Take a Deep Dive!

Ever wondered what it looks like to be intentional in your business each and every quarter? Today I'm giving you a SNEAK PEEK into what my last quarter has been like.  I started the year determined to put my business first by doing quarterly retreats with myself.  You see, I walked my clients through taking a deep dive each quarter last year, but I never took the time to do the same for my business.

The first week of January I went away for a night and during that time I assessed the year that had passed and put tons of thoughts up for the coming year.  During this time, it was clear that a big revenue opportunity for me was getting my offerings online. I had created TONS of content in 2016 and there was great potential for creating passive revenue that would pay me continually for time and work that I had done once. I also realized that most of my clients had come from networking and that if I 

ventured out online I could begin fishing in a new sea.  ​

​As I looked at my plans drawn all over big white papers on the hotel walls, I realized that my quarter 1 focus needed to be getting online.  I also realized that I didn't have the skill base (or time!) to do it in a way that would accomplish my goals. So, I would need to pull in an online team to carry this out for me. Knowing my goals were ambitious, the Jan priority was to find the right team so that the revenue could shift as quickly as possible (I talked about that process in my blog a few weeks back. Check that out here.) 

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I put an additional goal down for quarter 1 as well, that was to contact locations about offering camp training to their camp staff.  I knew that although the training would take place in May, the planning happens in Jan and Feb and if I waited until 2nd quarter the opportunity would be lost. As January progressed and I realized there wasn't enough time in the day to focus on both the online initiative and the camp training contacts, I had to took a moment to assess my next steps. 

 When I looked at the revenue that would come in for the camp trainings versus the revenue from the online trainings, it became clear very quickly that I needed to put camp trainings into the parking lot and revisit them in 2018.  This was a difficult thing to do because I LOVE working with camp staff and setting them up for an amazing summer.

Fast forward to the last week of March when I assessed my first quarter and began planning for the second quarter. I'm so glad that I made the decision to put the camp training on the back burner because it allowed me to fully focus on my most important goal for 2017.  I found the team in January and we began working in February.  They've spent a couple months getting me out on social media and testing the results they get with each action.  They've also spent time really getting to know me....and in turn forcing me to really get clear on what I do and to refine my services. This initiative is one that should start showing it's results in quarter 2 and continue to build in quarters 3 and 4, as well as in years to come.  
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I'm super excited to be sitting at the beginning of quarter 2 seeing the success that was met in quarter 1 and the success that is to come in quarter 2 because of it!  This would NOT have happened if I continued to live 2017 like I did in 2016.  If I hadn't sat down in January to plan my year and then at the end of March to reflect, I would have spent the first quarter doing a variety of actions that were good but none of them would have been great. 

​As I sit and reflect on the last quarter and what I most need for quarter two, I realize that what I need is to add to my support team. I've spent way too much time in quarter one working at night and on the weekends and that's not in alignment with what i want for my business or my family.  Unfortunately I had no choice because the business was going through such a growth phase and the money wasn't there to pay for additional support beyond the online team. I'm confident, though, that I'll be able to focus on this goal in quarter two. That's because revenue will start coming in during this quarter as a result of the things we've done in quarter one.  Since I know adding to the support team is important, I will place money into a savings designated for this purpose. That way if an unexpected fluctuation in revenue occurs I won't have to go back to working crazy night and weekends.

In a couple weeks I'll be going on my retreat for the second quarter.  This retreat will be different than my first one because it's a personal retreat. I'm going by myself and taking time to be still and reflect on the things I want in life.  I'll also be forming a foundation for continuing to be still during the quarter ahead, despite how busy life gets. Every January for the past 4 years, I've gone on a retreat with Beth Majersky of Simply Be Coaching and Retreats.  I wasn't able to go this January and thought my time at the hotel would take it's place. As the year drew on, I realized how vital that piece was to my year and reached out to Beth to get it scheduled for April. Knowing that the focus of the retreat was personal, I still knew I had to take the time to deep dive on my business and I did that at home this past week.  

If you're reading this and thinking you would like to be more intentional in your business, I have some great ways that I can support you in doing that:

• ​Monthly Mastermind/Workshop- coming up this Thurs 4/6 we'll be taking a Deep Dive and reflecting on the last quarter while planning the upcoming quarter. This program monthly event is part of the Marketing Morsels Coaching Club.  Clients who are part of the club do this deep dive at the start of each quarter.  
  • Come out and join us as my guest. Use the code COMPLIMENTARY to check it out. If you've been before and want to come, the cost is $99.  

•  If you'd like to join the Coaching Club and have this experience each month PLUS TONS of other training, coaching and support you can join the club for $125/mo.
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• Magnify Your Marketing Program- in this program I help clients create their plan for the year and then set up plans to measure their success as the year progresses. The class is held 4 times a year and the number of participants is limited to ensure a great experience.  As a BONUS- the class also includes the coaching club so that clients have ongoing support after their plan is created.

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• V.I.P. Day- this personalized 1:1 session gives you 3 hours in my home to dig deep into the part of your business you'd most like to work on. Clients come away with plans to move forward and a community of support for 6 months to ask questions and get my ongoing coaching via Facebook.