1st Quarter Sprint

Running a successful business is a marathon, not a sprint.? Period.

That said, there is no time more ripe with possibility, more ambition-driven and more filled with renewed passion for all that our businesses could be…than the beginning of a new calendar year.

So while our businesses need to be planned out (hello Gen X’ers - we are planners, are we not?!?) and running the long game, we also need to inject brief sprints into our business operations to keep the energy, visibility and momentum at maximum velocity!

Example / Point to Ponder:

Do you, personally, pay more attention to a business that posts the same style, decent but not overly exciting, posts all year long, day in and day out - OR - to a business that posts consistently, yet revs up to sprints of more power-packed posts more frequently during different periods throughout the year?? I know my answer - I would like to know yours… (I’ll just pause here while you go, leave a comment and let me know at the bottom of this article.)

There, now that you have recorded your unbiased opinion in the comments below, I can cloud your thoughts with my own opinion…

I believe that businesses, just like humans, need periods of “rest”.? Where there isn’t that much excitement going on, we are just doing the work, shoring up our processes and systems, fulfilling clients / customers needs, taking care of our team, strategically building leads to fill our funnels and moving forward step by step.

But then - we need to DO SOMETHING!? Whether it be to rebrand or just freshen up our brand, revamp our website, launch a product or course, release a book, something...something that injects some energy back into our business, something that makes our clients, customers and followers take notice.? But you know what else it has to do?? It has to invigorate you as the entrepreneur!??

You know how, at the beginning of the school year, as kids if we were lucky enough to be able to, we would go school supply shopping?? That feeling of new notebooks and crayons - if you were really lucky a new backpack and lunchbox… I don’t know about you, but I want to have that same feeling for my business at least once a year!? Hopefully more!

So how do we DO this sprint?? Well, it will vary for all…based on your own personality, the style and voice of your business, your financial situation, your goals and vision for the business, etc…? I am surrounded by so many brilliant entrepreneurs and I swear I grow as a person simply by the osmosis of running in the same circle as some of these people…and some of that just HAS to make its way into my business.

I was listening to a podcast today, by the “Fiercely Brilliant” Therese Skelly , and she talks about reinvention vs. evolution, both professionally and personally…I took it to mean, and I might be tweaking it a bit to make my point, that reinvention tends to happen in the mind - and evolution tends to be at the heart & soul level.? I think of it this way, if you run a retail business and know that when you run a certain sale yearly, and you know that it just makes good bottom line sense to run that sale at the beginning of the year to set yourself in a good spot financially, then your 1st Quarter Sprint might be spent reinventing the wheel of last year’s sale in a way to make it exciting and new to your customers this year (reinvention).? However, if you were to take that same retail business and the owner feels like they are making good money, they have a good team and a successful business, but their heart just isn’t in it…then that person might turn their business upside down and have it completely evolve into something else entirely. They may find a way for it to be more in line with where their heart is at, by say partnering with a non-profit to give back X percentage to their favorite charity from every sale for the next quarter - and building a complete sprint around that effort…by basically taking that same business and now have it have a whole new meaning / heart behind it (evolution).

New year, new you, new business…maybe, maybe not…but one thing is for certain, NOW is the time to plan out your 1st Quarter Sprint. What will make your company stand out in the sea of all the companies out there that are trying to accomplish the same thing right now?? My advice…? Make it YOU.? There is only one YOU - we Gen X’ers tend to work ourselves to the bone - but that isn’t your unique genius. Your unique genius is that little bit of yourself that only you can give to your target market. Pour yourself into planning how you can make your next 90 days bring you closer to your target clients, your avatar, your niche market…see your ultimate result in your mind. What would that look like?? Write it down. (comment below if you want a bunch of strangers to hold you accountable, we’re happy to help!)? Take that goal, now break it down into milestones, then step by step - put it into Asana or a spreadsheet or even on a piece of paper in a notebook.? Timeline it - what has to happen and when, in order to see it through?

I am taking my own advice.? I am putting my business through an evolution this year.? I am going away from monthly retainer clients and focusing on doing only a few VIP days per month with clients who I can help so much more effectively in one hyper-focused session to grow their businesses.? I am excited and ready to sprint this quarter!? I have aligned myself with power partners and mentors and I am ready to go. You’ll see me launch them in the next week…feel free to hold me accountable if you don’t!

I wish you all a very Happy, Fulfilling and Prosperous 2022!

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