[00:00:00] Kristy: With the year coming to a close, it's such a great time to reflect on the year that was. 2023 was yet another big year, different to 2022 and 2021 and 2020. But really the last four years have been pretty big, pretty epic, and a bit of a rollercoaster. My 2023 didn't quite shape out what I anticipated, but I'm really happy with where it's landed, and I thought I would share with you the things that I experienced this year and what I've learned and what I'm anticipating for 2024.

[00:00:41] I think reflection is such an important part of your end of year cadence and for you it might be end of year and, or it could be the beginning of the new year. I will share with you a resource that I've put together for you at the end of this episode to support you with your own reflection process. But this conversation, as I said, is really about sharing with you my own insights from my year it's not all rosy. I'll be honest with you. So this is a informal chat and I hope you enjoy hearing a bit of the behind the scenes of my 2023. Are you ready? Let's go.

[00:01:20] Hello boss. And welcome back to the run your business like a boss podcast. This is the final. New episode for 2023. I will be releasing some rerun episodes over December to keep you going.

[00:02:11] I always love to share past episodes because we have a lot in the catalog and I do think that when you listen to things a second time, it clicks a little differently. So. Never fear. There will be things for you to dial into over the month of December and I'll be back with my first episode for 2024 on the 2nd of January.

[00:02:35] So straight into it. so onto today's conversation, I wanted to share with you a little bit of the behind-the-scenes of my year. And I do this because I think sometimes it's easy to think that everything is rosy for other people, but are hard for you. so I wanted to share with you a few of the things that happened this year.

[00:03:00] firstly, it was a tricky first half of 2023 personally and I won't go into the details of what was going on there. There was some pretty big things happening behind the scenes on a personal level and that took me out a little bit, if I'm honest, and I released an episode during the year around capacity, and that was spurred by my own experiences of honoring my capacity. I think that that's a really important lesson to take away and I think if I'm honest, 10 years ago, I would never have honored my capacity and I would have motored through. That is my true nature. But I've done so much work on myself to know and to honor what I'm capable of and to protect my energy.

[00:03:56] So a few things that I needed to do in order to be able to reassign my capacity and my energy into the things that were happening was to take a break from the podcast. And I think all up, I took seven weeks off producing new content and I hadn't done that for two years straight. I had been consistent with weekly episodes, except for December and I just felt like I'd hit this wall. It was another thing that was commanding my attention and energy that I just didn't have. And so I reached out to our podcast editor and, discussed whether I should take a break and she agreed that it was time to just step back for a little bit, recalibrate and it was honestly the best thing that I did because I love this podcast and I never want to resent creating content, but at that time it was really hard with everything else that was going on. So That was a big lesson to me that it was okay to step aside from something that I had committed to to just take a little bit of a break.

[00:05:04] I also had to step back and review the goals that I had set for myself for the year. I had planned or I had set an intention to create more digital offerings in 2023, but between the podcast, servicing my clients and the things that were going on on the personal side, I just didn't have it in me to create anything new.

[00:05:30] I kept thinking that when things settled down, I would get into it then. And I got to the second half of the year, everything had settled down. And then I just felt like I really needed a beat to catch my breath. And I really love having a predictable and some might say a boring business, right? Like I don't do anything that's too crazy.

[00:06:01] And what I mean by that is that I have my podcast, which is a way of being able to reach audiences. I have pulled back my Instagram posting this year, that might change next year. And leveraged SEO or Google and had a business that just felt really simple. And it's what I needed off the back of a pretty heavy first six months of the year.

[00:06:32] In addition, and if you're not really into the woo woo, you'll probably roll your eyes at this one, I have been seeing a psychic for 12 years now, not regularly, but on and off. So the same person for 12 years and on a recent trip to Sydney, well, it wasn't that recent, it was in August, I actually popped in and made an appointment to see her and I take what she says fairly seriously and the reason for this is because she's told me things that were going to happen, that were very specific, that were very much against well, all the evidence was pointing to the opposite of being, and I even questioned her on a few of the things that she said, and she was very adamant that that was what was going to happen. And of course it did.

[00:07:24] So, I have needless to say, I do trust her and I felt like when she said to me, don't create anything new this year, spend time, focus on yourself, focus on your health, focus on your family, I just decided to listen to that. And you might not be that sort of person and that's okay, but I have to go with what I feel is the right thing. So I came back from Sydney and I was getting ready to do some new things in the business and to really just step back in, in a way that I had intended back at the start of the year. But because of that session, I decided to, yes, take a break. And just like what I always say to you here on the podcast, you're in the long game.

[00:08:19] And for me, my business is here to serve my clients firstly, and secondly, it supports my life and I don't want to jeopardize my health or jeopardize my relationships or jeopardize my commitment to my family, husband, and children, for pushing hard, right? When I can just keep things simple and keep things easy. that's why this year I had to just Continue to follow this path to least resistance and I say this a lot to my clients, what's the path to least resistance? And I had to follow that advice and it was easier than what it's probably ever been because of the work that I've done on myself firstly.

[00:09:10] And secondly, I had to leave my ego at the door and not let this feeling of attaching my self worth to what I deliver, which is a very much a type 3 thing, type 3 Enneagram thing, but rather Just let it be. So it's been an interesting year in that respect. I have loved working with the clients that I've worked with and I've also am grateful that I've had the opportunity to spend the time to work on the thing that I needed to work on in the first half of the year and then spend the second half of the year just letting it be easy.

[00:09:53] So what is happening moving forward? Well, I've had a lot of time to reflect on the year that was and reflect on what I want the business to be in 2024. And one of the offerings that I spent actually a large chunk of time thinking about was the Academy. I have made the decision to keep the academy as a curriculum only program with the option to book in one on one calls.

[00:10:24] Now every coach will tell you that they go on to build these one to many models. And, whilst I think that there's a place for it, and I think that does offer a wonderful opportunity at an entry level to be able to get access to coaching, I love going deep with my clients. Like I really love one to one coaching and not every coach loves that, but I really do.

[00:10:53] And so I have decided to let go of the group coaching component but as I said, if you are thinking about booking into the Academy as the curriculum only, you will have the option to also book in for one on one calls as well. The Academy is such an incredible program and I did reflect on how I wanted to offer that moving forward. And one of the... Options was to cut it up and offer them as mini courses. And I've decided that that the real value is in the entire program because it's about business transformation and there's still so much about the curriculum, I'm actually in the process of redoing the curriculum at the moment, but so much of the curriculum is about guiding you on what questions to be asking yourself and how prompting you on what questions to ask and guiding you into where to look to solve the messy middle challenges of your business and to prepare your business for growth. So it's an excellent program. I stand by the curriculum, but I just felt like the group coaching was not for me. And it was not for the type of client that I serve that are in the messy middle that really do most of my clients, in fact, love going really deep and I just found that that just wasn't possible in group coaching calls.

[00:12:20] So that's a change to my offering next year. This year I did work with clients on a once off basis on the 90 minute intensives, and they have been really popular this year. I've actually really enjoyed doing those intensives because I think some people get a lot of value from a full six months coaching and beyond, actually, because many of my clients continue to work with me beyond the six months.

[00:12:47] But other people really just want to get a specific challenge resolved or to get clarity on next steps moving forward on an idea that they have. And this is where the 90 minute intensives have been so excellent to help people to understand what do they need to do to move forward to get unstuck. I know how hard it is as a business owner to Have that clarity and to have someone care about your business as much as what you do.

[00:13:20] And that's what the 90 minute intensives have offered and I have really loved the business owners that I've worked with inside of those once off programs this year. So that's been really fun and so that's going to continue into 2024. If you have been thinking about getting my support via the 90 minute intensives, grab the link down below, have a read of what's included. I would love to invite you to book in over January. I do have limited spots available. Have a look at the page to see if it's the right fit for you and then put through an application. And then from there I will touch base and see if we're a good fit.

[00:14:02] I, as I said, do have a limited spots available in January, but it's a great way to kick off the new year so I would love to have the opportunity to be able to serve you on a deeper level and to maybe help you get that clarity of what you're looking to achieve next year. So grab the details for that in the link down below.

[00:14:23] ALso next year, I will be looking at the small trainings. So the shorter trainings, and there are much more deep dive, paid master classes that is ala carte training. So that's just small bite sized business related trainings to support you as a business owner who's in the messy middle so watch out for that. That was on the plan for this year however, the universe had other plans for me.

[00:14:51] Also on the podcast, there'll be some small changes. I have made the decision to introduce some more lifestyle content on the podcast. I talk a lot about how your business should be set up to support your ideal life, whatever that looks like for you, and so I have this burning desire to share more lifestyle content on the podcast in addition to business related content. And I see that this fits really beautifully because as a modern business owner, this is what we're all seeking for, or certainly if you listen to this podcast anyway, so watch out for that next year. And on a personal level, my eldest is off to high school next year. She will be a teenager in the first quarter so that's going to be pretty wild. So on a personal level, things will be different again for us here in our household, but I'm really excited for this next chapter of the teen years. I think I'm one of those strange people that will enjoy the teenage years. I, I'm not going to lie. I did find the baby and toddler years pretty difficult. However, I feel like these are the years where I'm going to, you know, really enjoy, but you know, I may stand to be corrected in, in a few years time. Check in with me then. But anyway, it's very exciting having her wrap up primary school and also embark on this next season in her life. And then also us with her starting a new school and things like that.

[00:16:26] So as I promised you, I have put together a worksheet to give you some prompts on how to do your own end of year review. Obviously, there was more that I did on my side other than what I've shared today. These are just the, you know, the, the keynotes that you might be interested in.

[00:16:43] But I've put together this worksheet to help you to ask yourself some really big questions around your year to understand where your business is at as you wrap up 2023. And I think it's really important that you spend time reflecting on the year and on the lessons and what That means for you and your business and what you're going to bring into the new year, or maybe even leave behind.

[00:17:09] So grab the link in the show notes for that. And as I said, if you are wanting to work with me one on one via the 90 minute intensive, or in fact, with this six month business accelerator coaching program, head down into the show notes and grab those links and apply today. I'd love to hear from you. And as I said at the beginning of the episode, we'll be back January 2nd with brand new episodes.

[00:17:32] I'm going to kick off the year with a little bit of a, uh, new year series. So really exciting content for the start of next year and I hope you have the most incredible holiday. If you haven't had a chance to listen to last week's episode, please do so. That's a great way of planning out your holidays and have an amazing break.

[00:17:54] I look forward to chatting with you in 2024. 2024, can you believe it? Honestly, I can't. Anyway, have a great break. As always, I look forward to chatting with you next time.