Ep 38 - Struggling to Stick to Your Quarterly Plan? Here's the Real Solution

Do you wish there was a proven strategy to keep your momentum going quarter after quarter in your business? Well, get ready to transform your business game because in this episode, I'm delving into the secret sauce of quarterly planning. Join me as I uncover the strategies successful entrepreneurs use to not only set ambitious quarterly goals but also stay laser focused and accountable to achieve them. From prioritizing tasks to optimizing workflows, we'll explore the actionable steps you can take to supercharge your business growth. So if you're ready to say goodbye to scattered efforts and hello to consistent progress, then tune in. Are you that driven entrepreneur who believes that working harder holds the key to your dreams? Are you drowning in the day to day task wishing you had more time to strategize and cast the vision for your business growth? Hi. I'm Donna Dube, your guide on this entrepreneurial journey. I've walked in your worn out shoes, burning the midnight oil, convinced that sheer hard work was the secret to success. Just one more email, one more task, until I found myself on a one way track to burnout.

But here's the twist in the tale. I discovered that success isn't just about working harder, it's about working smarter. It's about being intentional with our time. It's about steering our ship with focus because no team, system, or automation can outperform a lack of direction. In this podcast, I'm sharing with you all the strategies for business growth that it took me years to learn. If you're ready to step out of the daily overwhelm so you can amplify your profits, then I'm ready to teach you. I believe the only limit to your business growth is the one you set for yourself. Go grab a notebook, warm up that cup of tea, and let's do this.

Being an entrepreneur and visionary leader in the online world is tough. You're constantly battling decision fatigue and wondering if you and your team are even focused on the right tasks. Instead of doing the things you love to do, you're trying to keep afloat with the day to day issues that seemingly crop up on the regular. It's no wonder you're feeling exhausted and not sure where to turn next. A version of myself not too long ago was right where you are. I was burning the midnight oil, working tirelessly, throwing every strategy I could find at the wall, hoping something would stick. I want you to know it doesn't need to be this way. I knew if I wanted to see a different result, I would have to do things differently.

Operations in Your Pocket is a personalized strategy session that's like a breath of fresh air for entrepreneurs like us. Imagine breaking free from the chaos and having a clear 90 day growth map and action plan. No more juggling tasks that leave you feeling exhausted and unsure where to turn next. This strategy session is not like any others. It's personalized, not a one size fits all solution. You're not getting generic advice. You're getting a 90 day action plan crafted specifically for your business. Hiring, delegating, metrics, team management, optimizing CEO time and habits.

These aren't just buzz words. They're the actual obstacles we'll tackle together. So if you're tired of the overwhelm and ready to get unstuck, don't miss this opportunity to propel your business forward with operations in your pocket. Head over to ceoamplify.ca/ops, to book your free clarity call and see if this is a good fit for you. Let's make 2024 the year your business not only survives but thrives. Hello and welcome back CEO. As this episode airs, it is the beginning of April, Q2 of 2024. And so I wanted to spend a little bit of time today talking about quarterly planning.

Now I know some of you are probably thinking, oh no, another episode on planning. Do I have to spend more time planning? No, you certainly don't. I am not here to make you nor force you do do anything. However, I have certainly found from my experience in my own business and working with other CEOs that having a plan is the first step. Now yes our plans need to be adaptable, they need to be adjustable, right? But having an actionable and a checkoffable 90 day plan really really helps you create more momentum in your business. I know for a lot of you and for most entrepreneurs we're encouraged to make you know those big dreamy goals, right? What do we want for our business for the next year, the next 3 years, the next 5 years and for many of us, it's easy to dream big and to think of what we want for our business and for our life, but actually turning those big dreamy plans into actionable plans that can work for us is a little bit trickier. And so today I want to dive into a little bit about the process that I use for myself as well as with my clients to help them take that big dreamy 12 month goal into an actionable 90 day plan that then we can follow through on. Because I'm sure you've heard me say this before but I will keep saying it a plan without action is just a wish.

We have to actually follow through on the plan in order to see any type of results and so that's why I created the CEO PulseCheck. It's a 90 day workbook that helps you stay on track, stay focused, stay prioritized, and really help you propel your business forward 90 days at a time. So you're gonna say why do I love 90 day plans so much? Well again, it's easy to come up with those big goals but massive goals can be so overwhelming that sometimes we don't even know where to start and we may try anything and anything to try and just land on what that silver bullet is to reach that big goal and I don't know about you but I definitely don't want my business nor my life to be a brute force hustle and growth. I would much rather be strategic and build a sustainable business that keeps me going year after year. I would like to have manageable milestones and so 90 days is short enough for me to stay focused but long enough to achieve some progress towards that bigger goal. So think of it like 12 week sprints and each sprint you're building quarter after quarter and just like investments you're compounding those results quarter after quarter. So you'll see a little bit of that as I go through this episode with you today but building those 90 day plans really allows us to be more nimble and adjust and tweak as we need to because let's face it business and life can really change quickly sometimes and we need to be able to be resilient to those changes and be able to get back on track when things may have not gone as we plan. And so having 90 days is enough time to be able to tweak and change without it feeling overwhelming.

Again, the plan is just the beginning. We actually need to build the processes and implement the plan. Right? We need to put a system in place so that we can stay focused and not get pulled off track by those shiny objects. And I find using the CEO PulseCheck really helpful in that because every week when I'm doing my CEO Power Hour I'm looking at my PulseCheck, I'm looking at what my monthly goals are which is just a breakdown of my 90 day goals which is a breakdown of my 12 month goals and I'm actually saying what do I need to do this week to get me closer to that goal? I'm setting my top three priorities. I'm reviewing and reflecting, and then I'm putting that in my calendar so I'm staying laser focused on what I need to do to reach my next goal. Alright, let me give you an example of how you could take a big goal and then break it down into smaller bites and pieces. So let's say you have a goal of building on a new group program and so you want to do all the content, you want to do all the resources, you want to have everything ready for this group program before you try and sell it. But on the back end of that you're still running a business, right? You still have clients to serve.

You still have things you need to do every day to keep the business running and so sometimes trying to get a brand new offer off the ground is hard and it's difficult because we don't have the time to just devote to that and I know for some of you there's probably something you've been wanting to do for years and you're just not sure where to start and it's just overwhelming and then you don't start you run to the next fire and put that out And so one of my specialties is really being able to help people break down that big goal into more 90 day goals and make them more actionable. And in doing that we really have to look at what's my bandwidth? What's my bandwidth as a leader in terms of my time, my energy, and the resources that I have? And if I have a team what's my team's capacity as well? Because we certainly don't want to be putting unrealistic goals on ourselves or on our team because that's when everyone idea. We've got this new group program that we want to build out. So we need to create content for it. We need to have some resources inside of this group program for people to use. We need to have a marketing system so that we can get people aware that we even have this group program. We need to have a sales system. How are we actually gonna sell this group program once we have it ready? And we need to have a delivery system.

How are we gonna follow through on the promises we said we would do when we created this program? How are we going to onboard people? How are we going to off board people? What kind of touch points are we going to have along the way? And now you're feeling overwhelmed, right? Just listening to all the bits and pieces and the moving parts that you need is already feeling heavy and so that's why we want to take that and bring it down into smaller pieces. And I know for some of you if it's something you've never done before it can feel a little bit awkward, and if it's for something that you've never tried before so you want to set up a new offer that you've never done before, it's going to take a little bit longer because it's a bit of an experiment on how long different things are going to take you to do. If I was going to set up a new group program in my business here's a breakdown of how I would do it. Because I'm still serving clients and I still have other things going on in my life, I have to be realistic on the amount of time I can put towards this. So I would break it down into 4 quarters. So yes, my friends it would take me a good 3 quarters to be able to get this ready. So quarter 1 I was research and planning for the program. Now if you know me I'm a very high fact finder on my Kolbe and a low quick start.

So I can get really stuck in this research and planning phase. One of my downfalls. I might interview clients. I might interview my email list. I might run some surveys. Do some client research so that I know exactly what problem my customers have that I'm gonna solve with this group program. And then I need to map out key concepts, right? So that I'm kind of starting an outline of what I would want in the program. In Q2, now I might create some of the videos so I'm gonna be thinking more about the content videos worksheets what platform would I use to deliver this? Would I put it all there in once? Would I drip it out? Those types of things.

And then Q3, I would start looking at my marketing and launching. So how am I gonna get this new offer out to the people who are in my audience and how am I gonna get it out to new people in my audience? Making sure that, you know I'm dripping that out or I'm giving it to them all at once I'm offering a bonus you know what that will look like and then in Q4 I would actually start my delivery to my first group of clients and monitoring and making sure that it's helping them get the results they're looking for so whether I tap in to 1 on ones if it's a smaller intimate group or whether I have a survey along the way so I can make sure that the promise I made they're actually seeing come through. And this I would be doing while I'm still running my business So some of you may be asking oh, that's way too long. I can't spend 3 quarters on that. Can I move faster? Of course, you can. You can move faster if you have the bandwidth to. You can also move faster if you're willing to test the idea and launch it without actually having the program built behind the scenes. So wait till they get sales and then you start creating it and delivering it.

It's up to you and it really depends on your capacity, your resources, your time, and how you're wired. I know for me personally, I there was no way I could sell it first and build it after that would just be way too stressful and cause me to not have a good scene let's say so definitely that would not be something I would do but I understand people are built differently and so if pre selling and then creating it afterwards is something that resonates with you by all means you can do something like that faster. Alright, now I'd like to dive in a little bit on how we're going to create our 90 day plan. I have my CEO pulse check with me and so definitely if you don't have your own copy jump on to ceoamplify.ca/ceo-pulsecheck and you can find the resources there but this really helps me it's kind of a self accountability process that helps me stay focused and actually follow through. Alrighty, so step 1, I need to have documented my 12 month goal. I need a clear picture of what my goal is and when I'm talking about documenting my 12 month goal I'm not just looking at my revenue goal. I don't want to just make a bunch of aspirational goals.

I want to make action oriented goals And so I've got a 5 part framework that's going to walk you through the 5 different processes and systems that you need to have built in your business that run rinse and repeat. These are the goals I want you to focus on if you don't have them already built in your business. If you have some of them, great. Let's focus on the ones you don't have. And if you have all of them, wonderful, you're a superhero. And now you can start to look at those creative, those aspirational, those goals that you want to do while the foundation is already in place in your business. Alright, let me give you some examples of this as we go through. So the 5 part framework is 5 Cs and it really helps with consistency and predictable profit and I want to make sure that you have one strategy for each of these 5 Cs, that strategy is in place, it's rinse and repeat, there's SOPs associated with it if that's what you need for your team, you know exactly what you need to do each week, your team knows exactly what you need to do each week to make this machine run smoothly.

Okay. So the first part of the framework is called Captivate. This is getting in front of new people. How do I attract new people who have never heard of me before to my business? And there's 3 main ways we can do this. Number 1, SEO. Search engine optimization. Works really well but it's a long game. You have to put time and energy into it to make sure you're you're putting those keywords in the right places and those keywords are things that your audience is searching for when they go on Google, etcetera. So SEO certainly works, but it's a long game. You're not going to see a result from SEO next month or the month after. The second kind, getting in front of other people's audiences. Doing interviews, doing podcasts, teaching, doing webinars, getting in someone's else's mastermind, and teaching on something, sharing freebies, getting in front of bundles and summits, these are ways that you can put your business in front of other people's audiences to help your business grow. And the third way is paid ads. Certainly much quicker but obviously can be expensive and you need some time and energy to set those up right or to learn how to set those up right if that's not your area of expertise.

So for me I look at those 3 and the one that jumps out to me is other people's audiences. It resonates with who I am as a operations. It's something I have time for in terms of capacity and also something I have room for in terms of financial. And so that's what I've chosen to use as my captivate strategy. So now that I have that, I want one core way I'm going to do that. So for me I chose to commit to podcast guesting. So for the next 12 months my focus for captivating, for getting new people in front of my audience is going to be podcast guesting. So now I have to look at what are all the pieces for me to get in front of someone else's audience being a podcast guest.

So I take a blank piece of paper, post it note, whatever you like, and I brainstorm the different pieces to get there. Well, I need to find the podcast episodes that the podcast that I would like to be in front of. Are they accepting guests? Are they in my realm? Is is their audience fit with my audience? Yes, it does. Okay. Now I need to pitch them. So I need to have some sort of templated email that I can tweak and change to send each time I want to pitch to be on someone's podcast. And then I need a system for following up in case they miss my email the first time and then once they reply if it's a yes then I need a way of booking in their calendar and I need a way of ensuring I know what I'm gonna be speaking on and I've done a little bit of research before I get on their podcast. So those are the different pieces that I'm going to have to do each and every time I want to get be a guest on someone's podcast.

So now I can take that a little step further and say okay what software tools, what team can I use to make this happen easily for me so I don't have to do it all from scratch every time I want to be a guest on a podcast? So that's sort of how we pick a strategy, quickly brainstorm what are the pieces to this, and then figuring out what that system and that process is going to be behind the scenes to make it happen. 

Alright, second part of the framework is connect. So this is where we're going to engage with those people that we just found. So we got new people into our audience, we want to make magnet in exchange for their email address, or we might have them book a consult in exchange for their email address. We want to give them something of value in exchange for their email. Once we have their email, we can continue to nurture that relationship with them. And so, do I have a lead magnet if that I have a lead magnet? If that's what I'm choosing to do. Is it followed up by a series of emails so they get to learn a little bit more about me and what my business is about? Do I have the system automated on the back end of my business so that I can set it and forget it.

So as an example for me, I have a lead magnet it's called the CEO Power Hour Playbook and so when I go and speak on podcast episodes or even you've heard me talk about it on my own podcast you give the link people can go and download that lead magnet. They get some value for free. I get their email address. They then have a welcome sequence to get to know me a little bit more come through in their email. So I want you to ask yourself, do I have a system in place for connecting with those new people who just found me? If I do, great. If I do and it needs some tweaking, good, then that's part of my 90 day goal. If I don't have this at all, wonderful now this is part of my 90 day goal right? So we really want to focus our 90 day goals on these five parts of the framework because this is what's going to help us build those rinse and repeat systems and if I do have this system in place am I taking time on my CEO power hour to review the results? Am I getting people to download this freebie that I have? Is it resonating with them? Am I hearing positive results about it? Are they going on to purchase other things from me or to join my facebook group or to subscribe to my podcast etc? Okay so you want to be looking am I getting results from this thing that I just did? And friends results takes time. So when we're looking at results today that's directly in line with what we did in our business 3 to 6 months ago. So it does take time for that thing to show results and to build momentum. It's not overnight. 

Alright, the 3rd piece of the framework is cultivate. So this is where we're nurturing those people who agreed to come into our world, right? They heard about us, they exchanged their email and now they're on our email list and it's our time to help to know, like and trust and build that relationship with them. It's our time to showcase our expertise. So you see this isn't the same as captivate where we're trying to bring new people into our world. They're already in our world and now it's our time to really show them what we're all about. So do I have a system in place for nurturing my audience consistently week after week? Am I sending an email out to them? Am I giving them new content through a podcast or a blog? Am I answering questions and helping them know that I'm here to solve their problem? So ask yourself what's your nurture system? It doesn't have to be a weekly email.

Possibly you have a business where personal reach out and those connections, coffee chats, are where you make the difference. So you just have to think about your business and say how can I nurture the people in my audience? What's the best way of me doing that? And do I have a system and process in place that's rinse and repeat? So for me, I send out a weekly email that lets them know about a new podcast episode each and every week, and so I have to have a process in place behind the scenes to make that happen. 

Alrighty, step number 4 is convert. So now they're in our world now we want to invite them to purchase something from us. So these goals for convert are going to be around what we're selling and when. What does that look like? Are we having open enrollment where they can join any time? Are we selling our signature offer 3 to 4 times a year? Are we starting that off by hosting a live training and have follow-up emails on the back end? Are we looking to book x number of consults within each month? We need to have a clear system in place for what we're offering and how we're getting that in front of our audience, because the truth of the matter is the person came into your world, they got their freebie, they might have forgotten about you and you're not top of mind for them and they don't even know that you have this program service on the side and so we have to take the time to promote it and to let them know and to invite them to join us and to to purchase from us. So ask yourself, do I have a system in place for my business and is it optimized? Do I know what program, service, or offer I'm selling each month in my business? Have I taken the time to block out certain promotion times from my signature offer 3 to 4 times a year? Have I taken the time to block out times when I'm going to upsell to those who have purchased from me already? And do I have time in my calendar for special promotion periods for a lower ticket offer? Something that's smaller to get people who aren't quite ready to buy our signature offer yet, but to at least start with us. 

Alrighty, and then the 5th area is celebrate. So this is our client delivery, right? Someone has purchased from us. Now we want to give them the best experience we can because when we have great customer experience they want to tell others how great our service is and that brings new people again to our business, helps us growth. So what's your action plan? Do you have a process and a system in place for onboarding these new people when they join your program? Do you have workflows for how you're communicating and touch touching them throughout the time that they're in your program and when the time comes for them to finish, do you have a clear off boarding process? Do you have a way of getting testimonials? Do you have a way of upselling them to the next thing that might help them solve their problem? And so we want to make sure we've thought about each of these areas and that we're optimizing them. Now friends if you're listening and you're thinking woah this is just so overwhelming I don't have any of these things in place. Take a deep breath and hear me. It's okay. We all start somewhere and so what I really want to encourage you to do is when you're thinking about your 12 month goals, I want you to align them with these 5 systems. Captivate, connect.

Right? Because as we do this and we build these systems behind the scale and they're running rinse and repeat, we're now getting new people into our audience on a continuous basis. We're exchanging our email and giving them something of value on a continuous basis. We're continuing to build that relationship and get them to know, like, and trust us. We're continuing to invite them to join us in our programs offers and services on a regular basis and we are getting people to purchase on a regular basis and that, my friends, is building a sustainable business. When you take your 12 month goals and focus them on these 5 systems and getting these in place first, rinse and repeat foundations. Once you have that in plan, now you have time to plan. Now you have time to look at some of those more creative, those extras, those things you'd like to try out and experiment with because the foundation is already in place and right? You may really enjoy hanging the art on the wall, right? You may really enjoy hanging the art on the wall, but if you don't have the foundation built, and then the drywall, and then the walls, and then the insulation, ta da ta da, there's no wall to hang your art on. So, you gotta start with the foundations.

So, run through these 5 systems in your business. Do I have one strategy for each system? It's running rinse and repeat and I'm seeing a return on investment. I'm seeing results from it. When that's in plan, then we can go thinking beyond adding other strategies, having time to play in the creative realm, realm, developing new things. But, without these 5 systems in place the foundation will crack. Okay, so that's a little breakdown of how we can take our 12 month goals and put them into 90 day goals, and then using our CEO pulse check put them into monthly goals and follow through each and every week. If you've noticed and spent any time thinking about those 5 systems I was talking about, each of the goals there are what I call process goals. They're ongoing, they keep going behind the scenes and they're building momentum for our business.

Many of us as entrepreneurs like to on project goals. Project goals happen once and then they're done. This is kind of like where we like to play and have fun. Project goals come after process goals. Project goals come after the 5 systems are built and running. Don't drop the ball on your marketing, your sales, and your delivery systems. Build them out, make them rinse and repeat, and that's when you as CEO and business leader can then start looking at how can I use my time outside of building all these assets? All right, so just to review we're going to think about our 12 month goals, align them with these 5 systems, break it down into 90 day goals by looking at all the action steps that are needed. And yes, the first time you're building And so as you're building out the steps to what do I need to get this system in plan? Here are some questions you can ask yourself.

What help do I need? Do I need to hire someone to just help me get this done? Do I need some training so that I can learn? Do I need someone side by side who can teach me and coach me? Do I need some accountability and some strategy on how to do this? Do I need new tech, a new software to make this easier? Do I need to upgrade a new habit? Do I need to review my calendar and set time aside for these goals? So that every week I'm taking a step toward them So as you brainstorm, keep those questions in mind because they'll really help you figure out how you're actually going to get this done. Alright, so I just wanna go back to our example where I was, talking about building a new program and show you exactly how I would break these goals. 90 day goals into then 30, 60, 90. Right? So into monthly goals. So when I am setting 30, 60, 90 day goals I'm thinking about what's happening in the next month, 2 months, and 3 months. And the first thing I think about is my time off. My rest, my relax, my plan. Because I'm here to enjoy life while I'm building a business, not the other way around.

So go through a calendar and lay out specific time off. Block off time that you know you're going to be away and not as focused on your business. Next, what am I selling this month? What am I offering? Could be the same service or could be a different one but what's my offer this month? How am I inviting people to join me? And then, how am I marketing and what am I marketing this month? In what action steps do I need to make to make this happen? And this is how we break down our 12 month goals into quarterly goals, into monthly goals, then eventually obviously weekly goals. So again, the CEO pulse check something that can help with this process if this seems a little overwhelming and you're a bit stuck on how I do this. So you can grab that at my website amplify. CaCEOpulsecheck Okay, so I gave the example earlier on in the episode where I wanted to build out a new program. So now I've got my Q1 where I was going to do some research and really think about brainstorm what this was going to look like. So if I'm breaking my quarter one goals down into 30, 60, 90 day goals this is what it's going to be.

The 1st 30 days I'm going to interview clients, do some surveys to my email list, I'm going to talk to clients, I'm gonna do some research. What is the problem for my clients? What are they stuck in? What results are they really looking for? And how can I help them solve that problem and make sure that I'm on the right track? Right? Doing research helps so much in gaining clarity. For my 60 days I'm gonna start analyzing I'm gonna research concepts for the program that are needed, content. I'm gonna start mapping out key topics and concepts, and then 90 days I'm gonna start working on a curriculum outline. What will be the order of my lessons? How will I map this out for my customers? And then I'm gonna go to my project management tool because I can't live without my project management tool and I'm going to start mapping out milestones in there. I'm going to start putting tasks in there, whether they're tasks for myself or for my team. I'm going to start putting tasks in there, assigning them to someone, and putting a deadline so that each and every week I and my team know what we're supposed to be working on to make this goal happen Alright, thanks for listening. I know it was a long one and if your brain is swirling trust me the process isn't as hard as it seems from the outside, but if you're listening and you feel that you could use some help and some strategy in planning out your next 90 day action plan, quarterly plan, I encourage you to check out the ops in your pocket strategy operations.

It's really a personalized operations session that will give you clarity, confidence, and a 90 day action plan for growing your business. So for more information on that head on over to ceoamplify.ca/ops and it's 'Ops in your pocket' where I focus with you what are going to be your goals for the next 90 days and we work out a plan that suits just your business. Again personalized just for you. Alright, thanks for listening and I can't wait to see you next week. 

Thank you for joining me on this episode of CEO Amplify. I appreciate you being part of our thriving community of ambitious business owners. If you enjoyed today's episode, I kindly ask you to share this podcast with a friend and take a hot minute to rate and leave a review. It would mean the world to me. Your feedback helps me reach more people and continue providing valuable content. Thanks so much for your support. Keep shining, and we'll catch you on the next episode.