#87: Make 2020 Your Best Year Yet

Well hello there health coaches. How's everybody doing today? Oh my goodness, it is December. This has come as big news to me even though I've been anticipating this end of the year. And I hope you haven't been too cause it's a very, very important time of year for health coaching. I know it doesn't always feel that way. It feels like, Hey, where'd all my clients go? Or Hmm, nobody's paying attention to a damn thing I do because they're in the middle of Thanksgiving and whatever holiday preparations. And that is why today we are kicking off a very special series that's designed to help you make 2020 your best, your most profitable and your most enjoyable year yet as a health coach. And we're going to approach this a few different ways. So first we are going to be talking about goals and planning without which, let's face it, you are screwed.

So that's going to be a big aspect of this series. And then as we go along we'll talk more about focusing on what are the most important aspects of building your business so that you can be most efficient. And most effective in the new year. None of this chasing shiny objects chasing your tail business. I want you focused eye on the prize and moving in a forward direction. How about that? Now of course if you're here with me live as always, we are live streaming into the health coach power community Facebook group. I welcome your questions and comments as we go along here. That's why I do these live, that way we can interact in real time. So hello to those of you who are here live and before we dive into the meat of our show today, I need to give a shout out to Kay Pagliaro who left this five star review on iTunes.

She said, "I am so thankful to have found Michelle's podcast. She gives such concise and useful information as a beginning health coach. It's wonderful to have a resource of someone who's been in the business for 10 years. She's energetic and so helpful. Thank you Michelle, for what you're doing for all of us Health coaches." Kay Pagliaro you're welcome. Thank you. I'm so thankful for you and for the time that it took for you to write a review. I appreciate it so much. These really, really, really helped me reach more coaches and continue to provide free content every week to you guys. So thank you and thank you to all of you who've left an iTunes review over the past. Hmm, gosh, we were getting close to 100 episodes so it's pretty amazing. Kay Pagliaro please email support@healthcoachpower.com and send us your mailing address because we have a little gift for you.

Alrighty. So let's talk about 2020 what is your vision for those of you that are here live? Tell me something good. What are you visioning for your success in the new year? I'm asking this question because I find it really interesting how we can like work, work, work, work, work, work, work. I know I could work 27 hours a day if I let myself. And sometimes in past years I have let myself, and it's crazy. We can work, work, work on our health coaching business and still never quite feel like we've made it. You know, we could have successes, we can have wins. Of course we're going to have setbacks. But like at the end of the day, it always would feel to me like there's still more, I haven't done enough. I've never done enough. I'm not good enough. I haven't achieved enough. I'm not making enough money.

And if that's it, that's done. There's always more that I could be doing. And most of the reason I felt that way is because I never stopped in the first place to define my measure of success. Now I know all of this can feel a little bit fluffy and that is not how I roll. In fact, I put together a workbook to help you set smart goals. I'm not talking about like intentions and yeah, that's fine. That's fine if you, if you're into that sort of thing. But you know, I'm very practical. I want you to set smart goals and I want you to have a plan to achieve them. So I have put together a workbook for you. You can access that for free at https://healthcoachpower.com/goals. In today's episode and in next week's episode, we're going to be exploring the topics within that workbook so it would be super duper helpful if you went ahead and downloaded it and filled it out so that you could kind of work along with us.

Again, that is https://healthcoachpower.com/goals. So speaking of goals can speak it of knowing whether or not you've succeeded or how you're actually doing in your business. I'm thinking back to my very first year of business, which if you knew me then you would have, huh? And if you were like in my house or spying on me, you would have seen a lot of tears, a lot of tears in my first year of business. I don't know what I was doing. I felt like a total failure, no matter what I did, I felt like I was just on a hamster wheel. Definitely going nowhere. However, when I look back, right? Hindsight is 2020 Oh, that's funny. 2020 we're moving into the year 2020 Oh maybe this is the year that we get hindsight like in front of us instead of behind us. Wouldn't that be amazing?

I just thought of that. Yay. Okay. So anyway, when I look back on my first year of business, I realized that I paid off my tuition from attending IIN. So I, you know, you guys all went to different schools. I went to the Institute for integrative nutrition. I started my business halfway through the curriculum just like they told us to do. And by the time I graduated I had paid off the tuition, which, PS, was more expensive back then. I know that seems weird, but that's because the course used to be in person. So they used to have to like rent the space for us at Lincoln center once a month in New York city and had the fly in all of the speakers. So it was more expensive back then. So to have actually paid off my entire tuition by the time I graduated. I mean, I think that's a pretty good year for your first year of business.

Right to like not be in debt and beyond that I wasn't in debt at all. I made enough money to cover my expenses and I mean a little teensy bit more than that. At the time it felt like a huge failure. But from the outset if I was like, this makes sense logically I need to payback what I spent on the schooling and you know, define that for myself, then I could have appreciated it. I could have appreciated myself for what my hard work got me. So that's an example of why it's so important to define your success up front. And you know what, I ask all of my health coaching clients this too. I don't let them just tell me their problems. Oh I want to lose - I had a consult this morning. Oh I want to lose weight. Uh, you know, I want more.

I don't have any energy. I have a lot of sugar cravings. You know, they kind of tell you all this stuff that isn't going well for them. And I always, always ask, great, if I could snap my fingers or like a genie in the bottle, I could just Bob my head and make it all better for you. What does that look like? Like describe that to me and that's what I want you to do for your new year is really vision for yourself. What that would be like and how you will know that you did in fact succeed at your, at your, uh, your goals and your intentions for the new year. So now let me tell you about a few other years of my business. Hold on. I need a sip of water.

Okay, so in 2018 so going back, I just had to re listen to the podcast episode from last year this time. Cause I was like, huh, how was I feeling at the end of 2018? And it was really cool to reflect back on that. So I encourage you to write this stuff down and go back to it year after year so that you can really appreciate yourself as you grow. In 2018 I was all about scaling. I had reached that point in my business where I was kind of hitting up against a ceiling of what I could earn with the systems that I had in place. So one thing that was really important in 2018 and might be important for you, which is why I'm sharing, if you're at that point where you're ready to scale, I really needed to niche down. I really, really, really focused on that in 2018 cause I knew, and I know this is a little counter intuitive, but it is very hard to grow in a crowded industry unless you actually get smaller and a sense you get more focused and you niche down on a very specific target market.

And when I started doing that, everything started getting easier. It was like butter. So niching down, became very important in order to scale and building a team was very important in order to scale. Previous to that, I had only had an assistant who helped me very few hours per month. But in the past couple of years I've added an added to my team. Now we have like, I don't know if I have six people and uh, you know, not enough full time employees. I don't want to give the wrong impression but five or six, you know, women who come in, come out on a contract basis, um, or sometimes on an ongoing basis to help with different things that I need in my business. So that was all about scaling in 2018. So for some of you, you could write that down. Okay. Maybe my goal is to find new systems that are going to allow me to scale interesting in 2019 and it's kind of makes sense if you think about it, if 2018 was all about growing 2019, I was real tired.

I was real, real tired. And 2019, the goal really became about finding some personal balance. You know, I needed more time off. I needed to take care of myself while growing the business. And so 2019 really in a way that I did not even predict at the time really became about me and my self care and what I needed to thrive in this world and in business. All right, so that very different, very different goal, very different outcome to the year, but happy, happy to say that we made it, we've made it. I am working less than I have in years and it feels wonderful and I'm looking forward to my next vacation and these are things that I just hadn't done in a very, very long time. So again, you might consider as potentially some of you may have a goal for the new year, which involves something that's a little more personal and for yourself related to business perhaps. Yes, but about making sure that you are your number one client at all times as we need to be.

And this year rolling on into 2020 well this year, this year is a bit more straightforward for me. And this might be the case for you as well. This year, my goal is very much based in the money I'm earning and the number of hours that I am working. Okay. I am very pleased and very proud to be a multi six figure business. But my goals for 2020 include increasing revenue by 50% while working half as much. Right? So I want the money to go up by 50% I want my hours to go down by 50% and there's a real reason for this. I know that it sounds like, well, Hey, who doesn't want to make more money and less time? Yes, of course, of course. But it is at the forefront for me this year because I'm a single mother now. I got my kids full time. I need the time for them.

I need the time for myself. I need the time to do the things that I want to do in this life. Right? So I need the time and more than ever I need the steady income. So this year I am definitely a bit more driven by practical needs and that is okay too. Your goals could be, it's kind of ethereal and fluffy or they could be like brass tacks. Either way is okay, so again, I want you to look inside of that smart goal setting workbook and in that you're going to see that I really encourage you to focus on just one main goal or theme for your year so that you can properly work towards it. And again, you can find that workbook at health coach, power.com/goals let's see what a few of you were saying. Marilyn says 2020 is about launching all the things with a new niche.

Yes, Marilyn is defining her business around a new niche of working with patients who have had bariatric surgery or am I saying that correct Marilyn? Is that how you would phrase it? Bariatric peeps, that's what we call them. So everything that maybe Marilyn is doing in a broader sense like I was doing several years ago, it's going to be like tightening up all the message, all the messaging to speak to a very, very specific group of people, which makes it so much more interesting and rewarding because these people are going to start responding to you in new ways and you're going to open up doors for yourself that otherwise probably wouldn't be open. You know, like if a general health coach is like, Oh yeah, I help people get healthy and like they're trying to find a partnership with some doctors. Have you guys tried this? It can be tough.

It can be tough because the doctors are kind of like, I guess so as a health coach you're like, Oh, I can probably help your patients. But in Maryland's case, she's going to work with doctors who are doing this surgery very specific and she's saying, yeah, I've been there and I help clients just like your patients keep the weight off. It's so specific. It's like that's exactly what we need and that's exactly what we need. So that's why it's going to work for you, Marilyn. Excellent.

Lisa says, my goal is to get my message out. I have to let women know what I do. Okay, Lisa. Yes, I agree with you and how are you going to know if you got your message out, how are you going to know? You know, right on the side of the building and then you say, Oh, I got my message out there it is.

You know what I'm saying? So I would encourage you to get real specific about how you will get your message out. So for example, it could be in 2020 I will start podcasting on a weekly basis. Doesn't have to be what you do, but it's an example because by doing that act, by taking that action, yes, you will be getting your message out. So you want to tighten up how you will achieve these things. Again, inside the workbook, I'm going to walk you through kind of choosing what a smart goal is for yourself. I'm starting to plan how you will achieve it. And you know what? A big part of it too is picking something that's really exciting for you. Like if your goal is to um, market yourself better, but yet every time you think about doing that, it's like, ah, like you just want to lay down and die.

That shouldn't be your goal. Your goal should be something that like gets you excited, something like runs you up a little bit and get like a little bit of butterflies in your tummy because then anything you have to do to make that goal happen, you're going to be excited to do and it's going to happen. All right, so don't, it's not, it's not like a new year's resolution thing. It's not like a beat myself up. I have to use willpower kind of thing. It's like a what feels amazing for me in 2020 kind of thing. That's the spirit we want to bring to it.

Okay, so here's the flip side to setting a goal, setting a big goal in some cases, we're busy, right? Like you're making the time to even listen to this right now. And I appreciate you for giving me your time and giving yourself this time, but I know it's not easy cause you've got like 100,000 other things to do and frankly, so do I.

My kid is upstairs. I think he has the flu. Great. Okay. We're all busy now. If you go into achieve something new, if you're going to bring your business to the next level or do something you've never done before, you are going to have to make space for that by literally pulling back on other ways that you're spending your time, your energy, potentially your money, I don't know. But any of your resources, you know, you only have so much of them. So if you, like most of us already feel spent in all of these different areas, you will not have the resources to achieve a new and bigger goal. Right? This is not magic. If you know any kind of magic like that, you let me know. But as far as I can tell, we have to make some decisions about how we're going to pull back in other areas so that we can move forward in another.

Okay. A case in point in my business, I still have a couple side projects that I've kind of kept here, kind of kept over there because I love them because I'm interested in them because they do bring me joy, but I know that in 2020 I do not have time for that. I do not have time for projects that are kind of tangential or leading me off in this other direction from where I really want to go, so I'm having to let go of some of the side projects. That's not easy. It's really not easy. Don't worry. This podcast is not one of the projects I am letting go of, but I do have to say goodbye to some of the things that are taking maybe one, maybe five, maybe 10 hours of my week every week and say, no, I need to allocate this differently. Another thing that I am making by doing is in 2020 I'm not going to create anything new, which is weird because I love creating new stuff, new projects, new programs, a new show, a new this, a new that I have created, new, new, new, new, new probably every year of my business, but you know what?
I already know it. Next year is going to look like really the whole 12 months. I could tell you right now what I'm doing all year long and how I'm going to earn money all year long and I am not creating anything new. I am going to be doing a lot of repurposing. I am going to be doing a lot of iterating. So just taking what I have and making it better, taking what I've done, doing it again, it is a lot easier that way and you can become a master at like one or two things instead of constantly being a beginner or novice at like a hundred new things that you're always dreaming up. So that might be a way that you can also make some space in the new year. If you're not always recreating the wheel, if you have something that's working, double down on it and let go of the stuff that's not helping you reach your goals, double down on the things that are makes sense.

Right. All right, so those are some ways that I know I am personally going to be making space. Again, the workbook goes into this, how to make space, how to confront obstacles that might get in your way between where you are today and where you want to be this time next year. And not just naming the obstacles but literally figuring out a plan for getting through the more around them. Another way that you might end up making space. I'm just going to throughout a couple of suggestions. You might make space in your business to move forward by losing some of the comparing syndrome compare and despair syndrome. So if you're the type of health coach who follows a lot of health coaches online and signs up for the newsletters and you know, or watches all their Instagram stories, maybe this is the year where you reclaim that energy so you're not comparing and despairing.

And also you literally get back that time to focus on you, right? You're not like, Oh, this one's just, Oh, they just released a book. How come I haven't released a book? Maybe I should write a book. Maybe I should take the book writing course. I'm going to start writing a book right now. Oh, you know, you get way off track sometimes when you're watching what other people are doing. And I had set up before and I will say it again. If you have to unsubscribe from my newsletter, please do so because I never want any content that I put out to derail you from what you're really trying to achieve with your business. So you know there's a judgment call to be made. Is this actually helping me or is this causing a negative feeling inside of me and could my energy be used better in a different way?

Okay, so you could be making space in that regard. And then I throw out another example of a way that you could be making space because I was talking with a health coach this morning. Hi Tanya. If you're listening and we were talking about outsourcing, and I want to say this as plainly as I can. I love to do things myself. Like I'm pretty good, had a lot of different stuff, which is dangerous because I'm like, Oh website. Sure I can do that. Oh, this other thing. Yeah, I, Oh, accounting, bookkeeping. Sure I can figure that out. Blah blah blah. But I'm not actually that good at all those things, but I'm good enough to be dangerous and to waste a whole lot of time. So if you're finding yourself with tasks that you're doing for yourself cause you're bootstrapping it or because you're like, you know, I'm not very good at asking for help or I don't want to spend the money to hire this out, please consider finding a support, someone for your business or maybe multiple people for your business who can alleviate some of those tasks from your plate.

Get that off your plate so that your energy can go towards your one big goal. Like my biggest goal is not to become like the best bookkeeper on earth for my health coaching business. So we were like, my goal doesn't even have to do with like cleaning up my books this year. Right? So like, why would I spend time doing that? I've had a bookkeeper now for like three years, I think. Hi Jessica. And I couldn't be happier about it cause I never have to look at the stuff. Okay. I have to look at it a little bit. But you see my point, you can make space by figuring out where you're not that great at where you really don't love to do, but you're just forcing yourself to do it. And please hire someone to help you please. The more money I spend, I will say this honestly, and this is a woman who does not like to spend money on help. But the more money I have spent on my business, outsourcing, getting help, getting support business, the larger of a return I see.

Not just making enough money now pay that, but making more money, enough to pay that person many, many times over. It's incredible, incredible. So if you have to just take that leap of faith, take it, try it. The energy that you will free up is exactly what you need to have, the resources that you know, resources that you need to reach your goals in 2020 yeah. So if you haven't already, I'm going to give you one more chance or I'm going to remind you this one last time to grab the goal setting workbook. We'll talk more about it next week. It's at https://healthcoachpower.com/goals. And as we move through December and into the beginning of January, we'll start talking more and more about the nuts and bolts of what you need to have in place in order to have a successful health coaching business in the new year. So thank you so much for joining me and I'll see you next time.