You don't need another beautiful planner—you need a plan you can actually execute.

In this final episode of our Mid-Year Reset Series, we're diving into the ACT phase of the Rooted in Reality planning framework. If you've already assessed what's working and aligned your business with your goals for the next six months, now it's time to make those plans real.

We're sharing how to prioritize the projects that will actually move your business forward, break overwhelming initiatives into manageable tasks, and build a project plan that works with your real-life capacity—not against it.

If you've ever written "Launch New Offer" as a single item on your to-do list, felt buried under an endless list of ideas, or wondered why your goals never seem to make it off the page, this episode is for you.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why goals need a project plan—not just a to-do list.
• How to prioritize the projects that will move your business forward.
• Breaking big ideas into manageable, actionable tasks.
• Planning around your real capacity with realistic timelines.
• Using project management systems and AI to stay organized and follow through.

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: https://buy.stripe.com/eVqaEY0pC9v8cPl9F6d3i00

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

All right, tell me if this sounds familiar.

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You've got the plan.

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You sat there and spent a couple of

hours figuring out every single item

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that you needed to do to launch this

new initiative or to be able to hit this

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new goal that you're trying to reach.

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It's super pretty, except it's

missing a couple of things.

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Couple of very important things.

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It doesn't have a date, it doesn't have

who's gonna do these magical tasks.

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and it's not a full and complete plan.

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A goal without a plan is

just a wish basically.

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And for most of my clients, they come

to me and there is some certain aspect

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of their business, either they're trying

to launch something new, whether it

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be a new offer, or they're trying to

do a new content thing, it's probably

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because they didn't take the time to

actually put a project plan around it.

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So this is how you bring your goals

to life, and is one of my most

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favoritest things to talk about

because once you learn this skill,

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you can apply it not only to business,

but also to your personal life.

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So today we're finishing up

our mid-year reset series.

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So we already went through our two assess

and align episodes, and then today we're

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talking about the last step of our Rooted

in Reality planning process, which is act.

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Putting all these ideas, these

goals into action so that you can

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move a little bit closer to the

business that you're trying to build.

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Rachel: Yeah.

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So welcome back to Growing a

Deeply Rooted Business podcast.

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I'm Rachel, your marketing ecosystem

strategist, here with Jess, our

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sustainable systems and growth gal.

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And like Jess said, we're in part

three here, which means if you've

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been with us for the last couple

of weeks, and hopefully have done

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the work, you have assessed what's

worked, what hasn't worked, what's

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felt good, what doesn't feel good.

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You've aligned it with the new

direction for the next six months.

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You hopefully know what's making you

money, what's making you tired, because

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both of those things are important.

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And hopefully we understand a little

bit for the next six months what they're

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supposed to look like and all of that.

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If you're just joining us, welcome.

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You can absolutely start here.

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We do recommend that you go back

and listen to those last two

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episodes because it is a compounding

effort that we are building here.

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So before we get into it, we'll

obviously we're gonna do our

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quick little energy check because

this is my guilt shame bucket.

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This episode is why I hold so tightly

Jess's friendship in my life because I

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1,000% was the person with all of the

tasks loaded with no assignment to me,

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'cause I didn't wanna see them on my

to-do list, 'cause it was overwhelming.

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And absolutely no to-do

dates because how dare I?

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You know what I mean?

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So if you have gotten here and you're

like, "Oh, assessing all of this felt

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really good," maybe you felt a little

uncomfortable looking at your numbers.

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It's fine.

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We're aligned.

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We feel better about this

because now, we feel a little bit

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more jolted into the new year.

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That's amazing.

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We're gonna hold that energy

because this part, if you're ADHD or

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neurodivergent, is typically where

things start to fall apart, or where

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the action tends to fall short.

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So take a deep breath.

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Let's jump into this,

and let's get started

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Jessica: All right.

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After last week, if you followed us

along, you probably have a list of

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projects or initiatives that you know

that you need to do either to hit your

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revenue goals or to bring more ease

into your business or just help you,

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attract more clients or audiences.

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What you're gonna do now is start to

make it a reality by planning it out.

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So you're gonna wanna kinda look at

everything you've got and figure out what

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your priorities are right now, or where

were the biggest holes when you were doing

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all of your conversion assessments, where

are those biggest holes, and plug it.

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Because creating a new offer

doesn't really make any sense

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if you don't have any traffic

going to it in the first place.

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Rachel: Yeah.

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Jessica: Or if you've got offers

that are working, that are validated,

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you know that they are selling, and

you just need more eyeballs on them,

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then you know to focus there as well.

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Or maybe you've got a ton of traffic,

but nobody's buying anything, or they're

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opting for your lead magnet but then not

converting, then you know "Oh, the project

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about going in and looking at my email

follow-up sequence is gonna be the key."

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So you're gonna first prioritize, and then

you're gonna wanna kinda go through and

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assign, one or two initiatives because

you are also serving clients unless you

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have a team that is doing that for you.

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One or two initiatives per month

that you are going to tackle.

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And then you're probably, if you're like

most people, gonna have more than will

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fit into your quarter, and then those

are the things that go into your ideal

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parking lot that you can revisit later.

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Rachel: Yeah, I think that we need to

emphasize this because I am also guilty.

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Jess and I, we still do this.

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It is like a constant

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Jessica: lady.

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My ideas parking lot is

what a parking garage now.

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Rachel: Yeah.

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Jessica: going

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Rachel: But if we're looking at

let's just use us for an example,

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like the Deeply Rooted business.

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We were like, "We're doing

this, this, this, this."

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this."

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We over-committed in a

energetic way, right?

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Because we were so excited about all

of the things that we have, and we

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immediately, because Jess and I's

busy seasons tend to overlap, we

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immediately were like, "Whoa, hold on,"

because the value in our business is

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both of us having the time to support

each other, not being like, "Oh,

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Jess, I don't have Q1 capabilities.

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Jess maybe has a little

bit more than here.

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That still doesn't work, and so that's

one of those gaps that we're like, we

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still have to fill that kind of thing.

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So we always overestimate all of

the things that we can get done.

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So if you take one thing away

from this episode, let it be

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to be honest with our capacity.

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Let it be real that we do one, maybe one

and a half big projects per month, and not

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try to overload it, because then we start

to feel that shame and disappointment

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when things don't come to life.

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So just re-emphasizing that.

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Jessica: Yeah, and if that

sounds scary for you, then

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it's probably a priority issue.

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You really just need to identify

the things that are gonna really

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help move the needle further.

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What is that first domino

that has to get knocked down?

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One of my favorite books

about prioritization in

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projects is The One Thing.

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And he says asking the focusing question.

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So when you're trying to determine

where you should focus, you say,

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"What was the one thing that I can

do now that will make everything else

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on my list easier or unnecessary?"

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And usually by asking that question,

you're gonna find it's probably something

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that you've been avoiding of the time.

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But you just gotta do that because

that's part of working for yourself.

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It's probably the one main thing that

I would say give anybody as business

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advice is you gotta get really

comfortable being uncomfortable and

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doing those one things that's gonna

make everything easier instead of

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trying to dance your way around it.

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So example is, as much as I do not…

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i'm gonna learn to love content.

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I do not learn to love content, but I

know that having a big audience will make

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everything else easier or unnecessary

that I'm trying to do, so that is my

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one focus for the next couple of months.

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Rachel: Yeah.

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So now that you have your one focus and

you have it slotted into, we're truly

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working with two quarters here, right?

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So we're sorting into our quarters.

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We have the additional layers that we've

established in the first two parts where

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it's our capacity, our life rhythms,

our busy seasons, and all of that.

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Now that everything's placed in their

quarter or in their month, then what?

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Jessica: All right, so then

we're gonna wanna start to break

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those projects down into tasks.

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If you haven't done it already, you're

gonna kinda wanna like, "Oh okay,

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so I wanna launch a new lead magnet.

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What is that gonna look like?

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I've gotta write the lead magnet copy.

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I've gotta get it designed.

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I've gotta set up the

tech and the forms for it.

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You're probably gonna definitely wanna

have an email follow-up sequence for it.

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You're gonna need to load those into it.

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Those are the ones that I can

just think of off my head.

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But you're gonna write them all

down, and then you're gonna kinda

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figure out sequentially what needs

to happen first to move it down.

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And what I typically follow for project

planning is strategy first, obviously.

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You gotta get that nailed down.

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And then I move into copy, and then I

move into building the thing, whether

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it be the website or the actual asset

itself, and then we move into tech

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set up and testing, and then launch.

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And pretty much that will

work out for almost any single

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project that you're taking.

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And then you want to figure out

when do you wanna do this by, and

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then work backwards from there.

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And then you're gonna look at it

again and say, "That means I would

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have to work 80 hours this week."

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And then you're gonna give yourself

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permission

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to push that launch date a little bit

back and maybe deprioritize a project.

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This isn't wasting time, because

if you do this for every single

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one of those quarterly projects, I

recommend just doing Q3, even though

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we have Q4 planned, go into Q3 first

'cause a lot can change in 90 days.

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Do it all, and then this might

show you, "Oh, i've still got

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so many projects on my plate."

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That wasn't time wasting breaking that

off, because now you've already done that

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part for Q4 when you decide to do it.

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But you'll be able to really see what

your capacity is for working on a project

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and being really honest about what it is.

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Or if you do have the luxury of having

a budget to bring on people to help

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you, you can identify "Oh, I could

get this launched if I outsourced

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it to this person instead," or these

pieces of it to this person instead.

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You're gonna go back to that project

management triangle that I talk

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about, that you're gonna either

need more people or more time.

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And that's how you're gonna get done.

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And what I am realizing right now is

that I need to listen to myself, because

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Rachel and I signed up for a challenge

where we are going to post content

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every day, and nowhere in my planning

did I block off the time to do that.

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That is my homework this week.

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And guess what?

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I posted one video this

week, and I'm sure Rachel…

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She just told me when her time block is,

so she is planned, and she is actually

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executing, and I am not planned, and

that's why I am having trouble executing.

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Rachel: Yeah.

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Let me go back four steps here, because

I think the reality of probably 70%

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of business owners who are not good

project planners for themselves is

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that they do take that launch this.

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Launch new offer, and

that's their one line item.

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And I know for me, I used to operate

like that, too, and not only does

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that affect, one, if you have that

mental load issue where you're

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like, " I don't know where to start."

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"What do I tackle now?"

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"What do you mean launch this?"

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But it also works into delegation, too.

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If we're looking back at that kind of

role play that we all have to do in our

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business of employee and founder, CEO,

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do you then say, "Okay

I can knock this out"?

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This is my Tuesday morning brain kind

of not required type tasks that I

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can just put on there kind of thing.

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Those are the things that you have

to have awareness on, and when you

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have it as a single line item in

your project management system, hurts

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you from a delegation standpoint,

whether you're delegating to a

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team or delegating to yourself.

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It also hurts you just from a capacity

because, like Jess said, when you

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take one, just a lead magnet, right?

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When I'm helping somebody with

a lead magnet in their business,

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there's probably 20 hours that go

into developing and executing that.

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So it may look like a simple task

to just say, "Oh, launch this," but

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design, writing, or reverse in that

order, writing, design, implementing

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into your platform, those are all

things that I personally have struggled

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with breaking down an individual task.

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And it wasn't until Jess gave me

this genius AI skill that I could

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literally take this and it gives me

all of the things that I just kinda

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categorized in my brain unknowingly.

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So just wanna name that reality because

it is so real for people to think it's a

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single line item when it's actually 20.

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Jessica: And then for the next step,

you're gonna wanna load it into some

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sort of project management tool.

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So obviously, my tool of choice

is Notion, but I've used Asana,

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I've used ClickUp before.

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You could do a paper planner.

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why I am against paper planners

is because the project is probably

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not going to shake out exactly on

the days you think it is going to

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Rachel: happen

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Jessica: So these digital project

management tools allow you to shift dates

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when they're inevitably going to need

to get shifted around because things

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come up, a kid gets sick, something

takes longer than you thought it was

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than you estimated it was gonna take.

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But yeah.

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So my favorite thing right now is to

load it into Notion on the date that I

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want to do it, and then when I'm doing

my weekly planning sessions now, Notion

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actually has Notion Calendar, which

you can bring in your task, you can

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connect your task to it, and it'll show

you at the top of your calendar all the

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tasks you're supposed to do that day.

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And then you can drag those down and

actually start time blocking them into

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the actual day when you want to do them.

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That has really started to help me a lot

because I have a lot of client meetings

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and other meetings to work around to

really see oh, okay, I can slot something

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here, and then slot something there.

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So that's my favorite way right

now to plan it is, and I do that

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in the beginning of the week.

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Rachel: Yeah, and I'm gonna give a

plug for time tracking here, because

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let's say you are a solopreneur

or a small team kinda thing.

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When you're recreating all of

these different workflows and

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creating you're not only ever gonna

create one lead magnet, right?

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You're probably gonna have a few

in your lifetime of your business.

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So if you do this where you have it

set up and you say, "Okay, I'm gonna

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conceptualize my lead magnet, 30 minutes.

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I'm gonna then write my lead magnet,"

and you're truly time tracking this,

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the next time you go and do it, and

you go and drop those tasks in, when

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you put a 20-minute task on your

to-do list or on your calendar in

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between two client call meetings,

you start to understand if that's a

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reality or if that's just a dream.

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Is that actually gonna happen in that 20

minutes, or does it need to get bumped?

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So just being, super honest with yourself.

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I have had to time track to break

myself of this everything takes

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30 minutes illusion I was in.

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Delusion, what we should call it.

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And it has actually helped me be way

more controlled in how I assign tasks

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to myself because if I'm like, "Oh,

I need to get this done," I know that

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right now, recording a video is more

on the 30, 40-minute efforts right

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now if I'm in this YAP challenge.

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To edit and record and script it and

all of that, I can't just do it while

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Henry's watching something over here.

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So just putting this out there that

if time tracking has always been like,

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"Ugh, it's so useless," it's actually

super useful for your future self, 100%.

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Jessica: I know during our Notion

setups, one of the columns that I do

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have is an estimate that I think each

task will take, and then I can look

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at my day and be like, "Oh, got 13

hours worth of tasks scheduled today.

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That's not gonna work."

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So move that.

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Or we also have integrated a time tracking

into our Notion where we can see a roll-up

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of how long the task actually did take,

and then that is great for informing

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for the next time, like Rachel said.

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So having the system that kind

of all connects and everything

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is

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beautiful.

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It's also great for delegation too,

if you're trying to manage somebody.

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This skill of project planning and

especially launch planning, I can

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do in my sleep pretty much right

now, and I definitely have all

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the hacks for making this faster.

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So what I've done actually

is trained a project manager.

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We have Project Manager Paula

and she lives inside the lab.

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She's one of your assistants that you

get within the first couple of weeks.

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And what she will basically help you

do is either giving her a strategy

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doc or a loose list of tasks that

you're going to accomplish, and from

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there, she's gonna help you break

it out into tasks, like I said.

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'Cause every task, especially if you're

working with a team, even writing

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copy, writing an email, it's like

write the email, get the approval, load

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it up, test the links, all of this.

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She'll really help you get into

those granular aspects of the task.

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And then that way if you have a target

launch date, she will help you out

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those tasks if you have team members

to delegate, who you're delegating

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to and all of that, so that you walk

away with a pretty project plan.

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And then the most amazing thing

that I love about using this within

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Claude is that you can connect your

Notion, and then from there you can

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say, "Okay, great, these look great.

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Now take all of these tasks and put

them into my Notion database and connect

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it to this project via relation."

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And it just automatically puts

everything in there, and it makes

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my life so much easier as a project

planning person, and it's beautiful.

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And I don't know what I did

without AI and Paula before.

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Rachel: Yeah, and I think one of

the things that maybe nobody really

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considers is the fact that, when

you're setting up your business brain,

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you've established your weekly rhythm,

your capacities, your hours that you

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wanna work, and all of those things.

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And so when eager beaver you sits

down and says, "I have four priorities

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I wanna get done in August," your

business brain will check you, 'cause

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I've done this already, where they go,

"Oh, actually this doesn't quite work.

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You wanna launch this, but actually

your windows of opportunity are pretty

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limited, and we have this, and this."

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So it's one of those things that if

you've done step one and step two of

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this three-part series of assessing and

aligning, all of these layers come into

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play when you're then project planning.

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And then when you have, Project

Planner Paula holding you accountable

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for this, it's super valuable.

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Jessica: Let's recap the

steps of our ACT session.

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Like we said, if you haven't listened

to the past two episodes, we definitely

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go recommend you to go listen to those.

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But for this step in particularly,

you're going to wanna sort your

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projects by priority and map out one

or two that you wanna do each month.

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And then from there, you're gonna start

to break your projects down into tasks

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with owners, because it's not gonna get

done if you don't assign it anybody.

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And then you're gonna put it in

your project manager and assign it

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a date, because if it's not on my

calendar, I'm definitely not doing it.

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and then you wanna make sure that

it's, all loaded into whatever

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project management or task

management system that you are using.

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Rachel: yeah.

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And make sure you're who it's assign it to

because that is my biggest thing, and then

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it never shows up on my to-do list, so.

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all right.

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These three audits, which If you

listened to all three episodes,

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this is the whole process of annual

planning, mid-year planning, and

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holding you all together, right?

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The three audits, your clients,

your offers, your marketing

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traffic, the assessing and

aligning all of this stuff forward.

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This is how it all comes into a

sustainable life first business system

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that helps you, one, not burn out, one,

not feel guilty for not getting all of

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the things done, and get your goals into

off of your planner and into reality.

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So that's the whole process.

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We do recommend that you

check in on this quarterly.

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Have your little business

meetings with yourself.

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Don't push them away

'cause they are important.

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Jessica: We

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hope you enjoyed this series.

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back next week because we're gonna

be moving into a launch series.

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This is one of me and Rachel's and

one of our most favorite and exciting

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things to do because we're both moving

into launch season, which usually

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happens around that September, October.

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It's a really great time to launch.

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And I know I've got a

couple of clients launching.

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I'm sure Rachel does as well.

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So next week we're gonna be

talking about how AI changing the

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launch landscape, so I'm super

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excited about that.

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And until next week

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Rachel: We're rooting for you