You Don’t Need a New Strategy. You Need a Planning Rhythm.

[00:00:00] Are you ready to grow? From solopreneur to CEO? You're in the right place. I'm your host Rachel Cook, and I've spent the last decade helping women entrepreneurs start and scale service-based businesses. If you're serious about building a sustainable business, it's time to put the strategy, systems and support in place to make it happen.

Join me each week for candid conversations about stepping into your role as CEO, the hard lessons learned along the way. And practical, profitable strategies to grow a sustainable business without the hustle and burnout.

We are more than halfway through March. And I wanna ask you something, honestly, how are those goals that you set at the beginning of the year in January going, because if you're feeling behind, overwhelmed or quietly thinking about just scrapping everything and starting over, I need you to hear this.

Your goals didn't fail you, your planning system did. And that is a very different problem with a very real solution. Let's get into it. Are you ready to grow? From solopreneur to CEO? You're in the right place. I'm your host Rachel Cook, and I've spent the last decade helping women entrepreneurs start and scale service-based businesses.

If you're serious about building a sustainable business, it's time to put the strategy, systems and support in place to make it happen. Join me each week with candid conversations about stepping into your role as CEO, hard lessons learned along the way, and practical, profitable strategies to grow a sustainable business without the hustle and burnout.

Hey there, CEO. Rachel Cook here, founder of the CEO Collective and host of the Promote Yourself to CEO podcast. And today I wanna talk about a challenge that I feel is really timely because it's officially mid-March. And this is the time of the year where I start to hear from small business owners and they feel like they've already gotten off track.

They're already behind with the plan, the goals that they set early in January, they're already feeling overwhelmed. And this is the start, the stage where they start to beat themselves up. Right. The reason I can't follow through with this plan is because I don't have enough discipline. The reason I'm not on track with my goals is because I'm not motivated enough.

I don't have enough willpower. I don't have enough grit. That is such bullshit. It is such bullshit. And the reason that I feel this way is because I know for a fact the reason that so many small business owners find themselves in this vicious pattern of setting goals and creating plans, but then struggling to follow through with them is because the approach they're taking, the goal setting approach they're taking, the planning process they're taking is broken from the start.

And it's not conducive to small businesses, especially if you are a small business that has already gotten through that startup stage, and now you're at the point where you have something real on your hands and you're ready to really grow it. This transition is a big transition, and this is the transition where we have to shift away from project based goals into systems based goals.

And that's what I wanna talk about today because once you understand the difference here, everything starts to change for your business and you start to see the compound effects of what is possible. So what do I mean by project based versus systems based? You know, project based goals are how a lot of us have learned goal setting.

It's how goal setting is taught in your personal life. It's probably how it's been taught. If you ever worked for anyone else, it's very much you sit down and you go, okay, what are my goals for this year? What are my goals for this quarter? And what comes out a list of all the new things that you want to do, be, have, feel, experience, create, and in the context of your small business, this might be, oh, great, this is the year I'm gonna create this new program.

This is the year I'm gonna launch this new website. I'm gonna have a new brand. I'm gonna launch a new podcast. I'm gonna write a new book. And so you end up with this laundry list of new projects that you want to try out, new tactics you want to. Try out new strategies you wanna put in place. And the challenge with this is, is that each time you are setting goals, this way, you're not able to get any long term momentum because it's all new.

It's all starting from scratch. And anytime you're starting something from scratch, there's a series of development that needs to happen in [00:05:00] order to actually get to the payoff. And most small business owners aren't actually getting to the payoff of any of the new projects they're starting When you start a new project.

The first part of it is the development stage, right? You're going into your top secret entrepreneur cave. You're working on this new offer, you're creating this new podcast. You're starting to write your new book. You're creating this new thing from scratch. That is the heaviest lift. That is the most amount of time, energy, and attention you're gonna put into it, and resources you're gonna put into it.

It is the hardest part, right? To create it from nothing. And once you create it from nothing. Then you have to put it out into the world and see how the world responds. And I think a lot of people assume that once they put it out into the world, that's when they get the ROI off of it. But actually that's not true.

When you first put it out into the world, that's when you're starting the testing phase. That's when you're really gonna learn what does and doesn't work. That's when you're starting to get feedback and you're starting to get clarity around what's landing, what's not landing, where do you need to refine, where do you need to remove things, where do you need to optimize?

And that stage can take a while. It takes a while to truly go through and make something incredible. This is a stage where if you're getting paid for this, let's say. The new thing you were creating was a program, and now you're putting that offer in front of real humans and they're going through it and you're getting feedback.

And if you don't get the results right away, it's really easy to believe that you failed and you should just scrap this offer and start again. If you launch a new podcast, you spent so much time and energy putting it together and building it, and then you launch it. And if in the first 10 episodes you're not getting the results you want, you're just like, oh, podcasting's not for me.

Let me just scrap it. If you're building a new brand or a new website, it's really easy to believe. You know, you do all the work, put in so much money and time to build this new website. You get out into the world, and if you're instantly not seeing like an uptick in sales or an uptick in growth, ugh, this didn't work.

You haven't even gotten outta the learning stage. You haven't even gotten outta the testing stage. The real results come on the other side of that. And that's where I see this vicious cycle is killing small businesses and it's holding them back from the growth that they really want. And if we're looking at it even more, you know what I see so often is this is also compounded by shiny objects and instant gratification.

We are being bombarded with so many new trends, new tactics. Advice from here, there, everyone. Everyone and their mother is giving us advice over, you know, different things we need to be doing to grow our business. And it starts to feel so urgent. Like, if only I could figure this one thing out, it is the missing piece of the puzzle that's gonna unlock all of this growth.

And so that compounds because then we throw out the thing we had been working on and shift our focus again. And you layer in the instant gratification. This is the real problem too, is the instant gratification when you're still in that learning stage. If you're not getting the results you had hoped for the first or the second, or the fifth time that you're promoting that offer, or the fifth episode of your podcast or whatever it is that you were, you know, creating from scratch, if you don't get the result out the gate, then you're like, Ugh, this was a failure.

This is the wrong mindset and the wrong approach for small business owners. This is how you will always find yourself starting over. This is why small businesses stall out in their growth because they're constantly changing their focus, and they're never getting to the point in the development cycle where the thing has been created and then it's been tested and refined, and then it can actually be optimized and scaled.

The optimize and scale. The third part, the third phase of this is where the ROI comes, and it's also where the compounding comes. And the amazing part about it is it's also where things are easier than ever before, where it's easier to run that than you could ever imagine. So for example, I'll share my experience with the CEO retreat.

The CEO retreat, the very first one, January 12th, 2018, and the first time I created it was the heaviest lift, right? I had never run this retreat before. I'd never taught this process before. It was an internal process I had for my own business. But as we all know, what I do for myself personally might not [00:10:00] translate to everybody.

There's gonna be some gaps, right? So the first time I. Launched and marketed and promoted and ran. The CEO retreat was the heaviest lift. It was the hardest lift because it was in the creation phase, right? It was the first time. I didn't know what the results were gonna be. I didn't know how people were gonna react to it or resonate with it.

I didn't know if people wanted it. But once I had developed it, and then I did the marketing and I did the sales, and I hosted the actual retreat. Then I was able to get into the next stage, which was the true learning stage. Once I had at least a confirmation that this was something people wanted. I had validated that with actual sales.

We had 55 people sign up for the very first one. Then I was able to get through the learning stage, the testing and iterating stage, and the refining and the really understanding what landed, what didn't landed. How can I explain this better? Uh, what else do I need to do to make sure my clients are gonna get to the results that they need?

And I'll be honest, I have run over 80 retreats at this point since. January 12th, 2018, and at this point I could do it in my sleep at this point, I could run a retreat in my sleep. I have certified multiple people, um, through our 90 day CEO Certified Professionals program to also run the CEO retreat. I have gone through so many iterations of it though to get to this point, and I would actually say that that learning period is longer than I think a lot of people.

Give themselves. I would honestly say it probably took two or three years of truly running that every single quarter and getting hundreds of people through it for me to lock in the final pieces of the puzzle that have made it effortless to sell, effortless to market, and so easy for me to deliver. It didn't happen in year one.

It really didn't start locking in place and getting the results I wanted until about year three. And so I'm sharing this because I want you to understand that we do not rise to the level of our goals. As James Clear says, we fall to the level of our systems and when we take a different approach to goal setting, one that is not based on constantly starting from scratch, but is instead based on building a system.

And then getting through the initial development of that new thing to the learning stage of that new thing, giving ourselves long enough to truly learn, to truly refine, to make sure that it is gonna be the best it is, it's gonna get the best results for your clients. It's only then that we can get to the final outcome that we're all looking for.

Which is the results compound and it gets easier as a small business to run. You have to get to that level if you're wanting to scale, if you're wanting to scale your business, things have to be that dialed in. And this is where I see a lot of people just giving up too fast. So here's what a different rhythm, a more systems based approach creates at the start of every CEO retreat, we do a round of meet the CEOs.

And I always ask people to share, you know, introduce yourself, and then what is your biggest win for the last 90 days, especially if you attended the past CEO retreat. A lot of my clients attend every single quarter. If they're in the collective, they get access to the retreat every quarter. Um, but I also have a lot of people who just right now are at the stage where they're just coming to the retreat every quarter as like their regular touchstone as they're starting to find this rhythm for themselves.

And I'm asking them to share their win really intentionally, not just because I wanna hear their wins, but I do. I love hearing the wins, but because it is helpful to show everyone else in the room. Whether it's a zoom or a actual room, what consistent systems based planning creates over time, and I'll ask people how many times they've attended a retreat, which is very helpful too, because I often have to tell people the first time you are implementing this approach.

The first 90 days really is like you are learning with training wheels, right? And the second 90 days is when you're finally starting to find your balance and you're finally starting to gain speed. And then it's really after six months of doing this rhythm with us that things start to click and lock into place.

So here's what people shared from our most recent CEO retreat, the one that I just hosted for the CEO collective. So my client, Samantha, who's a trademark lawyer, shared that she onboarded an international client, or I should say her team onboarded an international client, and she didn't even know it [00:15:00] happened until she saw the confirmation of a wire transfer.

She was actually in Florida taking time with her family when that came through. And her systems. Ran the business while she was exactly where she needed to be with her family, and she shared on the retreat that flexibility is literally what I wrote into my planner two retreats ago. I was so excited about that result for her Angela, who's a style coach.

She shared that after eight years in business, she finally has clarity on what is truly driving revenue and what is converting for her. She's getting referrals. Her clients are renewing and she's getting the kind of responses from her clients that tell you that things are clicking, things are resonating, and she shared.

It feels like I'm finally in control versus everyone else being in control and I'm just showing up. She's been to, I wanna say, probably nine or 10 retreats at this point. Tandra who runs a coaching practice is also in a full-time faculty position at Duke University, and she has been fiercely protecting her time every single quarter.

This has been one of her biggest things to focus on and her win from this last quarter is that they are taking a family cruise to the French Riviera, Italy, and Spain for her daughter's high school graduation. So she's actually gone from. Having to proactively protect little bits and pieces of time to now weeks of time off to go on an international cruise with her family, and it's planned and protected in advance and it's happening without her having to effort hurt her.

Adrian, who is a group therapy practice owner, has been in the collective now going on to three years. She said her biggest win was simply how she feels. She said she can sleep. She's enjoying her team, and they're coming to her with dates for team events and saying, this works for us. Can we do something together?

And she's. Finally experiencing the results of the systems that she's put in place, the results of the systems that now have her team gelling and everyone is on the same page. And she said, that's how I wanna spend my time, is really enjoying working with these people. Lisa, a brand strategist, shared that her win was going back to her original referral network, and she keeps saying to herself, stick to what works, Lisa, stick to what works.

And each time we went back and looked at what was generating real results for her business, it was always nurturing existing relationships instead of chasing new tactics. So she really had to learn how to put the blinders on. And remind herself, stick to what works. Stick to what works. So this is what compounding results looks like.

These aren't people who found a new strategy this quarter. These are people who stayed in this rhythm. They've been in this 90 day planning rhythm with us where they've gotten through the initial development. Of their systems. They've gotten through the learning and testing and iterating phase, and now the results are building.

That's what compounding looks like, and you will never access it if you keep starting over, if every time you sit down to plan for your business and set goals for your business. It is a list of all new things. Then you are literally setting yourself up to never move out of the startup stage of your business, what got you through the initial startup stage of your business.

At some point, you have to pick a horse and ride it and follow through until it is a system that can be rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat over and over and over again. Now I wanna pause for a second and say. I'm talking about the CEO retreat because guess what, we're coming up on a CEO retreat that I'd love to have you join me for.

On March 27th, we are hosting this virtual planning day, all day March 27th, Friday. Friday, March 27th from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern time, and registration closes tomorrow, March 20th. So if you're listening to this and you're thinking, okay, Rach, you've called me out. I am starting over too much. I am seeing myself not building the momentum I want because I'm not focused on my systems to get me the outcomes I'm looking for.

Show up. Come plan with us. We're gonna build your actual Q2 plan together. We're going to give you access to client Growth Engine, our most foundational system, and we are going to make sure that at the end of the retreat you have a real working plan built on the real systems [00:20:00] that create compounding results.

So head over to the ceo collective.com/retreat.

So you might be wondering, how do I figure out what are the systems I should be focused on? How do I figure out where I put my time, energy, and attention? And the question I almost always ask is, what is driving results for your business? Where are your results actually coming from? Where are your clients actually coming from?

And the reason this is so important is people pause when I ask that question. They start going back through their client list. They start going back through their leads, their revenue, and almost every single time when they go look back through their last 10 clients, their last 20 clients, the patterns emerge and it's rarely the new things that they're trying out.

It's almost always the consistent things, the things that they have been doing quietly, reliably for months or for years. It is usually the referrals and the relationships. The majority of my business owners are all highly relational, high trust, service-based businesses, so it should not be a surprise that referrals and relationships drive their business.

They might have other marketing channels out there that they've been consistently doing over and over again for years and years. The podcast that brings in the warm leads, the email list that they have been sending newsletters to over and over again, the offer that they've been running for a couple of years now, and that realization is incredibly grounding because chances are.

You have success in some area of your business already that we can amplify, and we're gonna amplify it by systematizing it, not by throwing the thing that is working out the window because there's a new shiny tip, trick, or tactic that feels more sexy right now. Right. What is truly sexy to me is systems that get the results we're looking for.

That's what I am focused on, and this realization is one of the most grounding things that you can experience. 'cause it usually leads to the answer of, I don't have to add more. In fact, I can probably simplify things a bit now that I know what is working. I can let go of some things and I can protect and optimize what I know works for me and my business.

That brings so much relief to my clients in that morning, in that moment. Um, often people will come in feeling like they need a whole new plan or they need to try a whole new approach. And truly, if we press pause and truly look at what's working in their business. They will realize that it's not about doing all the things, it's about lasering in on the things that do get results and looking at how we can build on that instead of starting over from scratch.

So our 90 day planning rhythm is very different from most annual goal setting because we're starting with a completely different framework, a different lens, and a different set of questions. We aren't starting with what do we want to? Do, create, build, have, feel, experience, which is generally a laundry list of brand new things.

Instead, we're starting with what's working and how do we keep running it? What does your client growth engine need this quarter? Where are the gaps? How do we turn those gaps into the goals so that we can make that client growth engine run even smoother? How can we get better results from your client growth engine?

What do we need to remove so that we can stay focused? I find 90 days is the right window of time because it's long enough for you to start seeing results from that consistent effort, and it's short enough that we can adapt and adjust before you waste a whole year going in the wrong direction. I find that this 90 day planning rhythm becomes an anchor for my clients.

It gives you the structure that you need to come back to every quarter, no matter what's happening in the world, what's happening in your business, or what's happening in your life. And that is the important thing here that I wanna really share, is that there's always gonna be things happening in the world.

If you heard my last episode, there's always going to be things happening in the world. There's gonna be things that happen in our business. There's gonna be challenges that come up. It's part of business, right? And we're definitely all gonna have challenges in our own life that disrupt things. I certainly have [00:25:00] had a lot of challenges that have disrupted my life, especially all of last year, but because of this approach, I'm not having to willpower or mindset or, you know.

Grind my way through keeping my business steady and stable. Instead, my business is steady and stable because I have the systems that are running on rinse and repeat, and they're actually easier and easier and easier to run the more that I've run them. That's why we have so many alumni who come back every single quarter and they come back.

Not because they can't plan on their own. Like once they learn our process, they could go through it on their own. But what I hear from them is this rhythm and coming into the room becomes this touchstone that keeps them from drifting. It keeps them from being attracted to the shiny objects. It gives them that quarterly check-in, and they're at reset.

They need to make sure that they're still focused on the right things. So if you would like to join us for the upcoming CEO retreat, we would love to have you. Now, this is not a training. This is not a workshop where you listen and take notes. This is an actual working day. We are going through the process together, and you will come in with your business as it is right now.

I'm gonna give you some pre-work. You're going to go through some of that pre-work. You're going to learn more about what the client growth engine framework is prior to that day. That's why we're closing the doors on March 20th, so you have some time to do that pre-work, but you will leave March 27th.

You will leave our live planning day with a documented. 90 day plan for Q2, and it's not just gonna be a list of goals of all new things to create. It's going to give you. A path to run on for the next 90 days. That helps you really make sure you are consistently doing your marketing, that you're optimizing your sales, that your delivery is getting the results that your clients are looking for, and we're going to build in space, we're gonna build in buffer over the next 90 days so that you can take time off so that you can give yourself a little wiggle room for when.

Something comes up 'cause something always comes up and you will finally be able to go into Q2, knowing each and every week what your biggest priorities are to take action on. This becomes an anchor. This is the antidote to starting over and over and over every corner. This is how you really build the foundation for a more steady and stable business that becomes more predictable over time.

It's not by constantly starting over. It's by having a rhythm that you can lean into and depend on. So registration starts tomorrow. Make sure that if you're interested in coming to this CEO retreat, you head over to the CEO collective.com/retreat and grab your spot. Okay. Thanks so much for being here with me today.

Share this with a business owner who's been stuck in the start over cycle. You know, the big issue with the start over cycle is it's so easy to believe. That, that's how you need to keep running your business, because that's how we all started our business. We all started our business trying new things, but at some point you have to stop trying a million new things and you need to start doubling down on what works.

That is what gets you out of the startup mode and into the more steady and sustainable mode, the more stable mode, and then the scaling mode. Is by learning to really hone in on the systems that drive realistic repeatable results again and again. Okay. Thanks so much for listening and I will talk to you in the next episode.

Okay.