In this special revival episode, Melissa revisits her well-proven business retreat formula, infused with a touch of nostalgia. Melissa underscores the significance of carving out time and space for yourself, allowing you to craft a deliberate roadmap for the forthcoming business year. She passionately urges you to delve deep into the "how," "why," and "what," while imparting the art of crafting and wholeheartedly committing to your business goals.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• business planning
• sabbatical
• sales goals
• business strategy
• getting in flow
• planning your year
• creative flow
• post analysis
• business retreat
• know your numbers
• focus in 2024
• business goals
• reverse engineering

Links & Resources:

Episode 76: Planning, Pricing, Packaging Your Offers in 2022

Episode 74: Think Your Way to a Better Future – Control Your Mind

Becoming Supernatural by Joe Dispenza, Chapter 15

BUSINESS RESOURCES

▶ Learn more about the Modern Entrepreneur Method: https://burnouttoallout.co/me

▶ Free LinkedIn Productivity Checklist: http://www.burnouttoallout.co/linkedin-checklist

▶ For more resources and information on Melissa’s current offerings: www.burnouttoallout.co

Connect with Melissa:

〉LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-henault/

〉Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissa_henault/

〉Get text updates by texting ALL OUT to +1 704-318-2285

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Melissa:

Alright, guys. Coming back at you with another an oldie, but a goodie. I keep calling them oldies, but goodies, but they're not even a year old. I did a business retreat last year where I set intentions, set goals for the new year, And I have a real method and strategy to it. In the last 3 years in a row, I've hit all of my major milestones and goals in business Because I sit down before the year end, and I actually map out my goals for the following year. And I map out strategies on how they're gonna be attainable, And I reverse engineer exactly what needs to be done with milestones in order to achieve my goals in the following year. So if this sounds like something that you need guidance on, you're gonna wanna listen in to this oldie but goodie. I came to, my listeners last This year after coming home from my business retreat, this year, I wanna get it to you before I go on my business retreat.

Melissa:

And I wanna encourage you to go do your own business retreat as well, and I'd love to hear from you if you take Action on what you've learned here today. Need some effective tactical advice that actually helps you get results and makes a real difference in your life and business, you've come to the right place. If you're finding yourself here today, it means you're getting ready to gain serious traction in your business, rapidly multiply your income and impact, And you're ready to make it happen while living all out. Guys, I'm Melissa Henault, your trustworthy corporate dropout Turned 6 figure business burnout, turned happy and healthy CEO of a multimillion dollar online business, and you're listening to the burnout It's a all out podcast. On this show, we're serving up innovative growth strategies, simple implementation methods to put them into practice, An action stimulating inspiration tailored specifically for the modern entrepreneur. Let's dive in. Okay. So how How many of you guys have ever worked in corporate or have been in leadership roles? You know, my 1st couple of years in entrepreneurship, I was floundering.

Melissa:

I went from a very scheduled Professional career where my calendar was full. And on a quarterly or yearly basis, we would meet as a leadership team, And we would create goals for the next year, and we had a very formatted process. And I realized a couple years into entrepreneurship, I was like, gosh, I'm not really creating the space and the time to really map out my next year. I'm just Flying by the seat of my pants. Has anybody else felt that way? I don't even know what I'm reaching for. It's just like I'm putting the wheels on the cart and headed down the road and just like, woo, this Says this is a ride. Right? 2 or 3 years ago, I will say actually, it probably started 4 years ago. I was like, I need some white Space and quiet space uninterrupted from my team, from my clients, from my family to really just get into a cave as the CEO, The CFO and the face of the business, and really get quiet and create space to think.

Melissa:

See, CEOs underestimate the amount of time they need to think versus anything else. We get so busy in the do, and when we're in the do, we don't have space To think forward, think ahead. Right? And so it is just as valuable to create the white space To think and strategize as it is the actual do. And so about 3 or 4 years ago, I started booking, 3 to 4 day retreat, far away from my house, away from my family, blocked my calendar out from my team I wouldn't take calls from. I highly recommend this. Don't take calls from clients. Don't take calls with your team, and be in what I call flow. For all the men in the group and the women, This is a time to be in your feminine.

Melissa:

It's a it's an energy. It's not a sexual orientation. It's an energy. The feminine flow, the energy of feminine is flow and to be able to be moved with what moves you, with a little bit of structure. Right? And what I've found is putting myself in a kind of sabbatical or or 4 day silent retreat, if you will, with a little bit of guardrails, I could really get into a thought process and go really deep without having to switch topics, take a call, You know, problem solved with the team. It's really important that when you're in that flow, you wanna stay in that flow steady state. And that's why I think that just Couple of hours or even a day or even 2 days is not enough to really map out and plan your entire business for a year. Right? And I know Sarah and I are back and forth about this because she has a little cabin in the woods too, and she does the same thing each year.

Melissa:

Okay? I also recommend if you can book it somewhere by nature. Again, this is me tapping into the feminine flow and creativity. See, the masculine is the Skillen is the do, and that's what we're doing right now. Right? We're showing up. I'm talking. I'm coaching. But I want you to think about how could you kind of hunker down in Place that's nature, that's gonna open you up and allow you to think creatively when you're thinking about your business. Right? So those are a couple of tips.

Melissa:

What I'm gonna share with you guys is really kind of a day by day, play by play, how I have planned Multiple business retreats. And 3 years in a row, I have created structure and strategy, financial goals and milestones that we have hit every single year, which is really kinda cool. Right? That's the other thing is, how do you know you've arrived If you don't have a plan, how can you celebrate success or problem solve or do a post analysis if you're not Tracking where you're going. So we have to step into our power as CEOs and not just be the solopreneur. Right? We've gotta be CEOs in our business. So, yeah, I just wanna underscore that it's really important. And I I say this really on a daily and weekly basis. My team knows this.

Melissa:

I have learned to really protect time to think. Even if and we're gonna get into the retreat in a second. But even on a daily basis, are you blocking off some white time, Like, white space to just think and process. Even if it's a 15 minute walk in nature, for me, it's the cold plunge and then 20 to 30 minutes In a hot tub in nature, thinking. People think I'm not working, I actually do my best work in that quiet time. Okay? Alright. The other thing I want you to be prepared for on your business retreat is I want you to come with your financials from the year before. It's really interesting.

Melissa:

I just did I think I have 2 more 90 minute strategy sessions with my mastermind members. And it always amuses me how many clients have absolutely no idea what their total revenue was last year and the total revenue per offer in their business if you've got more than 1. Guys, if we wanna step into our power as business owners, we need to know these numbers in order to project and move forward. Right? So what I always do a week or two before I head out, if you've got a bookkeeper and a CFO, you may be the CFO of your business. But before you head out, you need to know what have been your total financials for the year, and what have been your total financials per product and per business if you've got multiple businesses. So when I went to my retreat, I knew the total revenue for our agency, total revenue for our academy, Total revenue for the mastermind and the total revenue for our live event from the last year. Right? Depending on when you do your retreat, you may have to guesstimate. If you're going to do your retreat this month, you should have all the data from last year before you go on your trip.

Melissa:

Does this make sense? You should also know before you go on your retreat. See, to me, having all of this stuff prepared before you get there allows you to just get right in the flow and not Spend half a day chasing things and finding them while you're on your retreat. So being prepared is really important. So the number 2 is know your operating Spences currently before you get there. So lady knows a couple weeks before I go, I'm like, hey, because she's also my bookkeeper. You know? Is there anything I'm missing here from an OpEx perspective? Because occasionally, we add new things. Like, We actually just upgraded Asana. So now the cost per month is, like, $500 a month that used to be free.

Melissa:

Melissa:

Melissa:

I have this proven formula on how I can create boundaries, Take care of myself, make my family a priority. And now let's see if we can work smarter, but not harder, and triple our business while I stay healthy. Right? So you can see before I went to my mountain retreat, I was very clear on my intention. Right? Now I knew I wanna triple my business. So if I'm coming to my retreat knowing my financials from the year before, and I know exactly how much I made in each business, Now I have a baseline for the new year and how I'm gonna get to that tripling of my business for the new year. Does that make sense? So that's all the prework. I also suggest I personally like using sticky notes because you can move them around. I actually We come to my business retreat with huge Post it notes with certain topics I'm gonna work through.

Melissa:

And then I come with a lot of colorful Post it notes because I Find it a lot easier, especially when you get into finding the gaps in your business, how you can move the gaps and the needs around and put them underneath people or you can just move your ideas around. And I love working while I'm standing in the cabin. Pro tip, if you're booking a Cabin, look for 1 with a lot of wall space where you can stick things. Right? The beautifully decorated ones with a ton of stuff everywhere can sometimes make it hard. I found a cabin with a huge bar where I could put these huge sticky notes on the bar and actually do some writing. Right? Okay. So let me give you so let's jump into the formula I use every single retreat that you can use as well. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give you the basis, the key topic for each day, and then we'll go back and we'll unpack What I mean by each day's topic.

Melissa:

So day 1, I really dive into my why. Okay? Day 1 is a lot of why, And day 2 is the what. Okay? Day 2 is the what. And then day 3 is the how. And then day 4 is really about committing to the plan Through visioning. And I'll talk a little bit about this when we get to it. But committing to the plan through visioning. And you're also gonna use day 4 to begin taking immediate Action and following up on anything that you couldn't get done in the 1st 3 days.

Melissa:

Okay? And you may be like, oh my god, how could you spend 4 days on this stuff? I'm telling you, I spent 10 hours a day 10 hours a day with small breaks for exercise and meditation, and I could have stayed the entire week. I actually am thinking about doing More days next time. The more I peel back the onion, the more I realize there is to do. Right? Okay. So let's get in to the why. That's day 1. So you get in and you unpack the night before. That's the other thing.

Melissa:

Melissa:

I'm not saying this to brag. I'm saying this because I want you to understand that every year I have to set new intention. Because if you don't and you come into the new year, like, oh, I hit that, you know, I hit that mark, but then what happens is you'll regress the next year. You digress because you lose vision of what you're truly capable of if you don't get curious about what's around the corner, What you can do next. Right? So if you hit your goal of last year, You know? It's time to dig deep on what's your new why. Right? So for me, it's creating lasting memories and joy with my family and friends. The money is just a means to the end. The revenue generated is a means to the end.

Melissa:

My why is also to be the example to my kids of what's possible. I love calling it out to them at the beginning of the year and then watching me go for it every year. Right? Being the example for my children. And my other why is creating legacy wealth And a financial wall around my family. Because at the end of the day, as entrepreneurs, we're still just trading time for money. We're glorified employees. If we still have to show up every day, Boys, if we still have to show up every day to make our money. We're glorified employees.

Melissa:

So my goal this year is one of the reasons I'm three x ing my business is to take some of the profits from the business And significantly invest them in other businesses that I don't run so I can create passive income for myself, To invest them into real estate that I won't run so that I can make the money I worked hard for work harder for me than I worked for it. So I just need to challenge you to get really clear on why are you going after this thing in the 1st place. And this may be where you have to do some work And some breath work or some meditation that 1st day that you're there. And so for me, again, it's about Continuing that path also to being happy, healthy, and wealthy. Right? So that is number 1 thing that you need to do. Number 2, and this is a really critical exercise after you get clear with your why. And that is, well, you need to bring with you your current budget. So you bring with you your operating expenses, what it costs to run your business, but you also need to bring your household operating expenses.

Melissa:

Right? So how much is it costing you? What are you contributing to your household from your business? And what are your business expenses? Because both of them impact the income additional that's gonna feed your why. Right? And the exercise that you do next is called a dream budget. Some of you guys have heard me talk about this. And this really feeds your why. Okay? So the dream budget is if money was no Restriction, and you could blow it out of the water this year. What are the things that you would invest in or do or buy I or b. This is called a dream budget. So last year, one of the things on my dream budget was to purchase land to build a home.

Melissa:

Well, there's a line item on that. How much does it cost? Right? Okay. Now what do I need to sell in order to Stretch myself to that dream budget and pay for that thing. Right? So this year, on my dream Budget. I'll tell you what are what's on my dream budget just to challenge you to think about yours. What's on my dream budget is To begin the build of our mountain home, I know exactly how much money I need to put down. Okay? Also on the dream budget is to buy an RV, which we actually just did, so I can take that off the list, to enjoy the land until the house is built. Okay.

Melissa:

Check. That one's done. Alright. Trips. A trip to Saint John with the family. I told you my why is experience with family. We're bringing both sets of grandparents booking this beautiful home. Right? How much is that gonna cost? Lights, Like, the Airbnb you're renting, how much money do you wanna spend there? I also am planning a restorative trip for just my husband and I to Sedona for a week.

Melissa:

Melissa:

His mom wants an AMG G Wagon, Mercedes G Wagon. Right? That is a total luxury. I don't like this is just for me. Right? Has nothing to do with anybody else. I just want that I just want that g wagon. Right? So It's on my, like, stretch goal. If Jackie and I can crush this funnel we're putting out hey. Right? Gotta have dreams.

Melissa:

Melissa:

And if you went to my live event, I talk about this a lot. I prioritize joy first. So before you even get into mapping out your business, mapping out your mapping out your offers. For those of you who are course creators, mapping out your launches. What I do is I map out everything important to me first. So plan your trips with your family for the entire year. You know what I did? I pull up the school calendar, and I block the days the kids have half days. I block the days they have holidays for long weekends for family trips.

Melissa:

How many of you have gotten so busy working in, like, a a teacher workday or a day off where the kids just, like, sneaks up on you and you're like, shit. What am I gonna do with these kids? Right? What if we could flip that someone at head and actually Capitalize when our kids are out of school because we planned for it, we blocked our calendar, and we're actually doing something fun with them And exercising our right as entrepreneurs to own our time. So I mapped that out beginning of the year. I even have my children's birthday parties planned because they're at really bad times. Like my daughter's birthday is the 4th July. It's never convenient to book her birthday. My son's is like 3 days after Thanksgiving. I have learned that his birthday parties do way better before Thanksgiving than they do after Thanksgiving.

Melissa:

It's hard to corral families and kids and people have, Like, this past year, half the kids who came, they couldn't come because they had COVID or the flu from Thanksgiving family gatherings, and they couldn't make it to his December birthday party. Right? Those are lessons learned as a mom, and now I'm very proactive. It's already planned. Like, when my kids turn 10, they get a special trip just with mom and dad. We already have it blocked in the calendar for my 10 year old this year, the trip we're gonna take. We have our family trips, our vacations already planned, adult trips already planned. My Christmas holiday party is already planned for next year. I know it sounds crazy.

Melissa:

Right? But I can tell you that's why I'm Happy and I smile and have so much fun every day because I've made this most important first. Nothing can get in the way. And then the other thing is I challenge you to think about How can you add on more restorative things for yourself? So I was pretty good this past year. I did, you know, an adjustment in a deep tissue massage every Wednesday. But one of the things I told myself all year was that I wanted to start learning how to play tennis Because I wanna learn a sport that my husband plays so that it's we have something in common that we can do together that's not just sitting down having dinner. And so how am I taking out another layer this year? I'm actually booking tennis lessons before my adjustment. So I'm gonna be taking half days on Wednesday and coming back full day on Thursday. So I'll be playing tennis, getting an adjustment.

Melissa:

Melissa:

And then you take a step back. And if you're in my mastermind, I've done this exercise with you before. And you look at The success of your business, and you need to ask yourself a couple of questions. Which one required the most energy of me? Which one required the most time of me? Which one cost me the most money to run? And which one was the most enjoyable? And sometimes there'll be something glaring when you step back and you look. So for me, the business that brought in the most revenue for the year was the LinkedIn Method Academy. The one that required The most energy of me was our agency. And this is your post mortem analysis of like, okay, Which offers took a lot of time, but maybe not a lot of reward? I didn't enjoy it. Or which ones created a lot of revenue that I love? Right? This is your chance to take a look and say, where do I wanna lean in? Like, this one was really profitable and I enjoyed it.

Melissa:

Melissa:

Right? Find a really great Netflix documentary if you're me, and and, just, hang out in your pajamas. Okay. So then we get to day 2. So I told you day 1 was the why. Right? We got clear on the why, and we did a business analysis. Now we're very well informed on what we wanna Accomplish, how much money we need to make, and how much money we made last year. And now on day 2, we're gonna get into the what. So what do we need to lean into and pour gasoline on this year or create, is it a new offer, To meet the gap for my dream budget in life.

Melissa:

Melissa:

Melissa:

Some of you are in coaching and you're also in investing. Some of you have courses and you've got group stuff and you've got 1 on 1. You're all very different. You have different revenue streams, And you have to assess them and ask yourself, which ones light me up the most are gonna create great profits That can help fuel my why and my dream budget. And then you're gonna have to reverse engineer The numbers needed to hit those goals. I know Julie and I just went through this exercise in a 1 on 1, and I know a lot of our mastermind members did. I will tell you, I do have a podcast episode. This is for a totally different day.

Melissa:

I have, like, a 45 minute Podcast episode. But I walk you through the process of mapping out. If you let's Say you have an audacious goal of half $1,000,000 in coaching this year. Well, now you need to figure out if it's in a course program, you need to figure out How many clients like, what are you pricing it at? How many clients need to come in? And how many times a year do you need to host conversion events to make this number happen? You also need to know what your conversion ratios are. And, again, this is for a different day. I highly recommend you go listen to my podcast on how to price and map your launches, but we are very strategic. I have 6 launches mapped this year For the LinkedIn Method Academy, so I'll give you an example. I actually have 5 accounted for.

Melissa:

I don't count the 6th one because I like I would like for that one to be taken off the calendar. I'm not counting it for revenue if we meet our revenue goals for the other 5, but I always have an extra one just in case we don't. Okay? So I have reverse engineer. We wanna do 2,000,000 in sales for the LinkedIn Method Academy this year. So I take that 2,000,000 and divide it by 5. That's how much cash I might wanna bring in. Now not to make your head explode, but we're actually raising the price incrementally with each launch, which means I don't need as many people per launch. Because by the time we get to the 5th launch, we'll be charging $5,000 for the academy.

Melissa:

So I actually don't need as many people to enroll in the master class, nor do I need as many people to register in order to hit my revenue goal. Okay? I hope this doesn't make your brain explode, But you can make it quick and easy divide by 5, whatever. But for us and you also have to ask yourself, like, how hard do I wanna work for this? Right? How many conversion events do I wanna host? How am I gonna do this? So I highly recommend that you go listen to that podcast, And you need to do this for every single offer. Okay? So for us, we only do business basics twice a year. It is a 6 month program. And so we have very specific launch goals this summer for business basics and in the fall for business basics. Totally different kind of strategy to how we recruit and convert for that. And so you wanna go through each line item, and I create a business plan for each business with milestones throughout the year.

Melissa:

Right? So if you guys know, if our goal is 2,000,000 with the academy, well, within the 1st 2 launches, we should be pretty clear if we're on track to hit that 2,000,000 for the year or not. Right? But if you didn't set a goal and you aren't tracking it, how do you know where you're going? How do you know you'll ever arrive, and how do you know what Set aside for the dream budget if you don't have a financial plan. Right? Does it make any sense? Okay. So you wanna do this for every offer. And then what I do is the next step in that is actually mapping it out in the calendar. Right? So my team, they can attest to this. They could tell when I was in this mode because they got calendar invites, It's like all day long for the entire year coming at them. I mapped out each launch around what was important to my family, around family vacations, Around historically what I know does well for launches and and months that don't.

Melissa:

Right? I owned the calendar around my life so that joy comes first and not the other way around. And that way, you prevent burnout because you've made space for joy. So you're gonna do this for every single offer. And that is that will take you most of day 2. Okay? Now it's time to move into day 3, The how. Right? So we figured out the what, which are what offers you're gonna lean into and mapping them out. Right? And some of them mapping out may be part of the how. Right? So your day 2 and day 3 may blend a little bit.

Melissa:

But what I do on my day 3, and some of you may have seen my stories on this, I actually and depending on the size of your business and your support team, I actually start mapping out my team and their roles and their responsibilities And the gaps and the needs in our business. Right? And this is where understanding your operating are so important because you need to know based off revenue, what room do you have in your budget to hire out. Right? And if there's no room in your budget, is there opportunities to swap? There's many of you in here who have incredible skill sets and services that you could swap for each other. So, like, one of my friends I can't tell you how many mastermind members of mine, in my mastermind that I'm in, who've swapped between $20.80 worth of Services between the 2 of us with no cash exchange. Right? So I want you to think about that. Like, maybe you wanna get into Pinterest, but you don't like, And maybe you're an expert on Facebook ads. Right? Well, could you find someone in the community who is a Pinterest expert? I know there was someone in here earlier. And could you swap services with 0 exchange for cash? So I want you to get strategic and resourceful.

Melissa:

My brand photographer, we're doing she's doing some branding photography for me at my live events, and we're managing her LinkedIn account. $0 exchanged, but there's a contract written. I do recommend a contract when you do that. K? So get resourceful. But in the how, I look at staff alignment to program mapping. Listen. We're scaling up. We're anticipating 50 to 60 new clients in January in the academy.

Melissa:

We needed more social sellers and concierge to support the number of registrations that are gonna come through. We're anticipating 2 to 3 the amount of registrants. So are you planning for that? Are you mapping it out? Where is there overlap? Like, you know, where people are they've got the same job descriptions. Are you overpaying, underpaying, or do you have people doing the same thing? So you wanna analyze that. And then are you measuring performance For the people who are working for you, do you have a job description for what they do? Right? How can you hold someone accountable Their work, if you have it, you don't have it written down and you don't have SOPs for it. So you guys will see this Thursday, the Output of this activity that I did, Jackie, my operations director is flying in. And all day Friday, We're taking the job descriptions that I came up with in the cabin and putting them into metrics on a board so that our team can check-in with me on a weekly basis. And you may say, well, I'm a solopreneur, like or I've got 1 or 2 people working for me.

Melissa:

This doesn't really matter. I highly recommend you start now. Because it is much easier to start now than try to do it when your business starts to explode. Right? Because, Lady, again, can attest to this. When your business takes off, if you're not very calculated and you don't have people's roles written down, It can really backfire on you. We went from, like, 20 clients to 75 clients overnight. And the virtual assistant we had helping us Said that she was out. She couldn't handle it.

Melissa:

And we didn't this was 3 years ago, and we didn't have a job. I had just trained her off the cuff. I didn't have a job description. I didn't have her daily tasks. And when she was out and the business was taken off, that was a bad reflection for us of client service and how we were serving our clients. And I didn't have the bandwidth to train up somebody new, but I didn't have a template to pass on to anyone. Right? So I cannot underscore to you how important this is. So you're gonna be seeing me do this And creating metrics where people can report in on what they're doing.

Melissa:

How many of you have podcasts? You know, like podcast managers. I was thinking about this with Anne. Like, we've got all kinds of metrics that she can be reporting in on each week. Right? Same thing with the number of people on the team. So I just want you guys thinking about that. So staff alignment, the program mapping, where are the gaps? Where do you maybe need to hire? I have found at every level of my business, what creates the plateau is my own bottleneck. Right? It's my own bottleneck of something I need to be handing off to someone else. My most recent hire was elevating Sadie Into our creative director role, I was the major bottleneck in managing all of my content going out on all the platforms.

Melissa:

And now I've delegated it to someone who's better at it anyway than I ever could be. Right? Okay. So staff alignment. Number 2, I I hit on this a little bit, but, you know, your operating expense budget, like, where are you today, and what are you willing to invest to get to your stretch goal. I'll give you an example. When I analyzed my entire business, I found some glaring gaps. Okay? One of my glaring gaps, and you guys might laugh at this given that I am the LinkedIn expert, we're so busy coaching everyone else. And I've historically have always I know how to do LinkedIn.

Melissa:

Right? But then I got so busy and I'm the CEO and I have 5 businesses that guess who's not managing our LinkedIn account well? This girl and all of my students, you, are looking at my account as the example. Right? But I'm so busy running my business that I'm not giving the attention to my LinkedIn account like I should. So what did I do during this day 3? I went through and created All the metrics of things that needed to be done on my LinkedIn account that I'm not consistently doing, that I'm coaching you guys to do. Right? And I hired someone, and I'm training her tomorrow on being accountable for all of it. It was a glaring hole for me. I also found I had a glaring believe it or not, as great as we've done with our business, I don't have anybody in charge of sales. Can you believe that? There's nobody in my business in charge of sales. So I'm like, I need somebody accountable to get on our team calls and say, here's the financial goal for this launch.

Melissa:

Here's where we're tracking, check-in every day with where we're headed. Right? So I created a job description, exactly what I needed, and I hired someone into it. So find your gaps. That's number 2. Number 3 on day 3, I'm gonna challenge all of you that this body, this vessel is the most valuable asset in your business. What's between your ears and how you're nurturing yourself, how you're nourishing yourself, And how you're taking care of yourself will have a massive impact on your business this year. And so I highly challenge you in your retreat to Spend some time creating a health plan. Who's heard me say your health plan is your wealth plan? Because we can't afford to be sick.

Melissa:

When I was in corporate, I welcomed a sick day. I could just shut my computer and be like, I'm out. I don't feel good, and I could lay on the couch and watch Netflix all day long and still paid. That is not the life of the entrepreneur. We cannot afford to be sick. Not to mention if we're not taking care of ourselves, we don't think clearly, we're irritable, we don't respond clearly, we can't think creatively, And we have more sick days. So I highly encourage you to think about what can you commit to this year consistently, And do not leave your retreat until you have a health plan. I signed up for another half marathon before I left.

Melissa:

You guys know I'm really committed. I'm in actually in a nutritional mastermind that's plant based, committed to the intermittent fasting, just finished a 6 day detox. It was awesome. I'm committed to meditation and breath work. That is, like, filling my soul. On Tuesday nights, I'll be doing my I'll be in, a program where I'm going through a journey For 11, 12 weeks in unblocking my purpose through mindset and meditation and breath work. I'm committed to cold plunging and infrared. That's the other thing I tacked Dawn to my deep tissue and adjustment is infrared therapy right afterwards for 30 minutes, once a week, light therapy.

Melissa:

Right? Like I said, I'm doing more of the same. It worked for me last year. Now can I how do I just take it another level? Right? I also have an energetics coach. You guys have her too. If your commitment is that you stream live with her once a month, Kourtney, I work with her 1 on 1 privately. She's very affordable. If anybody wants a 1 on 1 energetics coach, and she doesn't do, like, long term contracts. But she's also streaming live for you every month.

Melissa:

If that is your one commitment to mindset, make it happen. I have a call with her this afternoon at 2:30, from 2:30 to 3:30. She holds me accountable and calls me all my shit. I am the enneagram eight who is like a bulldozer. Right? And she Helps me she helps me tremendously with that awareness. Okay. So that's a lot of day 3. Day 4, I leave space on day 4 to review and process everything you work through.

Melissa:

By day 4 of my retreat, What happens is I have about 12 pieces of paper that I've Brainstormed on that now need to be transcribed digitally onto my computer and action needs to be taken. So for instance, I need a marketing lead for every single outfit in my business, whether it's Email, SMS, affiliates, Facebook ads. Like, this was one of my brain dumps. Right? And this was up on the wall. Now it's Written down on a Word document. Now the one thing I didn't hit on is that I want you to track your revenue From last year, against your goals. I didn't actually say that. I said for you to get your numbers from last year, But compare them to your goals.

Melissa:

What I found is we made more money in some businesses and less than others. We still hit our total revenue goal, But it came to me differently than I planned it. Right? And so the bottom line is you're gonna have a ton of sticky notes. One day 4, I'm going through and processing all of it and putting it down digitally. Some of you might like to work Instantly on your computer and you don't do all the sticky notes and flip charts, and that's fine. But you want to process All that you've worked through. And you wanna start taking action on all that you've worked through. And the final thing that I do is I actually Book a call with my team after all is said and done, and I review with them our business goals.

Melissa:

Melissa:

I can feel the financial wall around my family of investing in other businesses. And so what brings me to a higher level that keeps me running towards that goal is visioning it every single day. And the way you vision it every day is you have to map it out. Right? I have a podcast episode on how I do this, how I brought forth our goals, meditated on it, lived in it, Envisioned it all year last year, and that's what I'm doing this year. Because it's very easy, and I am victim just like everyone else. So right before the year started, like the new year, the day before I came back to work, that little girl who's intimidated was talking in my ear. Who are you to think you're gonna do 3 and a half $1,000,000 this year? Your 1st launch is gonna be a flop. Nobody's gonna show up.

Melissa:

Melissa:

Melissa:

Melissa:

And so I'm investing in her doing some coursework and rising her up in that space and can delegate more work to her in that area. But if you're not having these conversations with the people who work with you, contractors, full time, whatever, you're not gonna know How you can you can maneuver people within your business. Right? I've learned that Blady loves the bookkeeping, and she's not crazy about being an executive assistant. And she's like, especially if we're going to 3 and a half $1,000,000 this year, it's gonna keep me really busy managing the books. So maybe we need a full time executive assistant, And she's kinda really running front and center with the bookkeeping. But had I not had these conversations with her, I wouldn't know how to plan for it. Right? And that just comes with leadership. So that is day 4.

Melissa:

And those are the things I book before I leave, and I think that is that is it. So I'll recap for you. Come prepared. Come with your financials. Come with your current operating expenses. Come with how much money you made last year, what your goals were this past year, And come with a theme in mind. Day 1, dive into why you're doing this. Day 2, you're gonna dive into what you're gonna offer To meet the why, meet the dream budget.

Melissa:

Day 3, you're gonna dive into the how. What strategies are you gonna take? And make sure not to forget your health plan. Day 4 is that extra cushion day to process everything, Put it on paper and schedule a call with your team if you have one to talk about your goals. Right? And that is it. Thanks guys so much for listening in on today's Podcast episode. I can't wait for you to see my upcoming guest in the next episode. You are going to love this keynote speaker. Hey.

Melissa:

Melissa:

So, again, come find me, melissa_henault, over on Instagram, Melissa Henault over on LinkedIn and Facebook. Can't wait to see you guys over there.