Today I’m going to share with you why I retreat and step OUT of my business on a regular basis and so should you!!!  So I can LEAN into what is really important in my business.

I have 2 goals with this podcast today.  One to HIGHLY encourage you to take time OUT of your business (min.2 days per quarter) to LEAN into the growth and future of your business.

AND

To invite you to a powerful retreat day to do just that.  

Our mind is GREAT at responding to what is right in front of us, solving problems and moving forward quickly.  

What is SO magnificent is your mind is also what creates your future.  The business you are running right now is from all of your previous planning, decisions and leaning into your vision.  

What now?  Take time to invest in a continual manner to leverage this beautiful business that you already have.  And if you’re a new owner to learn how to use this process of planning to CREATE your business.

The SUCCESS that we have created can get robbed if we don’t take some time out to PLAN, DREAM and SCHEME in an intentional way as we move forward.

When we are reacting we are maintaining our businesses.  That’s a great energy. It’s necessary.

When you create time to plan and think about your business’s future you are growing  your business.  

Why Step Out:

Clear Mind

Creative Thinking

Collaboration

Solving for Obstacles

Lean in and listen to what you want to incorporate the next time you do this for you and your business.  You do not have to take notes, I can share the PDF that explains the steps.  

There are 3 key components to this type of planning.  I’m going to share a step wise process I dig into when I have my planning retreats.  There is a method to my madness and it started 3 years ago when Christmas was coming, with all of it’s craziness and I was launching my podcast.  I wanted to enjoy the process of creating my first episodes not run around feeling like my hair was on fire.

I checked myself into a nice hotel (literally down the street) with a corner window.  Brought all of my tools (flip charts, stickers, journal, calendar) and I got to work.  But what is also important, I gave myself the mental space to let the ideas come and spent time enjoying time away and off.

These are the important three components of a powerful planning experience:

1. Celebrating and Looking at what you did in the last year and last 90 days.  First aft/evening

What have you created so far?  Dig into your numbers.  What was your revenue in the  last 90 days?  Literally look at all of the activity you took in your business not just sales.  Compare these figures to last year.  Where is growth?  Where is more profit?  All the measurements that are important to you. 

      2. Creating your Visions for a year from now First Day/Lot’s of Fun Breaks

What would you like to be up to, in the next 90 days to create the business of your dreams a year from now.  What has been working?  What do you bravely want to try?  Where do you want to lean in, what do you need to cut out? What do you want more of–more ideal clients, more profitable clients or just MORE revenue etc.?

      3. Literally Plan the next 90 Day/Afternoon Evening

Get out your calendar and plan the events/products/calls/writing time ANY activities that will need space on your calendar.  THEN back up as you break down the planning of those activities into smaller chunks and put those blocks into your calendar.

1st plan your next 2 day planning retreat.  Plug in vacations, some days off, totally an ideal calendar and then time block for the new stuff.  Is there anything that needs to go?  

Wrap up the pieces on the final morning but be sure you get out one of the nights and celebrate what you’ve done in your business.

This step is so you can leave this planning time not making a lot more decisions but leaning into the doing.

 Please hit me up by email if you want a copy of the PDF that explains this process.

This type of TIME OUT of your business gives you: 

Time to truly anchor  & evaluate what is working by not moving on too quickly to the NEXT thing that you want to do. This is slowing down to speed up and leverage what you love doing because it IS working. Evaluating before you move on to the next big idea.  

This helps you to simplify your business.  

Give your brain some Super Thinking time to solve some issues that have come up AND to create your next steps. Creating space for your mind to do its job.  This will require putting down your notes and getting out to take walks, get a massage, call a friend and relax.  Dine out, etc.  I love hotels for this because if it is warm I’ll hit the pool, I’ll go hang in the bar and keep my notes handy and just enjoy thinking about my business or just being present.

I loved what this type of STAYCATION retreat did for my business, the first time I did it, it helped me to create 20 podcast titles and set the direction of my first podcast.  The second time around showed me that growth was truly happening even though it didn’t feel like it.  This is when I started looking at quarters instead of months.  I look forward to these every quarter and when I don’t plan them (COVID!!) it makes the running of my business wear me out…..

This has became an energizing force in my business, it created momentum to do this.

It made my marketing, reach outs and all of the ACTIVITY so much easier.  

It was and is rocket fuel.  It grounds you for the next round of obstacles to solve for because you’ve taken the planning piece out of the way.

I hope I’ve done a great job of selling you on taking this time out for YOUR business.  And this is just as important for Solopreneurs as it is for CEOs running a team.  Getting OUT of the day to day and carving time out for your mind to fully process where your business is now so you can create the growth and structure and support your team for the growth going forward.