There is nothing like a little avoidance to force your hand on getting some much-needed clarity.

Especially when the priority is cash.

Let me back up a little and share what brought me here.

I spent a lot of last year trying to remove things from my business, or so I thought.

On one hand, I created some incredibly solid habits that have stuck, but I feel like I still haven’t moved the needle on things that will have the biggest impact on my business, at least not as much as I had hoped.

And honestly, who’s to say what’s enough?

Could I have done more?

Sure.

We always can.

But I also know that last year was a lot. Being back in California, my Dad’s health challenges, and more time with family & friends (which was great, but when everything is a 2-hour drive, one way, it can throw your schedule for a loop), and my own recovery from back surgery made for a long year.

So, even though my goal was to simplify and remove things, I can’t say I was super successful.

I’ve accepted the fact that part of who I am is about exploring new ideas. This is fine, provided I keep the new ideas in the “exploring stage” and not in the “pivot and implement” stage.

The two things (outside of life in general), that threw me off my path were AI and then hosting the retreat in Costa Rica.

Neither of which I regret. Both were totally worth it, but both brought up deeper questions and a certain amount of evaluating what I want my business to look like.

But let’s not go sideways with that.

This episode is how I realized I was more frustrated than I thought and how I found the much-needed clarity I didn’t even know I needed.

Which will lead to more cash flow.

Avoidance At Its Finest

Unless I’m out of town or have other plans, I usually do a little work every Sunday just to get ahead of my week.

I look at my calendar, plan my week out, and try to get ahead of a few things if I’m in the mood.

This past Sunday started out like every other Sunday that I chose to work, but after my first cup of coffee, I couldn’t get into any sort of rhythm.

I found myself going from thing to thing and then from one idea to the next.

Then, I had the brilliant idea that I should “create a plan.”

I know you know what kind of plan I’m talking about. One of those “big picture” plans that looks pretty, presents itself as the ultimate organization for a “beautiful mind,” and represents all things fabulous about your business.

But in reality… it’s just a HUGE distraction.

It’s the epitome of activity disguising itself as productivity.

Even though I wasn’t sure what to do next, there was no fooling me this time. I knew that would be a waste of time, and I wouldn’t be any clearer on what was going on.

So… what did I do?

I stepped away from everything for a while.

Then it hit me.

I didn’t need to make a plan to accomplish everything; I needed to do a brain dump, pick my top 3 priorities, and then make a list of things I could “put aside” for a while.

Here’s what that looked like:

Here are the categories of my brain dump:

1. Website
2. Content
3. High Level
4. Paid Traffic
5. Courses
6. Coaching
7. Community
8. Priorities

Hopefully this won’t be too boring, but I’m going to share what I scribbled under each of these and will go into more detail in the podcast, and then I’ll explain the three priorities.

Website:

• Switch to my new theme (Kadence, which I LOVE)
• Finish copy
• Add shop
• Update coaching & courses pages
• New tools & resource page
• Check SEO & Google indexing, update older content for SEO (if relevant to current content)

Content

• Podcast: schedule the special series interviews, get a few episodes ahead
• Newsletter: update posts on website with featured images, VA adding to Medium, content flywheel (for promotion), add Content Snacks segment
• Blog: 2 posts a month, add relevant content to Medium with CTA
• YouTube: Add podcast playlist, get videos up (have a backlog, can now schedule these). Start testing newsletter as video.
• Social media: Focus on 2 platforms, schedule time weekly for getting content scheduled, Missingletter campaigns for backlog.
• Everything Is Content: Finish ebook

HighLevel

• Finish writing follow-up sequences
• Update Community
• Move calendar from Zcal to HighLevel – create automations for reminders
• Set up e-com for planner

Courses

• When follow-ups are done, promote in this order:
• Hit Send
• List Explosion
• Conversations with ChatGPT
• Everything is Content (when ready)

Coaching

• Update coaching page (copy and layout)
• SPARK Collective: Regroup, update community – what does this look like?
• Offer Email Coaching (one on one)
• Focus sessions: New name? Update copy

Email

• Keep working on move from ConvertKit to beehiiv
• Simplify automations & segments
• Finish by first week in February (write the post on the move second week in Feb)
• Relaunch imperfect

Paid Traffic

• Get power content and offers up week of January 21st (Laurel Portié)
• Ads to create:
• Everything Is Content
• Coaching (goal: 6-10 coaching clients max)

Priorities

1. Site move
2. Ads running
3. Promote coaching

All three of these relate directly, or in the case of the website move, indirectly to cash flow.