Coaching – Page 18

February 5, 2020 by katmillar Leave a Comment

I never felt smart enough

17 years ago, I worked in NZ at an insurance company.

While I was grateful to have a job in the city, with nice people in an office that overlooked the water…

…inside I felt lost and unfulfilled.

I didn’t enjoy my job, and my life felt meaningless and boring.

I struggled to stay awake most days and had the Sunday night blues… every. single. week.

My joy was found by drinking with my mates. Fun, but not exactly building my future.

I wanted to change jobs, but I didn’t know what else to do.

I had no qualifications or certifications and barely any skills.

Deep down I knew I wanted my run my own business.

But I didn’t feel knowledgeable or smart enough.

I was so fearful to step into the unknown.

I hadn’t been to Uni… I hadn’t even finished school. And I had no money.

When I thought about my dream, my underlying thought was always “Who am I to do that?”

But I was determined to pursue more meaningful work.

So despite the fear, anxiety, and insecurity, I made a decision to learn everything I needed to learn.

I took the leap and started my entrepreneurial journey.

I enrolled in course after course…

…attended countless seminars and workshops (making notes like crazy)

…sat up until late, night after night, learning and applying the skills.

I invested thousands of dollars into education, read and listened to hundreds of books, constantly created content and kept showing up.

Fast-forward to now, and I barely recognise the young woman who worked at that insurance company.

Since then I have…

worked in 3 different countries
run over 100 workshops
coached 4,000+ people
personally earned over $1 million in sales
created dozens of programs, meetups, and webinars
and have clients all over the world

I’m a full-time Coach, Consultant and Speaker with a thriving business, where I get to travel when I want, wake up when I want, and help people do what they love for a living.

I used to read stories like these and never thought it could happen to me.

But it did. And it can happen to you too.

I’m here to show people how they can also live their life on their own terms and have a profitable business…

…even if they didn’t go to university or grow up in a wealthy family.

I love helping people make their own income by helping more people, doing what they love and sharing their gifts with the world.

Most of all, I get the deepest joy when I see people stop feeling unworthy and start experiencing deep fulfillment by doing what matters to them.

Are you stuck not knowing exactly what actions to take next?

Do you recognise that limiting thoughts, beliefs or procrastination is holding you back?

Would you like to create a profitable business, doing what you love?

It’s possible for you.

If you want clarity, guidance, and direction for your next steps, jump on a free* 30-minute call with me and get moving again.

Go here to book your time

Life is meant to be fulfilling and that comes by taking action towards your dreams.

I can’t wait to chat!

Kat

* For first-time sessions only

February 3, 2020 by katmillar Leave a Comment

6 Steps to Attracting Your First Paying Client, Fast

Do you ever wonder “How do I take people from free sessions to paid sessions?”

If you’re new to business or you’ve been working with people for free but not yet being paid for your services, it’s time to give yourself a pay-day!

It’s so important that you start charging for your services, because THAT is when you know that you’re in business.

Then you start to build your confidence and you start operating out of the identity of a business owner, rather than the identity of someone who, for example, just helps their friends.

It’s a significant shift!

If people aren’t paying you, you can doubt yourself and feel like something is wrong with you.

But if you’re not being paid yet, it’s not usually that you’re not good, it’s usually a packaging, marketing or sales problem – and these are skills you can learn.

In this article and video, I share with you six steps to signing up your first paying client, fast.

Here is the six-step process:

1. Unpack your uniqueness

There are so many things about you that are unique and only you have them. It’s how you stand out from everyone else who is doing something similar.

Look at your backstory, what led you to this point and the challenges that you’ve had to overcome to get to know you are now. I want you to think about what has been the biggest challenge that you’ve overcome and how you solved that problem.

I was talking to someone today who said, there are a lot of people working in your space, and it got me thinking because I never think there’s a lot of coaches, I think it’s a good thing that there are lots of coaches.

I think the world needs more coaches because right now the fastest growing industry is the information technology industry with coaching as the second-fastest growing industry. And that can only be a good thing.

People are craving human connection. The problems that are on the rise in the world today, coaches that can offer to help people, to improve their lives, to improve their quality of life can be successful.

We all have problems, we all have limiting beliefs and as a coach, I truly believe that there are not enough coaches to help everyone. So, don’t think of it as a competition.

When you’re unpacking your uniqueness, you want to look at what problems you have personally overcome. Not just looking at your stories, but what you did about them. For example, did you enrol in a course? What skills did you learn, what experience do you have?

That unique combination of everything you’ve done in your life combined with your personality, your skills, your experience, your knowledge, your unique family situation, and the problems you’ve solved. All that makes up you and your uniqueness.

2. Identify your ideal client

This is the thing that trips up most people that I talk to, especially coaches and consultants when it comes to their target market, it’s not very niched. It’s too broad.

You need to get really clear on specifically the kinds of people that you do help and the people that you don’t help because if you’re vague, no one’s going to be able to find you and you’re not going to be able to find them.

Identify your ideal client, their attitude, their personality, where are they hanging out, get clear on that and don’t be afraid to go deep and specific.

Think about the problems they have that you can solve, their fears and frustrations, dreams and desires. Use this in your marketing and sales language.

3. Organise your offer

Put together an offer that is a signature program, a step-by-step process that you’re going to take people through that’s uniquely yours so people don’t just buy coaching, they don’t just buy time with you, they value tools and the process that takes them from where they are, to where they want to be.

You want to be able to organise it, so it becomes an irresistible offer.

One of the elements that make a great offer is community. People value a quality community. They can ask questions, get inspired by other people, they can learn, get feedback and have information tailored to them…

…because anyone can Google, anyone can find information online. But people don’t just want information, they don’t want you to just educate them, they want a program where they work through and they see the step=by-step change to get the result that they want.

I recommend that it contains some community, and has some offline and some online if possible.

A live element in your program, on zoom, for example, means you can coach people all over the globe, but you also want people are in your area to create a community because people crave that human connection.

You want to think about what kind of online training modules you offer, whether it’s videos, worksheets, cheat sheets, templates, what are the things that you’ve created that have helped you overcome problems that you can package for people.

Remember, people don’t want to just buy time with you, and they don’t want to calculate how much they need to pay per hour, but if you put it all together in a signature program, they are more likely to buy it.

4. Create your Content

When you create your content, you’ve got to think about where your ideal clients are hanging out? How do they like to receive content? Do they like it through video like Facebook Live? Blogs? Webinars? LinkedIn? Instagram and stories or Facebook?

Do they want a workshop? Or a free evening meetup or brunch or a seminar? There are lots of different ways that you can deliver content to people. So, think about how you want to deliver your content.

I was on holiday in New Zealand last week and my sister Vicki and I did a business summit. Every now and then, she went off and did half-hour phone coaching calls.

I was so inspired by the way she has set up her life so she can go for a walk and talk on the phone and get paid for it while on holiday.

That’s something you can do as well, think about where Iyou want to meet people – in person? Or would that be a hassle for me to drive? For you to have a business that suits your lifestyle you must make sure there is longevity for you.

Maybe you don’t want to travel to people, maybe you want them to come to you or it’s on the phone. You might only do 30-minute or 45-minute sessions.

Remember, it’s your business, you can do it however you want. That’s the beauty of working for yourself. You don’t have to follow your boss’s rules. You are the boss, so you get to set the rules.

Obviously be flexible about what suits your ideal client, but when you identify your ideal client, you choose them. You can say my ideal client doesn’t mind doing phone calls if you want to do coaching on the phone.

You might say my ideal client doesn’t want to do live events because I don’t want to do live events. I want to do webinars.

Remember, you’re the boss, you’re in control. And that’s one of the perks of having your own business.

5. Attract your avatar

Your avatar is the person you’ve created as your ideal client and you attract them by speaking their language. Now the best way that I found to do this is to create a freebie. Create something for free, downloadable, like a PDF cheat sheet or guide that is around three to five pages.

They’re the ones that work the best now, not an eBook. Most people don’t read them anymore. A very small percentage of people read eBooks, you want something that can be consumed in about 10 minutes or less.

It should be valuable. Just because it’s free doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be valuable. If you can help someone with a problem and get them a result through that freebie you can build your email list, which is an asset for you in business when you’re starting out.

You’re attracting them through compelling content because you’re speaking their language, and freebies a great way to do it.

6. Offer a free session

At the end of your freebie, you want to offer a free consultation. So you would say something like “Would you like help with this?” or “Would you like to know exactly how to apply this?”

Because remember, they’ve got the information, but they still don’t know how to really apply it to their life. They still need your help.

So, you can offer them the free session on the thank you page of the freebie, a free discovery or clarity session with you, and then you can then offer them your paid program if it’s the right match.

When you’re first starting out you may wish to consider offering your whole program completely for free to, for example, 3 people to get great reviews and testimonials. That will help you get your next paying clients.

Then offer your coaching program massively discounted for a few people again to get great testimonials.

Give them lots of value, be really generous and help them get a great result, and that will help you build your business.

So those are the six steps to attracting your first paying client.

To recap:

Unpack your uniqueness
Identify your ideal client
Organise your offer
Create your content
Attract your avatar
Offer a free session

Through running successful businesses since 2003, I’ve been able to create a simple, powerful formula that anyone can useto attract qualified leads and eager clients.

I’ll be sharing the strategies working best right now to attract more ideal clients.

So if you want to accelerate your business, I invite you to join me at the FREE 1/2-day workshop

“Attract New Clients With Ease”

You can learn more or grab your complimentary ticket here

January 23, 2020 by katmillar Leave a Comment

5 of the Most Costly Mistakes Coaches Make and What to Do Instead

Every 6 months, my sister and I go away and do what we call a ‘summit’.

We book a house or resort and spend the time dreaming, visioning, planning, coaching each other on our challenges and creating.

It’s an amazing experience! (highly recommend)

I’ve just finished one up with Vicki in NZ. We booked a house at Tauranga that looked over a beautiful garden and water.

Vicki is also a Coach so we talk a lot about our businesses and how we can best help our clients.

We talked a lot about the mistakes we’ve made as Coaches, and the mistakes a lot of our clients make.

If you have been in the coaching industry for a while, you’ve probably seen a massive rise in the number of coaches.

Many Coaches are incredible at what they do, but sadly, meeting a profitable Coach is rare.

There’s a big demand for great coaches, but a lot of coaches are getting disillusioned because they’re not making the money that they want.

In today’s video and article, I share with you 5 of the biggest mistakes coaches make and what to do instead to put money into your account and be profitable as a Coach.

If you have been in the coaching industry for a while, you’ve probably seen a massive rise in the number of coaches.

Many coaches are incredible at what they do, but sadly, meeting a profitable Coach is rare.

There are so many people who need help. There’s a big demand for great coaches, but a lot of Coaches are getting disillusioned because they’re not making the money that they want.

Sometimes they wonder if it is even possible for them to become a profitable Coach.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

ALL the enthusiastic, positive, grateful clients imaginable are out there right now, ready and waiting for you.

But you may be making mistakes that are preventing you from attracting and signing them up.

Here are five of the most costly mistakes Coaches make:

1. Too Broad a Niche

When you start out as a coach, there is a temptation to call yourself a life coach or to call yourself a coach who “helps people discover what they want” or “helps people get unstuck/move forward in their life or fulfill their potential”.

It’s really important that you have that one thing so that people know that you’re masterful at that one thing.

I see this on their Facebook a lot on Facebook pages or websites, they’re too broad and when you’re too broad, you’re not going to attract the right clients because you miss them – and they miss you.

This is a problem that keeps coming up time and time again with the clients that I work with.

They can’t find you because you’re talking like everyone else. You’ll never be an expert, you’ll never be masterful as an authority if you are too broad.

A broad niche might be, for example “I help people get fit” or “I help people get on purpose” or “I help people reclaim their joy”. These types of niches don’t separate you from everyone. They don’t show your uniqueness.

A micro-niche however, is where you can say, for example, “I help busy Mums in the eastern suburbs to get fit at home and have more energy, even without a gym membership”.

It’s not trying to help men, bodybuilders or people who want to put on weight, it’s very specific. It’s Mums, they’re busy and they live in a specific location.

Another micro-niche might be instead of saying, “I help people grow their business”, you might say…

“I help real estate agents go from six figures to seven figures.”

or “I help busy women declutter their homes in 6 weeks or less”

It’s got numbers and it’s very clear that you have mastered a problem a client has.

2. Not Focusing Enough on Dollar Producing Activities (DPA)

A lot of us get caught up in the fluff, looking at what other people are doing. reading articles, looking at YouTube clips, going to free courses but there’s no overarching strategy, no step by step clear plan.

Without a focus on DPA wake up in the morning, open your laptop and start feeling busy, but you’re fooling yourself by thinking you’re being productive when there are things you could be doing that directly puts money in your bank account.

How often are you directly speaking to your ideal client and making them an offer?

Ideally, you want to focus on sales conversations and building automated funnels.

My client Gaynor, for example, has set up an automated funnel that leads to a course online. People watch her webinar, click on the link that directs them to the sign-up page for her course.

That’s a dollar producing activity. It takes time and effect but has incredible rewards. She recently ran a course, where 30+ people had signed up to her course from her webinar and made $10,000 from the funnel.

3. Not Investing in resources and support

As a business owner, you need to pay serious attention to what you’re investing into.

Some people will say to me things like I tried funnels, but it was too hard.

Things that matter require investing the time, energy and commitment.

If you don’t invest in quality, you’re not going to get a quality result.

If you’re a Coach and you’re not investing in a Coach, for example, then you’ll feel that incongruency. It’s not aligned, because what you’re selling is something that you’re not buying.

We all need a Coach.

So are you investing enough time, resources and technology to get things done? Whether it’s setting up a funnel, webinar or workshop – it all takes energy and resources.

The Coaches that aren’t making it? They are not investing the time, money and resources to make it happen.

4. Not having enough sales conversations

When you get on the phone and talk to someone that is the most direct line to having money go into your bank account.

A lot of people say … I hate sales. I don’t want to sell, I’m not a salesperson and I get that because I’ve been and I’ve said that many times before, I’ve avoided sales, I’ve avoided sales training, I haven’t even wanted to think of myself as a salesperson.

But sales is the only thing that allows you freedom. If you can’t sell, you’re really stuck building someone else’s dream. And when it really clicked for me, because freedom is my highest value. I had to learn it. There’s no way around it. I had to just learn this skill and learn how to do it.

Sales conversations can happen anywhere. You don’t need to have a product to dive in and start selling something but you can start asking questions.

How many people are you asking questions? How many people do you ask questions to? Finding out their problems, finding out their concerns?

You can do this at networking events or online through Facebook groups – anywhere there are people.

Sales conversations aren’t necessarily the view to sell, it can open up the conversation and see whether you’re a match.

If you’re not doing that on a regular basis, you’re going to struggle as a coach.

5. Not using proven systems

Not using proven systems is like reinventing the wheel, trying to figure it all out yourself…

…you might get there but it takes so long when you have people who have proven systems tested and measured and allow us to model after them.

I’ve got millionaire mentors who I’m always looking at what they what they’re doing.

I’ve invested in their programs, I’ve invested over $100,000 doing programs and learning from people who have proven systems.

If you’re struggling, ask yourself am I using proven systems?

You don’t want to be struggling on your own. Being in business as a Coach on your own is so hard to do.

It gets discouraging if you’re not getting clients that hit your income goals and allow you to have the lifestyle that you want.

If you’re not hitting your goals, then you need to invest in yourself and you need to make sure that you follow proven systems. People have gone before you, figured it all out and you can walk in their footsteps.

Here’s a recap of the five costly mistakes coaches make and what to do instead:

Having too broad a niche
Not enough focus on dollar producing activities
Not investing in resources and support
Not having enough sales conversations
Not using proven systems

Would you like help to avoid these mistakes and know exactly what you need to do to attract and sign up coaching clients in 2020?

Come along to our workshop on Saturday, 1st February, ‘Get More Coaching Clients’.

If you want to know EXACTLY what to stop wasting your time on and learn the SPECIFIC actions that sign up clients, then this workshop is for you.

To find out the best strategies and tools to help more people and make more money, click below to learn more ?

? In This One Powerful Day You Will Learn:

? The BEST methods to connect instantly with your audience and INFLUENCE them to your ideas

? How to become a master influencer and build authentic trust and a powerful connection with your ideal clients

? How to use neuro-marketing to influence the SUBCONSCIOUS mind in your written and spoken content

? The MOST effective way to design your marketing plan so that you nail your message, and attract the right clients

? A proven, effective marketing plan that you can tailor to your business

If you want to grow a profitable coaching business, this workshop is a must.

2020 is the year to finally let go of what’s holding you back and create the life you dream of!

➡ Full Details Here

January 16, 2020 by katmillar Leave a Comment

3 Bold Moves to Attract More Clients in 2020

We’re in a new year, a new decade, it’s time to be bold in 2020!

With the start of the new year, it’s time to start thinking about how you can get to the next level!

I recommend every quarter you do at least one big bold move to sink your teeth into it and go for it.

These strategies have worked consistently for me and for my clients.

For example, in my program I recently had a client Gaynor, who lives in the countryside in the UK and can’t always go out to networking events. Because of that, she’s limited in what she can do to attract new clients in person.

But recently, she applied one of these strategies and made nearly $10,000 and had 29 clients sign up to her offer.

In this video and article, I share three bold moves that you can make in 2020 to help you attract new clients and attract your ideal clients.

Here are the 3 bold moves to attract new clients:

1. Do a Webinar

No doubt you’ve been on webinars yourself, and you’ve seen how they work. It’s like an online seminar where you can teach valuable content that’s going to help your ideal client get a result.

I recommend a webinar that you teach three things, so you build trust and show that you’re the expert in that area. Let’s say your product or your service gets them from A to Z, your webinar might teach them ABC, for example.

You demonstrate through your webinar how you can solve their problems and showing your knowledge, expertise and your skills.

Then at the end of the webinar, you make the offer. I recommend you price your service between five hundred and fifteen hundred dollars for your program or course or your two-day workshop.

You might offer a strategy session or a discovery call at the end of the webinar. You just need to insert a link for them to book an appointment in your calendar.

This is a great way to attract clients. It’s not just the people who sign up to your webinar that becomes part of your marketing, it’s all the people that see it, see the positioning that you’ve created from just someone on Facebook to an authority in that area.

It’s a great way to become a thought leader about that specific niche, a fast way to build on that trust you’ve established because you have shown them your journey and how you can help them on theirs.

I did my first webinar in 2016. I was quite resistant to webinars because I would freak out with the technology breaking down. I don’t know why that was a weird limiting belief. But once you work through it, you realize that it’s a lot easier than you think.

I use the platform Zoom, an easy platform to use. Ideally, you want to set up a landing page for people to log in to, then send them a nurture sequence email.

Those who don’t show up Live, also get a replay for a short period of time of 48 hours to view it. All those people who don’t come to the webinar, they’ve seen your marketing, all those people who turned up, had the opportunity to sign up to your offer.

This is a really great way to build your email list and an important asset for your marketing toolkit. With social media becoming saturated and hard to cut through, your email list a way for you to be sustainable in your business.

As opposed to a website where they can click off to social media, or a blog post, a landing page is standalone, and they convert four to ten times more than a website.

I use Click Funnels. You can do webinars, set up landing pages and create templates. As people opt-in, you’re constantly building your email list so you can continue to provide value.

Most people are not going to sign up with you the first time they see your posts, people go through a journey. I have had people been on my email list for years, and then suddenly out of the blue, an email will pop up, they’ll respond to it and say, I’m ready now.

You want to be able to be continuing to market to people consistently over time because people aren’t always ready to buy. A webinar is a great strategy to get clients. You can do it from your own home. You can be wearing pyjama bottoms if you want!

It’s just an enjoyable process. You don’t have to book a venue, you don’t have to show up live, although that’s a really great way to get clients as well. But if you’re in a small town or you don’t have access to a place where you can do it Live then a webinar is a great option.

2. Host a Live Event

The second bold move is doing a live event.

It’s an amazing way to attract your ideal clients and take them into the next step of the journey with you. People get to experience you; they get to build rapport with you, and they trust you more.

Facebook Live is great, but the human connection that you get in a live event and the energy that you feel is unparalleled and a lot of your competitors aren’t willing to do it.

A lot of you say to me “Oh, it’s so competitive now there are so many coaches.” And to that, I say, yes, there are a lot of coaches but there’s also a lot of people with a lot of problems. There are many people that you can help.

Everyone has limiting beliefs, everyone has negative emotions that they struggle with, everyone has problems.

If you’re going after your ideal client, and you know that you can really help that person because you can solve that problem and help that person get from where they are to where they want to be, then you’ll have no shortage of clients.

But most people aren’t willing to run events, I always say to my clients, the best way to have no competition is to do the things that your competitors are scared of to do, the things your competitors aren’t willing to do.

According to one study, the number one fear is public speaking. I used to be really scared of public speaking. I was worried about people not showing up. I was worried about stuffing it up, being heckled, all these irrational beliefs and fears.

I just realized that if I don’t over commit, I’m always going to be stuck with an online or a one to one model. I must overcome this, and I must learn how to do it. It’s like any skill, it’s learnable. No one comes out of the womb, knowing how to run great events.

I decided that I was going to really master the craft of presenting. That’s how I get 90% of my clients. So, if you’re willing to do that as your bold move in 2020, I highly recommend it. It’s such an amazing way to set up your business and be profitable and establish a flow of clients.

I do a workshop live in person every month, and I do an evening meetup every month and it opens the gate for people to come in. It’s a great strategy because a lot of people aren’t willing to do it.

3. Start a Facebook Group

The final bold move that you can do in 2020 is starting a Facebook Group.

Having your own Facebook Group positions you as an expert, as an authority and a leader.

When you compare that to being in someone else’s group, it levels up your positioning in people’s mind. If you can provide consistent, valuable content and bring together a tribe of people, it’s a great way of getting clients.

When you have your own group you make the rules, you invite who you want in, you bring in a group of people who all have similar wants and desires and dreams and similar frustrations and fears and problems.

Then you start sharing content and being the thought leader, being the example of possibilities and being the role model. What I recommend is when people join your group, ask for their email so that you continue building your email list and continue to nurture them and market to them.

You can also offer them a strategy session, for example, a 30-minute discovery call or clarity call to get leads, so when they join your group, you can post the question that they’re going to answer. A lot of you guys have done that in my group.

I’m sure you’re a part of different Facebook Groups, but doing your own group really is a game-changer because you’re in control.

(P.S. You can join my Facebook group ‘Amplify Your Influence’ here)

Those are three bold moves that I highly recommend that you think about doing in each quarter. For example, if you choose to do a webinar, you can also run a workshop. You can leverage that content from your webinars in your workshops into your Facebook Lives or blogs.

You can repurpose content as well, I found that when I started running workshops, it really helped me to create structure my content in a way for people to understand and to understand the process my ideal client goes through.

Want to know how to attract and sign up more clients in 2020?

My next 1-day client attraction workshop is happening on Saturday, 1st February 2020.

? In This One Powerful Day You Will Learn:

? The BEST methods to connect instantly with your audience and INFLUENCE them to your ideas

? How to become a master influencer and build authentic trust and a powerful connection with your ideal clients

? How to use neuro-marketing to influence the SUBCONSCIOUS mind in your written and spoken content

? The MOST effective way to design your marketing plan so that you nail your message, and attract the right clients

? The BIGGEST mistakes Coaches make in their marketing and how to avoid them

? A proven, effective marketing plan that you can tailor to your business

If you want to grow a profitable coaching business, this workshop is a must.

2020 is the year to finally let go of what’s holding you back and create the life you dream of!

➡ Full Details Here

January 12, 2020 by katmillar Leave a Comment

5 Essential Elements of a 2020 Success Plan

How has the start of a new year, a new decade been for you?

I have a massive sense of excitement and energy and expectations coming into this new decade!

No doubt you are seeing all sorts of articles on goal setting and new year’s resolutions at this time of year.

According to research from the University of Scranton, a staggering 92% of people who set New Years resolutions never actually achieve them.

Over the years, I’ve discovered why I personally didn’t always achieve goals I set.

I looked at research, science and studied successful people and started applying what they did to ensure they followed through on their goals.

In this video and article, I share five essential elements of a success plan you can use to achieve your goals in 2020.

They can help you choose the right goals and follow through to the end and achieve them.

Here are the 5 elements:

1. A Why-based Vision

The first thing you need for your success plan is a why-based vision. What’s the vision that you hold yourself in your mission? I recommend your vision has a few elements.

The first one is the identity of the person that you want to become. A lot of people set goals about what they want to have and what they want to do.

But if you want to do and have the things you want, you first need to be the person that does and has those things.

Instead of starting with what you want to have and the things you want to do, think about the person that you want to become.

What type of characteristics do you want to have? Who do you want to be known as in 2020? That’s the “Why Based Vision” I recommended you grab a piece of paper, title your three columns Be, Do and Have, and brain dump.

I’ve been doing this task with my clients this week and there were some truly inspirational things they wanted to be- Thought leaders, authority figures, experts, courageous, trustworthy, brave, masterful at marketing, coaching, or presenting.

So ask yourself, what type of person do you want to be and build this vision of your self-image. Not just the material things you want but the vision about who you want to be and what type of person you need to be to create that vision.

Most importantly ask yourself why…. Why do you want this? Why do you want to be successful? Why is it important to you?

Think about the words that you want to resonate with 2020. What’s your intention for 2020? What would you want want to declare and put there as your words for 2020?

Last year my three words were discipline, fun, and courage and I look back at the last year and I was all those things. I was disciplined, I did have fun and I was courageous.

Set your intentions and build those goals from your why based vision from your identity of who want to be and the words that you want to put over the year and visualise it.

I’ve been working on my vision board with a couple of friends and I’m still building it out, but I have five words for 2020 that I want to focus on. Don’t just write down your goals and put in your draw or in a spreadsheet and forget about it.

Start with that vision of who you want to be and what you want, and then start building the plan based on that.

2. An Up-levelling Mastermind

This is one of my favourite things to have and this an up-levelling mastermind. The purpose of a mastermind is a small focus group that is designed so that everyone up levels, everyone grows, everyone goes into the best version of themselves.

Everyone knows what each person’s vision is and the goals they have. I was working with one of my masterminds today on setting our intentions. We started creating a manifesto for the group, we looked at things that we want to do together as a group.

We discussed what each of our strengths and weaknesses is so that we could collaborate and bring the best out of each other. We then had one person in the hot seat getting coached by three other people, and each person was given suggestions and advice.

When you spend time with people who are going places that are reaching for the heights that that’s going to rub off on you. Look at your surrounding influences, are they high achievers? Do they want to push themselves and hold you to a higher standard?

Do they consistently meet you, not just random meetups but are they committed to showing up, being reliable and want to help and support each other because have a supportive group is such a game-changer.

3. A Focused Game Plan

The third element to a successful plan for 2020 is having a focused game plan.

It’s just like in sports. The players know what they plan, they’re clear on it and they need to execute it. There are five things I recommend in your game plan.

I recommend you start with your annual priorities. Brain dump the priorities that you want to do for the year. It could be networking, presenting, workshops or skills like copywriting or sales that you need to build as a business owner.

Maybe you have goals for the year that you want your business to accomplish. Break it down into actual numbers, for example, I said I wanted to do 50 articles in 2019 and I chipped away at that goal and ended up doing 53 articles last year.

Every week I showed up because I wanted to give original valuable content that could really help people. It was amazing to have one strategy in place and committing to that goal with an actual number in place.

Your game plan could be that you want to write 50 blog posts, or you want to launch five new freebies. Break it down into actionable steps and create quarterly goals for each step.

For quarter one, what do you need to achieve by the end of February? It could be a webinar or a workshop, or launching a funnel, that’s your one big bold move for the quarter. Once you’ve got that as your goal, then you go into bite-sized goals.

Under that one big bold move. Let’s say it’s a webinar, you might say, I want to enrol 100 people to the webinar, knowing that maybe 50 will turn up, out of those 50 people, 10 people take me up on my offer for a discovery session and I close five of them.

Set clear number goals, those are your outcome goals. But then you need to set actual tasks. So under the webinar, you have all the different action steps you need to take in order to run a webinar.

There is so much to it. But once you’ve done it, it’s an incredible asset. But what a lot of people do is they put a project on their to-do list, and it mixes up with their habits and skills and the action gets confusing and overwhelming, causing your brain to say no, this is too hard.

Make sure that you separate your habits, your skills and your projects. Make sure on your action list, you take one step at a time. That’s your game plan- your priorities, goals, quarterly goals, and your one big bold move for the quarter.

Under that, you’re going to have goals, and your bite-sized action steps so that each week you know exactly what you need to do to get your result.

4. A Strong NO Commitment

A strong NO commitment is something you’re going to say no to.

I’ve realised that this year, that if I just keep piling things up on top of my existing schedule, goals and to-do lists, I’m going to get massively overwhelmed.

I realised that I need to decide what I’m going to say no to and it was a massive relief when I decided what I was going to say no to. I can actually achieve the goals that I have because I’m clearing things out of my schedule instead of pouring and piling things on, and creating white space for myself.

I was reading back diary entries from 2016 and writing that I needed more space, I need to create more margins. That was my goal for 2016. That was four years ago and I’m still saying the same thing!

This year, I’ve decided what to say NO to and I’m going to choose a new NO every month.

In order for you to have a successful life and achieve your goals, you’re going to have to clear stuff out of your life. It could be a relationship or friendships, it could be things that you’re wasting time on.

I was coaching one of my clients last night, and he was telling me, I don’t have time to study. I don’t know how to put it in without sacrificing my lifestyle. I asked him to open up his phone let’s have a look at your screen time. It turns out that his screen time was five and a half hours average per day.

We worked out that over seven days he was spending 35 hours on his phone. This is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s what most people do – hours and hours on the phone.

Can you imagine just one decision, a strong no commitment to eliminate your time online? For me, I said no Netflix in January, and no social media before 12pm and now I have all this space and energy that has opened up.

It’s incredible. I’ve been writing my goals and reading more books. I never thought that I could commit to something like that. But in order to get your goals, you’ve got to say no to things.

So what would you like to have as a strong no commitment?

5. A Monthly Habit Focus

And then number five is to have a monthly habit focus. Focus on one habit for a month. If you nail one habit, every month, by the end of 2020, you’ve got 12 brand new successful habits.

Remember, it takes time to build a habit. Some people say 21 days, 30 days, some say 60.

It really depends on you and it depends on the goal. Personally I like 30 days. I like using a month because it’s just a pure focus month on one goal.

Last year I had this app called streaks where you can add your goals. Last year, I had 12 habits I was trying to do; Daily meditation, daily journaling, daily exercise etc. and I did it for the first quarter and it was going really well, by quarter two I started dropping off and by quarter three I hadn’t even looked at the app.

Now what I’ve done is I’ve got two things on there, but my focus is daily journaling for the month of January. I know that if I write every single day it brings you back into mindfulness. It’s like that one Domino that knocks over the other dominoes in the chain.

If I can daily journal, it helps me stay present focused on my goals. It helps me brain dump, it’s like a cleanse at the end of each night. It helps me plan and do planning in my journaling. I write out my visualization and I write my goals. It’s just one habit that covers so many for me.

Charles Duhigg, in his book ‘The Power of Habits’, talks about one keystone habit that if you get that one thing, it’s going to affect every other area of your life.

It might be every morning going for a walk, and that one walk is going to set you up for success because of that one habit.

Set one habit that knocks down all the rest of them like a domino chain.

To recap, here are the five essential elements of a 2020 success plan…

1. Have a why-based vision, keep it in your face, and make sure that you include your identity, your words for the year, your intention for the year, and exactly who you want to be.

2. Have an up-levelling mastermind. A mastermind where you meet regularly in person with these people. These people are all about growth, up-levelling, supporting each other, holding each other to account and holding you to a high standard.

3. Have a focused game plan. in the game plan have your priorities, your goals, quarterly goals, bite-size goals, action steps.

4. Have a strong no commitment. What are you going to say no to in 2020 to allow all this space to the things that are most important and meaningful for you?

5. Have a monthly habit focus.

Draw a line in the sand for 2020, make it a priority to leave it all behind in 2019 and know that you can achieve anything that you set your mind to.

Put the action steps in place and check it off as you go. It’s not just about dreaming, it’s about having your head in the clouds but your feet on the ground.

P.S Want to know how to attract and sign up more clients in 2020?

My next full-day client attraction workshop is happening on Saturday, 1st February 2020.