Your 2024 Game Plan with Katie Bell

Katie Bell: 1:12

Hi, and welcome to this week’s episode of the treat your business podcast. My name is Katie Bell, for those of you who don’t know me, huge welcome, I am so so happy that you are here listening to me whether you’re in your car, in your kitchen running the kids about, and hopefully over the next five weeks, if this is the first time you’ve tuned in, you’re in for an absolute treat, because we are going to be talking about your 2024 game plan. So I am recording this. As we end November, we’re looking ahead towards the end of the year, and we’re starting to think about what we should be thinking about in our business. What is next year going to look like? A lot of business owners race towards the end of end of the end of the year, and they well they screech to the end of the year really they they are in the Christmas madness. And what often gets neglected is your business. So we are here to treat literally treat your business to some strategic planning for 2024. I am going to prepare you or at least prepare your thinking and get you to shift your thinking beyond this week, in your clinic, and into what you want next year to look like I want you to just take a moment to fast forward in your business to this time, next year, November 2024. And you are reflecting because this is what you’re going to learn to do on this podcast, you are going to reflect on what your year has has been like, how has it served you how is it staffed yet. And I want you to think about all of the things that have you have achieved this year. And maybe all of the things that you haven’t changed because you didn’t take the time, the year before now to really reflect on what’s worked for you in the past year, and what hasn’t worked for you and what we’re going to take into 2024 and what we’re going to leave behind so many business owners, when they first start working with us feel very overwhelmed, they feel very lost they feel or they often are seeing too many patients. They describe themselves as being on a hamster wheel, the firefighting, the spinning too many plates, and quite often feel like the average of everything. And sometimes not even average sometimes poor. They’re just trying to grasp at one thing and the other and not really feel like they’re living into the area of unique brilliance or that zone of genius. So work can often feel in the large, quiet unfulfilling. And we have moments of feeling great and inspired and motivated and focused. But that gets swept away by all of the other stuff that we’ve got to firefight in the minutiae of, of day to day running of your business. So I’m going to say this probably for the first time that you may have heard me say this, but definitely not for the last time because in the next five weeks, I’m going to say this to you a lot. But you cannot grow your business. whatever business you might be in between appointments, you cannot grow your business. See, I’ve seen it twice. You cannot grow your business between client appointments, or between meetings. It’s a fact. But it often seems so hard to see a way out of 100 patient weeks 50 patient weeks 1020 30 Pilates classes, especially when the ego, the part of your brain that kind of like the primitive part of your brain is really there to keep you in your comfort zone. And I don’t really like the word comfort zone because when people living in their comfort zone, it generally is a bit shit. So it’s not I don’t even know why we use the word comfort zone because it’s like a comfortable rubbish zone. The magic happens when we step out of our comfort zone when we get okay with being uncomfortable. But being okay with being uncomfortable means that we have to work hard to wrestle the ego, the part of our brain that wants to keep us safe, wants to wants to keep us in the known. And the part of the brain that really likes to know the how. So when we make a decision that I need to step out of client appointments, I need to reduce how much time and facilitating client work. The ego first of all will say Well, well, we’ll What if we lose those money? What if people think I’m lazy? What if I’m not good enough? What if we don’t actually know how to do that? And most people, the ego wins, which is why most people and there’s no judgement here. Most people live an average life. You have the choice. You get to step into that uncomfortable zone. You get to step into 2024 and choose completely how your business in your life gets to gets to look and gets to act out. So to set our strategy when people We’ll say, Oh, I’ve got no business strategy, I don’t really know what it means. It basically means you’re opening a roadmap for 2024 when we start in the first of January, but maybe the second because the first I think is a bank holiday, or the second of January, you’re gonna all going to be like racing into your year ahead. I have just spent this morning planning, all of the dates for all of our coaching and all of my fulfilment stuff, the things that I have to do and things that places act to be, until next December. I know exactly already, which weeks I’m on which weeks, I’m asked which weeks I’ve got delivery, which weeks, I haven’t when I’ve got courses running, when I have a course runway, I’m on holiday, it’s already mapped out, yeah, we can change it. Okay. But I already know, I don’t have to wait to the second January, I already know what’s happening. So to set this strategy, we’ve got to first stop. Albert Einstein, I think it was Albert Einstein, if not, you can reference me. He talks about insanity. The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Like if you are going to go into 2024, and just repeat the same ship from week to week, the same number of clients, the same number of jumping from one thing to the next the same little time to spend on your business, the same pricing, the same model, the same way of working with clients, the same awful boundaries that some of us have in place, we can’t expect to have anything different next November, December of 2020. So when business owners find themselves rolling into next year, and repeating the exact same thing, because they’ve never had a moment leading up to Christmas to just go whoa, wait a minute, what is what do I really want next year? That is insanity, you have the choice. And some of you might be listened to this podcast and say, well, Katie, I really don’t feel like I have a choice, I want you to know that you have the choice. Just recently, only last week, we had a live day in the gorgeous sights of Coventry. And we got all of our mastermind clients together in a room and the energy was amazing. Being in a room of like minded individuals, where you’re you all get it, you’ve all experienced the same thing. Some people will be ahead of us. So people will be behind you when it comes to time management when it comes to strategy when it comes to marketing. But everybody gives everybody the space that they need to get what they need from a day like that. All the coaches were that I was there presenting. And the first thing that we did, it was their 2024 game plan. The first thing we did is I asked them this, Hey, I need you to step out of your business for an entire day. All the clients committed to that. Second thing I asked them to be was fully present in the day, phones off aeroplane mode would be ideal. And to fully immerse themselves into the day ahead. And then the third thing was to write a list of their tolerances. Now even just me saying this out loud is going to make some of you feel quite uncomfortable. And I’m not sorry about that. Because we need you to get uncomfortable. We need you to really lean into what shit Have you been putting up with that you really don’t want to have to put up with anymore. You talked about Oh, you heard me talk about Project simplify that went on in my life a few months ago to the point of having a robot Hoover to the point of having an irrigation system in the water in the flowerbed because I needed to simplify as many things in my environment because I was feeling overwhelmed. Because all business owners have feelings of overwhelm at times, it’s those that that react to it rather than just ignore it are the ones that are going to get to really lean into their their success and be able to work in their areas of unique brilliance the most amount of time because you’re not having to just deal with the minutia all the time, you have the choice. So here is what I would like you to do. Now you can pause this recording, I would challenge you to do that some of you might be in the car and therefore writing all this tolerance is not right. It’s not appropriate right now. But I would really encourage you to find some time between now and Christmas. Where you do exactly the same. You step out of your business, do not do this in your clinic room. Do not do this in your kitchen with your kids racing around on a tractor. Do not do this where you are in your same old environment. Step out of your business be fully present for an hour. It’s all it’s gonna take and write what you have been tolerating, what have you been putting up with, and I’m going to give you some examples to help kind of prompt that thought process. And I want you to go big and small here. So for example, it might be I have been putting up with working with insurance comment book insurance companies who don’t value my worth. I’ve been putting up with insurance companies who are asking me to write 55 pages of paper, or have notes for 25 pounds a session, and consult with insurance companies paying after 120 days, and putting up with clients, always overstepping my boundaries. I’m putting up with certain team members insert person’s name, not performing not meeting the company standards for our conversion rates, or our retention rates. I’m putting up with being the last person to get paid in my business. I’m putting up with never ever been able to commit fully to going to the gym as many times as I want to, because always something else comes up. I’ve been putting up with never ever, ever been able to finish a hot cup of tea. I’ve been putting up with my cleaners been like 70% have been putting up with my child minder not really doing what I want to do. I’ve been putting up with the fact I seem to be the only one that does all the running about in this house, that is just gonna give you a flavour. So we’re going to be business, some are going to be going to be personal. And I would really encourage you to step into the personal side of things, because that is going to show up in your business as well. We can’t separate the two things. And I want you to know this. You get to have it or whatever all means to you. You get to have it off. You do not have to tolerate working with low paid insurance companies. You do not have to tolerate fights, overstepping boundaries, and not recognising that your health and wellness needs have to come first. You don’t have to put up with being the last person who paid in your business. You don’t have to never drink a hot cup of tea again, because you feel too busy. You don’t have to put up with the fact you don’t really know what marketing you should be doing to move your business forwards. You get to have whatever you want. You are the leader of your life. You are the master of your own destiny. And whatever all means to you, you can have it. And looking at that list. Ask yourself well, what has been there the longest? What’s really surprised me? And what are some themes? So I do this every year. And quite often. And recently, there was a massive thing for me that came up. And that allowed me to then think about okay, how do I want that to look next year because I do not want this to turn up again next year, I am bored of talking about it. I’m bored of thinking about it and bought it my energy going towards it, it is going to have to change had I not done this activity, I possibly would have continued to tolerate some stuff. Your business is your choice. You can choose how you run it. You can choose when you work. You can choose what hours you work, you can choose what hours you see clients, you can choose what pricing you set, you can choose how you show up in your business, you can choose when you have patients, when you write notes, you have the choice. And this is something on Friday with our mastermind clients that we really worked on and within our programmes within thrive. This is something that is super, super important. We have to work on your self confidence, your self worth your self belief because this underpins your ability to go and make your strategic plan happen. You can’t out strategy, a faulty mindset in the same way that you can’t out train a bad diet. When you’re setting your plan for next year. We can have the best plan in the world you can have this wonderful visibility plan or you could have this marketing strategy. You could have a sales process, sales strategy or written down. You could have your time management strategies all written down. But if we do not fix the foundation, which is you and we don’t look at that confidence and that self worth and that self belief you will continue to tolerate the shit you’ve been tolerating. Now before we go into what you’re going to do with these tolerances, and how to weave that into your strategy, I would like your permission to just spend a few minutes telling you some super exciting news and I got to reveal this on Friday to our clients. This has been something that has been a year in the making. And this came from me writing my list of tolerances. This came from me saying what has worked for me What hasn’t worked for me, and literally living into practising what I preach, from a timing point of view, from a delivery point of view, from an energy point of view from how much was I spending my time in my, my zone of genius, or my unique brilliance? How much was I doing what I really love to do? And what parts of the business and if the company weren’t serving the clients weren’t giving them the, the you guys the value that I want you to get from us, I want you to succeed, I am so invested in your results. And I’m so passionate about it, influencing how this industry runs, and upgrading how we run and upgrading our whole self worth and self esteem and self confidence. So we can charge more and own it. So we can work the hours we want to make it we want to work so we can make the income that we want to make, that we can feel fulfilled and successful and supported as a business owner. So I got to think about why I was tolerating this was like this time last year. And then I’ve got to really weave this into what I’m about to announce. Are you excited? I really hope you are. So I announce to the clients that as of the 31st of December, as the clock strikes midnight, the way that we currently work with clients is stopping. And we on the first of January, we are launching our upgraded programmes, the ways that we work with you and our our clients. So we have created two new programmes called activate. This is for business owners who are doing around about 3k Plus now. And they want to get to 10k a month consistently. This is all about sales and marketing at this stage of your business. And then we have the Elevate programme and the Elevate programme is for business owners doing 10k Plus, who wants to go to multi six figures and get their life back. So let me tell you a little bit more. The reason that we have created these upgraded, fabulous or singing or dancing programmes is because I got to work with business owners now for several years, I’ve got to really listen to what your biggest struggles are, what your biggest challenges are, and what you really, really need from a coaching programme to ensure that we give you the best possible chance of the results that you want to achieve those goals that you have. And this is exactly what these programmes are. They are like everything I need. When I’m being coached and everything I know our clients need to really elevate and activate and support them in their journey in their business. So we have mindset workshops, where we’re going to be diving into your success mindset. We’re going to be talking about you having the power, which are going to be talking about how you leverage your lifestyle, how we can activate your strategy. These are all workshops that are going to be running throughout the year, we’re going to have strategy days where we deep dive into activating your online marketing, activating your offline marketing, elevating your team elevating your lifestyle. So if you’re listening to this with this list of tolerances that you want to change, but you don’t know that how, then what I would say is that we can help you if you already knew the how you would have already gone and done it. And I use this analogy all the time in that if I wanted to like learn how to play tennis, I would just go and find a tennis coach, because why would I spend all the time watching a YouTube video, listening to stuff and then not really having the accountability to actually make it happen? Business owners like willpower isn’t even a thing. It’s like less than 5% of your brain or something crazy like that. So it’s not even a thing. Okay? We can’t just will our way to finding out the how we need to be accountable. We need a support network, we need to be surrounded by like minded individuals. So we on these fabulous programmes, I’m putting you into pods where you have your own coach, you’re in a group of up to six people you get to meet every single month, you get given 30 Day implementation plans that feed into your overall strategy that we set for you at the beginning of your programme with a coach on a one to one, you get a one to one mindset call. So we work through all of these barriers that might be coming up and showing up for you. And then we supplement that with quarterly mindset workshops, quarterly strategy days. Two of them are online and two of them are face to face to socials, the most important we have a spring social and we have a Christmas party planned. This is all about you. Getting to live this level 10 life this is all about you having a choice of how you get to spend your time how many clients you get to work with how much you charge what Your marketing gets to look like what your sales process gets to look like you have the choice as a business owner. These programmes have been developed with you in mind and I for 1am. So excited for the first of January, all of our clients in the room on Friday, were also super excited. So I can, I can testify that from the horse’s mouth, they were buzzing about it, and they were ready to dive straight in and move over to the new programme. So if you want to find out a little bit more about activating our elevate programmes, there is nothing like this out there that I would love to invite you to book a business and marketing audit call with me. Now, this call is absolutely how you want the call to go. For most people, what they really need from me is an outside view into their business strategically, and look at their numbers and work through stuff and help them come up with that initial strategy, that initial plan to move their business forwards. And it’s, it’s easier for me because I’m outside and I can look into your business. So we will we will work the call however it needs to be there is absolutely there is absolutely no sales strategy behind this whatsoever. You have the call, we go through me looking into your business and really leaning into what I think needs to change. And if I think you’re the right fit for activate or elevate, and you feel like there’s a mutual fit, we’ll talk about it. If I don’t think you’re the right fit, I’m going to tell you your next best steps, I’m going to give you your action plan. And that might be go and speak to this person or lean into that or go and spend the money there. Because this is what you need most in your business right now. So whatever happens, the call will be amazing value for you. Now, let’s get back to business. So you have this list of tolerances. Yes, you are now going to flip it. So you’re now going to say what does this look like 12 months from now, if I just flip that tolerance, if I literally take the opposite of what I’ve written down. So if your tolerance or something you’re putting been putting up with is I am sick and tired of working with insurance companies who don’t pay me, what are my worth is, then let’s flip that. And that is 100% percent of my revenue now comes from private payers. Wow, that feels powerful. Now what’s going to happen here, I need to warn you, the ego is gonna go, Well, that sounds really nice. But you’re never gonna make it happen. Or that sounds really great. But I don’t know how. And instantly because we don’t know the how, remember, if you knew the how you’d have already done it. If you don’t know the how the brain will be like, Oh, okay, maybe we could say that, then 25% of our revenue comes from private payers, and it will shrink that goal, it will shrink and suppress and suppress and suppress. So I want you to be really brave here. And I want you to say this is what I’ve been tolerating. And this is what it looks like, if I’m not tolerating it anymore. Do not think about the how the how is what we can teach you, we can figure out how you get from insurance to only private pays in your business, this is a strategy behind it, we’re not gonna do it overnight, that would be crazy, to take a list of tolerances and spend some time flipping those list of tolerances. Now. The third thing that I’d like you to do is then go okay, well, what one action? What one small thing could I do to move towards that flip tolerance? So it might be let’s take the insurance example it might be the first thing you’re going to do is actually run your numbers, what percentage of your revenue is actually coming in from insurance company right now? And what how much revenue is that? Now if we then said, well, let’s replace that revenue with private paying fees. Let’s see what difference it would have made to your turnover to your revenue to your sales to your top line figure that is going to make you shocked and that is going to make you want to take action. So what’s that one action that you need to take. And then over the coming weeks, as I promised, we’re going to work into your financial strategy for 2024. We’re going to talk about your marketing strategy for 2024. We’re going to talk about your sales strategy in 2024. We’re going to help you start to take really inspired action towards those flips tolerances to those things that you are no longer going to put up with. And this is going to start to create you the roadmap for 2024 to give you some really clear goals and some quarterly plans. So we’re going to break that down and make sure that you know what is going to be happening from January. And as I said if you want to find out more about how our programmes may help you and if you want to join all of the people that are starting in January, which is super exciting, there was a massive buzz amongst the clients about it and And then hop on a call I would love love love to talk to you and learn more about your business thank you so much for listening to this week’s episode of the treat your business podcast remember you have a choice you can have it all See you next week