This year I’m bulletproof when it comes to clever marketing messages.
I can even look at a Grace Lever page without buying anything.

The thing is: successful online marketers and business coaches are successful because (among other things) they have done their market research. So they know exactly what you and I struggle with and they know how to sell to us. 

How many courses have you bought that are just sitting on your desktop gathering virtual dust? And are you glad you bought it? Hmm. Why did you buy the thing – whether it’s a course or a program or a membership? 

Because you don’t have a rock solid plan. 

You don’t know what you need to do next. 

You sit down and you scattershot actions into the internet in the hope that it will get you sales.

I have a vision and tactical plan for the business that I have 100% bought in on. So when I see sales pages from clever marketers, I’m safe.

I don’t have any illusions that their “thing” is going to 10x my biz. Or any other fancy promise. 

I developed my plan myself using the Authentic Business Planning workshop from my mentor George Kao. 

Now here I am telling you about the course that saved my ass and might even give you bulletproof. I just want to be transparent. You don’t need this course. George might not be your guy. He is my guy this year and I’m loving it. 

If you ask me right now how what I’m doing relates to “future me”, I could go all meta and tease it out for you. 

Whether you use George’s course, or my Soul Biz Planning course, or just your own epic method, your business will be more sustainable when it’s intentional. 

And part of being sustainable is living in a conscious way. 

Having a plan requires you to take some time and reflect on what your big vision is. 

Sometimes, it’s scary to realise you don’t have one. 

We all know from the last year or so that the best laid plans can all go to shit. But without a plan, things are a bit shit anyway right? 

I have had to be agile with my plan this very month, so I know it’s possible to have a plan and be agile. The plan is the anchor and the mindfulness. 

I’ve learned the hard way that putting the clients first all the time burns me out. 

I lose the love and want to throw it all in the bin. 

I love my clients. And they love me. And I can sit at the desk for HOURS. I can jump on tasks as soon as they hit the inbox and smash them out. 

But after a month or two of staying up late, working endlessly and jumping at the inbox I’m fried. 

I can go for hours without a drink, and just work like a horse. 

But in 20 years, will I have that same weird disease my dad had from being sedentary? 

Sustainable means: it can be sustained. 

So I need my business to have space for me to walk, breathe and love. 

You  might wonder how I can make space in the business for walks, breathing and love. 

The truth is: the business can’t be sustained unless I make that time for “me first”. 

I can work in blasts and then lose the love, but I can’t keep doing it for another 5 or 10 years if I work like that. 

I know from experience I can’t even sustain it for 2 months like that. 

The other thing I’ve learned on a savvy business level is that if I spend all my time serving clients, I’m not planting the seeds for the clients of next month and next year.

So as well as looking after my body, heart and mind, I need to look after the business.

She is so good to me and has contributed $$ to the family for 6 years, so I like to look after her with my weekly business growth activities. She gets 5.5h a week for content creation, new product development, market research, referral network building, learning new stuff and content distribution. This is all part of “Me First” too. 

On a practical level how does that look? 

Here’s a snapshot of my calendar: yes the calendar is my big secret to sustainable business. But for you, it could be a paper journal, or just a piece of paper stuck on the wall.

It’s more about your planning and your commitment to yourself than the tool you use. 

I’m not telling you to set up a Google calendar, or to make a schedule like this. I developed this routine through experimentation and it is only helpful to me. It is also in it’s 5th or 6th iteration because like I said, I’ve had to be agile. 

I’m just sharing it with you so you can see a living example of a Me First approach. 

No-one can book in till I’ve done the basics for me.

In another article I’ll share what all of these actions are in greater detail but for now I only aim to inspire  you to put yourself first. Then put your business first.

Because both your body/mind/heart matrix and your business give so much to you and they deserve to be placed at the top of the list. 

That’s it for my sustainable business foundations. 

What keeps your business ticking over week over week, year after year? 

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