off track? And I guess I feel like if I’m blindfolded and I make a wrong turn, then I take the blindfold off. Maybe it would be better if I wasn’t blindfolded, you know, like, hey, I, I just have to admit when I was wrong or how it failed that it wasn’t a success.

[00:19:18] I remember one of my first launches ever, um, I had really. I sent one email, which is also a problem. You need to send multiple emails. But it was, I was so crushed [00:19:30] from not having anybody respond to the email that I had one person sign up and I was, I just, I shut down. Like I said, okay, well I guess it’s a failure.

[00:19:42] And my sister was like, how many emails do you not open a day? And I was like, I don’t know. I get like 400 emails a day. I have no idea how many, I don’t open a lot. You know, I don’t open a lot. And she’s like, well then think about that. Those people that you’re emailing, they are [00:20:00] not opening every email.

[00:20:01] They’re gonna come back to it or they’re gonna hope that you send it again and tell the same thing. And I think I’ve kind of gotten over that part, but I also, we think about the person who’s going to be mad at us and be mean to us in an email. Like, why are you sending me all these things instead of the person that is really.

[00:20:21] Oh my gosh, this is exactly what I needed. Thank you so much for doing this or offering this or having this. I didn’t even know this was a thing or whatever. [00:20:30] Um, so biggest failure for me, I’ve been thinking, I mean, there’s so, so many. I, um,

[00:20:43] I’m not great at, I’m great at asking for what my clients need. Absolutely. I will. Or a student man, I will go, I’m five foot one and I feel like I’m seven, five, you know, at the, [00:21:00] if somebody needs something, but stuff for me, I think I’m not that great at. And I can think of a few times this year where I just like, let somebody kinda run, run over me and I didn’t stand up.

[00:21:11] ’cause maybe it’s kind of like with Jen not charging enough. And so it’s uncomfortable to do, to change. And to interact in new ways. And I think that, like, I just feel like, uh, I know, I feel like I say this all the time, but because my mom died, um, and [00:21:30] she was like my, you know, my stool that I stood on, she was always there supporting me and she was such a, a good reminder.

[00:21:40] It really made me hold on to, um, clinging to God or to clinging to my spiritual relationship more so because I would, I would normally just call my mom. And I think that knowing that it was, it, it’s just been [00:22:00] a new, not that I didn’t have a good relationship with Jesus before, but it was a, it’s different because, um.

[00:22:08] That one big supporting person in my life, my mom, what? Not that there aren’t other big supporting people in my life. I have lots and I’m very blessed. But it was just that there was a reordering and it, it feels like I got like, you know, the, you know, the, whatever those things are called. Hopefully [00:22:30] if you’re just listening, you have no idea what I just did.

[00:22:32] But I rubbed my hands together with the fake paddles and then I cch, you know, like whatever. I can’t remember what that thing’s called. We’re gonna keep moving on. Um, but biggest failure, it could be that something maybe you tried and it didn’t work, um, but then you realize, hey, I need to hire a professional or.

[00:22:53] Hey, I don’t need to try and do this late at night. Like, I, I answered an email when I had a terrible [00:23:00] headache and I told a kid wrong, something wrong. I mean, I came back the next day and I reread my email. I was like, oh my God, you can’t do this. I don’t know why I was saying this. Um, but it’s, I’m never afraid to say I did something wrong.

[00:23:13] Um, ’cause that happens all the time. But I think I need, I learned from that not to answer when my head hurts or if I’m super tired. Um, biggest area of change this year. So one of my goals for 2023, of course, I [00:23:30] said it before my mom died, was to grow YouTube. And I had a plan, but not a great, not a super, like in Sharpie plan.

[00:23:37] It was kind of like a lightly drawn with a eight H, you know, is there even eight H? So it’s a really light, hard pencil, right? Um, I think that. For me, knowing that I wanted to grow YouTube, I did grow YouTube. I don’t put a actual number on it, but I had more comments. That’s what I want. So if you’re watching, put a, put [00:24:00] comments down there.

[00:24:01] If you are, um, comments, have more subscribers and more, um, more watch time. But for me, like for y’all who are here, just more interaction. So that I want you to know that I know that you’re here. And, um, and I do, I so appreciate you giving me time. And it, it really does. Like that’s how I feel like if I’m successful, if somebody shows up on Wednesday.

[00:24:26] So I appreciate this [00:24:30] hugely. So Jen says her entire life has been upended. Absolutely. Um, and I’m gonna let y’all just read that one over there. Um, ’cause I don’t know if she wants me to read all that. So I’m gonna, I’m gonna not, but you are. Um. So Matt says, biggest failure, not having a, um, any kind of master plan in place for the future.

[00:24:55] I think that is how a lot of us have felt. [00:25:00] Um, and I don’t think we are taught that in school or maybe there’s not a lot of future planning and maybe ’cause it’s sort of boring or it feels boring. Um, but that’s where, to me, this today, what I did in four hours from 5:00 AM to 9:00 AM was really good. Um, for what I wanna do.

[00:25:23] Next year, and I really only have three goals that I’m gonna be attacking during quarter one, which I’ll tell you about in a second. I’m just trying [00:25:30] to watch my time. So here’s some of the other questions. Biggest change, um, this year. And so if you think about the goal you had last year and then the one that, and how it ended up, you know, some things like if, uh, Danielle said she was on sabbatical, she had one idea, but then it could change and adjust.

[00:25:48] So I might have wanted to do my YouTube and I ended up doing something else. Um, I think that that is important. Um, and it’s okay. We just have to check in. I think [00:26:00] that’s why having 90 day goals or quarter one, quarter two, quarter three, quarter four, and kind of assessing instead of making a whole year plan, which I think is what I did last year.

[00:26:11] Um, I need to reassess and so you guys can hold my feet to the fire on reassessing and maybe we can do it together. But biggest area of change this year. So what was it for you that was a big area of change? Um, I know Brian White [00:26:30] went from being a more bigger agency to being more, um, solo or focusing on just doing the work and had lots of changes this year.

[00:26:42] Um, Maura having the coaching, new CRE coaching and then doing licensing, I think that’s awesome. Um, so biggest area of change and why did it change and then what kind of impact did it have on other parts? I think mine was just, um, [00:27:00] if minus my mom, but, um, if we’re just talking about that, all that work that I do every night, just playing or drawing now has a, it can possibly have a second life instead of just being in my sketchbook.

[00:27:14] That was huge as an eye-opener for. I can tweak it and adjust it and make it something. So it was kind of like that self purpose. I think about, um, Matt, um, and all of his illustrations and I hope we get to do [00:27:30] something, Matt. I’m really excited about that. Um, but I think that I, we are, that big area of change might be something that we had planned on it being something else, but it ended up being something.

[00:27:44] So it’s important. At least we sit here and think about it today or at the end of the year. Um, I like that we’re doing it before the 15th. ’cause I always feel like it starts getting crazy about the 15th of December. Um, the biggest impact it [00:28:00] has on other parts is, uh. I can now have like a focus plan for those illustrations or for, I still have freedom and I’m making them when I’m making them with no purpose right in mind.

[00:28:12] But then maybe I come back once a month and I go through lots of old sketchbooks, which I have lots of old sketchbooks. And maybe you do too. Maybe there’s something in there that you can use for something else. Who knows? Um, in each area, where did I regularly, where did I [00:28:30] most regularly get overwhelmed?

[00:28:32] Is that a problem for y’all? Because to me, that is an issue where I can really get overwhelmed. And so maybe if I, um, it’s like a pitfall, identifying a pitfall, and so, oh, I keep stepping in this puddle. Maybe I should put a board over the puddle or I, but I just keep stepping in it because I’m not fixing the puddle.

[00:28:55] So, but maybe if, if you are. Looking at [00:29:00] your pitfalls and seeing, okay, I’m, I’m just gonna attack one pitfall, um, this month until it becomes habit. That was something else I realized this morning. So the first thing we did was we started with a brain dump, you know, dis uh, our group and what we were just maybe anything we wanted to kind of cover.

[00:29:20] So obviously wasn’t going to be everything. And even four, um, hours, we didn’t cover everything even that I had in here, but [00:29:30] sometimes I just need a place to put it and then I can come back to it. And then the next thing we did was our why and that biggest achievement. And then I talked about what was holding me back.

[00:29:42] So, um. Courtney says she gets overwhelmed way too often. Also, um, Troy says, uh, trying to judge my work and define my role based on the opinions of others. Oh, massive overwhelm. Absolutely. Because opinions are constantly changing. Absolutely. So [00:30:00] the next thing we did this morning was, so kind of goes to this I think, um, is so after the brain dump and we did our y and that, uh, like what, why we do what we do, a bigger overarching one, then we, and what’s holding us back?

[00:30:19] Why we’re maybe not doing some of that. Then I wanted to see who my audience was. So some people will have multiple kinds of audiences. So [00:30:30] Brian White paints does printmaking, does art, but then he also has web clients. Those are not going to be the same people. Right. That’s you’re not gonna target one thing in hope to get a web client out of selling a.

[00:30:43] A piece of art. So I think that we have to have a, uh, listening to the people that are the ones that will be purchasing from us, whether it’s art or, um, design work and seeing if they [00:31:00] really are our ideal client. And then how can we, um, readjust. Right. Um, Brian says, what is this art selling art you talk about?

[00:31:09] Maybe if you put your, um, link in the chat, Brian, that would be helpful and then people can click on it and if you, um, I will write it down. Brian White, um, email or website. I think it’s, I don’t know. I can’t remember what it is, so I’m gonna let you tell me and then I can say it, [00:31:30] but, um, but just because something is, maybe if you try it, I.

[00:31:38] Maybe you’re trying to sell art and you spend a week each month working on it, that would be better than spending one week, you know, doing it. Um, I think you have to try different things. We have to be more, um, like a explorer, I think going out there, um, Brian white.art, and it’s only partially done, [00:32:00] but still there’s art there.

[00:32:01] Um, so I think about all the different audiences that I can reach and I need to have different, um, ways of reaching them and do I wanna reach all of them in that first quarter? Probably not. Then I will be overwhelmed again. So I, I chose three goals. I still kind of have that overarching goal of growing YouTube, which the reason to grow YouTube is to grow my email list.

[00:32:27] And the reason to grow the email list is to have more [00:32:30] people that are. Consuming the things that I’m making and hopefully helping them making an impact, but also, um, it’s a product or service that I can offer, um, as, as we all are trying to have a business and, uh, have a productive and pay our bills and, um, go on vacations and raise our families and things like that.

[00:32:53] Um, for Matt Wood, it says, most overwhelmed, I have to scroll back. Areas for me are [00:33:00] how to create a comprehensive client pain point focused pitch deck or something that helps, uh, convey what he’s able to do for prospect. I think that’s hard for everybody, Matt. I think it’s something that we’re constantly changing.

[00:33:13] I think it may, I think when we, uh, when I was applying for my first jobs, I had the same resume that I sent out each time. And I don’t know if anybody’s looked for jobs recently, but it is very different. Um, [00:33:30] you. You have to know the algorithm of the computer that’s reading it if you’re trying to get a job somewhere and they’re using something like that, um, which is a lot of places and it’s just overwhelming and it’s, it’s amazingly difficult and it feels like the algorithm, like the smoke in our lives, the algorithm, whether it’s on Facebook or Instagram or Pinterest or [00:34:00] YouTube or, or the HR algorithm.

[00:34:04] Um, you just have to attack it in a different way. And I feel like there isn’t ever gonna be one pitch deck that’s gonna be great for everybody. I think everything kind of has to be customized and you have to know who the audience is. If that, if that customer could give you a potential of, let’s say $8,000 or $24,000 in the year.

[00:34:25] Or maybe $60,000 over time, then wouldn’t it be better to [00:34:30] customize? I mean, that’s, I would, I don’t want a hamburger with ketchup or mayonnaise ever. I want mustard only plain yellow, cheap yellow mustard. Um, but that would happen. People would know that if they knew what I wanted and if they’d asked me questions.

[00:34:47] So maybe it’s, instead of making one pitch deck or one website that will solve everybody, it’s really, I’m gonna adjust how I’m asking the questions, and I’m really gonna listen and [00:35:00] make custom stuff. I, I mean, they do have to reach certain people for sure. So I, anyway, but hopefully you’re not pitching to thousands of people at the same time.

[00:35:09] Anyway, that’s just my little 2 cents worth, but. Maybe you have different audiences, maybe you have different products or different services that you do offer to different people. Those are totally different. You, they, those same people wouldn’t be seeing all three offers probably, um, [00:35:30] or however many. And then we did a, which I’ve, I never really done well on this, but um, I did it today and it worked.

[00:35:38] Um, uh, we did a 10 year goal, a five year goal, and a three year goal, which seems just like dreaming, you know? So for me, who’s super practical, I was like, what can I actually do? Um, thinking about the business in a very practical way, um, that was important. So I started [00:36:00] with tenure year instead of starting with three year, I said, okay, that’s in 10 years, I’ll be 60.

[00:36:06] Um, and then I just said, I. I want to, I had cer like a 1, 2, 3, 3 things that I had and then that were things that were me. Some were personal and some were, um, more, um, most of ’em were about the business, but different kind of offerings. And then the other, there was another kind of section. I had two columns [00:36:30] and one was about team or, um, having freelancers or people that I can delegate to.

[00:36:37] So it’s not all on me because there’s lots of things that maybe we are get really good at, but we don’t maybe wanna do some of the little stuff that isn’t as fun. Um, I want, in 10 years, I wanna be doing the stuff that I’m really good at. That is fun for me. Um, and so maybe having, um, a small team that I can rely on for stuff like that.

[00:36:59] And then at five [00:37:00] years, so that’s at 55. What, what do I want my life to look like? And I think. Maybe because it’s because I’m older and now I can kind of plan that out. I kind of have an idea of if you have kids, how old will your kids be? You know, how much time will you have to spend going to soccer practices or wherever?

[00:37:20] Um, and then I said that I wanted to have at least two passive income sources, and what I said was licensing and then [00:37:30] courses. So one thing I’ve done, like with camp, it was a course, um, having something more in that realm. Um, but for some people it might be a Kickstarter, so, or an app that you’re developing or a game that you’re developing.

[00:37:46] And, um. Or maybe it’s a new kind of offering or it’s a, you wanna write a book. Those are other things, and you still have to try to sell it so it’s not completely passive. But I think that [00:38:00] that was interesting. And then I said, for me, I was talking about how many websites I wanna build. So at 10 years I wanna have 12 to 20 websites per year.

[00:38:08] And I kind of broke it down by, you know, what I would want if the prices were the same, like what I would wanna make, um, and then what would my cut be? So if I was having somebody do this part, then what would I still bring home? Um, and then at the five year mark, I said I was still building them probably by myself, but maybe one junior designer to do some [00:38:30] of the production work.

[00:38:31] And I said I was still building five to seven websites on my own every year. So that’s a huge difference between where I am in 10 to 12 years as opposed, I mean, 10 years as opposed to five years. So, and then the three year one, I said, um. I have, I wanna make art at least two days a week. Doesn’t mean all days making art.

[00:38:54] ’cause that stresses me out, to be honest. Um, have clear workflows [00:39:00] for, um, or nurture sequences, or I call ’em workflows. So in, when you sign up for a list that you would get a set of emails for that creative block or for that, uh, course or for that webinar, or for that book or for that, whatever it is, um, product so that you’re getting in, in the loop.

[00:39:23] Um, and I know that seems weird or it’s not as big or dreamy, but it is like, okay, in three years [00:39:30] I, that means that each kind of launch that I do, or even if it’s just a free one, like imagine number, um. Then that way you ha, I know that there’s a sequence that would happen in November, but then the sequence would be built in maybe starting in September or starting in, um, um, maybe it starts in July or you know, maybe there’s a second kind of imagine number exercise or something that we would be doing.[00:40:00] 

[00:40:00] Jacob, it’s great to see you. Um, can’t wait. I know it’s 9:00 PM You gotta go to bed, buddy. Um, have a good night’s sleep. Glad you came. Um, and then what I try to do is build four to five websites per year. And that’s still kind of what I’m doing now. And my friend Pippa was like, okay, and I’m gonna ask you this as well.

[00:40:22] Why, what would it be to move that 10 year goal to now? [00:40:30] And I said, well, I’m not there yet, but I do think that there are some of the things in the five-year goal. That I could actually, so that was having one junior designer, why can’t I add a junior designer now? Um, or maybe it’s that I had, uh, licensing and courses.

[00:40:46] So maybe, um, I have some small courses that I’m working on for Skillshare or just maybe having a course that’s a series on YouTube that’s just free. Right? [00:41:00] Um, I think that there’s not that much difference between five and three, but the five, because I went worked backwards, 10, five and three, it made it feel like the five was, I had, I would have this together in my life, but really the three and five are pretty close.

[00:41:19] So I could probably, the stuff that I would have together, I could move some of that. So that was one of the things. Um, and then the next [00:41:30] thing we talked about this morning, which kind of comes into. Um, I know I have areas of overwhelm, so I need to make sure that I’m not hitting those puddles all the time, and how can I avoid those?

[00:41:41] So maybe I rec, I, uh, recognize, or I, I notice and I can identify as what I wanted to say. I can identify three puddles, not 13, you know, and maybe it’s just one puddle a quarter, [00:42:00] so maybe it’s four total. Um, I that are, I’m getting, um, messed up in, so at the beginning of the year, so many people go and join a gym and they try to work out right?

[00:42:12] So many people do it for half of January and then they pay the, they pay the thing till June and then they quit the thing or whatever, right? They just stop going because we have too many things we’re trying to do. So I’m trying to not overwhelm myself. So I’m just trying to identify one puddle and then I’m gonna [00:42:30] start, uh, attacking the one thing.

[00:42:32] So for me, one of the things I noticed, um, maybe it’s on the next page, but I started noticing habits that I wanted to have that I don’t have currently. So I’ve already said, okay, I wanted to have make art two days a week. Well, that’s a habit. That’s me making a habit of something. So maybe there’s a habit that you want to include as well.

[00:42:55] So, um. What’s the goal for my business? Has it [00:43:00] changed, narrowed, and expanded? We kind of already talked about that. And then the thing we did this morning was, what core projects do I wanna work on? What things do I think will actually move the needle, um, make the biggest impact? So it will cover the puddle, it will get me, uh, so that I can leap further, that I can make more, um, of the kind of connections that I need for the clients that I am looking for.

[00:43:25] Um, and so I have like email lists [00:43:30] growth, and I just started writing down some lead magnets or, um, things that. Ideas for ways to grow my list, and then I did YouTube and those would be kind of like videos that I was doing. But it could be, um, that you’re going to more networking, that you’re trying to do one networking event every, um, every month and you’re trying to present, um, something, um, maybe you’re on a podcast or you’re presenting other things on a regular basis, that also, um, [00:44:00] is important for whatever, if, if that was what one of your goals were, again, I’m trying to think of one goal.

[00:44:07] So growing my list is what is the most important that YouTube feeds into the list. So, um, there can be steps for sure. Um, so now we’ve done number six. Um, and then I just thought, okay, well I read a lot. Um, reading is not a goal. I just. Like, I have a long drive, so I read or listen to books, you know? Um, and [00:44:30] then so fa favorite book and the takeaway from it.

[00:44:33] I thought that would, that’s a fun kind of thing to do as a community aspect. Like it’s a, like the opposite of a book club because we’re all talking about different books that we’ve read and why, why it was important for our, um, business. And I think that’s something that I, I wanna do is have more and we’ve, we’ve done ’em before.

[00:44:57] I just wanna do ’em again. Um, where we’re, [00:45:00] I’m inviting people just to come live and you’d be on screen. Um, I do kind of set that up only. So if you ever wanna do something like that, I will have it in the email. So I’m gonna try to redesign the email a little bit because I think the reverse book, uh, club would be interesting.

[00:45:18] So you’d come on, you’d tell what book it was. I just finished, I read both of her books this year. Um, Kendra Hall. Um, I can’t [00:45:30] remember what something about a story. It’s probably not very helpful. Um, but those books were really impactful in, it was the stories you tell, and then the last one it was the stories you tell yourself.

[00:45:44] And so it helped with mindset for me. And so it was really insightful and I could think of maybe three things. And that’s, that’s what I’m gonna do. I’ll look for it in the email and then you can tell me if you’re interested. And then we can have you on, uh, [00:46:00] in a small group. Not like 30 people, but like maybe.

[00:46:04] State. Um, favorite thing I learned from conversations with others. I, I have conversations with people a lot and I think maybe I just need to write down these, these gems that I’m pulling. And some of them are not necessarily related to business or related to anything, it’s just that, um, people will share with me where they’re struggling and, um, maybe, [00:46:30] maybe it is that struggle or maybe you’re a really good listener, or maybe you’re a conversation that has just been really funny and you can, you’re able to pull out the funny things and those funny things help motivate you or help motivate somebody else.

[00:46:44] Um. I do learn a lot from conversations and I love conversations with people. Um, biggest miscommunication and how it affected me and how it was resolved. I had a communication misstep with a faculty or a colleague [00:47:00] here, and I just had to eat, uh, whatever it’s called, eat your crud or eat my shoe. And I just sat and listened and I realized I was speaking to them like I wanted to be spoken to, and that was huge.

[00:47:18] I need to ask them, Hey, how do you like to be, you know, if, if there’s something, if there was something wrong or I had a problem with something, how do you want me [00:47:30] to tell you? Really? That’s simple. I personally want, want. Um, I want details. I wanna know so that I don’t hurt anybody’s feelings. And that’s then that’s what that person was able to do for me.

[00:47:43] It was hard, it was hard conversation, but I got out of it what I needed so that I don’t hurt them and that I can communicate in a better way. Have I been perfect? Absolutely not. I tend to have to delete, or I tend to over, it’s [00:48:00] like proving like I’m not enough. I think it has to do with worthiness. Um, so I tend to do longer reasons and it’s annoying to that person.

[00:48:08] And I can imagine, you know, I, it’s totally a me thing, but that’s something I learned from miscommunication. Um, one thing I did that I had the most fun, I’m gonna show you. I got to, um, I used to sew and do all kinds. I knit and can crochet. Crochet not as good. [00:48:30] But, um, I did all kinds of things and. I was, then I just kind of abandoned those things and I haven’t sewn for a very long time.

[00:48:40] And I decided we’d have this like, I don’t know what it’s called, like a Hope chest. Hope Chest, and John fixed the leg. So now we can actually use it. And it’s been broken for so many years, many years. So we used it, we have it. And I put all my fabric in there and I had one more bag of fabric that wouldn’t fit in there.

[00:48:59] [00:49:00] And I was like, okay, I’m gonna make something with this. And to me, um, and ooh, Troy, that one’s a rough one. Um, uh, I’ll let y’all read that one. Uh, I got out my sewing machine because I hate to u um, not have something that is useful and not having it in use. So I was like, well, I could give all this fabric to, you know, a [00:49:30] high school or to, uh, somewhere else, or I.

[00:49:33] Goodwill or whatever charity. Um, or I could try and use it because I still like it and I would still like to sew, but I usually would call my mom and be like, here’s what’s not working. So I really had to like, rely on myself. But I made all these fun bags. So I did buy some fabric, so I bought this yellow and I didn’t know how to make a zipper.

[00:49:55] I mean, I didn’t make a zipper, but I didn’t know how to use a zipper. So then, [00:50:00] so I did buy both of these. ’cause I have a daisy tattoo. I don’t know if y’all know that’s tiny, but it’s on my ankle. But I, so I have affinity for daisies. Um, and I can’t wait, uh, Troy to hear the rest of it. Um. The inside is Daisy’s and the outsiders this fun.

[00:50:19] But what it ended up helping me so much was with patterns and designs. ’cause these two didn’t go together. The yellow isn’t exactly correct, but I learned how to do a zipper. I didn’t [00:50:30] get stopped, you know, the blocker that was blocking me from being able to do something. I, um, I bought a pattern off of Etsy.

[00:50:39] So I always feel good about, you know, supporting local, maybe not local, but you know, little people online. Um, bought the pattern and it has darts in it. See the darts. Um, probably not. It is line. And I, so normally I would’ve said, okay, I can’t do this. My mom’s not here anymore. She would’ve helped me. She [00:51:00] would’ve showed me.

[00:51:01] And I just didn’t, YouTube was there for me, YouTube way to go YouTube, but I made all kinds. Then I went rogue. There were three patterns and I. I went rogue and I started making my own. But look at that. Somebody gave me that fabric. So it wasn’t like I, but I did buy the zipper, so it’s lined. And then this one is my favorite.

[00:51:20] I’m gonna lay, say John was like, you need something that’s for men because I really don’t have anything much for men. So I did. Somebody had donated this [00:51:30] Pacman and then it’s space invaders on the inside. So I thought it was fun. So, um, John, uh, so I made this, I got this ’cause I’m making a hat for a welding cap.

[00:51:42] I’m trying to make a welding cap for John. It sort of looks like a cone head right now. Um, but I’m gonna keep working on it ’cause it’s just fun to use my hands and it’s fun, um, to do something that I used to really enjoy. But I realized that it helped me with putting [00:52:00] patterns together. So for something that was like, uh, if I was doing a pattern fabric.

[00:52:05] Collection or a, a paper pattern collection, it really helps. So this is just like black on the inside. It’s not totally black. It has like a, I don’t know, rustic or roughed up edge. And then, so I have the big one, oops, sorry. Mix my things up, the big one, and then look at the little one. This is not the littlest.

[00:52:29] There were [00:52:30] littler ones there, there were three sizes, but I thought those were fun. So the inside of that is the yellow. And then, um, somebody also donate, gave me, um, donut fabric, so made donut fabric. And then this was another piece of fabric that I guess a student had. Um, it’s a screen print of a pie, like cherry pie or something.

[00:52:53] So I didn’t have, you know, fabric to go, so I just, I combined fabrics that wouldn’t normally go [00:53:00] together. So it helped me in thinking, okay, these could go together. When I’m drawing or making patterns. So it really, really helped. And then look at this. I mean, I went rogue on this. This is not the pattern, but look at this cute little dog one, lemme show you the other side.

[00:53:17] And then on the inside is another dog pattern. So I got some that you can’t really see in there. Um, I got some, it’s more dogs, um, but different, but I just love, look at that dog with the [00:53:30] eyes. Kind of looks like your dog that just passed away, Jen. Um, sort of, I mean, not exactly, but it sort of reminds me of, of her.

[00:53:38] So in a good way. ’cause I think so then I, I made all these, um, um, little hang tags for the art sale. Yeah. The Labradoodle. And it is like, his eyes were like, whoop, you’re gonna squeeze my, that’s what I think. Um, and then so then there was a smaller little one. So this one, I had this fabric and then look what I paired it [00:54:00] with.

[00:54:00] So it was just fun to pair and try and. Just to have done the, um, to have done the zipper. This one’s my favorite, so obviously I bought that one, but this one was, somebody had donated just a strip, but look at these fun. There was another one where the, there’s another duck that’s going the other direction that’s yellow and I really like that, but I didn’t have enough of this, so I ended up, um, just doing like these oranges on the back and then it’s just the stripe on the inside, [00:54:30] which to me it was really fun just to make things.

[00:54:33] And then I really liked my, all my little hang tags, which is just pattern paper. And then I know you like, oh my gosh, Diane, so I. When I go to my dad’s, I try to do crafty things and if I, they’re, I mean, I did all that at home, but the crafty things that are smelly, John makes me come here or I have to do ’em on my dad’s.

[00:54:52] So look at these shower steamers. These are so easy. YouTube. Hello. But I look at these pigs, [00:55:00] I it focusing anyway, the, you put these in your, these are eucalyptus spearmint, but making these, doing these for gifts. Anyway, I don’t know, y’all are like, uh, we don’t care anymore about what you’re making. But I made, so shower steamers and then little packaging.

[00:55:15] Then I made donut soap is not edible. And so the little soap, blackberry raspberry, vanilla. And then I just think it’s fun packaging things. But I would like to make this back. [00:55:30] Um, you know, paper that’s in the background. I just like doing that. So then there’s the little bees. I mean, I didn’t make the mold anyway.

[00:55:40] We care. It’s expire. Okay, great. I just, there was no comments during, I just didn’t know, are y’all still there? Um, anyway, I’m just gonna roll through these. So I think having fun, you don’t have to always make money off of it, but like, it does inspire me. So making soap made me want to do cool [00:56:00] packaging. Um, I did, I’d need to have better packaging, but I do like the shrink wrap thing.

[00:56:05] I just love the little heat gum that shrinks up the little pigs altogether. And it’s three little pigs like being clever in my own way. That is, it’s just silly sometimes, but I think I, it’s, for me, it’s good to be silly. So that’s something I think I had just kind of put it on hold, so it was really fun to do something like that.

[00:56:27] Um, I’m trying to go back to my, [00:56:30] I don’t know where my, there’s my pen. Um. Biggest question. Oh, best question I got asked this year that left me stumped and I had to think about it and come back later for the answer. Here it is. It was the other day I met some new people and they said, well, what do you like to do?

[00:56:49] Like, what are you passionate about? And, um, fun is a creative hidden passage to breakthroughs. I totally agree, Matt. [00:57:00] I was like, I don’t know. All I can tell you is what I do for my business. And so it really was like, I was like, shouldn’t we have an answer? Like, I would love to hike, but I don’t live in Colorado.

[00:57:14] You know, it’s wicked hot here and there’s not any mountains. Um, I, I love to camp or I love to, um, but I don’t really do those things ’cause of where I live. But I was like, okay, well I love beavers. I love [00:57:30] analogies. I can’t remember what the other thing, I mean, I love Jesus, that one’s for sure. Um, but, and I love beavers for sure, but like, you know, what are the weird things that are quirky that aren’t necessarily connected to your business?

[00:57:45] Like, I didn’t have an answer that day and I was like, oh, I should have an answer. Even if it’s weird things, you know, like Danielle likes cards. You know, she likes to read in bed with her husband on her phone, right? Like, uh, she made a card like that. I thought it was [00:58:00] hilarious. Um, what’s something I will not do again?

[00:58:03] I will not, you can hold me beat to the fire. I will not wait until October to do my taxes. For sure. Never gonna do that again. ’cause now I have a way, I have a new method, notion, notion for my accounting, um, notion for everything I’m trying to make notion my best friend. Um, what will I make sure I do more of?

[00:58:25] I am not a relaxer. Um, so yes, I would [00:58:30] rather play. And Troy says play. I think that for me, um, I’m so glad, uh, you do greeting cards still. Uh, Danielle, maybe what is it for you that you want to add more in and like, I did a little art group and I loved art group, and I think I wanna do more of that. It’s, it’s what, what are the things that I felt myself excited to [00:59:00] do, even if it’s making, I mean, I made 28 bags and I only have 12 left.

[00:59:05] That’s pretty good. I mean, they were priced to sell. Um, I just liked the fun pairing up and it, it does connect back to the other thing that I’m doing, which is the patterns and the illustrations and licensing. And so it was just like, oh, wow. That’s why I like that, or that’s what it is. It’s not all about how it feels.

[00:59:26] Like the other day I got this new blanket for Christmas and I was [00:59:30] rubbing it on my face, which I know y’all are probably like, this is too much information. Uh, anyway, Hannah, good to see you. So this is not the thing, and I probably shouldn’t use the butt of the little, little owl. Um, anyway, I was just rubbing it like this on my face and my husband’s like, it’s weird.

[00:59:46] Could you put that blanket down? I was like, no. Who do? Who cares? You’re not here. I mean, you’re not over here. I’m not doing it. You’re not, it’s not messing with you. Anyway, I just like, I’m gonna feel more soft things, that’s for sure. Um, what have I avoided doing? [01:00:00] Doing obviously my taxes. Um, but there are some other things.

[01:00:04] Um, and then I said, how did that work out? Not good. Didn’t like that? Am I still avoiding it? Then why? So this is like how to find those puddles or how to find those, um, pitfalls or those poop that you step in all the time. You know, the things we actually need to avoid. Um, and then. Sometimes I avoid things because it’s so big, like grading.[01:00:30] 

[01:00:30] It’s really big and I think it’s just overwhelms me. And so I just avoid runaway, runaway, you know? So I’m like, okay, how can I break that thing into smaller bites so that it doesn’t take so long? I think that that’s gonna be a really good one, um, for me. And so I’m just gonna keep asking those questions for, to myself.

[01:00:52] What am I avoiding? And it may be something I need to ask like every week, what have I avoided this week? And then I’m gonna make sure the other thing I avoid is [01:01:00] putting in my calendar. Like, uh, claiming time for myself or my business. So for marketing or for making YouTube videos, instead of just doing it when I have free time, I’m gonna actually plan it in.

[01:01:14] So I think it’ll get done. Or even just this reflection at the end of the week in Power Station. I make everybody reflect at the end of the week. And I, I started doing that. I did the power station as well for myself this time. And so I had this reminder, Wendy, it was [01:01:30] great to see you or meet you and hope you come back.

[01:01:32] I know, it’s, I’m going long-winded. Welcome. It’s a full thing. Sorry. I know. How can somebody talk to themselves this whole time? But y’all are here. You’re answering. Anyway, Wendy, it was great to me. Um, or sort of me, you know what I mean? Um, but I think that that’s a really, that’s a good question. So then, uh, what do I have a goal in each area?

[01:01:55] For next year. Maybe it’s the way I’m eating or that I don’t go to [01:02:00] Chick-fil-A once a week or um, whatever. It’s, you know, and you are sort of a, but I know you’re real. I’ve hugged you Rasheem, so I know. Um, how much time am I willing, oh, this is a question that I ask for Power Station as well. How much time am I willing to spend learning and exploring, you know, how to grow YouTube?

[01:02:25] Or how much time am I willing to learn and, uh, spend [01:02:30] learning how to, uh, make better lead magnets or grow my list or whatever, right? How much time am I willing to do that each week because that, that’s something I need to plop in. If I really wanna get better at YouTube, or I really wanna get better at blank, how much time am I going to carve out each week to do that?

[01:02:49] And I think that has been. A kicker in people in power station, if they had a really, um, low [01:03:00] number that, or maybe they were just busy, they didn’t have enough time set aside to do the whole thing. Or if they had too big of a goal and there’s not enough time in any week to get everything you wanted to get done in 12, 13 weeks, you know, 12 weeks really.

[01:03:15] That’s 13 total. Anyway. And then what does success look like? This is something I ask you usually early on in Power Station. Um, uh, uh, regime says, um, for number 16, how [01:03:30] much time am I willing to spend? Um, sometimes I get stuck in the loop of learning then and not executing. So this, um, so not just spend learning.

[01:03:41] So that’s a good, I’m gonna put a, um, I’m gonna say learning, exploring, and executing when I redo this sheet, because. There’s a time, like in quarter one I might be doing more research, but quarter two is all about execution, that goal. So I’m [01:04:00] doing all the research, I’m doing a little bit of execution. And then quarter two is execution, execution, execution, you know, and then I might need to learn some more.

[01:04:10] You know what I mean? I just think, but we’ve gotta have time to execute. I’ve been in so many like learning programs where it’s just like flooded with all this stuff and I don’t have time to execute. I think it’s really hard. Um, so what does success look like for this goal? I don’t, uh, I like to make sure that there are [01:04:30] things that I can actually achieve on my own.

[01:04:32] I don’t want it to make, say, oh, I want to make $80,000 on something, whatever, on all my client’s stuff together. Well, that’s great, but um. I need to have specific clients that have those things. But what I could say is I can reach out to certain number of clients that are my ideal client. Um, I think that that’s a really, that is a really important thing to know.

[01:04:59] What success [01:05:00] did I, did I reach out, did I spend that hour that I said I was gonna do learning? Then if I didn’t, then that’s a failure because I’m not making my business a priority. My sister does, so 40 hours a week, she’s really good at working 40 hours a week only, and she spends 10 hours a week on outreach and networking.

[01:05:19] So every week, 10 hours. So that’s like a day and a half really, or a day and two hours, whatever. Um, but it could be end up, [01:05:30] she’s doing it on two days. Some are just on LinkedIn or some are just on the internet, and then some are physically going to things. And I think that I was like, wow, you do that every week?

[01:05:39] And she’s like, yeah, every week, 10 hours is, is allocated for. Marketing and networking my business. And I was like, I do not do that. I do not know. She must have gotten all those genes in her head because I didn’t get that. Um, I do think it’s important for you to know what success looks like to see if you reached it.

[01:05:58] I think I might be [01:06:00] reaching it in December, but maybe I did really good and I reached it in in July, by July 1st, and then maybe for quarter three, I need to change my goal because I already reached it. Um, I don’t think I, I don’t wanna be just like I’m done. That was me kicking my, you know, kicking my feet up.

[01:06:19] Um, how will I know in 90 days if I’m on the right path? I think that’s, that’s important. Even if you’re in exploring like, how many roads, how many different roads have [01:06:30] I tried? Well, if you’ve only explored one road, maybe not, maybe you didn’t explore enough. Um, because do I keep going on the same road or do I pivot?

[01:06:42] And try something else because I still wanna reach the big goal of growth for YouTube. A number of comments or, or connecting with more ideal customers. You know, a lot of times people aren’t really ready to buy from you to the day you [01:07:00] meet them. They don’t have that, oh my gosh, that’s what I need. I needed that.

[01:07:03] I need that exact thing that you’re offering. But they have, because our product, our service, or our product maybe costs more, whether it’s art in the home, they have to get on your list and hear your story, or they have to, um, see how you’re helping other people. And then when they have that, then they come back because you’re continually reaching out to them.

[01:07:26] I always think we need to reach out to our old clients as well, for the same, [01:07:30] for the same reason. Um, and that’s it. Those, so today was a really good, um, day. So I also think just for me, when I avoid stuff. Why am I avoiding it? Because it feels too big. Okay. How can I break it down into smaller bits and feel like there’s little wins?

[01:07:48] So we did this, this, the other thing, and I’ll then I’ll let you go. Um, and what we would do is we would do like five minutes and then we would work quietly for five minutes and we would come back [01:08:00] and we would discuss between us again. I think three or four people is probably max of what you would do. I would not do this alone.

[01:08:06] I would’ve never done this alone. And it was really nice because what Pippa had, or what Andrew had were, they were saying things that I was like, oh, I need to write that down, because they had other kind of ideas. It was super, super helpful to do this. And the other thing is, I think that what I don’t like normally me personally is just me, um, going into a group where I don’t know people.

[01:08:28] Um, I feel the [01:08:30] pressure to make sure everybody’s getting along. I think I do okay at that. Um, and that everybody’s feeling connected and. But then I personally am not doing the exercise because I’m trying to make sure that everybody’s okay. So in this group I was very comfortable. I met with these people once a week for three years.

[01:08:53] So I didn’t feel the pressure of having they, I already know them, I know them well enough. I [01:09:00] know maybe where a pitfall is for them or where a strength is that they’re not leaning into. So I think there’s something about working with people who know, you, know, your business, um, that, I mean, anyway, just a clue in.

[01:09:18] It doesn’t need to be like somebody in your business. I actually think it’s better to have somebody who’s doing something a little bit different. ’cause then they get, bring different ideas. So that was really helpful. We did a skills [01:09:30] goal, like what goal do you want to have accomplished by the end of the year?

[01:09:34] This is where I started thinking about habits. Okay, well I have the skill that I wanna improve on. I need to make it a habit of learning about this every week for 12 weeks. Right? Um, and then a business goal, which we kind of talked about already. Um, and because we had talked about that 10 year, five year, three year, and then maybe bumping, why do you have the five year where it is?

[01:09:55] Can you maybe do a junior designer onboard, a junior designer now? [01:10:00] I said yes. So then that is one of my business goals, um, having a plan for that. And then a style or production goal. So if somebody’s looking at, um, designing maybe in a new style or a new way, or a new kind of, um, uh, maybe it’s a new sort of product, so maybe you wanna do more ux but you’ve been or do product design and you’ve been doing book design or something.

[01:10:27] Um, or it could [01:10:30] be number of. For like Moura, maybe it’s a number of pattern collections that’s the production side or the number of the things that you want to have accomplished. Um, for me, since I’m doing emails and YouTube, I want that my workflow emails, this, the, like the intro sequence, I want those to be clear and I want to have one for each segment.

[01:10:53] That’s just me personally, that’s what I’m doing. And so I can set that up. So set it up for each product. Like [01:11:00] when somebody takes a webinar, I have like a week later that other, the how was it? What did you think? But maybe if they didn’t answer that, um, thing, if they didn’t click in, then maybe I send them another email the week later or at the end of that week or something like, but I don’t have those set up yet.

[01:11:16] I have to do them each time I make the product. But it would be really nice if those were already set up. Um, and then I have, um. I wanna have some challenges, art [01:11:30] challenges. So I have about six, so I’m gonna do one every other month, and that’s really for me, happy to have anybody join me. But I think that’s that fun stuff that is the exploring that I really want to include in, in my creative practice and bring y’all along for the fun.

[01:11:47] Um, and then I said I wanna have case studies for my website. Um, and so then I started breaking it down to quarter one. Um, and I have three goals for quarter one. They’re all, they’re color coded, [01:12:00] quarter one, quarter one and quarter one, and they’re all connected to that, growing the YouTube, growing my email list.

[01:12:08] So, um. Anyway, those are, so I’ll just tell you what it is. ’cause I don’t know if it helps. It helps me to hear what other people’s are. But what we would do today with my little group is we would, we would go and then sometimes we would take 20 minutes. So again, we were there for four hours. We took potty breaks, um, and eat breaks.

[01:12:29] But, [01:12:30] um, we would work, we would work, and then we would talk about what we found, uh, how, what we, um, what came to us. And that was really, um, really interesting. Danielle, it was great to see you too. Um, so quarter one for me. I have bought a YouTube course. I’m going to do the YouTube course. Um, and just having it, this is really it, learning a little bit about notion every, um, in quarter one.

[01:12:59] [01:13:00] And the YouTube. ’cause I think notion’s gonna help me organize it. So maybe I can do some of that this December. And then, um, quarter one working on my website. I have two websites, my little bird website for which is client based and then the Creatives Ignite website, which long overdue people I know. Um, but working on just the strategy.

[01:13:22] So I’m gonna have a 12 week plan for that strategy. A 13 week I think is a quarter. Um, so [01:13:30] I’m gonna have a plan. I’m not gonna have the website done. I’m gonna have the strategy done and I know exactly which pages I need to have designed. So I’ll have a wire frame for each of those by the end of quarter one.

[01:13:40] That is not too much. I have the specific little bite-sized pieces to do, and I know the order that I do it ’cause I do it for clients all the time. So, but I can do this. This is realistic. This is time-based. This is measurable. Did you do it Diane? Yes. No. [01:14:00] I mean, it’s, it’s not that hard. And then in quarter two it’s starting that execution on that.

[01:14:06] So instead of trying to get everything done in a week or two weeks or a month, I am breaking it up. And then one thing in all these, so the skills based, the, um, style or production kind of goal, the business goal, why is it important? And um, because if you remember why it’s important, then maybe you’ll actually do it.

[01:14:28] So I know we went over [01:14:30] just like normal and Yes. You know, now I can talk to myself and y’all at least I know. I see. I just have the participants pulled up so I know who’s here. And I know when you leave and I really appreciate you being here, and I appreciate you just listening. So, but it was helpful. It was really helpful.

[01:14:47] I did a lot of learning. Now I’m not overwhelmed. I’m not trying to do everything because it’s actually, it’s like the YouTube course and some notion learning. The end for quarter one, right? For that one [01:15:00] part. And then I know how to do the strategy. I just need to carve out two days to do it for little Bird and two days to do it for, um, for creatives Ignite.

[01:15:10] And then I can carve out different days to, um, do the each design. And so again, in 12 weeks, I don’t have 12 pages for each of those. And then I did make, uh, the podcast list, so I have that done. So January as always, will be mental [01:15:30] health month. Um, I have a couple people that I have not, I’ve asked one person, but I haven’t asked anybody else.

[01:15:35] So that’s something I’ve gotta get done. So I am just thankful for y’all being here, and I would love to know how you’re gonna do yours. And if you. I don’t know. Anyway, the other thing is, um, we’re still helping Doc Out and I don’t know if I have that link, but, um, save the Tatas again is [01:16:00] the, for Julie Reed.

[01:16:01] And then if you don’t know, you can always come live. There’s a to creatives ignite.com/signup. All y’all people are already here. Um, and then Power Station. So Power Station’s gonna start at the end of January. If you don’t know what that is, I’ll do a little, uh, thing just for YouTube and I’ll send it out and I will be accepting applications.

[01:16:22] There’ll be a daytime one and a nighttime one. And it’s about having a goal. And it’s pretty, you can have a different goal and everybody [01:16:30] comes together and it’s just accountability and you get community because you don’t have to be alone. And I’d love to have you in it. So if you are interested, that is what we’re doing.

[01:16:40] So our station, I believe, um, one is. Monday, uh, morning and then one for me, morning, afternoon, if it was Jacob over in Slovakia. Um, and then one is on Tuesday night ’cause I have to teach it in night class on Monday. [01:17:00] So the end. And um, anyway, it was just fun to do this. I’m glad I spent time doing it. Now I gotta go back and grade.

[01:17:08] Actually, I’m gonna go eat lunch. Um, I hope you guys have a great time and definitely Matt, we’ll catch up soon and, uh, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and I will see you the third maybe of January. That’ll be the next one that I’ll have live and I hope that you guys will come. And Courtney, it’s been great to see you as well.

[01:17:29] And [01:17:30] uh, Maura, just congratulations on all those huge, huge wins. The end. Have a great, great day. And Troy will have to catch up too, and I can’t wait to hear and Brian, start selling that art buddy. Bye y’all.[01:18:00]