the bossbabe podcast - 62. Your 2020 Goal Setting Coaching Session with Natalie Ellis

Episode Date: December 4, 2019

2020 is right around the corner and we know that you have massive goals for the new year. To help you achieve your goals, CEO of BossBabe, Natalie Ellis, and Head of Marketing, Kay Snels, discuss the tried and true methods that has helped Natalie achieve goal after goal. If you’re ready to make 2020 your best year ever, then this is the episode for you!  When it comes to goal-setting, it starts with having a clear vision and knowing which needle-moving tasks will help you move forward. Natalie breaks down The 90 Day Sprint Method, which is meant to keep you from getting overwhelmed by working on quarterly deadlines, and how to set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely) goals so that you work smarter, not harder towards your vision.  Be sure to tune in to this week’s mini episode to learn how you can set yourself up for success in 2020.  This episode is sponsored by The 90 Day Planner by BossBabe: bossbabe.com/goals

The biggest mistake that people make when setting goals, they set way too many goals. Do the things that you don't want to do first and get them out of the way. I really don't believe any goal is too big as long as it's broken down into enough measurable steps. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast, a place where we share with you the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, achieving peak performance, and learning how to balance it all. I'm Kaye Snells, head of marketing at Boss Babe, and your host for this week's mini episode. These mini episodes are designed with you in mind. Each episode, a member of team Boss Babe will dive into one topic, whether that's product, sales, marketing, community, or leadership,

you name it and we'll feature it. So consider this your weekly mini training that's super actionable so you can implement it right away. On today's mini episode, we've got our very own Natalie Alice, CEO of Boss Babe. I'm so excited to have her back on because we always have a good time. I love taking a look inside her mind. So today we'll chat about how to review your progress for 2019 and the best way to set goals going into 2020. So as always, screenshot yourself listening to this podcast and share it on your stories along with your biggest takeaway tagging at bossbabe.inc and hashtag the bossbabe podcast. This episode is sponsored by our very own product. In fact, our first ever physical product,

the 90 day planner. So our 90 day planner is the daily resource for ambitious women. We know you've got massive goals and we are here to help you achieve them by breaking them down into a 90 day sprint and then a step by step roadmap. So you'll wake up every single day knowing what to work on and every day we'll have you work through very specific, easy tools that we've been doing for years and has helped us win. Not only is the planner an amazing resource, but it's super cute. It's light. It's going to fit in your handbag. We made sure of that. And it's also ring bound. So it's going to be really easy to write on whether you're in the back of the car or on an airplane, it's super convenient. And don't worry if you don't have full clarity yet on your goals, because with the planner, you'll get crystal

clear on your top goals for the next 90 days using exercises that we've put in there. So that's both professional and personal goals. The process that you'll actually be working through in your planner is completely proven. It's something Danielle and I have been doing ourselves for years and we've been testing out this exact planner for a year now, as well as getting our clients and employees to work on this exact thing. So if you're a client of ours, you'll know that we've got you working through a 90 day sprint. This is an even easier way to do it. So if you're a client of ours, you'll know that we've got you working through a 90-day sprint. This is an even easier way to do it. So it's going to help you get amazing results. It's going to help you get crystal clear. It's a product that we are so incredibly proud of and is an absolute must-have. So go to bossbabe.com forward slash goals to get yours and it's holiday season. So I really recommend buying an extra copy, writing an amazing motivational note to your best friend,

telling her you believe in her and sending her a copy too because the best thing that we can do as friends is support our other friends in achieving their massive goals. So let me know when you've got yours, tag us, I want to see how you're using it and I also want to see the amazing results you get from it. A boss babe is unapologetically ambitious and paves the way for herself and other women to rise, keep going and fighting on. She is on a mission to be her best self in all areas. It's just believing in yourself. Confidently stepping outside her comfort zone to create her own vision of success.

Welcome back, Natalie. Yay, I'm glad to be here. So we've got something very exciting to talk about today, which is Boss Babe's first physical product. What are your thoughts? Oh my god, I am so excited about this. I have honestly wanted to create a planner for the longest time. And it was kind of like the IGA course, right? It was something I want to do for the longest time. But until I could really get it right, I just didn't want to do do it and Danielle and I came together a year ago and said okay let's start documenting every little thing that helps us win when we set goals and we'll turn it into a planner when it feels right and so that's what we did and to actually have it

here I have it physically in my hands right now it's just such a dream come true and as entrepreneurs we set out to create what doesn't exist and I feel like so many people listening can relate to that so it just feels great it feels really great to have an idea or a vision and see it really physically manifest it's just the best feeling and knowing what women and men are going to be able to create using this planner is incredible so I kind of guess that sums up how I'm feeling about it. That's so exciting. And today let's use that planner and go through it and help people set their goals for the new year. I think that would be such an exciting thing to do. So where would

you start, Natalie, when you're thinking about goals, vision boarding, but then also bringing that back to actual like tactical tasks, how do you usually approach it? Where do you start? So it's a good question. And I'm a big believer that honestly, you can achieve anything as long as you break it down into enough steps that are achievable and will help you get there. Because as long as you're making progress, you're getting somewhere. So goal setting is so fundamentally important but even beyond that before you even get to that stage of having goals really thinking through your vision is so important because when you think about your vision and the bigger picture and what you want to create it's your goals that slot in to make that vision a

reality so generally I would always start with even if it's just a quick meditation, just sitting quietly, no iPhone, no Instagram, and just thinking, and just thinking, okay, in one year, in five years, in 10 years, if I just get playful, what do I want to create? What do I want my life to look like? And this might seem vague, but I can honestly tell you, this is what's gotten me to where I am now. I remember being 16 and first kind of starting to play with this and daydream my vision and those different things and I started to write down really specific things. So that was, oh my god, 11 years ago now. So I would sit and get really specific like I want to wake up in crisp white sheets and see sunshine and palm trees. Bearing in mind I lived in the north of England.

It was raining and gray most of the time. That probably seemed like a crazy thing for a 16-year-old to say. But I would get so specific. And by doing that, I actually helped make my vision a reality because I was taking really aligned action towards that without even knowing I was doing it. So that's kind of where it begins. So I really recommend everyone just get quiet and still for a few minutes and daydream, get playful, think about the bigger picture. And so let's start there and just brainstorm that,

just write down as many words, visions, as specific as you can be or not be on a big piece of paper. That's where I would start. Just get it all out of your mind and down on paper because once it's there it's it's a lot easier to make happen so that's the first step and then I would take it back a little bit so okay you've got this big vision of where you want to go but let's assess where you have been so you know it's coming to the end of 2019 now so it might be a really really good time to sit down and get super clear on what you have accomplished in the past year so if you were super organized last year and you already set your goals for 2019 pull them out if you don't have them that's absolutely fine we can do without so pull them out and start to look at did you accomplish everything that you set out to and so maybe list all of your big wins and you might have to pull up

your calendar and go through your calendar to start remembering them or scroll through your Insta feed to remember what those wins were because I'm sure you have so many. But write down a list and think about as you're doing this, what really helped you get there? So was there any specific rituals? Was there a certain mindset? Was there any partnerships? Like what was it that really helped you achieve these goals? After that, think about what didn't work well. So what did you set out to do but not achieve? Or what did you write down as a goal but not actually work towards? What are you sad that you didn't actually accomplish? Write those things down too. And not in a way that you are going to

give yourself a hard time, but more you can take a good look at what you accomplished and what you didn't. And so once you've got that, that that's gonna help you really understand what it is that you're gonna set going into 2020 now the biggest mistake that people make when setting goals so listen up everyone this is the biggest mistake that people make let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform kajabi you know i've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity, which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place, so it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify

to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial. Go to kajabi.com slash boss babe to claim your 30-day free trial. That's kajabi.com slash boss babe. They set way too many goals, which coming from a really ambitious person might

sound ridiculous, but trust me on this. We start out the beginning of the year with all of these massive goals and they become really overwhelming. And so the big reason that we created the planner in 90 day sprints, which is essentially in three month way of working through quarters, 90 day sprints is because when you're doing things over 12 months, it can get really overwhelming. So what I would ask you to do is create your big vision and big goals for 2020, but then break them down into Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4. And that's why you'll have a 90 day planner where your job for the next 90 days is just to accomplish what is written down here. So that's where I would start. That's so resonates because I've had a lot of planners and I always feel this need to fill up every single line.

Like if they have 10 lines under the goal section, I want to fill out those 10 lines because I feel like that's when I've reached success. But then I end up not meeting all of the goals and then it feels like I failed. So that so resonates. And I think that most planners that I've used have, you know, a one month. And I really like that it's 90 day sprint, because I think there are

so many goals that you can really accomplish within four weeks. And it just feel like that sprint feels it feels really, really good. So I like that. So once someone has written down their goals and reflected on the past year, what is their next step? Okay, so they've got this big vision. They kind of know where they want to go. I would then start to map this out into a 90-day sprint. So I would get really, really clear on your top personal goals, professional goals, and metrics. So personal goals are those things that aren't directly to work.

They aren't directly impacting you and making money in that sense. So it might be fitness goals, health goals, that kind of thing. Professional goals are going to be professional development and work and business goals. And then metrics are going to be the things that you're measuring. So if you have your own business, your metrics are obviously going to be a lot wider than if you don't. If you don't have your own business, it's going to be things like financial goals or return on your portfolio, whatever those specific metrics are that you're measuring. It might be social media followers, it might be workouts per week. So metrics are the numbers that are going to tell you if you are on track with

your goals or not. So if one of my personal goals is to work out three times a week, then the metric I'm going to measure is three workouts per week. One of my financial goals might be to make X amount towards my savings in three months. So I'll put that in there and it'll just help you really stay on track. So I would just review those so personal, professional and metrics and then start to break that down into months. So you can see over the next 90 days what it is that you're wanting to achieve. And so break it down into months. And so when I've got those big goals written down and there's a space that isn't a planner I would then go through and I'll just put a J for January F February M for March beside each goals that I'm deciding is it January February or March that I'm going to do it and watch out for another big mistake that might happen you might

go through and you'll put them all as January because you're like no I'm super motivated this month I can achieve all of this and it's just not the kind of way that we want to be to work in towards things because we want to be creating habits. We want to be setting big needle moving goals that probably are going to take longer than two, three, four weeks to achieve. So go through and number them and then go to a section where you're going to plan your month and think about what top goals you're going to work towards this month and what needle moving activities are going to help you get there. So for example, if a top goal for January is launch website, then one of the needle moving goals for launch website would be write copy for website. Another one might be do branding shoot. Another might be create Pinterest mood board. So you can see already that

one goal of creating a website's been broken down into at least three or four needle moving activities and so if you do that you're going to start to understand what your month looks like and how you can start to actually accomplish this goal because otherwise you might be looking at this bigger goal getting overwhelmed and you know you have an entire month to make it happen but you're so overwhelmed that you wait till like the last week of the month to make it happen and then you don't even know where to start versus listing out these needle moving activities that you're going to work towards and you can set maybe one a week and go through them so that's how I would break them down that way and then I would break them down even further so in the planner

we've got this already set up for you so you can do it on a daily basis or if you don't have the planner you can do it in a notebook so every morning when you wake up I want you to set three needle moving goals that you're going to accomplish in that day. So I like to say eat the frogs first. So eat the frogs first means do the things that you don't want to do first and get them out of the way. So here's one of mine. So I don't love recording ads for podcasts because they're super scripted and I find it really hard to just sit down and concentrate. I love talking, free of flowing, but to sit down and create podcast ads, I seem to always find something else to do. I'll get distracted in my inbox, my Instagram, all the things. So when I sit down and write my three goals for the day,

my top goal might be write podcast ad, then I might have write copy for website, and the third one might be meet with web developer, whatever they are. If I know the one that I'm going to procrastinate on the most is the podcast ad, I'm going to make sure I do that first. And that is going to be a game changer for you working towards your goals and also your mindset. Because once you've done that goal first, that frog first, you are going to feel so good about yourself that you are unstoppable for the rest of the day. So that's a big tip of mine. Like you said, Kay, there's always going to be a long list of things that you could be doing, but if you achieve three really big needle moving things a day and you're not getting distracted on busy work, you're going to be making some pretty big progress. Love that. And can you

remind everyone one more time what needle moving means to you? Yeah, so needle moving means that it's actually making progress. So perhaps being in your inbox for 20 minutes is not moving the needle on anything because you're generally just responding back to other people's emails, their priorities. And yes, it's something that you should really be doing, but it's not going to really move the needle for you. Whereas actually writing website copies so that your website can go live and get seen by clients so you can make money is needle moving. If you think about a thermometer and you're trying to get to the other, you're watching the sauna heat up, right? You've got to be putting in that heat so that the needle's actually moving to the other side. So if you think about that

needle moving towards that massive goal, then needle moving tasks are all the little pushes or little extra bits of heat that are pushing you towards getting there. Like when you're brewing your coffee in the morning. Exactly. I love that. And so tell me a little bit. So usually through the end of the year, people are getting super excited about the new year. They're going to reinvent themselves. They're going to set these goals. How do you approach that?

Like, what is your advice for anyone listening on how to set goals that you can actually accomplish? So I would write them down. So you'll do the vision exercise, write them down, then go through and start crossing things out that are pretty unrealistic. And you're just putting it in there because you feel like if you do it you're gonna feel like really good about yourself you're gonna be a great person but deep down you know you're not gonna do it so maybe take piano lessons is on there you're like yeah I would love to be the kind of person that learns

how to play piano then you go back through it and you're like you know what this is never gonna happen it's actually just gonna clog up like space on my goal board. Let's just get rid of it. And so go through and refine it and start taking things out. And also, once you've got all of these different goals, they might not all need to happen in the first 90 days. You might be able to separate them out. Maybe you don't work out very much right now and you'd like to get to five workouts a week. If you start January saying, I'm going to work out five times a week, then you might overwhelm yourself from the get-go. So maybe in the first 90 days you want to aim to have three workouts per week and then in your second quarter, so your second 90-day sprint, you're going to get up to five workouts a week. That to me feels a lot more achievable and if you exceed your goals,

great, you're going to feel really good about yourself and it's much better to be in that place than putting out these massive stretch goals in the very beginning that you know you're going to feel really good about yourself. And it's much better to be in that place than putting out these massive stretch goals in the very beginning that you know you're really going to struggle to achieve. And I'm not by any means saying that you should lowball yourself or set smaller goals than you know you're capable of. But it's really about refining and getting realistic and making sure they're smart goals. So specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely goals. That really resonates for me as well, because I have set those big goals before, especially when it comes to working out and you always feel down on yourself. You are like, okay, I'm going to be that kind of person who works out every single day. And then when you don't do it or you skip a day, then you get in

that cycle of not doing it. And then instead of rewarding yourself each time for doing it, or even overachieving, you're getting into this vicious cycle of see, I couldn't do it. So I really love that you're flipping that upside down. That's really, really insightful. So let us in on the little secret of yours. What is a goal of yours for the next year, either personal or professional? So I have so many. So there's a lot. One of my personal goals is to do more fun things. So generally, if someone asks me, what do you do for fun? I will say work, which sounds so ridiculous, but I'm a Capricorn. I love what I do. Work is fun to me, but I know I could be doing

something a lot more fun than that. So I'm setting myself a goal of one fun class a month. So something like twerking or something really silly and fun that I'm not going to be doing to get good at, but I'm going to be doing to have more fun. So that's a goal of mine. And that originally started as one class a week. And then I went through and we find I'm like, there's no way I'm going to do that once a week. So let's set once a month. And it's something I can look forward to and feel good about doing. I'll gladly go twerking with you, Natalie. I know a few good places in LA. Okay, deal. I'm going to hold you to that. I love it. So tell me a little bit more about some of the resources that we have prepared for our community that are listening to

this podcast. Yep. So we have tons of different resources available for you. We're going to put some in the show notes. If you are listening to this and you're really resonating with the goal setting process, but you feel like you need a little bit longer and a bit more handholding to do it, then come and do it with me. So I've recorded an amazing goal setting session. You can just click below. You can come join me. It's a recorded session and it will feel like we are literally sitting together,

having a coffee, setting goals together. So I'll walk you through it step by step. It's about an hour long. It's going to be really, really helpful for you. There's also a monthly calendar download below. So it's going to be a calendar that you can download and print off and you can fill in what's going on for you that month. So it might be really, really good to stick up above your desk.

I love to do that because I love to see my month at a glance. And then also, I would love to share a little something with you. This is inside the planner, but if you don't have the planner, I want you to still have access to this tool because it's an absolute game changer. So I'm just going to explain it for you. So I've done a full podcast episode on this before because of how powerful it is. And so I just want to dive into it again. And it's the power of preemptive gratitudes. And it was something that was absolutely non-negotiable for me to put inside the planner and so what it is you know I'm obsessed with the morning routine

so what this is is in your morning routine when you wake up I want you to set three gratitudes so three things you're grateful for that haven't happened yet but I want you to write them as though they are happening so for example I am so grateful that today I signed two new high ticket clients. I am so grateful that today my boss approved my pay raise. Whatever it is, write them down and I want you to do this for an entire month. At the end of the month, go through and start reviewing the preemptive gratitudes that you've wrote and tick off the things that came true. Seriously, DM me when all of this has came into fruition and your mind is blown because all this magic has fallen into place because it will. This is seriously the best tool and is something I swear

by. So that's another tool. It's totally free. You can just pull out a notebook or a journal and do this every single morning or you can get it in the planner along with a few other tools and tricks that we've put in there but it's a real game changer. But definitely check out as well the training with me because I would love that chance just to sit down with you and help you get really really specific. We'll do a full review of 2019 and I'll go a lot more into detail on all the things that we should be reviewing and all the areas to review and then I'll get really specific about 2020 so personal professional and metrics I'll explain what all of them are I'll get you to do some big picture vision exercises and we'll break it down step by

step like I said before I really don't believe any goal is too big as long as it's broken down into enough measurable steps. I love that. And can you tell us a little bit more about where people can get the 90-day planner, Natalie? Yep. So you just go to thebossbibplanner.com and you can pick up a copy. And also, if you're feeling super generous, why not buy a copy for a best friend of yours and send it to her and surprise her because I feel like it would make her day and I just think as friends what better thing to do than support each other in achieving our goals and massive vision and maybe include a little note in there just saying you believe in her I think it would absolutely make her day it doesn't cost a lot of money but you could make her entire 90 days oh I like that I actually have done that myself

before I buy a planner for my best friend every single year and I'm really excited that this year it can be the one by Boss Babe. So I love that. Thank you so much for coming on again, Natalie. I always think we have a good time and thank you for showing us a little bit behind the scenes of the 90-day planner. My pleasure. I'll see you all in the training. If you loved this episode, please subscribe, download a few more, and please leave us a review. I really want to hear what you enjoyed, what your main takeaways were, and I also want to know what you want to hear us talk about next. To say thanks for leaving us a review, we'll send you a copy of The Boss Babe 25. The Boss Babe 25 is the 25 essential resources you need for personal and

professional growth it covers everything from our favorite rituals books and hacks if you want a copy just leave us a review screenshot it and send to podcast at bossweb.com we will then email you a copy asap and since we love instagram you can go to the hashtag the boss babe podcast and find our latest post and leave a question in the comments we love reading through the comments and we'll make sure to answer it on our next podcast