Hello, I'm Tina Tower, and you're listening to Her Empire Builder. For my first decade of business I thought grinding and hustling and working harder than everyone else was my path to success. It was pretty successful by a lot of measures, but it led to burnout and adrenal fatigue. Then, when I travelled around the world on my family gap year, I discovered the simplicity and the reach of online business and I completely fell in love.

You have so much knowledge and expertise that's within, and I want to help you to package that so you can also help to lift others up. So, how do you build a thriving million-dollar business based on everything that's in your mind? This is Her Empire Builder, the podcast.

Hey, just jumping in here, before we get into this week's recording of Cocktails and Coaching. I wanted to let you know, I tried an experiment and it did not work. So, you know, I like sharing with you a lot of things on these podcasts that are working and that aren't working so that you can then take those lessons and help them when you're building your own empire, to kind of make different decisions and experiment with different things.

So, one of the things that I tried for the last, oh you know, I should have counted that before I did it, but I think we've done it for about two months. So, about six or eight episodes, is every Friday at four o'clock, I do Cocktails and Coaching on Facebook Live, and I like to repurpose content, because let's face it, when we're running businesses, there's a lot of content to create repeatedly, and so one of the things that I wanted to do is when I do Cocktails and Coaching, we extrapolate the audio and then we put it on as the podcast episode because the feedback I was getting when we started Cocktails and Coaching was some people can't get on to Facebook Live and they much prefer to listen to podcasts than to actually sit and watch a Facebook video. So that was the idea, was to put it on this but It did not have good results for the podcast.

So, our normal podcast episodes kind of get between 500, 600 downloads on the week that they go live. When we put the Cocktails and Coaching episodes up, they get about 100 and our average has been drawn right down. So now, instead of our normal episodes getting 500 or 600 downloads a week, we're at about 2 or 300, so severe consequences. So, I don't know whether it's because you know, the podcast, the normal podcast episodes are quite well thought out and quite strategic, whereas Cocktails and Coaching is kind of a little bit more all over the place and reading out different people's comments and people feel like they're not a part of it because they're not there live. I'm not quite sure what the difference is, but I do know we've tried it and it hasn't worked. So, this week, you do have the recording of last week’s Cocktails and Coaching session because it's a good one.

So, it will be the last time I put that up. Today’s all about marketing and sending out your marketing plan for 2020. There is an amazing resource to go with it, which is at tinatower.com/2020, which is why I wanted to put this one up on the podcast, was I don't want you to miss out on that resource because it's a full content marketing plan for next year. So that's pretty cool. So, you'll have this one, and then there'll be no more recordings of Cocktails and Coaching. So hopefully, you know, if you're loving these kind of more informal ones, jump on over to Facebook. What we're going to do with them is we're going to still record them on Facebook Live. Then we're also going to download the video from Facebook and upload it on YouTube so that it's kind of still being repurposed, but it will be more video based so hopefully that keeps this podcast channel, the Her Empire Builder podcast that you know and love, in that consistent, authentic kind of, kind of grain.

So, if you have any feedback or thoughts on that, I would love to know actually, if you are a regular podcast listener, can you send me an email, [email protected], and just let me know like, what you liked about it, what you didn't, because information is always really handy, and then when I can share it with other people, I can let them know your feedback as well, but thank you for tuning in. If you love the main podcast episodes but you haven't loved being interrupted by Cocktails and Coaching, it's about to resume to normal frequency. If you love Cocktails and Coaching, jump on over to the Facebook channel. Alright, enjoy.

Happy Friday. I'm celebrating today. Someone gave me this at my book launch the other day, and so I was like, “Oh, isn't that the best sound ever?” Oh crap, oops, at least that didn't go over the computer. So instead of a cocktail today I'm having Verve which is exciting, and don't laugh at me, but we are packing up our house and I know some people are sticklers for having their drinks in the right glasses and in the right way and all of that sort of thing, but for me today, we've packed up a champagne glasses already to get ready for our move, so I have a wine glass, and I have ice. So, a lot of people don't like champagne with ice, but I like it super cold. So, that's what I'm doing today.

Hello, Karen. Hello, Rochelle. Hello, Lynne. Hi, Trisha, Helen, Shannon. Hello. Hello. There we go. Oh my gosh, would you like some bubbles with that?

Okay, so today is a big one. It is, we're talking about marketing planning for 2020, and the reason I want to do that right now is because in November, I'm just typing in so I can get the web address because I have for you a free marketing content planner, as well, so that you can use that, so I'll put that link in the comments so that you can use that too, and so what it does is, it pretty much gives you a whole template where you can plan out your whole year, and I know people have different views on planning. Can you let me know in the, in the box there, for this year, for 2019, did you make a marketing plan? So, did you have a month to month marketing plan with different focusses and know what you were doing? Can you let me know in the box, so I know what I'm dealing with here?

Rochelle's asked, “Did you end up getting the house?” I didn't get the dream house, but I did get another house. So, I didn't, I like cocktails so much more than champagne, but, so yeah, so we didn't get the dream house. We got, we ended up getting a bit of a fixer upper that we can renovate and do that. So, it's, it's, it's a roundabout story, roundabout way.

Okay, so no one's talking to me here. Does that mean that you didn't plan out your marketing? Trisha’s got an eye rolly emoji.

Okay, well, let's change that this year. Let's make that a bit of a better response. So I'm going to pop in the comments here, you can go to that web address that I just put in there, and it will get your first name and email address, and then you'll be able to download the 2020 marketing plan.

So, the first thing that I want you to do is figure out what are the goals for next year, because, if you don't know where you're going, you'll just kind of coast along, and sometimes I'll have debates with people over creating a marketing plan for the year because they will say things like, “I can't possibly create a plan for the next year, because I have no idea what's going to happen.” You know, “How can we create a plan for April next year when, I mean, who knows what we're going to be doing in April next year?”

So, the purpose of the plan is so that you know where you're going and you will always, 100%, get further with a plan, than in the absence of a plan. Now it doesn't mean though that you're stuck in stone. So, you can still be agile, you can still test and measure and try different things and change it, but having that plan gives you purpose and allows you to do a whole lot more stuff than if you didn't have the plan at all. So, an example of that, this time last year, I was travelling, so I was actually in, in November, like Croatia or Montenegro or somewhere like that, and so I didn't take the time to plan out all of the end of this year properly, which meant that there's been so many things that I know I normally would have done that I've missed. So, with things like launching a program for 2020. If I wanted to do that you would have had to start marketing that last month. Now, ship’s sailed, it’s too late, got to wait for the following year.

So, by doing the plan, you know exactly what you're doing, and when you're going to do it. Let me have a look here. Karen and Helen have said, “No, but we talked about this after I did an Insta post that we need a plan.” You totally need a plan. Rochelle said, “No.” Lynne said, “The planner is good to make comments on.” Yes.

Okay, so we, we don't have a plan. So, this is great. Today you're going to get a plan. So, jump on that link, download that planner, you can do it now or you can do it after, totally fine. So, if you're on your phone, do it later.

Now the first thing to do is work out what are your goals for the year. So, what do you want to actually achieve for the year? So, this time next year, now you can do this at any time. It doesn't have to be a nice, neat new year, but I do know that people love the linearness of a new year. So, when you’re kind of kicking off in 2020 it's working out, “Okay.” When that year finishes, what do you want your business to look like? What sort of things do you want to do and what do you want to build with that?

Holly's found of friend out there, and so, that way you're able to go, “Okay.” If next year you're wanting to write a book or you're wanting to start a new program or you’re wanting to scale up the business, which means you need to hire new staff, whatever those goals are, that is a perfect place to start, because then we can go, “Okay, we've got the goals, we know what a successful year is going to look like to us. Now let's start planning it out.”

So, I am a bit old school with the way I plan it out, which is why I have a planner download for you because I like to write stuff. I'm tangible like that. I even, let me show you this, so I have my planner, here, can you see that? So, I use a Kikki K planner every year and then I use washi tape to kind of block it out in colour codes, because that's what I like to do.

The first thing that you should do when you get a planner, so, the first thing is the goals. The next thing when you go, “Okay, I'm going to start actually making this happen.”, is to work out what are the big things that you need to block out?

So, there is one main thing that you should do first, does anybody know? What is the first thing you should do when you get a blank planner for next year? What's the most important thing that you should block out? Let me know in the comments. Shannon has said, “Side note. I’m halfway through the book.” Amazing. Thank you. That makes me very happy. What do you think? What's the guess? What's the most important thing to put on the planner? Let me know. What have we got? No one's guessing. Have we got a bit of a delay coming in? Here we go. Yeah, Rochelle got it. First go. Holidays.

Holidays is the most important thing to block out. So I know you know, life happens, life gets in the way, things happen that if you don't block out time, and you get to, say April, and you go, “I want to take a holiday in June.”, you'll look at your calendar and go, “When the bloody hell am I going to have time to take a holiday?”, because the kids have different activities, work has different activities. Everything's already there, but now, if you actually get your planner, get your washi tape and blank at those times, it means that when things come up, you can look at that and go, “Actually, no I can't because I've already blocked out those holidays.”

So most of the time, most years, we take two overseas holidays a year, and we generally go for three to four weeks at a time, and people are always amazed by that, going “How on earth do you carve out the time to do that?” The only way we do it is by doing it very, very far in advance because then everything kind of gets planned and mished all around that. So, the first thing, number one, is to carve out holiday time.

Lynne's got, “Yeah, love the colour coding, it so helps.” If you’re aesthetic, it really does help, but the thing is you've got to find what works for you best. So, first thing is to carve the holidays, then it's looking at, “Okay, what are the major events that are going to be happening in your business?” So, like I mentioned before, are you going to have to open another location? Are you going to hire new staff? Are you going to, I don’t know, launch a new program, a book, what are those big things that are going to happen and then you pop them on?

So, then, we look at, “Okay, if we're looking at each month, what is the focus for that month?” So, I like to really work in focus blocks. Karen and Helen who are on here are part of my group coaching program Scale Up, so they already know all about focus blocks, because a lot of the time you try to do so many different things at once that messaging can get really confused, and you end up kind of, you know, trying to do everything and then feeling like you did nothing really, really well.

So, you know, I won’t make you guess what my focus is for November as an example, because everybody knows, One Life. So, everything's about the book. Now, before we hit into November, in October, my monthly focus was Palm Springs. So, I'm running a retreat next March, and so, you know, in October, everything that I kind of talked about, all roads lead back to the retreat, and then it clicked over onto the first of November, and then I've got my new focus. It's now all about the book, which will probably run for two months, not one month, but by doing that, it means it doesn't mean you never talk about other things, but it means that all of your blog posts, all of your podcasts, all of your, anything else that you do really, Instagram posts, lives, interviews with other people, everything kind of is focussed around getting you a result for that goal, for that focus, for that area.

So, then we look at, “Okay, what are going to be the key metrics?” So, if you've got your focus for each month, you've worked out, okay, when you're going to expand, when you're going to take those big steps up those big levels up. What is it that you're going to do? So, you've got those monthly focusses, and then you're working out, “Okay to achieve that monthly focus,  so to achieve that monthly goal, what are all the little things that you've got to do to achieve that monthly goal?” So, in the planner that I dropped the link for, there, this is all spelled out in there. So, you can get that. If people are listening to the audio, it's tinatower.com/2020. So, you can work out what are all those things and then you list them all out and then allocate a date for them to be done. This is important, because if you don't allocate a date for them to be done, they will not get done or they'll get done very late. I like to take it a step forward that you don't just write the date in there of when you need it to be done, but you then also put it into your calendar or your diary, whatever you use.

So if you're using, say, iCal, I run my life by iCal, if I've got something to be done that's on, like, the planner, the to do list or whatever it is, I will actually carve that out in, in the calendar. So, like one of my tasks today was to establish a profile on Goodreads so that people were able to review the book on Goodreads. So, I knew that was going to take me about 30 to 40 minutes, so rather than having that on a to do list and then getting to the end of the day and going, “Shit, where did the time go? I didn't get time to get to that.”, I actually put that 30-minute appointment on my calendar, which means it's a meeting, it's, no one else can book that time, there's nothing else I can do. Like, I have to get that done at that time, because you know, when you make appointments and meetings with other people, you never miss them, right? But if you make a meeting with yourself, or you've got something to do, it's very easy to just shove that into the background. So, these things have to be important. You have to value yourself and the goals that you have so that you can actually achieve really great stuff. So, you put that all on there.

Have I still got you here? Let me, let me know how I’m going in the comments there. Have I still got you? Are you still with me? It's not, not getting too technical. Usually at Cocktails and Coaching I tend to waffle a little bit but today I was like, “You know what, let's, let's get down to it. Let's actually plan some good stuff.” So, when it comes to that, so we want to itemise the different things that we've got to do to achieve that goal, work out the dates of when they need to be done. Carve that out on your calendar. Lock in that time, and then it's working out the budget for that.

So, if you're doing different things and trying different marketing initiatives. If you're doing like Facebook advertising for example, or doing different things, put the budget there so that in the month before you can actually plan for that and know that you've got that money set aside, because just like time, money seems to dissipate as well when we haven't already got it there.

Karen and Helena, yep, Lynne’s on, yep. We've got some thumbs up going. Nice, nice. So, the other thing that I like to do is every month, I've got what I call a marketing superstar challenge. So, that is something that I use to challenge myself that I've never done before, because the more often we do things that we've never done before, the more comfortable we get with doing things we've never done before, because when it comes time to doing something that you're not super familiar with, you get that feeling, that kind of rises up in the pit of your stomach where you’re like, “What's going to happen here?” It's that fear. It's that, I had it the other night like before my book launch. I’ve obviously never had a book launch before. There was a moment in the car where I was going like, “You know what, maybe I'll just go back to the hotel. I don't need to do this. Is this going to be good? Is everyone going to like it? Is everyone going to hate it? I don’t know, aaahhh”, and that happens every time you do something new. But the more you push yourself out of your comfort zone, the easier that process gets, because you know that even if it doesn't work out, you're going to be okay. It's not that bad.

So, I like to come up with a marketing superstar challenge that kind of challenges the belief that I have around something. So, one of my most effective this year was Facebook Lives. So, what I'm doing right now. So, when I did my Laptop Life launch, which I think was in about August, my marketing superstar challenge was to do Facebook Live. So, I'd seen a heap of people talking about the benefits of doing lives, and I didn't really, I didn't really think it was a good idea, because all of the lives that I'd seen were people like walking down the street going, “Okay, so I'm just off to a really important meeting, because I'm really important.”, and all that sort of thing and I was like, “Really? We've got so much noise taking up in our lives, does that really give value to anyone and do I want to contribute to that?”, and the answer was no. So, I had to figure out a way that I could create Facebook Lives by still giving value and thinking that I was not just wasting people's time.

So, I tried that, with my superstar challenge in August, to actually give it a go. So, I planned a Facebook Live every day of our online course launch, and so every day we had a different topic. So, on one of them I had, like, marketing and one of them I had cash flow, and one of them had customer service and all that sort of things so that people actually learned something, and the average sale after each of those sessions was $2,500.  So, then I got to the end of the week and went, “Okay, can I afford now to say, I don't want to do Facebook Lives? No, it's something that I absolutely have to incorporate into my plan ongoing.”, but I needed to find a regular way to do that, because again, I couldn't keep, you know, doing things ad hoc, because that just doesn't work for my brain, I need to have a plan. So it took me a while to come up with this concept of Cocktails and Coaching as a way that I could go, “Okay, this is something that I do every Friday.”, so I can put it in my calendar and plan for that, and also people know that it's going to come on, and hopefully, I'm giving massive value at the same time. Right, right, guys. Yeah.

So, that's my example of marketing superstar challenge. So, when you're going through that, and you're planning out your year, and you're planning out your focus, and you're planning out all of the different marketing activities that you're going to be doing, I want you to think every month, “What is the one thing that you can try, that you've seen other people do, that looks like it's working really well, that you could give it a go?” So, let me know in the box, what's just one thing that you have a sneaky suspicion that, if you actually got out of your comfort zone and gave it a go, it might be highly beneficial for your business? Can you let me know because in the box then other people can get ideas from that as well? So, let me know, what is one marketing activity that you're going to try next year that you haven't tried before that you're going to give a go?

Let me know. What have we got? Writing, writing. Gosh, I like gin so much more than champagne. I feel so wasted that I've got such a beautiful champagne that people love and I'm kind of like, “Give me a Moscow Mule any day.” Come on, where's all the responses here? Let's go. Marketing things that you're going to do a superstar challenge that you haven't tried before. What have we got? Okay, Rochelle’s got, “A Facebook Live Q and A for parents.” Awesome. So, for Rochelle, she has an OT clinic, or multiple OTs, so that's a great idea to be able to do something to open it up to parents to go, “You know what? Let's just do a Q and A.” If you've got any questions about your kids, you can do that. That's an awesome idea.

Shannon said, “Podcasts”. Nice. So, podcasting I love. It's one of my favourite mediums and it is so helpful for business and it's very low cost and easy to do. The thing is with podcasts though, and this is where your plan is going to have to come in handy, is it's a big commitment. You can't kind of just dive in and then get a couple of weeks into it and go, “Oh my gosh, how am I going to keep up this pace.” So, you do have to carve out that couple of hours a week and commit to that regular schedule, because it's amazing how quickly that week comes around. You're like, “Oh my gosh, I've got to do another podcast.” So, before you start, my recommendation would be to have four to six weeks kind of up your sleeve ready to go and then try and stay in front, like that, and just, just be very planned with the time you've got, because I see so many people start podcasts and then go, “Oh wow, this is harder work than I thought.”, and then stop. So, stay committed because it's worth it.

Karen and Helen have said, “Workshops. Live workshops in the studio.” Excellent. That's a great challenge for you. So, figure out, with the people that are saying these things now, when are you going to do that? So, work out the date of when you're going to do that and then what are the tasks that you need to do before you actually go on that, that's going to enable you to make it happen?

Trisha has said, “Video in hospital waiting rooms.” Yep. So, Tricia has physio clinics. So, that's that one. Like, so Rochelle said, “askme@therapy questions.”, excellent. Sharon's going to do a podcast. Yes, you'd be a great podcaster Sharon, and regular webinars. Yeah, so webinars are one of the most, for anybody who's got online courses or even offline. I mean, I used to run them when we had the tutoring centre as well and webinars are a great thing. So hopefully you can take each other’s ideas there and inject some into each month, but try and open your mind, over the next couple of weeks, as you're going about your day, pay attention to the marketing that other businesses are doing. So, if you see another business doing something good, both, you know, it could be an event space or it could be, you know, a bricks and mortar store, it could be online or it could be on social media or whatever they're doing, have that open mind to really be curious about it and going, “Okay, what are they doing right there and what's the response look like, and is that going to be beneficial for my business as well?”, and don't discount things straight away because, I mean, if I'd done that, I never would have done Facebook Lives which meant I would have never had my commitment of a Friday afternoon at four o'clock to have a drink and talk to you guys. So, don't, don’t knock it until you try it.

So, the first thing, so that's the next thing, is doing, okay, your superstar challenge, working out your budget and then at the end of every month, it's going, “Okay, let's review this.” So, the way I do mine now is, I will fill in the entire 2020, but that doesn't mean that's going to go to plan. Actually, it's 100% not going to go to plan. The start will, but then as I go, at the end of every month, I'll look at that and go, “Okay, what worked really well? What didn't work so well? What are the opportunities that have come up that I never even dreamed that they would come up?”, you know, “What staff have we got now and what direction is the market taking us in?”, and all of this sort of thing that you kind of sit down at the end of every month. Look at all of the things that you did. Look at your calendar. Look at how your time went. Look at how your energy felt. Look at how, how much joy you kind of had and go, “Alright, when I go into next month, what do I want to change? What do I want to adjust as we're going in?”, and you've got that agility to be able to go, “You know what, what I thought this would be, it's not what I what it seemed to be.” So, you can change that and adapt it for as you’re going. So, it doesn't mean that you need to keep it exactly the same, but by having that plan, because some thing's are really long lead time, so if you want to do something, say for Sharon, who wants to do webinars, if you want to do a webinar in say February and you start doing that, and you've never done that before, you want to kind of start planning that a couple of months beforehand, because you want to work on, what's going to be your opt in? What's going to be your lead magnet to get people there? What's your presentation going to be like? Are you going to make your slides are you going to get a designer to do them? Like, there’s so many other things that will play into that, that if you're kind of living week by week on the seat of your pants, it's kind of going, “Okay, what do we do now?”, and there’s the total absence of strategy.

So, when you're looking at it as a whole in a year, it's got kind of two things. One, you can make it super strategic and the way it flows. Also, you notice how incredibly quickly the year is gone. So, when I sit down to plan my year and work out, “Okay, what are my 12 focusses going to be for one for every month?”, that's gone really quick, but what it means is I get to really look at that from a strategic point of view and go, “Okay, if there's 20 things.”, which there always is more than 20 things that I want to do, but I've only got space for like 12, and then I plan that out and then I map out the tasks and put them into the dates. You figure out really quickly, that time is gone, like that. So, what it does is, it makes me prioritise really, really carefully to go, “Okay. If I plan something out, and it's going to take the whole month, but I wanted something, to do something else that was also super important, which one of those is going to be the most important and do I need to shove off something else kind of thing?” Because, also, the result then is that you end up pretty realistic.

So, I know a lot of people the way they operate is, if you're not kind of planning out and I know when I asked the question at the beginning, I think everybody said they didn't have a plan, which means often when you get the chance to reflect, which sometimes isn't that often because if you don't have a plan, you're running around busy all the time, and busy means we're not actually taking the time to reflect and go, “Hang on a minute, is this working or not?”, but if you actually stop and look at it and go, “Okay, how much did I actually get done?”, you've got kind of this feeling of, of inadequacy and feeling like you should have got more done than what you did. But the thing is, if you had planned it out in your calendar, you realise that you actually got a heap of stuff done, it's just time consuming, and you might have you know, we’re born optimist, so we always underestimate the amount of time something's going to take. We always do it and the we’re like, “How does that takes so much time?”

Rochelle said, “Oh my gosh, this really has me thinking.” Good, good, good. Um, so yeah, carve out the time. It doesn't take that much. So, I spend, at the end of every month, a couple of hours. Well, I spend like a day reflecting, but a couple of hours on this and then I review our finances and our staff and all of that sort of thing, but having one day, every 30 days to really look at your business as a whole, I like to call it, you know, take the helicopter view. So, go up in the helicopter and look down on it and really reflect and go, “Okay, we've got all of these moving parts in our life and in our business, how did they all go together? How can I do that better? What did I do really well that I need to repeat that maybe wasn't in the plan, or what is in the plan a lot that I'm like, you know what, this sucks now? I need to throw that out and change it.”

Okay, so that's, that's my spiel for today. That is my sincere encouragement that you will implement a marketing plan for next year. Even if two of you implement a marketing plan for next year, it's going to be a massive, massive improvement. So, who feels like they maybe think that they might try to do this? Have you got any questions? Is there any questions that you want to ask about how to actually do this or any of the practicalities or any of the things that came up in your mind that kind of made you go, “I don't think this can work for me”, or, “Tina's full of it”, or something like that? Like, challenge it, ask, ask me the questions.

Sharon said, “I've got this.” Good. So, a lot of it is carving out the time. So, if you want to do this and you've got the link, so again, if people have come on a bit late, it's tinatower.com/2020, and you can download that marketing plan. To do it though, you need to carve out, like a full day. You really need to give yourself a day. Get your planner, I especially like Kikki K with washi tape, and really look at what do you want to achieve next year and plan out all of those different things. Look at, reflect on the year that has been. What's worked, what hasn't worked? What do you want to repeat? What direction do you want to go in so that you can finish next year, feeling in control and feeling calm and not feeling busy, but going, “You know what? I'm doing all the things that I need to do and the things that I'm not doing, I've chosen not to do because I know we only have 24 hours in a day and I choose to do the important things.” That's what I want for you. I don’t want you feeling like you should be doing everything all the time, because you just, you know, we've only got 24 hours in a day.

Tricia said, “Me, me me.” Rochelle said, “Do you try and align the marketing idea with the time of year?” Yeah, for sure, for sure. So, like one of the main reasons One Life is coming out now is so that we can get some initial traction and then in January, people are all at the bookstore on holidays going, “Okay. What, you know, the new year, new me kind of thing.” and so, what a great book to pick up, is, How to Create the Life of Your Dreams. So yeah, you definitely want to have, and this is what I mean about strategy, when you're looking at doing different things, definitely have strategy around that.

So, December, you know, you're obviously going to be taken over by Christmas stuff and the closing that's coming. For you, is it, you know, communicating when are bookings going to come in for the new year? So, I know in our tutoring centre, all of December used to be about getting pre bookings for term one of the following year. So, you want to think about what are the themes, what are the time of year in your business, and how can you capitalise on that, and again, this is where planning comes in handy, is because if you're kind of pre looking at that, six months down the runway, the strategy you'll come up with, and the plan and the seeds that you can plant along the way before that, will be so much better than if you wait till you start seeing competitors and other people start propping things up, and you're like, “Oh my gosh, I need to jump on that. Why haven't I done that?” So, you know, you want to be really prepared with that.

Lynne has said, “I'll continue to use your planner as it's been so helpful. I think I also need a wall planner as well.” Yes. So, the way I kind of use mine, so you've got it in a PDF form there. I, as I said, I'm quite a tangible person. So, I actually print mine out each month and I write on it and I blue tack it on the wall. So, the only kind of digital thing, I lock in all of my stuff in iCal, but everything else I kind of like to write and see. So I've got everything on cork boards next to me and I've got my calendar there with texta all over it and I like to look at it and see it and keep me on focus and, and kind of feel proud when I get those things ticked off too.

I'm just looking, at the moment I've got my half-done vision board for 2020 there as well, which is a whole other discussion, is doing things and a vision board to with your goals. Shannon said, “Definitely going to try.” Karen and Helena said, “We are all about planning out everything for 2020.” Awesome.

So, what I want to challenge you with is, everybody saying, “Yes, I'm going to do this.”, everyone said at the beginning, “No, I have not done this.” So, I want you to figure out what stopped you from doing this in the past, like, what's been the barrier to that and how can you eliminate that? Because, it's a discipline to be able to, to do it and keep to it, but you know, I think the, the incredible secret is plan it. Lock it in the calendar, make it important. Don't just put it on a to do list to do, but actually schedule. Schedule it in and treat that schedule like you would a meeting with anybody else because of course, it's important. You, as the leader of your business, have to take that time, and value that time, to do it because it will accelerate your business far quicker than anything else.

Rochelle said, “You should host a face to face planning session. I'll take the time to come.” Do you know what babe? I did think about that, to do that, in January but because this is a beautiful example of it. So, I have put it in the plan for next year because this year, it's all about the book, and so because I work on focusses, I would have to promote that now in December and I don't want to be mixing messages with going, “Here's everything about One Life and the book, come to the tour, come to all the things, buy the book, review the book, all of that sort of thing.”, and also go into the planning session. I just thought it was too much stuff, so I said no to that. So, you’ve got to know what to say yes and what to say no to, but definitely next year, that is on the list because I won’t have a book coming out then. So, we can, we can do that start of January 2021. This year you’ll have to fly solo.

Okay, so I want to open up to any general business questions. What's going on in your businesses this week? What's been the wins and what questions have you got? What are you struggling with? What are you thinking about? Let me know. Rochelle’s said she's going to update the planner to January 2021. The planner only goes to the end of 2020. I should have added another month in there. Oh, that's a good idea, I should have put it. I'm going to change it and then re upload it. I'm going to put a 2021 January there and actually put the day of the planning day so that everyone that downloads the planner has that already locked in on the calendar. You just gave me a great idea. Thanks Rochelle. See what planning can do? So good.

Okay, let me know what are you wins? What are your wins for the week? How's everything going, and let me know, am I the only one that drinks at Cocktails and Coaching, or are other people also enjoying a beverage? If you've got one let me know, and I know there's a few people on that aren't commenting there as well, that are ghosting. I see you. I see you at the top there. So, don't be shy. Let me know if you’ve got any questions. What are the wins? I want to know. I want to celebrate. Always so quiet. There’s always the same people talking, and I love it, but everyone else should talk up to.

Who else have we got? I’ll give it 30 more seconds and then I'll leave you. Okay, Sharon's there. Sharon's got, “No she doesn't have a drink. I chase the kids around whilst listening to you on the phone.” You must look and go, “Oh.”, as I'm kicking back with my Verve. We’ll have some later Sharon.

Lynne’s still at work so just coffee. Deanne’s with me. Yeah, yeah. Trisha said, “Loved the launch.” Trisha came to the book launch on Wednesday and is such a champ. I love you Trish. Karen and Helen have said, “Win of the week, meeting today for our big private school.” Excellent. So, Karen and Helen are interior designers and they're doing a big school, which is great.

Alrighty, well if there's no more questions, I will wrap it up. If anybody has any business questions they want to ask, type it nice and quickly. Nice and quickly. So just to reiterate, you've all said that you're going to take the time to plan. Hopefully you do two things now. Hopefully you go to that comment where I put the planner, download it, if you can't find it, tinatower.com/2020, download that, and then, the second thing that you need to do, I know you know, put it in the calendar. When are you going to do your planning day? So have a look for the rest of the year and I know people always at this time of the year are like, “Oh, my god, it's manic. I've barely got any time to do anything.” You’ll have a day somewhere. Find a day, block it out. If you have to do it in January, do it in January, but there's a psychological advantage to doing it before the end of the year, because as it kicks over into January and you see everyone kind of on there going, “Okay, I'm starting to make plans. What am I going to do?”, you're kind of like, “You know what, I've got this sorted already. I’m in. I've got my strategy. I'm good to go.” So, that's really cool. Oh, Jane said she came to a book launch in Sydney. I didn't meet you, Jane. I'm so sorry. “Heard about you via Deanne.” I'm glad you loved it, though. I'll have to come and meet you another time. Thank you for coming.

Alrighty everyone, well, have the most spectacular weekend. On Sunday morning, maybe, who knows. So initially, I was going to be on The Today Show last Monday, and then because of the bushfires it got rescheduled, and then it got rescheduled to next Monday, and then it got pushed from Monday to Tuesday, but on Tuesday, I'm in Melbourne for the book launch, and so now I'm going on, on Sunday, but I don't want to publicise it because I'm like, they've moved it so many times that I could just get bumped again, and this is one of the disadvantages to not being a famous person. There's so many different media opportunities we keep getting and then like getting bumped at the last minute because someone famous comes along. I've been bumped twice this week for The Bachelorette, but if all goes to plan on Sunday morning at 8:40am, I'll be on The Today Show. So, if you are up and about and having your coffee and want to watch a little bit of trashy TV for a bit, hopefully you'll get to see my, my very smiley face there, and my book.

Alrighty everyone. Have the most fantastic weekend. Thank you so much, and I will talk to you next Friday at four o'clock on Cocktails and Coaching. Bye.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Her Empire Builder. If you loved it, please share it on Instagram and Facebook for your friends, and if you really want to deliver me smiles, you can pop a review on iTunes. I'd love to hear from you, so if you have any questions email me at [email protected], and if you want to know more about what we do, head over to tinatower.com. Now I truly hope this podcast gives you so much value and you can use it to dream big, plan well and take massive action in building your very own empire that's perfect just for you.