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If you don’t know, I am a big fan and supporter of using quarterly planning in life and business. Really it’s like creating a macro phase of strength training. Same concept. You define a large goal or two and then plan out months and weeks and the process by which you plan to reach those goals.

We are half way through this very historical and interesting year of 2020, and quarter two was made up of months April, May and June.

Let’s start off with the personal reflection, current situation and future planning. I think this is fun and I always enjoy hearing other people’s perspective and processes, which is why I choose to share mine with you.

Because so many of your 2020’s have not gone as planned, I think it’s important that we give that the space it deserves.

So pre rona, the plan for us was to travel through the first week of June, come home for three months and then take off for a 4-5 month road trip through Iceland, Scandinavian countries, some of Russia, Scotland and Ireland. That would have been Sept through Jan 2021.

The rona sent us home early as Japan began to shut down in April.

So, a month and half early, we bought flights back home, to the US. After about two weeks being home, we had some decisions to make regarding our future. The plan after 2021 travels was to possibly buy land or a house or both.

So long story short, we decided to do that NOW. And if you haven’t caught on, Nate and I tend to just do the things.

Less than one month after being home, Nate, my sister and our nieces and nephew drove out to a piece of property, we inquired with a family member in the title and building community, and started seriously pursuing options for purchasing land.

Three properties and exactly two months after being home, our offer was accepted on a 5 acre lot.

So, there’s that. 2020 plans quite literally flipped on their heads. But beautiful nonetheless. It’s a different adventure than we had planned. But an adventure nonetheless.

In the meantime we live with my mumsie and are figuring details out as we go. Taking action, and rolling with the punches.

While your 2020 plans may have been a bust, or perhaps you experienced loss during the last six months; loss of income, social interaction, maybe you even lost a loved one, 2020 is not forever and perhaps you got to rest or have a period of rest coming. Maybe there is an even better opportunity ahead. I don’t run the universe, so I don’t know. And I also don’t say that to be toxically positive. Grieve losses, be disappointed. And maybe there’s good too, in the present or in the future.

Okay, now that you’re up to date on the Millers, we can discuss business.

You see, business is largely based around our lifestyle. So I don’t plan my business schedule and launches or product creation until we have our travels planned. That way, I can make sure it’s cohesive.

But now, travels are postponed. The Scandinavian road trip is not off the table, just not happening in 2020.

You can track whatever you like in your quarterly review and planning.

This may pertain to life goals and projects, or business specific goals and projects.

My life goal for for 2020 was to have a plan for post travel life and to have the second half of 2020 travels planned. Now we’re clearly buying land and building. So that life goal has been decided and is now taking shape.

In business, this looks like number of people in certain programs, and hitting financial goals.

For me personally both of those are on track for my annual goals which are my biggest focus and/or concern.

But this can look like literally anything:

Email list growth

Overall audience growth (across email and social media)

Having certain guests on your podcast

Creating relationships with five women you desire friendships with

Hiring a mentor

Sticking to a certain number of Instagram posts per week.

Launching a new product

Or completing the pieces of a new offer.

Your quarterly goals are all relative to you and the numbers or desires you have for your business.

If your biggest goal for 2020 was to be in community, then maybe that was joining a mastermind, or DMing women on Instagram, asking for help. Who knows. That can look so many ways.

I don’t want you to feel confined by my business goals as I review them + share my plans for quarter 3.

I would also like to preface that or remind you that a 2020 goal that I made in 2019 was to NOT create anything new or have to launch a new product, but rather play with launching and maximizing my current offer pyramids.

That got a wee bit gray with the rona. So I DID end up adding in BBA AT HOME to Built By Annie. More of an addition to a current product and optimization of a current product than a brand new offer.

And that proved to be a success during my May BBA launch. So all in all, super stoked I made that gut call. As it was not an original part of 2020 or quarter 2 planning.

Things that came up in Q2 were introducing my assistant, Maddy as the Built By Annie Client Relations Manager. This has been a win win win. Win for me, win for Maddy and win for the clients.

With the new BBA launch, we’re on track for annual member # goal.

I hired a brand designer and specialist as part of my optimizing my current offers.

They aren’t cohesive, and I truly need them to be for me to move forward and create what I plan to.

Being home instead of traveling definitely freed up time for me to do what I normally do but perhaps with more ease.

This has lead to being ahead of schedule for annual revenue goals. Which really means two things. Or could mean two things, depending on perspective.

I am not pushing myself enough.

And or I am not dreaming big enough.

Either way, I may be setting my bar too low. Which I tend to do. So something to note, for myself.

Which brings me to quarter 3 planning! Quarter 3 is made up of July, August and September.

So we’re on track for annual revenue and program enrollment goals.

I also have an annual goal that should probably be more specific but is a learning place for me too.

That is using Pinterest to drive traffic to my site. This task has been started by my assistant but will be a larger priority come quarter 3 and 4.

Quarter 3 was always going to be BIG for me. Big in the way of planning, not necessarily revenue.

Q3 was when we were going to be home. So it’s my time to GOOOOOO. Planning, creating and optimizing.

So that, is still the idea but with some specific additions.

My brand package should be finalized in July.

Now, I like to define months and mini seasons.

July is the month of scheduling August and September launches, rebranding all programs and downloads, and the website, while also updating all legal conditions and docs.

August and September will be conducting launching + all normal back end work.

That’s something I like to point out.

It’s super common, for me anyway to plan big and then forget about the day to day tasks of life and business and the time demand from those.

It’s taken me a minute to find a good flow with daily tasks, planning, creating and running promotions.

You live and you learn for sure.

As an example; I knew July was going to be madness, so I batched all blog and podcast content in June. That way, I could have my plate free of those come July.

And lastly, in the background, I will be conducting 1:1 biz mentorship.

This decision was made due to having time, as we won’t be traveling in different time zones. And it has been a popular request during quarter 1 and 2. It feels right, so we’re doing it.

That wraps up my Q3 plan!

There are a lot of moving pieces there but you don’t need that. I just like to share my process as an example in hopes that you give quarterly planning a try. And most importantly find what works for you, in life or in biz.

Define your seasons and lay it out, knowing that things can and will change.

Hope that was helpful or fun to hear, if anything.

Review of the week comes from hkcjphillips and says,

“I am in no way a fitness professional (I’m a nurse with an interest in fitness), but I adore Annie’s content. She is direct and honest and makes me want to be better. She also makes me publicly cackle with her dry humor. Her episode on pivoting gave me the insight I needed to make a big career change. Thank you, Annie!”

Remember you need to check the show notes (here) to see if you were review-er of the week, and then keep an eye out to see if you were listener of the month as well. That will be in the show notes and Annie’s Weekly Wrap. You can subscribe to Annie’s Weekly Wrap here!

If you find value here, on The FitsPRO Podcast, then pretty please head over to itunes, subscribe, rate and review the show. It means the world to me when you spread my message to more humans.

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