Welcome to Episode 99 of the Lift As You Climb podcast with Isabel Alexander. In this episode, Isabel reflects on the past five or six episodes dedicated to strategic planning. She shares personal examples of the results, experiences, and memorable moments from implementing strategic planning in her business journey.

**Key Points:**

1. Team Ownership: Isabel highlights the significant impact of inviting her team to take ownership and participate in creating, implementing, and measuring the strategic plan. This approach fostered shared growth and contributed to substantial business success.

2. Daily Stand-Up and Rhythm: Learn how implementing a daily stand-up meeting and quarterly themes created a rhythm of celebration and engagement within the team. Isabel shares her experiences with these practices and how they contributed to team cohesion and energy.

3. Celebration Rituals: Isabel emphasizes the importance of celebrating milestones and achievements, both big and small. She shares how quarterly celebrations, annual retreats, and themed events were crucial in maintaining enthusiasm and motivation.

4. Mind the Gap and the Gain: Isabel recommends reading "The Gap and the Gain" by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy. The book emphasizes the importance of looking back at achievements and celebrating the gains instead of dwelling on the gap between goals.

Recommended Reads:

- Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish

- Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles

- The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Stay Tuned:

Isabel wraps up the episode with a teaser for Episode 100, promising an exciting close to 2023 and a look forward to an empowering new year of success and growth.

About the Host:

 

Isabel Alexander

Your Next Business Strategist and Transformation Catalyst

 Isabel Alexander's journey from modest beginnings to global recognition epitomizes entrepreneurial resilience and innovation. With over five decades of experience spanning diverse industries, she has become a driving force in shaping economic landscapes worldwide. Noteworthy accomplishments include founding a multimillion-dollar global chemical wholesale business and earning accolades such as Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women.

As a mentor and advocate, Isabel empowers women entrepreneurs through initiatives like the Lift As You Climb Movement and podcasts, guiding them from startup to maturity. Serving as Chief Encore Officer of The Encore Catalyst, she dedicates herself to coaching and educating emerging entrepreneurs. Her involvement in organizations like RenegadesReinventing.com and Femme on Fire underscores her commitment to leadership and business development.

Additionally, Isabel's advisory roles with government bodies and trade associations, such as Chair of the Canadian Association of Importers & Exporters, highlight her influence in shaping trade policies and fostering international relations.

Driven by her mantra, "Lift As You Climb," Isabel embodies the ethos of mutual growth and empowerment. With dual citizenship in Canada and the United States, she values her extensive family and embraces global connections through travel and professional engagements. Isabel Alexander's narrative serves as a beacon of inspiration, illustrating how visionary leadership and strategic advising can drive global entrepreneurship and economic independence forward.

Founder:

The Encore Catalyst Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/TheEncoreCatalyst )

and

Chief Encore Officer, The Encore Catalyst (www.theencorecatalyst.com) – an accelerator for feminine wisdom, influence, and impact.

also

Author & Speaker ‘Who Am I Now? – Feminine Wisdom Unmasked Uncensored’ https://whoaminowbook.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabelannalexander/

 

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To register for a coaching with Isabel

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Welcome back.

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This is Isabel Alexander and episode 99 of the Lift As You Climb podcast.

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If you're watching on YouTube, you will see I am wearing my flannel shirt

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because as it's almost the end of this calendar year, it's actually a little

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chilly here this morning and so I'm getting Cozy and comfortable, so we

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can have this warm conversation with you as a review, recap of the last five

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or six episodes on strategic planning.

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And as promised, share with you some personal examples of the

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results, the experiences along the way, the great memories around

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the strategic planning process.

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As I said, and I really mean it, I did fall in love with the strategic

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planning process and especially with the results, and the results

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are multi pronged in many ways.

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Right now coming to my mind is how delightful it was to

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be able to share the plan.

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Initially, it was all from me, my ideas, my vision for what I wanted to see in

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growth for the company, but then realizing when I invited my team to take ownership

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and participate in creating the plan, carrying it out, measuring it, measuring

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results ,and accountable for the outcome it just created this incredible

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boost of energy in my organization.

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And seriously, from the beginning of implementing this teamwork attitude

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and involvement of not only my team, but stakeholders as well, and I'll

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share more about that in a moment.

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I saw substantial growth in my company year after year.

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And that resulted in us becoming an eight figure business and winning

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multiple business awards domestically and internationally, and creating

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a pretty cool legacy for me.

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. That's one of the aspects why I learned to fall in love with strategic planning

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was how it became less about me having to carry all the responsibility and

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more about me sharing the opportunity for growth with other people who

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contributed outside of the area of strengths and perspective that I had.

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And when I had that kind of buy in from my team, we just continued to

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have more fun, to become the best version of each of ourselves, and

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to continue to grow in our success.

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For example, in the section on rhythm in the book, Verne Harnisch

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talks about setting up a rhythm or a cadence of meetings with your staff.

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And we adopted and implemented the daily stand up.

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which was a quick, morning, energetic, really to the

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point update with each other.

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And because I did have people working on the team remotely from other parts

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of the world, it was also an amazing opportunity to engage them and have them

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feel like they were part of the team and have the team get to know them better.

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So it took a very short period of time, about 15 minutes every morning, same

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time people calling in back then on their VPNs, now it would be done over Zoom.

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So you can tell I've been doing this for a while because it was a predated Zoom, and

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we would discuss with each other a report.

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Actually, it wasn't a discussion.

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We were reporting to each other what we had accomplished since we last met,.

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what we are working on now; our priority for the day, and what we need help with.

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In that very brief energetic meeting, we had the opportunity to celebrate, to

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inform, and also to reach out and ask for the help of whoever else on the team

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could provide it or provide a suggestion to do it, and that became such a great

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team exercise for building cohesion and energy and connection that it did

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become part of the framework for my Lift As You Climb program, which I do for

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groups and larger corporations today.

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Another aspect of creating rhythm was to have themes for each quarter, which we

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used in a celebratory manner, and because my company was called Phancorp and that

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starts with a PH, we would have themes called the pHanatics or the pHantastics or

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other such great fun labels for what our theme was, our mantra was for the quarter.

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And at the end of the quarter we would celebrate.

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It might have been going to a hockey game, or going out for pizza, or doing

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some kind of arts and crafts celebration, or sometimes I would just cook for

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them all and we would sit around and have some personal time together.

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Wasn't always about business, of course, because we are whole people.

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Another aspect of what I felt was so fabulous about the celebration aspect of

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achieving the goals and working through those milestones was having my annual

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celebration, where I'd have a retreat.

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I'd host a retreat for my team.

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Now ,I understand that if you are a much smaller organization and you

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don't have enough people to do that, or perhaps you are a solopreneur,

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consider doing this with a mastermind group or a peer advisory group.

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Find a community of like minded entrepreneurs, business owners, and

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get together with them on a quarterly, annual, whatever the rhythm basis,

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and review your own plans and your progress so that you are presenting and

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accountable and have an opportunity to celebrate the milestones along the way.

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I think there are so many other ways that you can look at the opportunity

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to find unique, really specific to you, ways to continue to fire yourself

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up, energize yourself to stay on track, keep your commitments to the objectives

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that you have laid out, but celebrate.

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As entrepreneurs, we're often just really focused on what's the next

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goal, what's the next accomplishment.

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And when things aren't going smoothly, when you're not achieving what you

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hoped you had, or there's some momentary distraction or obstacle, there's a

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temptation to get all down on yourself and to feel very critical and maybe give

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up or let go, downgrade what the goal is.

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By pausing regularly and looking back at how far you've actually come, then it's so

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much easier to keep in perspective that, yes, there will be blips, and there will

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be things that you cannot foresee, but the fact is that you either go over them,

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around them, under them, or through them.

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Remember that you are only stalled, you are not stopped, if

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something comes along the way.

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And keep referring back to that strategic plan, knowing, okay, I got this, and

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I'm going to continue to go forward.

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But celebrate regularly so that you keep up with that energy and momentum.

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I mentioned this book before, but it's, it seems a perfect place to bring it up.

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When you're feeling like, oh my god, all I do is keep working,

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reaching for the carrot that keeps moving, a good thing would be to

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pause and cuddle up with a flannel shirt and read Dan Sullivan and Dr.

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Benjamin Hardy's book, The Gap and the Gain.

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As entrepreneurs, we fall into the gap too often.

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We don't always remember to look back and see the gain and celebrate that.

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Now, if you're looking for a little more reading, material over the winter

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season, then I also recommend that you read the book Raving Fans, and

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of course we'll link to both of those books in this, in the notes below.

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Raving Fans is an excellent short book and it's been around for a long time.

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It stood the test of time for sure as a business book recommending perspectives on

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how to involve everybody in your success, and it's not just about your team.

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which is the part I touched on briefly in the episode where we discuss stakeholders.

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It's understanding that you and your business are supported by and impacted

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by not only people who work for you, but the people who work with you and the

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people that support you and the people that are detracting in your life and

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having a perspective around creating raving fans to continue to support

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your strategic plan to be successful.

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It's a good strategy as well.

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I'll leave you on that note.

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I'm looking forward to being back to you very soon with episode 100

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as we bring 2023 to a close and look forward to a very exciting new year

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and how we continue to lift ourselves, build our own success ladders, and

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empower others to build theirs.

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Stay tuned.