This article is by Heart of Business star practitioner Yollana Shore. She’s offering a free coaching call tomorrow, Thursday, March 27th at 3:30pm pacific time, for our subscribers on the topic of “Getting to the awesome stuff in your business when there isn’t enough time.”
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I have an admission to make. In my heart of hearts, I’m one of those creative types who has a minor allergy to “planning” stuff.
Even so, I have come to appreciate the incredible power of planning. Often, a half hour spent planning and scheduling can totally transform your relationship with your business for the next 12 months or longer.
Bouncing from one thing to the next
One of my clients, Liz, felt somewhat frustrated and overwhelmed with how unorganized her business was. She had individual clients, and would often run workshops. But each time, it would be such a push to promote an event. And then after the high of running it, she would be back where she started. After a bit she would decide to run another workshop, and start to drum up interest in that, and…
In fact, she had a whole series of ideas for workshops she wanted to run. She was aware that to promote her workshops she needed some lead-in-time, maybe a month or so. But she never knew what she’d do next or had actually considered planning more than one or two events in advance.
It was exciting on the one hand, and completely overwhelming on the other. She had this whole ever-expanding bag of tricks to share, yet it was becoming a bit cumbersome and disorganized, she never knew exactly what she was going to pull out next.
So we sat down and looked at what was actually in the bag. She made a list and saw that there were seven programs that ranged between a one-day event and a six-week course. Each one needed promotion and lead in time. She also needed time to energetically prepare for them, and she needed time to recover afterwards.
When we considered all of these factors, we saw that, realistically, she could actually only hold five of her proposed events this year. If she wanted to run the other two, they wouldn’t fit until next year. By the end of that session, Liz knew what she would be doing for the next 18 months in her business.
If you’re a little bit allergic to structures, you might think this would feel restrictive.
Room for more creativity
In Liz’s case, knowing what was coming up proved to be incredibly liberating! It gave her a feeling of solidity and cohesiveness. Once she’d invested the time in planning her events for the year, and a promotion schedule around it, the overwhelm of planning it anew each time was gone. She knew exactly what she was going to do and when.
Now she could relax into putting her creative energy into her relationships with her clients, and into the workshops themselves.
It was also more profitable. She was able to consider her workshop promotion plan when she was writing her weekly newsletters, and in her conversations with individual clients. So if she was working with a woman in March and mother issues came up, she could say ” I think you’d really get a lot out of the motherhood workshop I’m doing in September. Here’s a flyer for you, and a couple for any of your friends who would like to come.”
By the time August rolled around, and the formal promotion period for her September workshop began, she already had six people interested in or booked for that 12-person event.
How you can plan ahead
If you already have “events” of some kind that you know you want to offer during the coming year, make a list of them. Then consider what a doable schedule looks like, both for you personally, and for your audience.
Although planning seems pretty left brain, you can actually do it from a creative space. I begin every planning session with Remembrance, and a prayer, asking the Divine to help guide me in creating a plan that will be truly of service, to myself, my clients, and my business. Then I make it fun by using color and symbols, and in the end I have both a doable map of my year and the inspiration to move forward with it.
If you’ve developed evergreen products and services, you might think you don’t need this kind of planning. Your products are ready and continually available. Yet, you can still plan promotions for them throughout the year.
For example, a life coach might focus his promotions on physical and emotional wellbeing in the first quarter, then focus on work-life balance in the second quarter, and so on. You can also plan events to promote your evergreen services, such as a free telecall, or free session campaign.
You’ll be surprised at how much more space longer range planning like this can create for you. You’ll be able to rest into your own offerings for many months to come.
So, there you go! Planning… Maybe it’s not so bad after all, eh? What’s your experience? I’d like to hear…
Let’s hear all about it! Come share in the comments.
Free call on Getting to the awesome stuff in your business when there isn’t enough time.
You probably have a bunch of great ideas about awesome things you’d like to do to grow your business. Maybe you want to update your website, create a new program, or write a book… Maybe you want to get serious about your social media campaign, or start a social movement…
But too often, you end up so busy responding to external deadlines and getting bogged down in the detail of the day-to-day stuff, that there just isn’t time to move your best plans and dreams forward.
You’re invited to a free teaching and open coaching call with our experienced Heart of Business practitioner Yollana Shore. Yollana’s deep presence is a transformational catalyst, which allows her clients to really connect their business with their own heart and their desire to make a difference in the world in a profitable way.
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Getting to the Awesome Stuff in Your Business When You Don’t Have the Time
Date: Thursday, March 27, 2014
Time: 3:30 – 4:45 PM Pacific
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6 Responses
I. Am. Liz. (>:)
Really? Which part do you relate to, Meg?
Terrific article Yollana, and so true!!!
Thanks Pat 🙂
Hi Yollana, I really enjoyed reading this. Especially the part about finding right-brain ways to make planning feel more doable. (Have you ever heard of Jennifer Lee’s “Right Brain Business Plan”?)
Although I’m pretty left-brain thinking and am a pretty good planner, I sometimes struggle with the promotion planning and implementation. It’s getting easier, though — certainly doesn’t come easily.
Yes, I have heard of the right brain business plan… Though I haven’t used it, personally. And yes for making improvements, while still seeing where the struggle is… it’s so much about being kind to ourself along the way, rather than trying to make our lives look like the text book, isn’t it? Love.