Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
I Participated In (A Lot of) 2024 Goal-Setting / Planning Workshops,
and Here’s What I Learned
- Fall Retreat and Winter Retreat
- $ 59.00
- 3 hour retreat
- so pretty aesthetic
- There is a retreat every quarter I think
- This is for the business planing session
- $ 27.00
- 1 workshop
- $ 7.00 (workbook for the weeklong challenge) There is an actual planner called Fresh Start
- Planathon free in October for 1-week on Facebook every year
- Another, smaller planning ops three days here and there
The CEO Collective – Rachael Cook
- $ free
- Week-long 5 day emailed challenge, with videos
- Current Alumni, paid $ 399 years ago but get to go through for FREE every season as an alum, and get all the updates and access to new content-changing publishing landscape for indies. I believe it’s up to $ 699 now. It pays to be an early adopter.
Edie Wadsworth – Made for More 2024 (at the time of writing, this one hadn’t occurred yet, so I admit it was an impulse during the nightly scroll that happens). If I can leave a nugget in the comments for this post, I will, so be sure to check back here for updates.
- Physician | Certified Life Coach
- $ 27
Yes, I hosted one of my own back on January 6, 2024 and it was free. You can access the recording, workbook and slide deck, plus other materials here.Now that I covered WHO I joined, what were there respective costs and offerings, below are some of my takeaways that you should consider and decide what to enroll in next, (because there will be more, a bunch in fact, as planning for success is a never ending quest.
What stage are you in right now? Some of these are way over my head and some aren’t. When you’re trying to get to the next level in your business, you want people who are AHEAD OF YOU! This is where the push comes to grow and go higher. However, this can also be a takeaway as if you are still getting to where they are, you can sometimes pick people too, too far ahead missing a huge section you cannot jump over.
Of course, there are ALWAYS things to learn no matter what level or leader you choose, but you want the right information for where you are and if too far ahead of you and your current business level, just means none (or most) of the offerings in the sessions are doable at this time. That means you can sometimes go nowhere at all. If there are going to be people participating who are ahead of you, I would say to ensure that one to two of the things you decide to participate in, will help motivate you to that next level and NOT only serve to frustrate you because you’re not there yet. With that said, I’m giving permission slips to some of you, who like me, for some reason just have a heart for “the beginners.” Now this permission will expire, but I know they are fun, the energy is awesome, and you never want to act like you know it all, I know, but please stop doing that to yourself. In so many facets of our life, YOU are not a beginner. Stop acting like you are.
What do you need? As you consider what stage you’re in, one of the most important things to think about is WHAT do you need? Some of the things I attended, their whole promotional schtick touted getting an entire year’s worth of content, planning, etc., done in what, a week, three hours, or whatever painfully short amount of time they were going to be with you to help you do that.
As my cousin says, BULL CORN! (When trying not to curse.) Can we be real, 90 days (which is only three months) is a wonderful happy medium/sweet spot. People who try to help you plan a year in ONLY a few hours, IMHOl, are being unrealistic. Not only an entire year is too much for anyone to swallow, do you know quarter to quarter can look vastly different and if I can do some writer speak for a minute, your life is likely going to have an inciting incident at some point in the year. I’m not saying to expect sudden death or the ax is going to fall, but we all respond differently and some of the things that can happen, drastically, for better or worse, impact our months, our day and often give us a new perspective on what’s important and in all that perspective, impact our business life causing us to have to pivot.
PRACTICE Give yourself a good few weeks to think about what you want to do in the next few months, after planning out the 90 days, THEN TRY to rinse and repeat. The “rinsing” is about taking the things that worked, and did well for you, and washing the bad out, to keep the good. You will be tweaking them a little all the time, then trying to repeat. There is no real repeat no matter how hard you try, something, a life event, the stars not lining up repeating, a star being sick and missing a week or work, YOU not being the same you were a month ago, all factor into your ability to repeat your performance, but it’s worth noting, it’s worth trying again as hard as you can to meet the same outcome if it was what you desired and plan as much as you can. But it is NOT not automatic. The other issue with planning so much, you can omit spontaneity and excitement and get so bogged down in the steps of your plan leaving little room for fun and inspiration.
Do you enjoy LIVE q&a, being in the room, or a #replay watcher? You should be both and here’s why. Live participation CAN often, when you clear the calendar and make the time, cause you to participate and engage, more. There is nothing better than real questions asked and answered LIVE! Not to mention the other folks in the room who can help you, give you advice and reach out to you on linked in, building connection, networking and maybe even a little more help along the way. When you participate live, you should also be putting who you are and your website or brief explanation of your services, and networking in the comments REAL TIME, once again, cannot be had at a replay. Moreover, watching the replay (even if you participated in the live event) can promote and bring about fresh revelation, new thoughts, and some things you couldn’t receive at the live event because so much might have been happening in the chat, and trying to listen to the speaker. For some of you who are not getting clients, you are NOT in the room to meet them. That’s bad. Ijs.
Now, if you’re watching the replay, don’t hesitate to ask questions or post thoughts/comments with the #replay, in the comments section of that Facebook page, IG or wherever the event page is if it permits commenting. Comment often as this is a way to build relationships. More people than you think are watching at a later date, not just you, and the comments about the experience come even days, months, and sometimes years later (if the hosts are kind enough to keep the page up and some don’t, unfortunately).
Do the WORK! PREP Yourself and Your Time for the event! You MUST Look Back – I know, I know, that was probably the thing I hated most about all of these but it’s worth doing. There are a number of things to be had in taking a brief look back to see how you did in the previous year. AND whatever you do, don’t just think about that one bad event, look not only at P&L sheets, and all things finances, but pictures in your feed, all pics have a date, start at the beginning, look at emails, at posts, try to get more than just a financial picture of your past. THAT is important too. Sooo whatever they ask you to do, DO IT! NO EXCUSES. When it comes to prepping for the time, I recommend you get into a space you enjoy or clean up and move some stuff from the only space you have. Wear earbuds, and turn off everything else. Whether you hav a big desk you clear off, big calendar, colorful sticky-notes, pens, paper, brush pens and markers, get it ready and try to have a time of calm before the start time. Running frantic, an angry phone call or client, familial issues will only cause your creativity to run away. Go for music, candles, incense, whatever you need to create ambiance, and bring forth your creativity and your propensity for dreaming big things for you and your career.
How do you respond to the delivery model and WHAT is your motivation? This is two fold because one, most of these are videos and workbooks and someone leading you and we have to be honest, that it’s not always the best thing. You need to be super aware of HOW you like to learn and someone who is essentially lecturing you and giving you for all intents and purposes, a presentation might not cut it. Moreover, some of the folks I learned from are super popular, meaning they have huge followings and they might not always be forthcoming with HOW they do/did it. I like people to share WHAT/HOW did you arrive at this which means they sometimes have to get personal BUT a personal story of how they did it can often be more motivating to us than just “do what I say,” and it will work and now poof, = your plan. That doesn’t always work. We may need more. You also may need more in the 1. ask me, then 2. give me 5-10 minutes to write down what you’re asking us to do. This is more interactive and hands on when they pause and give you time to write it out while they play some music. And honestly my brain can wonder, I may lose interest and yes, I may have some place to be in about 20 minutes. That’s not good. That’s omitting the prep to clear my calendar for the duration and fully engage.
You will need to take the extra time to FINISH and you’re going to need additional time and space for that. That might require some alone time, away at a hotel, like Maya Angelou, in the basement when people are asleep or to go away-away from home/family where they really can’t bother you, taking the pens, colored markers, posters, post-it notes, and etc, to have real time for reflection and planning. IF that is what you need ultimately, none of the people I’ve suggested are going to help. You need to do it yourself and you need to realize that is the way for you. I like all the input and motivation, but I need time to put together the course of action I am going to take for my own life.
Can I also say, if you are this latter type, then you do might not need to make ANY investment at all. I said it. Oopsie. It’s true, for those of us that are somewhat self-motivated, you can watch one or two videos, listen to others and just get down to it. Some of us, myself included, are using the challenges, planning sessions and procrastinating under the guise of learning and gathering motivation, when you know what you need to do and you can get to doing that!
They are Mostly the same – Finally, what I learned is that ALL of them have about the same offerings! Shocker! Not. This is not a bad thing, but yes, all of them really are saying the exact same thing, but what’s fun is that there is a style or personality that you’ll be drawn to over someone else, and that’s great. Find who you like, that fits all the other suggestions in this post and stick and grow with them. What am I really saying? There were/are zero reasons for Tracee to do ALL of these but Tracee liked them, it is motivating, I had the means and that’s fine too, but I like them, I learn from them, I enjoy running my own version for my students/followers, and I need notes for what to do and what not to do in my versions, and that can be such important research too, if you are a coach, influencer.
Here’s a run down of what they all consisted of (more or less):
- Look back / reflection – what worked, didn’t work, what lessons did you gain/learn (hate this part, but there is value, trust this part of the process)
- Earnings / Loss / Biggest Leads, financial successes came from what (audience) and where “platform(s)” are they on?
- Time audit – look over your calendar, what did you spend your most time on
- 90 day plans – 3 months what to do for the first big goal(s)
- Yearly plans or Year at a glance- fill in the months of your big things, vacations, events, family reunion, birthdays, weddings, all the big happenings, the rest is the actual time you have to work with; who you want to be, what you want to do, must get done in the remaining time available; Big picture, use the 12 month calendar to fill in the things you KNOW are happening
- The feels, the intention, the vision board stuff is about the euphoria and feels and how/who you want to become, and it’s pictures or words of people doing those things you want to do; talk about or write out WHY, then HOW
- Accountability and Community – who are you going to check in with and hold you accountable? What communities will you join to not only keep you accountable but cheer you on?
- Success? How will you know you’re making it, reaching success, what measures will you use?
- In reality, you could go through all these bullet points above, answer them, do them and that is your plan, BUT one of the big things I felt were missing in some are:
- Really in order to get to who/what you want to become, you need habits and daily actions and some of leaders for these workshops focused too much on the big picture without the habits, behaviors and daily actions it takes and for me it’s those more mundane, daily and seemingly insignificant tasks that get you to your big goals. Don’t forget this important but often overlooked part of the larger picture. What you do daily will lead you to your goal (or not).
