So here’s the thing.
Building an Ideal Practice(c) doesn’t happen by accident; it requires a lot of thought, self-awareness, courage and clarity.
That said, when you take the time to set intentional goals for where you want to go as a practice owner, you will actually get somewhere. :)
But don’t wait for January…because next year starts now.
Your next level of success starts now.
Gulp. 😳
In this episode we’ll explore what that means, and I’ll tell you how to get your free copy of the Declaration of Intention below.
Working through the 5 questions you find there will set the stage for bigger goal planning later.
And we’ll be talking about THAT soon too!
~Wendy
Xoxo
P.S. Don’t forget to get your free download!
_______________
Today’s Free Download: YOUR DECLARATION of INTENTION
Before you even think about planning for next year, take some time to think about what matters most in your business.
I created this simple worksheet to help you in that process, by giving you 5 key questions to consider.
It all starts with your Declaration of Intention. Download your free copy here.
_______________
MENTIONED:
Wendy Pitts Reeves, LCSW
Host, Ideal Practice
Private Practice Coach and Mentor
www.WendyPittsReeves.com
Wendy@WendyPittsReeves.com
So here’s the thing.
Building an Ideal Practice(c) doesn’t happen by accident; it requires a lot of thought, self-awareness, courage and clarity.
That said, when you take the time to set intentional goals for where you want to go as a practice owner, you will actually get somewhere. :)
But don’t wait for January…because next year starts now.
Your next level of success starts now.
Gulp. 😳
In this episode we’ll explore what that means, and I’ll tell you how to get your free copy of the Declaration of Intention below.
Working through the 5 questions you find there will set the stage for bigger goal planning later.
And we’ll be talking about THAT soon too!
~Wendy
Xoxo
P.S. Don’t forget to get your free download!
_______________
Today’s Free Download: YOUR DECLARATION of INTENTION
Before you even think about planning for next year, take some time to think about what matters most in your business.
I created this simple worksheet to help you in that process, by giving you 5 key questions to consider.
It all starts with your Declaration of Intention. Download your free copy here.
_______________
MENTIONED:
Wendy Pitts Reeves, LCSW
Host, Ideal Practice
Private Practice Coach and Mentor
www.WendyPittsReeves.com
Wendy@WendyPittsReeves.com
You're listening to ideal practice, episode number 80. So if you heard last week's episode, then you know that I'm already encouraging you not to blow off these last two months of the year. Right, you can actually leverage these in all kinds of ways and it can be a really fertile time for you as a practice owner. So don't if you didn't hear that, do go back and listen to that. Today we're going to build on that because I want to talk to you about beginning to turn your sites to 2024. And before we get into any kind of heavy duty, kind of goal setting or planning, I just want to set the stage for that. I want you to think a little bigger first and stick around to the end, because I've got a little worksheet for you today, a little tool I've created to help you make the most of this, and I think I think you'll find this really helpful and, if it goes the way I want it to, it's going to get you thinking in a whole new way. So stay tuned. Hi, I'm Wendy Pitts Reeves and, with over two decades of experience in the private practice world, I've built my six figure business while learning a lot of lessons the hard way. This is the first podcast that shows you how to apply the principles of energy alignment and strategy to build a practice that is profit centered but people forward. This is the ideal practice podcast. Hey folks, thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of the ideal practice podcast.
Speaker 1:This is Wendy, your host, and I am so happy to be hanging out with you guys today. It's a bit dreary and cold and blustery where I am today and I am trying my best to perk myself up and tell myself it's going to be just fine. I'm already lighting more candles, which is what I do when it starts to get like this. How are you guys doing? I hope your fall is going well. I hope all the right teams are winning for you and if they're not, I hope everybody has the right attitude about it. Anyway, like I'm trying to have about a gray day, I had the day about something kind of cool that happened yesterday. Sometimes really great things happen, even on gray days.
Speaker 1:I was out running errands when I ran into somebody that I haven't talked to in forever. Her name is Valerie. Her son and my son were in band together when they were kids, which has been a while, and I hadn't seen her in so long that I almost didn't recognize her. But she flagged me down. She apparently had seen me walking into the UPS store and was waiting for me to come out and she was clearly excited and wanted to share something with me and she said that. She said I can't believe I'm running into you, but how perfect is that. She said you were in my ears for an hour and a half this morning and I'm like really.
Speaker 1:And she told me how much she was enjoying this podcast, ideal practice, and that she found herself sharing it with young people that she really liked the way I was talking about our relationship to money. Now, of course, I always love it when someone tells me that they are enjoying this show, but it always sort of blows my mind a little bit. I'm still surprised when that happens, and she's not a practice owner, she's not a therapist, so I was especially surprised in this case. But what I did not know and what she proceeded to tell me was that she has quit her job and launched a business and apparently it has something to do with roasting coffee and making chocolate, and I don't know about you, but I think that's probably a winning combination and based on what she was sharing. It sounds like it definitely is, so she clearly was having a good time, and what she said was that she was leaning in to her business just the way I had talked about in last week's episode. Well, I love that. I love that so much, and not only did it just make my heart happy to hear that someone was inspired and was taking action on a dream that I didn't even know she had. I didn't even know this about her, but I loved that and it was obvious. The joy on her face was really obvious. That was just awesome all by itself, but it also made me think a little bit more about this whole idea of leaning into your business for these last couple of months of the year and what that means.
Speaker 1:I have been talking with my coaching clients about it this week, um and it. There are just so many ways, y'all, that you can make good use of this time in your practice. It means that there are probably some new creative ways that you can serve your clients at this time of the year. It might mean that there are clients that you haven't spoken to in a while that perhaps you need to reach out to to see if they need a little extra support in the holidays, or maybe they need a little tune up. If it's been a while, it might mean that you've got an idea for something you've wanted to do forever a retreat, a workshop, um, a group and maybe now's the time to start putting some legs on that. I don't know, it means different things to different folks, but it is important not to blow off this time of year, and she clearly was not doing that. She was telling me about how much her customers were enjoying her product and it. It was really fun to see that. Well, that is what leads me to what I want to share with you today.
Speaker 1:I got an email the other day from someone that I follow, that many of you I'm sure are familiar with. His name is Pat Flynn. Anybody in the audience, raise your hand if you love Pat, like I do. He is a much adored and much revered leader in the online digital business space, digital marketing space, a really great guy with a big heart who does a lot of different kinds of things. He, in fact, was the one I took a course from him about starting a podcast and learned so much right off the bat that really helped me kind of kick off ideal practice, way better than it would have been if I had not taken his course. He's really a great guy, but he was talked about in his newsletter this week. He said something about essentially that 2024 starts now and I was like, wait, what? I'm totally in wind down, review, reflect, and that does have a place. But he also was saying, yeah, gotta start thinking about 2024 now, in these two months before it gets here.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I had this really kind of got my attention because I have been, I have been painfully aware of how important it is to get ahead of the game on your biggest goals, your primary intention, the big dreams that you want to work towards in the next year and not to wait till you get there. So, for example, y'all know that this year I launched my first mastermind, my first group coaching program called Evolved, and it was lovely and I'm just gonna tell you right now I mean, but you want to make a note about this I have every intention of launching that again in the new year, probably not until February or March, but I am definitely going to be doing that again. But it has gradually dawned on me that everything I'm doing now needs to be working towards and setting the stage for when I bring Evolve back to you in February or March of next year. I have to plan ahead. But here's the problem. Here's what we tend to do. We wait until January gets here and then we sit down and start planning.
Speaker 1:I posted a question on LinkedIn the other day and was asking people how do you all think about this time of year? Do you do any kind of planning? Do you do any kind of vision work? Are you getting clear about where you want to go next year? And, not surprisingly, a lot of folks are saying to me everywhere on social media that the tent, their tendency, is to sort of set things aside for now because you know the holidays are busy and there's a lot to do and I'll sit down on January and figure all that stuff out. Well, the problem with that y'all is that if you wait until January to start thinking about who you want to be and how you want to serve next year, you are already behind. You're already behind. And when we do that, what happens in the new year?
Speaker 1:A couple of things happen. One of the biggest ones is we slip into being purely reactive. We are in reactivity mode, we get pulled forward by the demands of our work rather than being creative and intentional, rather than getting out in front about the practice that we actively are building. If you wait, you often won't do any of the big things that you want to do, because it's just you don't have time. You don't have time. You're too busy responding and reacting to what's happening right in front of you. The other danger and this is what I tend to do is we get really impulsive. Those of you who are high, quick starts like me, who have more ideas than you can ever take action on in one lifetime. We tend to jump into action without preparation and often we will miss opportunities or we will undersell the offer or the service that we want to provide and we don't have the kind of impact that we could have if we just backed up a little bit and gave it some thought.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a lot to be said for getting ahead of the game, so stay with me here. I'm not talking about anything too heavy duty, not yet. Stay with me. In a moment I am going to share with you. I'm going to tell you how to get a little as a very simple worksheet with five, just five, key questions that I think you should be thinking about now as you begin looking forward to 2024. Nothing heavy duty we are high level here, y'all, but it's important to do this work. I'll tell you how to get that in just a moment, to stick with me and hear me out.
Speaker 1:In his note, when Pat Flynn was talking about this concept which is what prompted me to even record this for you guys he told a story about learning about this from Michael Hyatt. Do y'all know who Michael Hyatt is? He lives in Nashville for those of you who are local around me, so he is not far from us. He has a planner called the full focus planner, and I'm full disclosure here, y'all. I have not used the full focus planner, although several people that I follow and trust speak very highly of that particular tool. If any of you guys have you done it, any of you guys users of the full focus planner? If you are, I'd love to hear from you what you think about it. Write me a note or shoot me a DM on Facebook and let me know what you think. I'd love to hear from you, and I will definitely link to these two guys in my show notes for those of you who are not familiar with them, I'll make sure you know how to find them.
Speaker 1:But the thing that Pat shared was that he had learned from Michael how important it is that our goal setting is complete, holistic, looks at all aspects of your life, that, in order to have a balanced life, a life that works, that just works in all different kinds of ways, that we have to think about more than just am I going to go to the gym this year or not, and what am I going to do with my practice. We got to think about more than that. So Pat said. He said real life is quote multifaceted, unquote, which is true. And apparently Michael Hyatt says that there are at least 10 different areas to create goals in. I won't go into all of those here, but there are things like spiritual, emotional, physical, marital, parental, like so who you, how you want to show up for your family, how you want to show up in your relationships, how you want to show up in your community, what you are being called for or called into, called to expand towards all of those things, and not to mention your business and your financial goals, all of that that we really kind of need to look at the whole Kitten Kaboodle.
Speaker 1:When we are trying to do it, to not just set goals, what I would say is to design our life Right. You got to do that. That was one thing that Pat talked about that I thought you know he's right. And when we do our goal setting or intending or planning or vision work, we do need to think about all of those things. The second thing that he spoke to that really got me thinking was he used the term goal getting. Not goal setting, but goal getting. In other words, in order to reach those ideas, those, those goals you've got, he said, goal getting doesn't have to wait. In other words, the key is to build momentum now or keep the momentum going. If you've already got it Now, don't wait. And as I heard that and read that, I thought that's really what I was talking about last week was basically don't let your momentum die. And what I want to add to that today is don't wait to January to begin building towards what you really want to have happen next year. Build momentum now. And the last thing and this is not coming from Pat, this is just from me, but what I want to share with you when you think about this process as a whole is that building an ideal practice is not an accident. It is not something that just it just sort of falls out of the sky. You just stumble into. It just kind of happens.
Speaker 1:For your practice to really work for you, for you to develop, to reach and keep sustainable success requires y'all a lot of thought, a lot of self-awareness, a lot of personal work and a lot of clarity. And I'm going to tell you this clarity is hard. Clarity is hard when we decide what we want to work towards or something we want to try, or something we want to experiment with, or something we really care a lot about and we've got to find a way to make it happen. It also means deciding all the things that we aren't going to do too, things we're not going to tend to, things we're going to let go of. So that that clarity is what I want to start to help you with today, so what I have created for you.
Speaker 1:Long before you pull out a calendar, long before you sit down and do any kind of journaling about what your big goals are, long before you start making any kind of lists, my friends, I want you to create your own declaration of intention, and that is your personal declaration to the world about what you want to bring to bear in 2024. A friend of mine said, yeah, how you want to make more in 2024. And I thought that can apply to so many things. How can I serve more in 2024? How can I show up more in 2024? How can I be happier more in 2024? Ah, and, don't be afraid of more, don't be afraid of having more. So what I've done is I've created for you a worksheet where you can. If you just answer five questions that all require thought, y'all a little bit of thinking, you will be ready to begin working on figuring out what this looks like. But you got to do this first. So here's how you get that Go to my website, wendypitzreevescom Don't forget that S and pits people that all fall the time. Wendy pits Reeves dot com.
Speaker 1:Forward, slash, declare. Forward slash, declare, and you will see where you can submit your name and your email and you can get access to this little tool yourself and map out or write out your answer to these questions, and when you do, you will begin, you will be in the process of creating your declaration of intention for how you're going to evolve in 2024. I am absolutely committed to helping you with this and I wanna tell you right now save the date. Y'all make a note of this. Save the date for Friday, december the 8th. That afternoon I am going to tell you next week about a little mini retreat that I am planning. I'll tell you about that next week where we can do some of this work together. Just make a note of that December the 8th. Save that date now. Get to the details later. For now, what I want you to do is I want you to go download your declaration of intention, answer these five questions for yourself and see what you learn from that.
Speaker 1:Just this past week, I was working with one of my VIP clients, my high level one-on-one clients, and we were talking about how to leverage these last two months of the year. What do you do with this time? And what I learned in that conversation was that she actually has a little mini course, a little mini course that she's wanted to develop for her counseling clients, her particular audience, that she's had on her heart for two or three years now and has not taken action on it. And I'm like, well, why not do that? Let's do that now. And there was a very specific and measurable way that this fits in perfectly with the holidays and this summer of year. So she's gonna get to work on that and we're gonna talk about that on our next coaching call. I have another client who does a lot of group work and facilitation work and has some really great contracts with organizations in her area and some of those contracts are winding down so it's time to start thinking about what does she wanna do with those and how can she serve those same organizations next year. That's part of what she needs to be working on In both of those cases.
Speaker 1:These are not people who are just randomly sitting around scratching their head and going I'm not busy enough, I need something to do.
Speaker 1:That's not what this is at all. This is about becoming intentional and becoming self-aware and always working towards who you are being called to be, where your practice is being called to grow, how you are being called to evolve. So I want you to be thinking about that now. I want you to be thinking about what's next and I want you to know that y'all, like it or not, 2024, it starts now. Yeah, how's that for a wake up call? Remember wendypittsreevescom? Forward slash, declare Go, get that little worksheet set aside maybe 30 minutes, 20 minutes or so with a cup of your favorite beverage and some peace and quiet without being disturbed, and allow yourself the space and time to get clear about your bigger picture, and then we're gonna do something with that. Okay, all right, that's what I got for y'all today. Have a great week, everybody, and I will see you next time right here on the Ideal Practice Podcast. Bye now, I'll see you next time.