Differently
Simple, yet powerful ideas for building a life, differently. Hosted by Carla Reeves, creator of The Differently Coaching Experience, this podcast offers thought-provoking conversations and practical insights for anyone looking to get out of survival mode and build a life that is truly your own. From the highs and lows of love and relationships, to the challenges and opportunities of work and career, Differently will challenge you to to rethink what’s possible.
Differently
Powerful Q4 Strategies for Life and Biz with Josephine Owusu
Fall has finally arrived, and that means the end of the year is right around the corner. In today’s episode, Josephine Owusu, an international business strategist from England, is here to help us make it the best it can be.
Planning a strong Q4 isn’t just for business, it’s an opportunity for everyone to end 2024 on a high note and springboard to a productive, organized, fulfilling 2025.
Because Josephine always incorporates personal well-being and life into everything she does, her process is perfect for everyone. I’ve been through her Q4 planning exercise and I share my thoughts, fears, concerns, and hopes as I head into this important season.
Josephine walks you through the same exercises so that you can benefit from her knowledge and insights too.
Grab a pen and paper, you’ll want to keep this info!
Highlights:
2:33 Review the highlights and lowlights
7:36 The data never lies!
9:12 More of what you like, less of what you don’t
14:37 Traffic light system: what needs to stop, start, or continue
26:53 Visualization exercise for the best Q4 possible
34:56 Bring forward the best version of yourself
38:10 Setting SMART goals
More about Josephine:
LinkedIn
YouTube
IG
Check out Josephine's previous episodes:
Master Your Capacity to Realize Your Goals
CEO Time: Level up Your Business
Build a Business AND a Life
Enjoy!
Learn more about Carla:
Website: https:/www.carlareeves.com/
Connect on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reevescarla/
Connect on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@differentlythepodcast
Go to https://www.carlareeves.com/getunstuck.com to download Carla's on demand journaling workshop + exercise to help you stop spinning and start moving forward.
Explore Coaching with Carla: https://bookme.name/carlareeves/lite/explore-coaching
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Thank you for listening!
I'm Carla Reeves and this is Differently. Whether you feel stuck in survival, navigating a change or seeking more for your life, may this podcast be your weekly nudge to take a risk to build a life that is uniquely bold, authentic and in alignment with your deepest values. What if you worried less about the bumps in the road and instead got equipped for the journey? Get ready to rethink what's possible. Hello, welcome back to another episode of Differently. I'm your host, carla Reeves, and today we're doing some fourth quarter planning. If you're listening, real time we're just kicking off the fourth quarter, and if it's not fourth quarter, I'm a believer that this is a good practice Anytime you are in need of a reset or want to clarify your goals and where you are headed.
Speaker 1:My friend and business colleague, Josephine Owusu, is back. You may remember her. She's been on several times before. She's a business strategist for purpose-driven coaches, content creators and creative entrepreneurs. While she's focused on business, she always weaves in the personal well-being and life too. So if you don't have a business, don't worry. You can make this work for your life.
Speaker 1:Grab a pen and paper or open a doc and get ready for some visualization, goal setting and the strategic steps needed to set your fourth quarter up for success. She's going to walk us through the exercises with conversation and discussion too. If you're driving, it will be interesting to listen and think through, but you will definitely want to come back later and hit pause after the questions to take more time to reflect and capture your thoughts and ideas. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Hey, differently listeners, I have Josephine Arisa back with me, my friend and business colleague, who I so deeply appreciate, and we're going to do something a little different. We're going to do some fourth quarter planning. Today she walked our mastermind through a really incredible session and I asked her to come share this with you. So that's what we're going to do today. Welcome, josephine, welcome back.
Speaker 2:Thank you, carla, it's great to be here.
Speaker 1:So tell us a little bit about kind of your philosophy and approach around quarterly planning, just to get kick us off here okay, so when it comes to quarterly planning.
Speaker 2:before we do anything and this is just the way I approach anything when it comes to strategic planning is we always review, so we look back and see what was working, what wasn't working. So that's what I like to do, and I also take a personal first approach before we even get to the business side, because I'm a firm believer that it's really important that we build our businesses that align with our personal goals, so that we don't end up regretting the business that we've built.
Speaker 1:And that can easily happen, right 100%.
Speaker 1:Well, I love the idea of going back and reflecting and actually, before you give us that first prompt, I want to just set the listener up that this is a really great episode. To potentially be sitting and have a notebook and a pen, or, if you're listening, just one you might want to go back to and hit pause after she asked the question and take some time to write your way through the questions that she asked. These were so incredibly helpful. Um, so, go ahead and kick us off with reflection, josephine.
Speaker 2:Okay, so the first thing that I would like you to do is to think about what were your highlights from the last three months in your business and why business?
Speaker 1:And why I love that question and I think it always surprises me, like I'm a huge believer in reflection and you know journaling and all of that and kind of looking back. But, as you guided us through that question, it always surprises me when you take time to reflect and look back, especially in your business, like what were the highlights? Like we don't stop, we we often don't stop long enough to actually like notice the highlights. Right, do you see that with your business strategy, clients, 100%.
Speaker 2:A lot of the time we're so focused on the future that we forget to celebrate where we are at, and I'm a firm believer that we should be celebrating all of our wins. Um, if we're always just looking at I want to achieve this, I want to achieve that, and we don't actually reflect and think about the highlights, then we can forget the journey that we've been on and forget how far we've come, because sometimes you, where you are, there's a you know a famous saying that you, when you look up and you realize that this is exactly what I've been praying for, sometimes we forget that if we don't reflect on it.
Speaker 1:That's so true and I love that you brought in the faith piece. I'm curious too, like as we go through this, I would love to know how you kind of tie in your faith into your planning process. But a couple of the things that popped up when you asked this question in the mastermind for me was that I actually was able to reflect and see that one of the highlights over the last few months has been I've had a lot of creative space and how much joy that brought me, and so, as I think about planning for fourth quarter, I want to make sure that I keep having that space because I think it fuels everything else. And the other thing that popped up was we've been being very intentional about our marriage and making sure that we're very close and connected, and I, when I was reflecting, I could see how much that has fueled my business. Wow.
Speaker 2:That's incredible. That's absolutely incredible and I love the fact and it's funny because both of what you've said are to do with that personal side. So the creative space, the fact that you've allowed that creative space, and even the same for me this year has been more of a. I've really created more space than ever in terms of for that creativity, for that planning, that really slowing down and it's just fueled the creativity in another level. And the fact that you've seen an impact in your marriage as well, because you've been intentional, that's incredible Because it's only going to make you show up as a better leader.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think it's so counterintuitive to people like us who are driven and high achievers, the people I work with. It's so counterintuitive to our actually fuels everything that you're doing and I feel like I can do it more effectively and more efficiently when I have space and I feel good, yes, awesome, okay. Next question.
Speaker 2:Okay, and this is still in the reflection phase. So, looking at the last three months, the last quarter, where did you make the most revenue in your business, and so which offers? And the reason why I like to ask this question is because the data never lies of what your ideal client needs, and so where you made the most revenue, we want to dial that up. So this is where you're looking at your numbers, looking at how much revenue you made in the past three months, and where, look at the percentages, what's the highest revenue generating service that you have?
Speaker 1:Well, that question is is always good, because for me too, because I tend to have, like, maybe an offering that I want to be my biggest revenue generator, but the one that actually is my biggest revenue generator is offering often different, and I think that's interesting and like, wow, I need to make sure I'm paying attention to that more 100% because we like what we like and what we think our ideal clients like.
Speaker 2:But our ideal clients may be telling us something completely different.
Speaker 1:Yes, so that question's really important, 100% Okay. What should we be doing next?
Speaker 2:Okay after this. So this is a bit of a tweak one. There's two questions so what did you enjoy doing in the last three months? And then the next one is what didn't you enjoy doing in the last three months? And then the next one is what didn't you enjoy doing? And again, the reason why we want to reflect on these questions is we want to see how can we do more of what you enjoyed doing and what you were great at, and how can we do less of what you didn't enjoy doing. So, whether it means you delegate some things out or you stop doing things altogether, is it something that you actually need to do? I know that we're not going to have a schedule where 100% everything that we do is what we enjoy doing, but we do want to have a high percentage. We want to spend at least 80% of the time doing the things that we're great at, our genius zone and that we enjoy doing, because that's what helps us to enjoy the journey. It helps us to keep going.
Speaker 1:I love that. Well, and I think I heard somebody say that like follow the next thing. That is exciting, and I think that we are we're trained to think like work hard and work is hard, and we need to be suffering as we go through this.
Speaker 1:But I love this idea of follow what excites you, because if I sit down and look at my list, sometimes I'm dragging my heels on doing certain things and if I follow my energy and go with what excites me, either something breaks free on those things that I was kind of dragging my feet on. Do you see that with your clients?
Speaker 2:100% it's always the things that don't excite them, that they, even if they plan and they put it in their schedule, it's that thing that they'll just move. They're just really dreading it. I've got one particular client that I'm thinking of and there was a task, there was something that she needed to do and it's not in her genius zone at all, so she really hates and dreads doing it. And because she hadn't done it for such a long time as well, so it was like this big thing, and so we tried to break it down. So it's like, okay, well, just do half an hour every week so that you're slowly whittling away. And then finally she was able to do it.
Speaker 2:And then now, going forward, I've told her let's schedule that time in so that you'll never get to that place where it's this big task, especially because it's something that you don't enjoy doing, because that's what we do. When we don't enjoy doing it, we put it off so much to the point where we have to do it. And now it's this big mounting of a task and it's like, oh my gosh, what have I gotten myself into? So, yes, yeah, it's really important that we really find the joy in what we are doing, that we. Yeah, it's so important that we get clarity on all of that.
Speaker 1:It's fuel, all right. What should we be thinking about next? Okay, so now? Oh, and it was the what I, what we didn't enjoy also right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what we didn't enjoy as well, yes, didn't enjoy also right, we didn't enjoy as well.
Speaker 1:Yes, I wanted to just say that in that particular question, like what came up for me was just noticing that I struggle with anything that's like very detail oriented, and so that was really insightful. Like I need to look at how I can delegate more things that are really detail heavy, because it zaps my energy and it's you're not a lot of people struggle with that, especially I find creative entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2:So one of my clients, brilliant big picture visionary, which lots of people are, and but when it comes to the details, like, oh my brain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just want to shut down and crawl in a hole and then they're just trying to avoid it.
Speaker 2:So our workaround was let's just do this together, let's do this together on the pool, let's get this done so that you've got that accountability.
Speaker 1:I love that. Love that that helps me a ton. I often will ask my husband could you just like sit with me while I get this done, because it's really just. I know it needs to be done, but I need that accountability and to have a little collaboration as I'm going through.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's like I call them babysitting sessions. It's like I remember, um, what my VA one of my VAs um, she used to call them babysitting sessions, where it was like she'd be asking for these things over email you know, can you send me this, Can you send me that? And I never had time, so we would have these babysitting sessions and literally, these sessions were just for her to be like OK, pull that file for me, Send me this, Send me that.
Speaker 1:I love that. I'm writing that down. I need some babysitting.
Speaker 2:I think it's great because it gets the stuff done and then you're not having to, you know, find the time to do it. It's a quick task.
Speaker 1:It's not hanging over your head because it's always there Like, oh, I've got to get her these things and I'm not doing it, and then you feel like you're not being a good leader, and on and on.
Speaker 2:I put my hands up. I need those babysitting sessions for those things.
Speaker 2:Yes, okay, okay. So the next section is um, I've got this traffic lighting system. So when you think of a traffic light where you've got the red, um, amber, green, um, so I'm going to ask you three questions. So the first one is when you look back in the last quarter, what do you need to stop doing to move your business forward? And what things came up for you when I asked you this.
Speaker 1:I need to stop hiding. I think we talked about that before we hit record um. The other thing that came up is I are you familiar with the Clifton strings.
Speaker 2:You know that I am, that I I want to.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's right, you, you sent me to somebody we need to talk about yes, I am number two responsibility and, um, I realized that I've been leading too heavily with responsibility and it can just kind of suck the life out of things and make me feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders and just instead lead with my belief and my passion for what I do, or more of the positivity, strength which is more energizing and fun and playful and all of those things. Everything goes better in that way. So those were a couple of things that came up for me.
Speaker 2:I love that.
Speaker 2:And yeah, you know how passionate I am about CliftonStrength. If I could be an ambassador, I would I know it's so powerful.
Speaker 2:I know it's so powerful, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So the next question is now going to the green side. What do you need to start doing to move your business forward?
Speaker 1:I love that question. Um, one of the things that came up for me was well, I think I shared with you from that um conference that you gifted me a ticket to thank you again. Um, one of the things they talked about was like, are you betting on your business? Like how we are we as women especially, are so good at betting on other people and sharing other people forward and they really talked about like, are you doing that for your own business? And I loved that because I thought there's more room for me to go in on my own business and what I'm doing. I thought that was a great, um, a great thing.
Speaker 1:And then the other one is start educating. Start educating more on just sharing the power of writing and reflection for leaders, because I feel like it is a underutilized superpower and people don't realize. They hear journaling and there's so much attached to it. You know ideas of what they think it is or it isn't, and I just one of the things I need to do is start really teaching people more about what it, what it really can be for your life.
Speaker 2:I love that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely love that. Just going back to what you said the first one where you said start championing for your business. I see it a lot, I've done it myself. Championing for your business I see it a lot, I've done it myself. We, as women entrepreneurs, we go hard for our clients. We do everything, we bend over backwards, we do everything for our clients to get the results for them and at the expense of our own businesses.
Speaker 2:And I always say to my clients that we have to treat our businesses as if we're a client. So that goes back to even when we're scheduling in whether it's CEO time or time where we're strategizing for our business, planning for our business, it's so important that we prioritize it like a client. Just like you wouldn't just cancel last minute on a client without a good reason, like an emergency, we have to do the same. It has to be a non-negotiable. We have to show up for our business and the tasks that we have set for ourselves, in the same way that we show up for meetings and we show up for our clients. We need to have that same approach. It's so important. That's the only way that we can really and truly move our businesses forward, or else we will see that we're giving our clients so many amazing results. They're getting so many amazing results using, how you know, our guidance and our coaching and everything, but we're kind of like at the same place because we're not applying it and we're not prioritizing ourselves.
Speaker 1:It's so true. It's so true. And what's so cool is we have we already have the ability like we. It's not something we have to learn, we're already doing it for other people. We just have to apply it in this new area, right, and I think that the more we do that, the I mean I've seen that in my own business, when I am taking the time to work on my business that that when my business is thriving, I'm better for all my clients too. A hundred percent, it's a win, win, win.
Speaker 2:It's a win, win, win.
Speaker 1:Speaking of CEO time, josephine has been on at least a couple other times, so we'll make sure to link all her episodes, but we did an episode on CEO time, if you're curious about learning more about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay. What's next, josephine?
Speaker 2:Okay, and the last one from this traffic light system is what do you need to continue doing to move your business forward? So these are the things that, when you look back in the last quarter, have really worked well. They have yielded great results. It's pushing your business forward. You do not need to change anything. What are those things? And it's really important that you get clear on that so that you know yes, we are continuing with this. So what came up for you with this one?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So relationship building, it's, you know, it's like in my mind. I think it's like that. You know the, the culture, the culture and the. You know the world out there is telling us to do more and do more marketing, you should be doing this and you should be doing this and you should be doing this. And I can get trapped into that, sometimes, thinking I need to do all these other things when what I really know is my strength is one-to-one connections, one-to-one relationships, my network of people that I already have, my past clients, like that is that is the best use of my time is one-to-one relationship building. So continuing that. And then, like I've been really building foundation and so that's been really powerful building my team building, foundation building systems, and there's some work to do to still just be finishing in that area this next quarter oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:I love the fact that you really understand your networking style, because everyone automatically just assumes that when it comes to networking, it's just going to events and, you know, connecting with as many people, that kind of thing. But I always say that it's always quality over quantity and the fact that you know that one-on-one connection, that's your strong suit, I think that's incredible. I'm exactly like you. I am a one-on-one girl. You know, one of my um in my top five, my CliftonStrengths, is relator and it it explains me to a T. It's all about one-on-one connection. That's where I thrive. So I understand um with that. And I love also the fact that you are building those foundations and you're building your team and you're preparing yourself to be able to scale in a way which is, you know, build your business in a way that's sustainable. So I love that.
Speaker 1:Learning that about myself is so key and I would encourage anybody listening to really understand, like, what your style is. Yesterday I was scheduled to go to a small business expo here and it's like an all day thing like nine to five, and I don't know because I pay. I didn't pay a lot to attend, but in my mind it's like you got to get there at nine and go all day and then, like the night before, I'm like wait a minute, I don't have to do that. My friend was speaking and so I definitely wanted to hear her and see her booth and so I arrived late. I made two really great connections and then I left and I took like what I noticed is that I took care of my energy, I made two great connections, I got to see my friend and support her and like that was a win.
Speaker 2:I love that you actually even just reminded me of. And that's the thing about quality over quantity it's not about how many people you connect with, it's about the quality of the connections. And you reminded me of a podcast episode that I was listening to where I think it was Kathy Heller and she was talking about because she's someone who is not really a typical networker and this was when she just started her um, she'd launched her podcast and so she was kind of new to this space and everything. And she went to this massive conference and there was a whole networking session and she's standing on the side as everyone's got their cards and they're networking and the head of apple um, apple, you know, like the podcast, um, so Apple podcast was there and you could tell that everyone's trying to figure out where is he so that we can, you know, get our podcast bumped up. And she just was like I'm not doing this, and so she actually walked away from this networking situation.
Speaker 2:So I think it was like over a few days. So she walked back to her hotel and she went to the bar and she there was a guy sitting there and he had the same lanyard that she had. So she's, you know, she's got a drink and they start talking and he was like, oh, it's just too busy there, and then they start talking for about I think it was like 30 to 40 minutes and had a great conversation and then he stood up and he said we should stay in touch. I think he gave her his card and he was the head of Apple Podcasts no-transcript comfort zone and take a leap or do something uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:But there's also times to just lean into your own natural design, and that felt so much better yesterday than what I would have done in the past, though.
Speaker 2:Okay, so the next week we finished with the traffic lights system, so I would I want to take us through a visualization exercise. What do you think about that?
Speaker 1:Carla.
Speaker 2:I loved this, so, yes, please, okay, so everyone who is listening.
Speaker 2:I want you to get into a comfortable position. You can sit down, you can lie down. Just make sure you won't fall asleep.
Speaker 2:But if you're driving, save this for a later time. I you to just um close your eyes and, if you are sitting down, I want you to focus on your, your breathing, and I want you to take a deep breath in and breathe out. And, as you breathe out, I want you to just relax your shoulders and take a deep breath in and breathe out. And, if you're sitting down, just make sure that your feet are firmly planted on the ground and just take one more deep breath in and breathe out. Deep breath in and breathe out. And I want you to visualize yourself and imagine yourself on the 31st of December. You are preparing yourself to ring in the new year and you are preparing yourself to ring in the new year and you are looking back at a successful Q4.
Speaker 2:What does success look like in the next three months? What have you achieved in your business by then? What projects are you working with or working on or working on, and how many ideal clients are you working with? How has your success in your business impacted your personal life? What does success look like for you in your personal life, in your health, in your relationships, your mental well-being, and where are you spending your personal time? I want you to make a mental note of the things that come up and how do you feel when you look back at the successful quarter that you have had. I want you to lean into the emotions that come up and we're going to take a deep breath in and breathe out. And take a deep breath in and breathe out, and we're going to take one more deep breath in and breathe out and when you are ready, you can open your eyes.
Speaker 1:I love that part. Visualization is so powerful.
Speaker 2:I 100% agree. It's one of my favorite things to do with my clients and you can get so many emotions. I've had clients like just smiling from ear to ear, some who are laughing. I've had clients get really emotional and teary eyed and tearful and crying. It can really bring out things from your subconscious, even things that you've forgotten about. Like I really love it and I feel like it reminds you where the direction that you should be going.
Speaker 1:Well, and it's so amazing how just it's so different than the first part of like reflecting back and kind of thinking your way back, versus doing it in pictures and emotions.
Speaker 1:Right, I'll share. When you led us through this in the group, it was emotional for me. I did have tears because I had been in kind of a I feel like a hibernation for the last more than six months, like really working on my business, not taking as many clients and feeling very insular, and in the visualization I saw myself coming back out and engaging and being connected with people and being in community and even where we live now I saw things blossoming from all that quiet reflection and work on my business. I saw everything coming to life again and I think there was part of me that was afraid I wasn't going to come back out of hibernation and it really did kind of move me to see that things are going to start stirring again and I can. Since we did that, josephine, which wasn't very long ago, I already see that happening, like I feel different even yesterday at that event, and my business the engine is has started again, and so that was really powerful.
Speaker 2:Wow, thank you so much for sharing that, carla, that's incredible, and there's something that you said. You said you were afraid that you wouldn't come out of that hibernation, and I think I mentioned to you that it's when we're in it that's how it can feel. But one thing that I always remind myself is that every season always comes to an end, just like when we look at the season spring, summer, fall, winter, even when we're in it, and it's just like we look at the season spring, summer, um, fall, winter, even when we're in it. And it's just like, especially in winter, when it's like the dark days, and you're just like, oh, when is this going to end? At some point it's going to end and turn into spring, and so like the fact that you saw that in your visualization is just a reflection of that.
Speaker 1:Friend listening like I just want you to hear that too, whatever season you're in. I think that that's so comforting and we can be so hard on ourselves. And just to know that, just like nature, you know, we can just look to nature Winter does come to an end.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 2:And I just want to encourage everyone that jot down journal what came up in that visualization exercise. It's really important. Don't just keep it in your brain, um you know, just even going back to the faith piece, there's a scripture that I love write the vision and make it plain, and, um, I'm a big believer in writing things down, and so you know, whatever came to your mind, write that down so that it's a reminder to you.
Speaker 1:Love that.
Speaker 2:Okay, josephine. What do we need to be doing?
Speaker 2:next. Okay, so the next thing, this is us moving forward. Because of time, I'm going to give you a question. This is a profound question. What is one area that you want to focus on in your personal life for Q4 that will impact how you show up in your business, and I'll give you some sub questions to think about as well. So what does the best version of you look like at the end of Q4? How do you want to feel? What do you want to feel? What do you want to do? How do you want to be and when I say how do you want to be, how do you want to show up? How do you want to show up in your relationships, how do you want to show up as a leader in your business, and what things can you start doing to become this person?
Speaker 1:do you remember some examples, like either from clients or just that to get people thinking like I know the what's the one thing you can do for me? It came up around physical, like being just being lean and strong physically, because that impacts how I show up in my business and that lean and strong is kind of mentally like mentally fit, emotionally fit, spiritually fit.
Speaker 2:But what are some others that you notice come up so it's funny because a lot of the ones that came up it was to do with health and wellness. So I remember for you it was about being strong. It was some people. It was to do with their healthy eating and to cook more and eat out less. For me it was health and well-being. That is the focus, because if we have our health and we feel strong, then we can. We can be unstoppable in our businesses, because if we're not our best in our health, that dictates how we show up in our businesses, how we show up to our clients, because of energy, all that kind of thing. So it was really interesting to see how, for everyone and it was a no-brainer, everyone said it in their one words it was literally tied to do with health and wellness. That was the priority, awesome okay.
Speaker 1:So after we've got those questions kind of mapped out, what is our next?
Speaker 2:okay. So the next question is so well, it's not really a question, but this is more to do with goal setting. Um, I'd love for you to set two to three goals that you want to achieve by the end of the year. Um, and you can use the visualization exercise um, like what happened, what came up for you as a guidance. That's the reason why I like to do it, because it helps to kind of even guide you on what you should focus on.
Speaker 2:So I'd love you to come up with two to three goals and use the smart format and if you haven't heard the smart goals format, it's is it specific, is it measurable, is it attainable, is it relevant and is it timely. So you can do a stretch goal, but it doesn't need to be outrageous, like, it needs to be realistic, but you can still push yourself. So I want you to set two to three goals and then I want you to ask yourself why do you want to achieve these goals? Because your why is so important? If it's to please other people, because everyone else is doing it, that's not a strong enough why. You need to come up with a why that makes sense and that will keep you going when things are tough and it just seems like I want to give up. But then your? Why is like? Nope, we're going to keep on going.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is so critical. That helps me on so many days, because there's days that you just don't want to get up and do the thing, that you're tired or you're just you're. Whatever it is, you don't feel like doing it. It's your commitment that will get you out of bed. Love that so much.
Speaker 2:And what I want you to do as well. As you said, it's your commitment that will get you out of bed. So it's so important that we have a strong why and why we want to achieve these goals. And then I want you to look at your calendar and I want you to set a deadline for each goal. Um, I was listening to a podcast with Mel Robbins, which was incredible, and she was talking about how, um, when we set deadlines, we usually will.
Speaker 2:If we've got a task and we set a deadline, we will usually usually give us the full time of the deadline. So, if you give yourself six months to write a book, you will use up that six months, but if you give yourself a deadline of a month, you'd also achieve it in that time. So give yourself a deadline. I think that's really important. I'm someone. If you don't give me a deadline, god help you if you get what you need.
Speaker 2:So it's really important that look at each one of those goals and set a specific deadline and put it in your calendar. And then I want you to think about what are the key milestones that you have to reach to be able to achieve these goals. So, for each goal, I want you to now think of okay, what are the key milestones, where it's like, when I get here, that shows that, yes, I'm that much closer to achieving that goal. And then I want you to think about what tasks do you have to do in October, november and December to help you to achieve these key milestones and, ultimately, these goals?
Speaker 1:So powerful, so breaking it down into tangible, actionable steps.
Speaker 2:So you're going to start with the goal, then you're going to identify what the key milestones are, and then you're going to identify the tasks and you're going to schedule them in October, november and December. And then the last question that I want you to ask yourself is what are the barriers that could prevent you from achieving these goals? I think it's really important to, because life will always throw curve balls, so it's good to have a think okay, what are the barriers that are going to prevent me from achieving these goals and what's the strategy to overcome that barrier?
Speaker 1:So that last question is so powerful, because if we have a plan, then we don't have to be worried about it.
Speaker 2:Right, we're prepared and we're being proactive and not reactive. That's why I love, I love, like looking at that, and then the last thing is what's the first task that you need to do? So, when you look at your two to three goals, what's the first task from each goal that you need to do? That will take you one step closer to that goal.
Speaker 1:And get it into your plan when I think I want to add one thing that you had us do, which was to mark off our holidays on the calendar. I know that a couple of us did that right away and that felt so good. I had just kind of forgotten to like mark off. You know what I want to take off at Christmas or um, and so that's just such a good reminder to mark off any days that you want to take off.
Speaker 2:Um 100% um, because, because I the reason why I got you guys to do that and I would um encourage your listeners to yeah, get your calendar out. The first thing that we usually do is let's look at the personal dates. So look at when you want to take vacations, birthdays, like when are their birthdays, anniversaries, that kind of thing, and schedule them all in, because I always say, if it's not in the calendar, it's not happening. And it's the same thing with your personal life.
Speaker 2:How many of us have gotten to the end of the year and we are burnt out and then we realize I've not taken a break, it's because we didn't schedule it. We scheduled everything else, when it comes to our client work, when it comes to the business. We've scheduled that all in, but we didn't think about the you know, the time that we need to take off, which is also productive, because that helps us to be at the best us. We get to relax, rejuvenate, rest and recover and come back fresher. And so it's. It's really important and this ties back to what I was saying about a personal first approach when it comes to your business.
Speaker 1:I love that. Well, and for people hopefully, if you're still listening to this that you're either writing your way through this or you're going to go back and write your way through. But for a lot of people I know like to even taking the time to do this process, you know, can be in your mind. You can be like I don't have time to do this, I don't have time to stop and and. But I'd love for you to speak just for a moment about the, the value of doing this and being proactive Like what do you see with in your own business and your clients of taking this time, even if it's a half hour, an hour hopefully you can even do longer but the value of that.
Speaker 2:So I think that it's actually I think it's essential.
Speaker 2:I really think that it's actually essential that we take this time to do it, and the reason being is because when we do this, as I said, we are being more proactive, so it allows you to actually be in more control when it comes to your business.
Speaker 2:It allows you to actually step in to the next season of your business, knowing exactly what you want to do, where you want to go, and you are kind of driving the direction of where you want to go into your business, as opposed to letting your business happen to you.
Speaker 2:It's the way that you help to build that business that aligns with the goals that you eventually have and the dreams that you have for your own personal life. You're only going to be able to do that if you are strategic about it, if you take that time to really understand what is it that I love about my business, what is it that is going well, what are the things that I need to change, what do I need to improve? You can only do that when you take the time to reflect, and it also helps you to actually celebrate and celebrate your wins and kind of just realize okay, this is how far I've come. There's someone who was in our mastermind when we did the session and she sent me an email and she said that this is the first time she's going into the next quarter of her business with a plan instead of just tackling the next thing, and she said that it gave. Oh, that's so beautiful.
Speaker 2:I was literally just like wow, and she said it gave it's, given her a sense of direction and enthusiasm that she didn't have before the workshop. And that's the importance of it, because it reminds you of why you are doing what you are doing.
Speaker 1:That's so good, well, and I think you and I can both speak to working with the clients that we do that. One of the most often chat, the challenge that shows up most often is like I'm being reactive, I want to be more proactive, I want to be more intentional and purposeful. This is the key. So, basically, you don't have time not to do it.
Speaker 2:You can't afford to not do it.
Speaker 1:Yes, totally, totally agree. Okay, josephine, tell us about where people can find out more about the amazing business strategy work that you're doing. Where can they find you?
Speaker 2:Okay, you can hang out with me on.
Speaker 2:LinkedIn. I'll give Carla the link so that she can add it to the show notes and on Instagram as well. At. I am Josephina Wusu. I have a YouTube channel as well, which we will link.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, check out her YouTube for sure. So yeah to for sure. So yeah, get a slice of where she is in the world. I love that. Josephine, you are such a gem. I can't wait to have you back. Thank you so much. This is such a valuable process and conversation, even just thinking through it again. So thank you, my friend.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me as always, Carla, you know I love doing our sessions together and I just, yeah, hope you all enjoy it. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Amazing, thank you. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Differently. It's been an honor to share this conversation with you. You know, one of the keys to living fully is to take action when you're inspired to do so. I hope you found that spark of inspiration today and would you help us spread the word. Did someone you know come to mind while you were listening? If this episode could impact someone you know, please share it and pass it along. New episodes drop weekly, so tap that subscribe button and join us next time as we continue to challenge the status quo and get equipped to live life differently.