C (6:22)

Okay.

B (6:23)

And so I wanted to be sure that we had a whole episode about your 90 day plan from now until the end of the year. I mean, the truth is, I could probably make an argument for, like, all times of year being the most important for a 90 day plan. But at least in this moment, it just feels like I could. I could for sure make the case that this is the most important 90 days right here, right now. And it's because if you relate to me, maybe you're different than me, but at least in my own mind, this can be one of the hardest 90 days to stay focused. Um, you might be thinking to yourself, like, what's even the point?

C (6:59)

Right, Right.

B (7:00)

Like, it's, you know, we're might as well be in the holiday time now. It's gonna be here before we know it. But truly, like I said, what you do in the next 90 days is exactly what shapes that Q1. And so if you don't want to be struggling and having a hard time and feeling really down in. At least for me, like I deal with some seasonal depression, I'm sure you're probably the Same January, February is already kind of can be a grindy time. You don't want to add the pressure of like, shoot, I've, you know, I feel behind like we don't want to start the year with those vibes. And so it's very possible to have a 90 day plan that delivers you triumphantly to the end of this year. And again, it doesn't have to be about overworking. I'm not going to tell you to work through the holidays, like nothing like that at all. But it is going to help you. Again, that key word is intention. It's going to help you close out the year intentionally so that you know what you're doing, you make yourself proud and then like, listen, you're going to feel that much better going into your planned time off. Speaking of which, quick aside, are you planning your time off? I for too many years in my business did not intentionally like plan vacation time for the holidays. Sounds crazy, but I think I would just be like, oh yeah, well, like obviously I won't work on like Christmas day, but like I can sneak in a little work here and there. I'm gonna go ahead and I mean, you know what's best for your business. But if you're wanting to have some hard reset time, this is gonna go into your 90 day plan as well. Make that decision. Like I've already decided when my company is closed and it's 9-20-Nint. I know when we're closed in November, I know when we're closed in December. That decision needs to be made now. So I think like one of the things I always share about planning, I talk about this with year on the wall as well. For planning your entire year is sometimes we have this temptation to believe that planning is more restrictive and that planning is gonna like make our lives harder and make us work more. And that's not the case. In fact, it's the opposite. When we don't plan is when we. If you're a high achiever, you're an overachiever. When we don't plan is actually when you overwork. Think about that for a second, right? When you don't have a plan. If you're anything like me, and I think a lot of you are just based on my conversations with you, you will be tempted to fill every spare moment with more work because work is your comfort zone and work is your. You're trying to get nervous system regulation from working. And because you don't have a plan, you don't know when you're done. And when you don't know when the work is done. You're just going to keep working until the wheels fall off, right? You're just going to keep working. You're like, if you're up, like my, sometimes my mentality when I don't plan is like, if I'm standing upright, if I'm not laying down in the bed, I should be working and I'm not with my family, I should be working, right? And so one of the gifts that a plan can give you is actually to work less. And I know that's not how we think about plans. We're like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna have a plan. It's gonna be so much work. I don't wanna do all that. You might be having that thought consciously or subconsciously, but I wanna invite you to think that if you have a good rock solid, dialed in plan, you will know when to log off, right? You'll be like, okay, my, like, my work is done. I don't need to keep going. I did what I was supposed to do. I can be good. And so that's one of the biggest, biggest reasons that I personally use 90 day plans is to stop working all the time. Because when I'm in that place where I'm just working all the time, the work that I'm doing is not even that good. And then I'm tired and I'm resentful and then I might have to go into burnout and claw myself back out of that. So you can just skip all of that by having a really great plan.

C (10:37)

Okay?

B (10:38)

So no more winging it, no more like taking it as it comes. Let's have a really solid 90 day plan and I'm gonna tell you what needs to go into your plan in order to achieve that, right? So it's really interesting because the other thing I'll share is I'm just gonna also share some issues that I see with people planning. Well, one of them is that you don't plan at all. But even if you have tried this before, here's the. Here are two really big things that I see. One is overstuffing your plan with 50 disconnected ideas. This is one of the number one reasons I put all my clients on a 90 day plan. Typically when they come to me, they'll be like, I have so many ideas and I just don't know what I should be working on first. Okay, if you're having a prioritization problem and you're just like, there's just like the to do list is Just endless. You want to have a great, proven framework for building a plan that helps the priorities rise to the top, right? And then you can put all the other ideas in the parking lot. Maybe you do them later, maybe you don't, but all of your ideas should be connected. We're going to talk about that. None of the ideas should be random. It shouldn't be 50 different disconnected ideas. Everything should be working together. Everything should be like, we're going to come up with two main goals in your 90 day plan. I'll talk about that. And everything that you do should be serving one of those two goals or both of those goals. And if it's not, it shouldn't be in your plan.

C (12:01)

Okay?

B (12:01)

So stop overstuffing your plan. Stop overstuffing your workweek. So stop overstuffing your days and understand what your North Star actually is and have that help you build your plan.

C (12:12)

Okay?

B (12:13)

The other thing on the opposite side is undershooting. Like if the first one was overstuffing, this next problem is undershooting by being too vague. Examples of this would be get more clients this quarter. I'd like to get more clients. Okay, post more on Instagram. Another great example, right? When you undershoot by being too vague, again, you won't know when you've crossed the goal line. There honestly probably won't even be a goal line. You'll just keep moving it on yourself, right? It's not specific, it's not grounded in reality. It's just vague. And it's not actually gonna help you. And it may make you pro, like I was saying before, prone to overworking. Because get more clients. Well, that could just go on forever and ever. You're never gonna know when you're done. That's a really important part of planning, is knowing when you're done, you've achieved the objective, right? So the result of both of these overstuffing or undershooting is lack of clarity or too much pressure and ultimately no momentum. And the whole point of having a good 90 day plan is to help you build momentum. And Honestly, a bad 90 day plan can actually set you back, right? Um, having no plan can set you back. I already talked about how that, how that might be the case. And so you want to know what should be going into this plan and you want to execute it so that you can build that momentum, especially at this point in the year, so that we can go. Like when you take your holiday time off, which again, I encourage so much to take that time when you Step back into the office. You can feel like you just like didn't even miss a beat. You can jump right in. You don't have to spend the entire month of January figuring out what you should be doing and doing. Damage control from your holiday. Holiday death slide. Right? So with all of that being said, let's get into what makes a strong 90 day plan. I'm gonna go over four elements of a great 90 day plan now inside of the sold out group programs. Mastermind. I teach exactly how to do every aspect of this and I even give my clients a full evalu. Can I say this word? Full evaluator rubric.

C (14:19)

Okay.

B (14:20)

So I review the plans myself. I already shared that I review the plans and, and I actually send back detailed video feedback of myself reviewing the plan. And maybe a year or so ago, I, I've been doing this forever, by the way, in my coaching and that's how important it is. It's just like I'll never, I'll probably never stop doing it. I have no plans to stop because it helps me know the client so much better and it helps the client feel clear. It's like the number one clarity creating tool that I have. People will come to me and be like, I am. My brain is just spinning. And then they'll do a 90 day plan and they'll be like, okay, I know what I'm supposed to do now. Like I was saying, about a year ago, I decided to start showing my clients what I look for.

C (14:58)

Right?

B (14:59)

Cause it's all been just like stored in my brain. When I review a 90 day plan, I have a checklist that I'm going through mentally. And so recently, again within the last year, I wrote it all down so that my clients could score themselves.

C (15:12)

Right?

B (15:13)

So that they could actually look and be like, did I include all of the things that Steph would look for in a plan? So I'm going to share what those are at a high, very high level with you today. And I know it will help you so much to really think about putting together a strong 90 day plan for yourself. Okay, so there are four key things that you want to be including in your plan are number one, clear goals. I'm going to break all these down individually, but I'm going to tell you at a high level first. Okay, Clear goals. Number two, reverse engineering, number three, sales strategy, and number four, support systems. Okay, Clear goals, reverse engineering, sales strategy, support systems. So let's take it from the top. Clear goals. This asks you the question, do you even know your numbers? Do you even know? And it's okay if you don't. A lot of people don't until they do this exercise, right? They're just kind of like going based on vibes, going based on feels. And so some of the numbers that you want to know are how much revenue do you actually need to be bringing in?

C (16:21)

Okay.

B (16:22)

We talk a lot, especially in my year on the wall process about minimum viable income, happy number, stretch number, knowing what those numbers are for you in your individual situation. Okay, so like what, what do you even need to do here? Have you even taken a look at what you've done revenue wise for this, for the whole of this year up until this point? A lot of times my clients will go through this process and they'll be like, wait a second, I'm actually like, good. Like I sometimes. And I know it might sound crazy, but often I see clients go through this process and realize they already hit their revenue goal for the year and they're like, I had no idea. Because what doesn't get measured doesn't get like clocked in your brain. You'll have no idea. You can surpass it and have no idea. You just keep working and working and working because you want to feel busy, right? And so you need to have a solid pulse on what your revenue needs are and where you are to date with that revenue number. And that's why I love doing this plan towards the end of the year because we have so much data. Like we have, you know, almost 10 months worth of data so far. So you can really ask yourself, like, where am I tracking and what's my gap? Do I even have a gap or am I good? Because that's also going to influence and that's going to change your plan if you really need, like it's a bit of a spectrum for me with my clients based on financial need. The more you need money, the more we're going to focus on sales goals, right? The better you are financially, the more we can work on lead gen and other operational things to set up your business for the next time you launch and things like this, right? So that's gonna be huge revenue. And then we also wanna think about the two main goals that I have my clients focus on in their 90 day plans are a sales goal and an audience goal, right? And so you really wanna get again, hyper specific on what are you trying to. And I tell people, just pick one, pick one goal on each of those areas, right? So your sales goal, what are you trying to do? And your audience goal, what Are you trying. How are you trying to grow? What's that gonna look like? How are you. How are you gonna know if you did what you need to do? And very, very importantly, how do they connect? They should be connected to each other. They should feed each other. They shouldn't be random. It should all support the overall goal of closing your revenue gap for the year. Okay, so that's the first thing. And like, it probably sounds very intuitive when I say it, but just ask yourself, like, have I really been writing this down every single 90 days? I don't know that I've met a client who was before they started working with me.

C (18:59)

Right.

B (18:59)

We keep it all up in our brain and we don't take the time to actually hash this out. And it is so soothing when you do this exercise. Okay, so that's. The first one is clear goals. The second one is reverse engineering. And this section asks the question, have you broken those numbers down into detail? Doable daily actions? Okay, so it's one thing to have a revenue goal, a sales goal, an audience goal, but if you, like, you're not gonna get there, of course, by just doing random things. You can be busy, busy, busy, busy. But are you doing the actions that actually count? This is where we need to get super clear on. You've heard me talk about it before. MMAs, money making activities. What are those money making activities? Every individual business owner is going to have different money making activities. It's very, very un to you. Your offer, your audience, your platforms, your style, your skills. Every single one of my clients has their individual money making activities. So they not only know their goals, but they know exactly what they must do down to the day to day life in order to be able to reach those goals. Okay, we don't. It's not enough to just come up with a goal and be like, all right, I'm gonna go attack that goal. I'm gonna go do all the things. And then we're just kind of taking frantic action versus organized, methodical, intentional actions. That's where we're focusing on those daily money making activities. So that's how you. You want to not only have the goal, but you got to ask yourself, how does this goal break down? What do I need to do? If 90 days is roughly three months, what should I be doing each month? How about each week? How about each day? And it's very, very rare for me to run into an entrepreneur who knows all of those things. That is really my wheelhouse. And I help my clients. Those numbers are. It's so important. It will make you feel so empowered and like you are in the driver's seat of your results. Because guess what? You are. You are. It doesn't feel like it. I know. It feels like it's out of control. It's not. It's all about what you're putting in. We call these inputs.

C (21:03)

Okay.

B (21:03)

And you have to understand what inputs are going to move the needle for you. So that's reverse engineering. Number three was sales strategy. And the sales strategy section asks you, do you know what kind of sales system you're going to be using? So inside of the mastermind, we talk about either doing a launch, which in my world we call buzz blitz. I have a whole process for exactly how to do a five week launch. Some of my clients are launching and some of my clients are using more personal outreach strategies. They're not quite to the launching stage yet. That's perfectly fine. They might be closing and selling one on one, whether that's coaching or services. And we use personal invitations and a personal outre strategy in order to fill up your one on one roster. So that's the first decision you need to make is should you be launching or should you be filling up your one on one book of business via personal outreach? Okay, So a lot of people don't even know. They don't even know what their sales strategy is. They're just like, I don't know, I'm just like hoping people come to my website and like buy something.

C (22:06)

Okay.

B (22:06)

Or maybe you're just doing all of it. You're like, I'm, I'm just throwing the kitchen sink at it. You have to make the decision again based on where, like your business stage, based on your audience, based on your experience. You need to know, should you be doing a big launch or should you be using scrappier one on one personal outreach strategies? Or are you kind of hoping something just magically happens? And I don't say that with any shame or judgment. Like this is actually very, very common because there's not a lot of information. I don't think there's as much coaching and as much education about how people actually become clients.

C (22:43)

Right.

B (22:43)

You hear a lot about like, get your website up and post on social media and make a podcast. But when it really comes down to the art and science of how to close clients, like there's just less, there's less strategy out there for you. And so sometimes I think we try to emulate the people that we look up to and we're like trying to study Them and we're like, okay, well what do they do? Well, they have a website and they post on social media and they just tell people to buy. And then we kind of do that and we like just hope that it works. And a lot of times that's just not how it's going to break down.

C (23:14)

Right.

B (23:15)

And so we want to have a, a proven strategy and even more than that, a strategy that makes sense for your current business stage. So you need to have a sales system that is appropriate for where you are in business right now. If you need money. Remember how I said that financial need is kind of like on a spectrum for me? Here's a quick cheat for you. The more you need money in the bank, the more I would have you lean towards personal outreach and booking one on one. And the reason for that is because when we're doing a bigger launch, it's better to have a Runway. It's better to have, I like to say, three to six months of expenses in the bank. Because launching takes experimentation. And launching can be a little bit twisty and turny. It's not as straightforward. It's amazing. And it can explode your results, right? And you will reach a point in your business where it makes sense to be launching. But if you're not at a place where you can be able to afford a bad launch, right? Not that I think you're gonna have one, but hey, they happen. It's just part of being in business. We've all have war stories of not having the best launch. You don't also want to add to that stress by being like, I don't know how, where my money's coming from this month. So if you're in that position, lean towards more of the one on one type of outreach and sales strategy. So that's my little quick little tidbit for you that can help with that decision. And then finally is support systems. And this is one of my favorite things to talk about in a 90 day plan because most people skip right over this. So the question that this section asks is, do you know your own success habits and how you'll stay consistent even when life throws curveballs at you? Because Lord knows there's going to be curveballs, okay? It's not if, it's when. And so in my 90 day plans with my clients, I actually have them write out their daily success habits. And it's not business, it's getting, you know, it's different for everybody. I have them tell me what their success habits are. For me, it's lifting My heavy weights almost every single day, literally. My business besties, they know, they can tell if I haven't been to the gym in more than a day. They're like, you need. You need to go. Your head is not right. Right. So I need that heavy work in order to be successful. For some of my clients, it's yoga, meditation, walking outside, time with a pet, time with kids, being in nature, listening to music. Like, just everybody works a little bit differently. But can you even imagine how often entrepreneurs aren't thinking about this? We're not connecting our daily success habits and what makes us be at our best. It doesn't feel business critical, but I promise you, it is. I don't let my clients skip this. Some of them want to because they're like, I don't have time for all that. Yes, you do. And it's the most. I could argue it's the most important work in your whole plan is how are you putting yourself first? How are you treating yourself as the number one asset in your business? The brain that's in your head, the ideas, all of them must be protected like the golden goose, because they are. And so I want you to make a list of, like, when you're at your best, what are you doing? You're probably drinking enough water, you're eating the right foods, you're getting sleep.

C (26:32)

Right?

B (26:33)

And so the idea here isn't to overload yourself with every positive habit you can think of, but trying to pick the top three to five that you find are game changers for you. Right? For some of my clients, it's abstaining from things like alcohol or, you know, gluten. It really depends on your individual situation. But if you're somebody who's like, I can never seem to be consistent, you have to look at your success habits. Typically, that's where the answer lies. And like I said before, these are the exact kinds of things that my clients are evaluated on with my 90 day plan evaluator. It's the difference between just making a plan and having the plan be random and. And having a plan that works. Now, everything that I've taught you so far will change your business if you're not doing this, which you're probably not, if I had to guess just based on the people that I talk to every single day, what I've shared is revolutionary. And you can go so far. And I'm going to add one more secret ingredient, and that is feedback.

C (27:35)

Okay.

B (27:36)

I really think that, at least for my clients, inside my mastermind, this is what takes Their plan from good to great. Because the reality is most people can write something down. Like you can do that, right? You can get out a piece of paper, you can write down some things, you can brainstorm, but. And that'll again, that'll get you pretty far. It's gonna be way better than nothing. Okay, but the magic, the ma. I've been doing this with my clients for years. I see the change in them when they refine the plan in coaching, right? They go from feeling so overwhelmed, I can see the difference so clearly. And other people can see the difference too. They go from, oh my gosh, I have so many ideas, there's so much to do. Like, I'm so overwhelmed to feeling like I know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm not confused and I'm just ready to get to work. And that is the magic of that refinement. Because you don't need another blank template. You and I both know you can go on Pinterest right now and download like 7 billion different 90 day planning free templates, right? What you do need, especially at a certain point, is a trained eye to tell you, here's where your plan. Plan is strong. Here's where it's going to break down. Here's what you didn't consider what's going to happen if you're not doing this. What about your success habits? What about, have you considered this? Have you tried that?

C (28:56)

Right?

B (28:57)

And like I said, I see it all the time, where sometimes I'll receive an. I mean I have. Let me say this. I've never received a 90 day plan that I didn't have feedback on. I've never been like, this is perfect. It's usually a great start because I teach my clients how to do it exactly. I walk them through exactly how to do it. But it's always great to have a fresh perspective and to be. Have your blind spots be pointed out and to be given new ideas. Have you thought about this? I'm actually thinking of one client of mine who, I'll never forget this, we were talking about her 90 day plan and I, for her in particular, I said, how about Threads, right? Threads is the social media platform that's kind of connected to Instagram, but it's its own thing. And she was like, I've never done that before. Can we kind of workshop like what I would post? And we did. And she, you know, like lo and behold, she came back into our wins and celebrations area and said, I can't believe this, but I did what Steph said, we, we. I posted the thread that we came up with together and. And I immediately signed a five figure client. Like, I literally got a five figure client from threads, right? And again, that was an idea that wasn't even on this client's radar. So sometimes, like, that is really the power of coaching and mentorship and advising is there will be ideas that you didn't think of. You can get out of your silo and get out of the four walls of your own office and have your perspective be challenged. And so I see so much confidence shift for people when they go from feeling so bogged down with all the things that they could be doing. That's like such a killer, right? There's like just a hundred things you could be doing to just feeling like, I'm not confused. My plan is doable. I know the actions that I need to take, and I'm just ready to go and take them. And then also you can continue to get coached on them for the. For like the full 90 days until it's time to do your next 90 day plan. And what's really funny that I noticed with clients is there'll be. It's like a cycle. We actually call it the Clarity to Cash cycle inside of my program where they'll come in confused, they'll do a 90 day plan, they'll feel really clear, and they'll feel clear for like 75 days. And then they'll come back and they'll be confused again. And I'll be like, hey, do I have a. Do I have a 90 day plan on file for you? And they'll be like, well, yeah, but it's. It was done like two and a half months ago. And I'll be like, yeah, that's why it's time to do another one, right? And then they go right back into that place of clarity. And so it is cyclical and it is normal, and it's a huge part of what I do with my clients. And so I, I had to bring it here to the podcast because again, as a cornerstone of my teachings and with us being 94 days from the end of the year, this is such an amazing opportunity to just take a minute, literally, take yourself to your favorite coffee shop, spend 20 minutes putting together your best shot at a plan based on what I shared with you here today, and just notice how much more focused you feel. Watch the confusion fade away when you can really whittle it down to the mission and block out all the noise. And if you want more support with this right this is all available for you inside of the sold out group program's Mastermind. When you join the Mastermind, you don't just get a pretty planning tool. Again, it's not just like a little template off of Pinstagram or Instagram. Pinterest, Instagram. You get the point. You get me reviewing your plan personally, pointing out the holes, showing you exactly how to strengthen it. And that's why my clients do see momentum quickly, because they're finally operating from a plan that is, yes, ambitious, but also realistic. And so, if you're listening to this in real time, we are opening the doors to the Mastermind for the last time this year on November 3rd.

C (32:48)

Okay.

B (32:49)

So Mark your calendar, be ready. You can go to stephcrowder.com mastermind if you want to get yourself on the wait list and be the first to hear of us opening up. You'll have the chance to talk to me one on one to determine if this could be a good fit for you. But if this is the kind of work that you want to get support on, you are going to be right at home inside the sold out group programs Mastermind. So if that feels aligned for you, be sure to get yourself on the wait list so we can talk. Other than that, I'm so excited to be sharing. I have lots of great more podcast episodes coming up for you over the next few weeks, and so I can't wait to see you then. Until then, I'm wishing you the courage and the clarity to go after what you love.