The Rhythms Series

Happy New Year!

It’s time to embark on another trip around the sun. This time of year is filled with optimism, big dreams, and ambitious goals. There’s nothing quite like a fresh start. A feeling of…

• Letting go of what no longer serves you
• Forgiving yourself for anything you didn’t do over the last 365 days
• Looking ahead instead of dwelling on the past
• Welcoming the possibilities of the year ahead

However, underneath the shiny exterior of new beginnings, hopes, dreams, and wishes, many of us end up experiencing something else instead…

Disappointment.

You see ((as well-intentioned as they may be)) New Year’s Resolutions often focus on…

• Our shortcomings & so-called flaws that lead us to judge ourselves
• Lofty ambitions without any idea how to get there
• Vague, unrealistic, or impossible-to-measure goals

And when we fall short yet again, abandon the 5:30 am alarm clock we swore we’d obey, or choose leftover holiday cookies over the kickboxing class at the gym (again), we fall back into disappointment, self-criticism, and defeat. 

How quickly that fresh exuberance of a new calendar fizzles come January 13… 

The same applies to our business resolutions. While you don’t need to have every single step mapped out (sometimes you need to trust and allow things to unfold), you do need to find a sustainable, consistent practice that will help you meet your goals.  I have found that one simple, but impactful, approach to meeting my business goals has made ALL the difference for me and my clients.

That’s why I set rhythms instead of resolutions in my business.

I’m here to tell you, you’re not missing the mark on your big goals and dreams because there’s something wrong with YOU. You simply haven’t found the right rhythms to support your work, your goals, and your progress. 

Resolutions are all fine and good, but they don’t include the roadmap to get there. 

Rhythms are different. Rhythms create consistency in your business, and consistency is KEY. Being consistent in your business is the key to success, the key to sustainability, and the key to your sanity (IMO the most important of all)!

Setting rhythms in your business offers a strong foundation that can grow with you. With rhythms in place, you’ll be in awe of what aligned action you’ll be able to take in the new year and beyond!

This blog is the kick-off to my New Year’s blog series all about RHYTHMS in your business. We’ll explore what rhythms are, how they work, and which rhythms every business should have to meet their goals and keep everything running like a well-oiled machine so you can…

• Set yourself up for success
• Find a genuine work/life balance
• & build the business of YOUR dreams (not someone else’s)

Then, each week I’ll dig deep into one of the 8 essential rhythms your business needs so that you can start laying a foundation that will serve you for many years to come. 

I encourage you to join my email list so you can follow along! Each week I’ll pop into your inbox to remind you to set aside some time to tend to each essential rhythm in your business. 

I want to support you as you consistently strive for those big business goals through… 

• actionable tips
• strategy
• & implementation advice 

…to help to streamline your systems, establish your WOW client experience, and set you up for goal-smashing success. 

Ditch the judgment & disappointment of resolutions. Embrace the empowerment & sustainability of rhythms.

Before we jump in…make sure you don’t miss out on all the business-building goodness! Click here to sign up for my email list and you’ll be the first to know when my weekly blog is live! 

It’s like having your own personal Business Coach in your back pocket (aka your email inbox) guiding you as you create an impactful, passion-led, creative business you can’t wait to dive into day after day, year after year. 

What Are Rhythms and How Do They Work?

I define rhythms as recurring responsibilities that cycle in your business. Some rhythms may be dictated to you such as finances or marketing, while others may be more flexible or industry-specific. A rhythm is something that comes up again and again and it is essential for your business to operate, scale, and thrive. 

The beauty of focusing on rhythms instead of resolutions is that rhythms can support any and all goals you set. They can grow, expand, and evolve to support your ever-changing business even if your goals shift!

Rhythms are not one-size-fits-all and need to be customized to you, your unique business, and your workflows. Some will naturally fall into place at certain times throughout the year. Typically, there are daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual rhythms. Let’s take a look at some examples.

Daily: project communications

Weekly: status updates for a client

Monthly: progress reviews, invoices, reconciling your books

Quarterly: seasonal planning

Annually: updates for pricing and policies, offers, & long term agreements

While each business is different, there are some rhythms that all businesses must tend to. I’ve worked with countless businesses over the years. Whether they are small start-ups, one-woman solopreneur operations, or huge corporations, they all have 8 rhythms in common, even if they manage their rhythms differently. 

As we explore the 8 specific rhythms your creative business needs, you’ll be able to determine how often these rhythms need to be nurtured in your work so you can find what serves you best as you step into the new year.

How Will I Know If I Need a New Rhythm?

Ever hear a band play and the timing is just…off?

I’m no music expert, but when ya know, ya know!

It’s usually pretty easy to identify the rhythms that are off in your business too. They’re usually the things you put off, avoid, detest, or wish you could just hand off to someone else once and for all. 

Here are three ways to tell if your business is out of rhythm so you can take action and get back in sync:

• You avoid tending to important parts of your business because it feels daunting or overwhelming.

• Running your business feels like a never-ending juggling act. No matter how hard you try, you keep dropping the ball.

• You feel frustrated and don’t know where to start to solve the problem.

When we try to “fix” these challenges with new year’s resolutions, we think that we have to change something about ourselves. We pick apart our habits, qualities, and skills until we feel so bummed out, it’s no wonder the motivation is gone!

When we build a better relationship with the rhythms in our business (instead of sweeping them under the rug) we’re able to find a better way to work. We move away from “one and done” solutions that are as temporary as a stick-on tattoo, and move toward long-term systems that actually offer lasting results! You get to create a workflow that supports YOU, which is why every business and every person has their own custom rhythms.

Which 8 Rhythms Do I Need in My Creative Business?

Once you implement rhythms, you’ll feel more flow in your work. You’ll be able to get out of the weeds, knowing that the essential operations of your business are being handled. 

When these rhythms are optimized you’ll feel way more efficient so that you can spend more of your time on the big picture planning and implementation that will move the needle forward on your new year’s goals and visions. 

Here are the 8 rhythms I encourage you to tend to this year. 

And some tips to guide you as you work through each one!

• You may pick and choose which rhythms you focus on, however, I have intentionally outlined these in the order I would recommend you follow. 

• Each rhythm will support the next as you build your foundation. 

• Finally, don’t feel pressured to “keep up” with the topics I share each week. I highly recommend you start with one rhythm and get it firmly established before you layer on your other rhythms. This will help you avoid feeling overwhelmed and will allow each new layer to work with the others harmoniously.

# 1 CEO Time

CEO Time is time to work ON your business instead of IN your business. It’s the time you prioritize away from the day-to-day tasks to TRULY wear your CEO hat (AKA this is not time off or vacation time). CEO Time is different from taking a few days to relax at the beach or visit family (although time off for YOU is equally as important!). 

CEO time is working time, it’s just about working DIFFERENTLY. As a business owner, it can be easy to get caught up in the tasks and responsibilities of your other roles. Especially if you’re a solopreneur, you’re likely serving as a social media manager, bookkeeper, marketing team, customer service representative…the list goes on and on. 

This is a friendly but firm reminder: while all of those roles are important,  no role is more essential than the title of CEO. 

When you shift your thinking around how you spend your time in your business, it really is like moving from an employee mentality to a boss mindset. As the boss it is your responsibility to tune into the vision and direction of your company. You can’t do this if you’re ONLY working reactively from one day to the next. 

It’s time to work proactively and step into your rightful place as a LEADER.

When you carve out CEO time you’ll…

• have dedicated time on the calendar for big picture planning.

• Prioritize and develop the systems you need to keep everything running smoothly in the background.

• tap into your creativity and innovation as a business owner to better inspire your offers, your team, and your audience.

• step back into your day-to-day work with new perspectives and ideas. When we’re in the thick of it, it can feel impossible to catch your breath! 

• find the space you need to tend to the rest of your rhythms (hint: this is why I’m talking to you about CEO Time first)! Get CEO Time blocked out on your schedule regularly so that you can put rhythms in place now and grow into your CEO role in the future.

The reason so many entrepreneurs don’t take CEO Time? They’re afraid that the moment they step away, the whole operation will crumble! 

Don’t be the bottleneck. 

The benefits of CEO Time are too good to miss! Whether you implement CEO Time weekly, monthly, or quarterly, it will positively impact your work and the progress you make towards your goals.

#2 Finances

You can be in business to… 

• have a positive impact on your industry
• create a balanced lifestyle for your family
• travel the world and work from anywhere! 

…but no matter what kind of business you have or what good you do, you need to be realistic with your finances. 

At the end of the day, you need to earn MONEY to have a business. It’s what sets your hobbies apart from your career.

While this may seem obvious, it is often alarming how many entrepreneurs are unaware of the state of their finances. They are intimidated to confront their books, or avoid discussing the “m” word (money). 

Being an entrepreneur means you’ll likely have to confront your “money stuff” at one point or another. 

Ya know… feelings of lack, worthiness, scarcity, etc. etc. etc. 

Your relationship with money is similar to your connections with family or friends. It needs to be nurtured and tended to regularly, not avoided, neglected, or shoved into a figurative box at the back of your closet.

Getting familiar with your numbers is the best way to positively impact your life and your work. Don’t avoid looking at your books until tax season, it’s doing no one any favors. 

Why Financial Rhythms are essential 

• They make tax season WAYYY less scary and daunting (need I say more?).

• Confronting your finances (for better or worse) helps you get a handle on what’s happening behind the scenes of your business.

• You’ll be able to make wise, informed choices moving forward. When you know your numbers you can strategically look at your pricing, expenses, outsourcing opportunities, investments, partnerships, giving, and more with a strategic eye. 

• You can set realistic goals around income and reverse engineer your way to meeting (or even surpassing) those goals. 

The best way to confront your “money stuff”? Build it into your routine consistently so that reconciling your books, paying invoices, or filing your taxes isn’t a huge, stressful overhaul. It becomes a manageable task you chip away at steadily throughout the year. 

You’ll feel more confident and aligned every step of the way. Plus, if you have any financial goals on your “resolution” list, these rhythms will ensure you’re on your way to meeting those goals. You’ll actually be able to track your progress instead of blindly wishing & hoping it into existence!

# 3 Sales

To fully step into your role as CEO and actually have finances to look at, you need to sell! The good news is, gone are the days of the sleazy car salesman.

Selling doesn’t have to, and shouldn’t, feel icky. Instead, work to shift your focus. If you never sell, you’ll never be able to help or serve your audience with your skill, talent, creations, or expertise. 

Why Sales Rhythms are essential

• Feel GOOD about selling and build a healthier relationship with sales. When you’re able to shift your perspective to embrace the idea that selling is service, your whole outlook will change! As long as you are selling a service or product that you are wholeheartedly proud of (duh- I know you are!) this will be a game-changer for you.

•  A rhythm around your sales process will help you solidify your strategy and align with your unique business, skills, & capacity. 

• Transition from anxiously “chasing sales” with a scarcity mindset to nurturing your client experience and building strong relationships instead. 

• Tap into a steady stream of warm leads who know, like, and trust you.

• Craft a repeatable process so you aren’t reinventing the wheel every time. Over time you’ll be able to improve and hone this rhythm with ease.

• Identify a measurable system that helps you know what is and is not working (instead of throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks). 

• You’ll shorten lead times, and increase conversion rates, meaning you’ll sell more consistently with less time and energy. Sales rhythms can and should work hand-in-hand with your marketing rhythms so you can more effectively close the leads your marketing brings in. 

When entrepreneurs feel uncomfortable selling or haven’t found a system that feels aligned, they end up with an unpredictable and unreliable business model. A sales rhythm offers predictability, scalability, and measurability so you can feel empowered when it comes to selling your product, course, or service.

#4 Operations & Systems

I don’t call myself COO (Chief Operating Officer) for nothing. Streamlining the systems and ops of your business is my JAM! My goal is to help my clients run their business like a well-oiled machine so that they can focus their energy on serving, creating, innovating, and spending time in a way that lights them UP. 

You must have SOPs (standard operating procedures), automations, strong client management systems, and workflows in place so that you can steadily let go of the reins and worry less about the tiny details while spending more time in your zone of genius. 

Prioritizing Your Ops and Systems will…

• Free up mental space so you can stay in your zone of genius. Without having to rely on your memory for every single detail, you’ll feel relieved and organized. 

• Allow you to document your processes. This makes handing off tasks to a team member a breeze. It will make it much easier to outsource projects in the future.

• Offer you more time and energy to pour into your clients, your creativity, and your CEO Time!

• Reduce mistakes and errors. Computers and automation make being a human SO much easier!

• Be able to realistically take time away and keep everything running smoothly with the worry or the guilt!

The upfront time, strategy, and implementation needed to get your systems and ops up and running often deters business owners from putting these essential business practices in place. The learning curve and business-y jargon can intimidate some entrepreneurs.  

BUT, once you have your CEO Time in place, you can get out of the weeds and  prioritize these needle-moving elements of your business. 

Trust me, establishing systems and operations upfront and then tending to them as your business evolves. You’ll thank yourself for many years to come!

Still intimidated by the business jargon? I’ve got you covered. Stick with me and we’ll map out your unique systems and ops rhythm!

#5 Creative Time

As a creative business owner, being creative isn’t just fun, it’s work. Whether you’re brand new to your creative business or have been at it for a while, it can be tricky to find the balance between creating for your clients and creating for yourself. It can be tough to pour into your creativity when your passion becomes your profession. Sometimes your craft, skill, or art can start to feel like it’s only a means to an end. 

It’s essential to tap into creativity for creativity’s sake and just have fun! 

Why You NEED Creativity for FUN’s Sake

• It’s good for your mental and emotional health! We all need healthy outlets. If you consider yourself a creative person, you likely thrive when you’re able to try new things, gain new perspectives, and pour into your artistic nature!

• Remember you’re a PERSON outside of your work. Being a creative business owner means it can be easy to wrap your identity in your work. Don’t let your business define you. It is simply a (totally awesome) part of who you are. Doing something creative outside of work can help to ground you and remind you of who you truly are as a person FIRST, badass business owner second. 

• Improve the QUALITY of your work. Yes, taking time to be creative OUTSIDE of your business can actually improve the work you do IN your business. Creativity is like a muscle. You need to flex that muscle regularly if you want to strengthen it. Taking time to consistently tap into your creativity allows you to gain fresh inspiration. Through new viewpoints, ideas, tools, and techniques that you can infuse into your own craft.

Many entrepreneurs develop an unhealthy relationship with their creativity. They might think they need to “conserve” their creativity in order to be productive in their professional life. Or, it can simply be too hard to carve out time in your busy schedule. We’ve all experienced how much easier it is to put our client’s needs ahead of our own (guilty!). 

Remember, we all have the same 24-hours in a day, but we MAKE time for the things we value. If being a creative person (not just a creative entrepreneur) is important to you, I can teach you how to block time off for tending to your creativity by building a rhythm into your schedule. 

#6 Marketing

Marketing rhythms are about setting a strategy that is both effective and sustainable to grow your audience (and your impact), and get you in front of the right people at the right time. It goes hand in hand with sales.

A marketing rhythm will…

• Help you get in front of the right people so you can show up and serve!

• Allow you to grow and nurture your audience. This isn’t about vanity metrics, it’s about cultivating a community of people who are engaged and interested. 

• Help you create a plan that YOU can realistically keep up with. What works for Amy Porterfield or your VA friend may not work for you… and that is OKAY! Remember, your rhythm may take some time to establish. But as you hone it you can strategically make changes, track what does and doesn’t work, and pay attention to how YOU feel in the process. A “perfect” marketing plan is only good to you if you’re actually able to manage it and put it into action!

There are so many different ways to market in today’s world, it can feel overwhelming to even START. 

Your head is spinning with… 

• Facebook ads
• email marketing techniques
• and content strategies. 

Either you’ve tried to do EVERYTHING all at once (and burnt out reeaaal quick) or you feel paralyzed by the multitude of options. Analysis paralysis is REAL my friend! Rhythms will help you focus your efforts and energy in the most impactful and scalable way.

#7 Engagement

You need to interact with your audience. As tempting as it may be, you can’t simply set it and forget it. Once you’ve created content, it’s your responsibility to join the conversation you’ve initiated with your audience.  

The underestimated value of engagement rhythms

• When you share high-quality content, you demonstrate your authority, expertise, and what sets you apart (your USP or Unique Selling Proposition). 

• Let your personality shine through. Whether you’re running the show on your own or overseeing a team, people want to work with PEOPLE. Being appropriately vulnerable builds your likability and develops trust. Your humanness is your greatest asset.

• Establish your brand values. This will help you find who your people are (or are NOT). Your messaging will call in the clients that you want to serve so you feel even more aligned in your work.

• Generate new, relevant topics and stay on the pulse of your industry. The more you talk to your ICA (Ideal Client Avatar), the better you can serve and show up. They’ll provide you with content ideas and may even inspire a new offer or product!

This rhythm strategically comes AFTER building out a marketing rhythm. So often business owners are caught up in the content game because they don’t yet have a sustainable rhythm that works for them – they’re working it! They either forget about engagement or simply don’t have the capacity or bandwidth to tend to it. For this reason, engagement tends to be low on the priority list and it is a missed opportunity for many businesses to grow organically. 

#8 Communication

Communication rhythms include all the ways you interact with your team members, colleagues, vendors, outsourced professionals, and most importantly your clients. 

As a business owner, strong communication skills are essential because worried clients are NOT happy clients (or team members for that matter)! Ease their concerns on the front end, and you’ll earn their trust, loyalty, and business. Luckily, there are lots of ways to ensure that your people are in the know. 

The Perks of Communication Rhythms

• Solid communication allows you to set boundaries so that you can manage your working time and enforce what you need from your clients, team and vendors.

• They help you set clear, realistic expectations so that everyone is on the same page. Communication workflows for things like onboarding and offboarding ensure everyone knows what to expect from you and what is expected of them!

• Save time. It’s the essence of the expression, “work smarter, not harder.” When you say it right the first time and have a functional rhythm in place, you won’t find yourself writing the same email from scratch over and over and over again. 

• Protect your time. If you’re planning to be OOO or on vacation you can actually unplug without having to worry about your voicemail or email inbox.

• When it comes to communication you can automate any regular messaging or repeat workflows to avoid errors and banish forgetfulness. 

Without communication rhythms, you’re probably responding to people in a reactionary way instead of a proactive way (I don’t need to spell it out for you: that’s not ideal). Instead, communication rhythms help us plan ahead, learn what works, anticipate client needs, and help us maintain our boundaries instead of falling into people-pleasing tendencies. 

Stay Tuned

I am so excited to help you put rhythms in place for your business this year. I encourage you to…

• Click here to sign up for my email list so you can hop over to the newest blog in this series every Monday.

• I challenge you to…set time aside each week for the next 8 weeks (I call it Time Blocking) to apply what you learn and set rhythms that support your unique business flow.

• Reach out with questions! Click here to email me. I personally respond to every single email and would love to hear from you! Your questions help me share the best content possible (and if you have a question, there’s likely 10 other people who are wondering the same thing. Be their hero and speak up!)

With the right rhythms in place, your business will be humming along in the new year creating space, systems, and strategy that will help you to actively work towards, meet, and even exceed all the goals, resolutions, and dreams you have in mind for the year ahead!

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