You started the year with big goals, a beautiful plan, and every intention of sticking to it. Then life happened.

Maybe your schedule changed. Maybe your capacity looks completely different. Maybe your revenue isn't where you hoped it would be. Whatever the reason, it doesn't mean you've failed—it simply means it's time to realign.

In this episode, we're sharing our five-step planning process to help you adjust your goals, align your business with your current season of life, and create a plan that actually works for the rest of the year.

Because the plan you made in January was built for a version of you who couldn't predict what the year would bring. Instead of starting over, let's create a plan that's rooted in your reality today.

We Cover:

• How to evaluate your current capacity before setting new business goals.
• A simple five-step framework to reset your business plan for the rest of the year.
• How to align your revenue, sales, and marketing plans with your real-life schedule.
• Why adjusting your goals isn't giving up, it's creating a more sustainable path forward.

Ready for Your Midyear Reset?

The Rooted in Reality Business Planning Process walks you through the exact five-step framework we use to plan each quarter, complete with AI prompts, planning worksheets, and guided exercises to help you create a business plan that fits your life, not the other way around.

Grab your copy and start realigning the rest of your year with confidence.

Meet Your Hosts

Jessica Walther is the founder and CEO of The Launch Collaborative and Sustainable Success Systems. As a launch strategist and systems consultant, Jess is dedicated to helping solo business owners and small-but-mighty teams build businesses that deliver both peace and profit. She specializes in creating sustainable growth strategies that align with her clients' values and lifestyles.

Rachel Lopez is the founder and CEO of Gal Marketing Agency, a boutique email marketing and strategy firm. With over a decade of experience, Rachel helps heart-driven entrepreneurs craft intentional marketing strategies that attract, nurture, and convert leads sustainably. Her human-first approach ensures that marketing efforts feel authentic and effective .

Together, Jess and Rachel blend systems, storytelling, and soulful strategy to help you grow a business that's deeply aligned with your life—not just your revenue goals.

Connect With Us:

• Jess Website
• Rachel's Website

Hang Out & Say Hi!

• Deeply Rooted Business Instagram
• Jess Instagram
• Rachel's Instagram

How in the world is it already July?

2

And I had this moment last week

when it was July 1st, and I was

3

sitting there thinking about that

beautiful plan that we wrote.

4

The beautiful plan that Gal has for the

5

in your Notion or your Google Docs or

in that wonderful, beautiful planner

6

that you have, there's probably an

annual plan with your name on it.

7

Be so real with us.

8

And I wanna know when was the

last time you looked at it.

9

Because, yep, if you're here with us

and you're like, "Yeah, that beautiful

10

plan," it's not the plan that we're

working on right now, and maybe you

11

have a little bit of guilt from that.

12

We just wanna let you know

you're in the right place.

13

Because here's the thing that probably

nobody really wants to say out loud,

14

is that the plan that you made in

December was written by a version of

15

you that had no idea the twists and

turns that this year was gonna give you.

16

Instead of being , "Ugh, the year's a

wash, whatever," let's get back on track.

17

We're not scrapping the plan entirely.

18

We're just gonna do a mid-year reset.

19

So with our five rooted-in-reality

planning steps, we're gonna build

20

this reset around a life that we're

actually living right now, not the one

21

that we had imagined back in December.

22

So let's get into it.

23

Jessica: Yeah, but before we do, let's

do a quick little energy check-in and

24

kind of release the shame and the guilt

that you have around either nothing going

25

according to the plan that you planned,

because you probably got farther by just

26

writing that plan than you ever would have

… or not looking at the plan in a while,

27

because it's natural for this to happen.

28

Have you read the book The 12 Week Year?

29

It's like humans are conditioned

to where we kind of need a

30

little restart every 12 weeks.

31

I know when I start to feel like my

energy is going in all different places,

32

it doesn't immediately set in like,

"Oh, it's because we don't have a plan."

33

But even with my clients, if we get out of

our normal quarterly planning cadence, and

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all of a sudden things feel chaotic, and

I just did a quarterly planning session

35

with a client last week, and it just felt

so good, and I was like, "Oh, we just

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felt chaotic 'cause we hadn't planned."

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It's normal.

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So release that.

39

Take a deep breath in,

40

and let it out.

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All right.

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Last week we talked about how to assess

your year to see where you've been.

43

So this year we're really going to talk

about aligning the back half of the year,

44

knowing where you need to go and kind of

the five steps that we take to make this

45

plan have the best chance of actually

working and executing ever because we

46

take a life-first business approach.

47

So step number one is really

setting your life-first foundation.

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It's pulling out that calendar and

marking down all the new commitments

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that you didn't have before.

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For me, I'm engaged now, so now I

need to figure out where am I gonna

51

fit showers and receptions and

bachelorettes and all of this that I

52

had zero idea in December that would

be working, so I needed to work around.

53

So pull out that calendar and

start marking out all of your

54

commitments that you have.

55

Rachel: Yeah, and I wanna note, this comes

before we start talking about any revenue.

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I know in the assess section we

kinda talked heavily on clients

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and where they're coming from.

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So we're still not in the results

and the action steps still.

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We're really kinda reassessing

our energy levels and where

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we're putting our focus in.

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I think that's the most important thing.

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My whole rhythm's changed right

now in the sense that my kid's

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going through a sleep regression.

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I don't have my nap hour that I plan on.

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And so we really have to be able to

understand that the plan that we made in

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December, it was built on hoping that your

kid's gonna sleep through the night and

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you're gonna wake up every day refreshed.

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That doesn't happen.

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That's not happening.

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I'm gonna be building now for the

second half of the year on the

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receipts that I'm bringing to what's

happening in reality right now.

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So what we're gonna do

is pull up our calendar.

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I don't want you to spend too much

time on this, 15, 20 minutes max.

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Pull up your calendar through now through

December and block off the vacations.

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When does school start?

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What is the holidays what

do those look like for you?

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Are you launching?

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When are you recovering after your launch?

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We're gonna block those off.

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Then we're going to revisit

that weekly blueprint.

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Now Jess and I have changed up our entire

weekly blueprint where we're no longer

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recording on Fridays because it's the

summer and we wanna be in the pool.

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So we had to reshift when we're actually

putting the time in to record, when

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we're putting our planning time.

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So summer-fying our weekly blueprint

so that we can feel better.

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And then once school starts in the

fall and all of that, we'll reset

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and do this again because it's

a living, breathing existence of

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how we operate within our week.

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And then third step is we're

redeclaring our non-negotiables.

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So maybe maybe in the spring we

said offline at 4:00 was perfect.

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Maybe we're saying Fridays were light.

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Now it's saying, "Oh, shoot, I have

vacations planned for the next week.

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I have to get on Saturday and crank

out some things so that I know I

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can be truly offline when I need

to be offline," and all of that.

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So whatever those non-negotiables are,

shift 'em, rework them, make sure they

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work in your right now so that you can

come back at this refreshed, and that

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you're not taking any sacrifices in

your life where you shouldn't have to.

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Jessica: Yeah, I know.

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I mean, summer, the change always, no

matter how prepared I feel like I am

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for it, the change from kid in school

all day from 8:00 to 3:00 to her being

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out of school, it always gets me.

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I'm such a routines gal.

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And while now I have added, a very nice

morning walk because I don't have to be

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driving carpool in the morning I also

need to try to get all my work done

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between 1:30 or 2:00 because that's when

my teenage demon emerges from her room.

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Demon, that's funny.

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She's an angel.

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Teenage angel emerges from her room, and

she needs a little kind of interaction

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time, that sort of thing, time with Mom.

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So that has shifted a lot for me.

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In summer, I almost tend to do a lot of

shorter days 'cause almost every day is

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a weekend for us because everyone's home.

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So instead of trying to cram it

all up into the workweek, I try

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to expand it out a little bit more

so that we're kind of just finding

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balance any way we can find it.

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There's no right way to do it

except the way that works for you.

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Rachel: Exactly.

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If you've moved through those three

steps, what you should end up with is

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your true right now capacity mapped out.

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So then, now that we have that wrapped,

we're gonna go and do some math with it.

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And while math may not be my strong

point, as revealed in last week's episode,

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this is the fun part where we get to

look at the kind of overlap of revenue

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needs, and goals, and our true capacity.

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So what is realistic, and how do those

two things meet without sacrificing

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the summer fun happening right

now, and us on a path of burnout?

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This is where we open the books.

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Whatever the numbers say, we

wanna know we still have time

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to hit our goals this year.

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If maybe first half of the year

was eh, not great, know that it's

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important to do this now because then

we can properly plan for the second

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half of the year and all of that.

132

Looking at the last six months of data

and saying, "What is this telling me?

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How do we attack this?"

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And really assessing it with right

now versus the hopeful person

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that we were in December with all

of that energy of the new year.

136

Jessica: Yeah, no.

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So I think in the beginning of the year,

we had planned to do a launch cohort

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right now or something like that, and

right now our capacity is not there.

139

So sometimes it just means getting

a little more creative on how

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you're going to bring that in.

141

One trick that I'm leaning

into is past clients.

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They're always kind of easier to work

with when you have less capacity because

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there's less of that upfront work that

you have to do to learn their business.

144

So, you know, if you find you're

not meeting your revenue goal, maybe

145

reaching out to a few of them to help it.

146

And then I know once school gets back

in and I get past these client launch

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seasons that I have, I'll have all the

time in October, November, December to

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kinda do a more hour intensive offer.

149

Rachel: Yeah, and I think

that's the fun part, right?

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Is that the plan you can always pivot,

and there's so many people talking

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about pivoting, whether it's your

actual services and all of that.

152

But if you are somebody like Jess who

gets inspired with the drop of a hat,

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you can use this to say "Oh, no shame.

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We can't fit a launch cohort.

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As much as it would be so much fun

to do, we physically cannot do that.

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So let's try something else."

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And looking at it, perspective is reality.

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How do we shift our perspective

to make it reality a little

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bit more easier to consume?

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Jessica: The main thing you're

trying to get out of step two

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is a plan, a revenue plan.

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What are you selling, and when

are you selling it, and when do

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you hope to bring in that revenue?

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Because that will inform step

three, which is building out your

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sales rhythm or your sales plan.

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Because unless you have an amazingly big

audience that have known you for years,

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you're gonna have to do a little ramp

up, a little attraction, a little nurture

168

before people want to buy from you.

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So you wanna make sure that you're

kind of mapping those out for

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each of the different offers that

you're trying to focus on selling.

171

Rachel: when you are laying out your sales

rhythm launch calendar for the next six

172

months, you already drop in we already

talked about the capacity, what we know

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we are capabilities for, what we know our

energy seasons will be, and then we wanna

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align that with our revenue-generating

levers, tactics, all of those things.

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So if you're like us, and we support

clients who do launch in the second half

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of the year with Black Friday holiday

campaigns and all of that, you're probably

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not gonna put a launch on your own to-do,

because it's not gonna be feasible.

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So looking at what those things

are and checking where it's the

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most optimized to do launching.

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And just because you're not launching

doesn't mean you're having to put

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a pause on your lead generation.

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Launches are for those hares that

are craving your business right now.

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But you can still, in a non-launch

period, work with those tortoise buyers.

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I'm currently right now running a second

half of the year email list reset in

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my emails right now, and those are

talking specifically to tortoises.

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What I want them to do is take all of

the actions that I'm telling them, do

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something with it, marinate with it, and

then when they realize back in September

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that they're like, "Okay, I really could

possibly do this all on my own I've had

189

a few ahas," but really what I want to

do is for them to book strategy sessions

190

with me or purchase Aligned Leads formula.

191

So what I'm trying to say is

that you don't have to go to

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that big blown-out launch.

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You can really be taking actionable

steps that are helping them fuel your

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pipeline full of tortoises that are

ready to make decisions in a month, two

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months, or whatever the case may be.

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Know that there are options here,

and that your rhythm, if you are in

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a heavy capacity time, doesn't have

to mean go all out, host a workshop,

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do this, do that kind of thing.

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Focus on this now, the point of this

exercise and these steps is that you

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should really have more clarity and

control on the second half of the

201

year versus existing in panic come

September 1st and you're like, "Oh,

202

my gosh, I slacked for the last couple

of weeks, I need to do something now."

203

you're kinda just taking a little

bit more control over that to give

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you better choices going forward.

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Jessica: Right, now step four, once

you know you have your campaign or

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promo periods laid out on your launch

calendar, you know when you're ramping

207

up, you know when you're selling,

the next part is to kind of back

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into a marketing or content rhythm.

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So if you followed our assess in

the last episode, you looked at your

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traffic sources, and maybe you noticed

some things about your traffic.

211

Maybe you've been spending a lot of

time, energy, and effort in Instagram,

212

but really TikTok is driving all of your

revenue, so maybe you need to shift there.

213

And just finding a sustainable content

rhythm is just about figuring out what

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channels do you wanna show up on, and

how many pieces of content and what

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format those contents are for each one.

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And do it in a way that you

can commit to, or Rachel and I

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are actually flipping on this.

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We are purposely going into an

unsustainable marketing content

219

rhythm probably 'cause we're

both doing the YAP challenge.

220

We're sure you heard about it, where we're

gonna try to post on social every week.

221

Hold us accountable if

you don't see our faces.

222

But this is kind of just a short-term

squeeze, because we're gonna hopefully

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build the muscles and the skills to be

able to make this short-form content

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creation a little more sustainable for us

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Rachel: Yeah, so whatever your engine is,

and I think this is why it's so incredibly

226

valuable to do a mid-year reset versus

waiting until your annual planning comes,

227

is because now you have that data for

the last six months of whatever that

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aspirational content marketing plan was

to say it worked or it didn't work, and

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now we can make the rest of the decisions

going forward with, better plans.

230

And so if you're saying back in our

assess section where we're talking about,

231

okay, we had this many leads come through

our lead magnet, or we had this many

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leads come through referrals, now we

know we're trying to optimize for sales

233

and we're trying to optimize for life.

234

How those two kind of blend over?

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So if it was SEO was popping off, we lean

heavier into that slower marketing, those

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anchor contents, maybe it's a podcast

or a blog, whatever the case may be,

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and we allow that to keep compounding.

238

If we realized in our assess plan that

our top of funnel was our weakest and

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maybe middle funnel was doing great,

how do we fuel that top of funnel?

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Which is what Jess and I are trying to

do right now with the yap challenge.

241

So really understanding and looking

at this in a diagnostic way of

242

saying, "Where's the gap happening?"

243

And then we start to build up that rhythm

so that you can show up a little bit

244

more intentional than December you was

hoping you would be, and now that we're

245

buried in client work, we can't be.

246

You know what I mean?

247

Jessica: All right, and then

step five, we're gonna go and

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revisit back annual goals.

249

Do your annual goals need to be adjusted?

250

That's okay.

251

Maybe you set a astronomical revenue goal

'cause you thought you were just gonna

252

pop off this year, and it's not there.

253

You can still dream and manifest,

but remember we're always about

254

rooted in reality, rooted here.

255

So adjusting that goal so that

you can adjust your expenses.

256

Maybe you're not gonna hit the revenue,

you need to pull back on some expenses.

257

And then figuring out what those

monthly priorities or projects are.

258

So if you've got a launch, there's a

lot of tasks that go into launching.

259

You need a launch project.

260

If you wanna launch a new program,

there's a project for that.

261

If you wanna launch a new lead

magnet, there's a project for that.

262

And kind of laying those out month

by month and doing high-level

263

milestone planning to where you can

see, oh, I'm overloading myself.

264

Maybe I need to pull this out now so

that I can execute on these even better.

265

We don't need to add anything

else more to our plates right now.

266

So yeah, just figuring out

what those priority goals

267

or projects are going to be.

268

Rachel: Yeah.

269

I think this one's also a lot of fun

too to reflect back on, And again, I'm

270

gonna keep saying this 'cause I think

people get in their heads about planning,

271

and they get in their heads about goal

setting because don't wanna set up a

272

goal because they're afraid to fail.

273

But you can always fail forward and

not have it be a negative thing, right?

274

You can set an income goal and then

have to change it because you understand

275

your capacity more, or you learned a

lesson on burnout or things like that.

276

Everything that you are pulling forward

here to look at and have more visibility

277

on allows you to, work forward.

278

But what happens when you aren't

planning or not setting up

279

these goals is that you're just

operating in this constant state of

280

guessing or spaghetti on the wall.

281

And if you've ever been there you just

know how exhausting and frustrating

282

that is 'cause every single time

you have to have a new idea, you're

283

starting from scratch, right?

284

It's the same thing we talk about

when we're talking about AI prompting,

285

where you are essentially making it

so much harder on yourself if you're

286

not starting from a place that at

least gets you 30% of the way there.

287

So if you're even listening to

this and you're like, "I didn't

288

do a December plan for 2026.

289

What are you talking about?"

290

You can use this as the steps to still

plan forward and, just use whatever

291

you've been doing for the last six

months to attack the next six months and

292

make it a little bit more structured so

that you're not starting and throwing

293

spaghetti at the wall constantly.

294

Jessica: All right, so

let's recap the steps.

295

So step one, you're gonna want to

build your life first foundation.

296

So block off all your life stuff, all your

kids' activities, the vacations you wanna

297

take, summer that you actually wanna live,

so that you can protect that time first.

298

Step two, you're gonna do

revenue and capacity planning.

299

So figuring out what your actual

capacity is based on what the calendar

300

that you built out, and then figuring

out what offers or what spots or client

301

roster or however you look at it, you

need to fill based on that capacity.

302

And maybe where you might need to get

a little bit creative because you need

303

more revenue, but your capacity might be

lower, so what offers can look like that.

304

Next, you wanna map out your

sales or promotional period.

305

So everyone's like, "I

don't want a live launch.

306

I don't want a live launch."

307

You're either selling during a live

launch or you're selling all the time.

308

You still need to map out how you're going

to sell your offers and your products.

309

So whether that be through a concentrated

push like a live launch or an everyday

310

smaller push like something evergreen, you

need to have a plan on how you're going

311

to attract new customers and convert them.

312

Number four, you're gonna want

to develop your content rhythm.

313

What channels are you showing up on?

314

What are these posts look like?

315

When are you creating, editing, if

you do all of that scheduling, all

316

the things that come along with

marketing and content creation.

317

And then step five, you wanna set

your goals for your quarter, so you

318

can look back and have something

that you're working towards.

319

And give every month at least

one to two big priorities.

320

And then give yourself permission

to park those other great ideas.

321

This is talking to myself.

322

Park those other great ideas

to a time when you may have

323

more capacity if you don't.

324

And if you want a little help

doing this, we have the Rooted in

325

Reality business planning process.

326

It comes with AI prompts and it will

walk you through this entire process.

327

We like to revisit it

ourselves every single quarter.

328

You can grab it in our episode show notes.

329

Rachel: If this episode hit home for you,

share it with your business bestie, the

330

one that has the January plan buried in

that lovely, beautiful Notion doc but

331

actually hasn't opened it since February.

332

She'll need this reset

just as much as you do.

333

And we wanna hear from you

guys always, literally always.

334

Which of the five steps are

you doing first, and which

335

one have you been avoiding?

336

DM us on Instagram,

TikTok, send us an email.

337

We read everything, we really do.

338

So until next week, we're

339

Jessica: Rooting

340

Rachel: for you.

341

Jessica: for you