40: How to Quarterly Plan Strategically for Your Business with Kat Schmoyer

Have you been searching for a better way to plan strategically in your business? This week I am so excited to welcome back my good friend Kat Schmoyer, and to talk all about planning out the end of the year and quarter four. Kat is the QUEEN of quarterly planning and she has so much advice to share. We are going to discuss her approach to planning out your next 90 days and how to build traction in order to end the year well. I just know that what Kat has to share will help every small business owner to set up a successful system for this next quarter and beyond!

The Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast is brought to you by Dolly DeLong Education. This is a podcast for creative business owners who want to learn tangible steps to automate their business through workflows, systems, tools and strategy in order to go from scattered to streamlined with purpose. Because even muggles can become automated wizards.

Meet Kat:

Kat Schmoyer is a business coach & integrator for creatives. Her goal? To help YOU make dreams & dailys happen!! With over 8 years experience in the world of small business, she has a passion for simplified goal setting and project management. She loves running her business with her high school sweetheart and their co-workers – 2 kids under 4 & one on the way!

Review the Show Notes:

Get to know Kat Schmoyer (1:32)

What exactly is quarterly planning? (3:38)

How Kat discovered her superpower (7:27)

How to approach planning for quarter four (9:33)

The steps to quarterly planning (16:58)

The purpose behind mapping out your next 90 days (25:14)

Black Friday sales and digital offers (26:41)

Q4 strategy for service-based business owners (28:01)

Stay connected with Kat (33:02)

Mentioned in this Episode:

Episode 24: How To Create A Sustainable Mastermind With Strategic Systems (Featuring Kat Schmoyer) 

Episode 10: How To Create Systems To Generate Raving Client Reviews With Kate Dye

Episode 36: 3 Tips For Simplifying Your Content Creation In Order To Be Able To Stay Consistent With Amanda Warfield

Connect with Kat ⬇️

Kat’s Trello freebie https://katschmoyer.com/trello-my-week-template-freebie

Kat’s shop https://katschmoyer.com/shop

Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGfwLykRLjaHtBlZSMECGIg

Website https://katschmoyer.com/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/katschmoyer/

Connect with Dolly ⬇️

instagram.com/dollydelongeducation

facebook.com/DollyDeLongEducation

pinterest.com/dollydelong

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Review the Transcript:

Dolly DeLong
Welcome to the systems and workflow magic podcast where I help entrepreneurs go from scattered to streamlined in their creative businesses. I’m your host dolly DeLong, a wife, a mom and a photographer turned systems educator. Join me every week as we have conversations centered around creating tactical workflows, and automations in your business. Now, let’s make some strategic workflow magic. Hey everyone, and welcome back to the systems and workflow magic podcast. I think it is time to start planning out quarter four since this is dropping live at the end of August. So I decided to invite my friend Kat Schmoyer. Back to the podcast. If you have been listening to this podcast, you will know that she was a guest before and she was on episode 24. And she spoke about creating a system for yourself especially if you’re planning on either leading a mastermind or joining a mastermind just some things to think of on both sides. So I will be sure to link that episode to this episode. I am so excited because we have a lot to cover especially as we are looking ahead from August all the way to December of 2022 like how to not only build traction but how to end the year well with some good quarterly planning but before I really hit the ground running because I know I can I get like so excited about planning and being strategic just in case you guys are brand new to listening to the systems and workflow magic podcast of Thank you, by the way for tuning in Kat, do you mind introducing yourself just letting us know who you are who you serve? All the wonderful things?

Kat Schmoyer
Absolutely. I’m so excited to be back Dolly. So thank you for having me. And this is like my favorite topic ever. So it’s gonna be so much to talk about. But for you guys that I that are listening that I don’t know, my name is Kat, my husband and I work from home. With our children. It’s like our dream life to run our businesses and be at home raising our kids to I host Creative At Heart. So we have an online membership community and an annual conference for creatives. I also have my namesake brand, the catch for your brand where I coach creative entrepreneurs. I’m very, like, get it done. And so I’m all about like, let’s make a plan. But then let’s also like, have action steps to make that plan a reality. I host a mastermind for high level business owners. I also have an integration agency too. So all lots of things like just within that, but all stuff that actually is all about quarterly planning to so I feel like this conversation is going to be a really fun one to have.

Dolly DeLong
Oh man, I’m so excited. And I just want to say thank you so much for being here. Thank you for agreeing to come to another podcast. As you know and as my listeners know, I’m a huge cash Moyer fan and I am so excited for you to share more of your wisdom when it comes to quarterly planning especially for listeners like you know that the heart of this podcast is about creating systems and workflows for your business and you can create a system and workflow for pretty much anything in your life. And I’ve said this before even you have a system for washing your face and for doing your makeup and for eating food and for making food so let’s have I’m sure that there are some systems for like cat will share for planning out the next three months next quarter. I will say that I know a lot of creative business owners q4 could mean quarter four can either mean we are entering in a really busy season. So for photographers for wedding planners for any service based business owner whose job operates like serving in the fall and in the early winter. This is busy season for a lot of us I know myself, it’s a busy season for me and my family photography and branding photography business. I have families that are wanting to take those idyllic fall and Christmas photos and then I even have some business owners who are wanting some seasonal branding photos with my Dubsado setup services. I’m always staying busy with monthly clients. So talk to us cat about like for those of us who may be ramping up really big, like how can we still keep quarterly planning top of mind and prioritize it as we go into the next quarter so that we won’t burn out and forget to like have a intentional strategy for that from September to December and end the year. Well, and okay, I should say like before you answer that very deep question. What let’s answer a simple question. And what exactly quarterly planning is and then we can go back to that deep question. Okay. So much to talk about.

Kat Schmoyer
I love it. Yeah. So first of all, I am so passionate about quarterly planning you guys I love teaching like one on one in like coaching scenarios. I also have a masterclass all about quarterly planning and my quarterly calendars and like massive 2022 2023, like yearly calendar. So I, when I say I love it, like I genuinely like I love it so much. It’s so fun. But I understand that planning is not always fun for everybody. Here’s why I love quarterly planning quarterly planning allows you to look at your year in bite sized format, it can be really overwhelming for anyone, whether you’re type A or type B love planning or hate planning, it can be really overwhelming to plan for a whole year, so much can happen in that year. This year. For example, I had my third child so like, whoa, like, life is like what us I have no idea what that’s gonna look like, like we’re gonna be outnumbered like zone defense. What does this mean? So there’s no way like when I was planning things for the beginning of the year, I had a lot of question marks because that was such a big life change for our family that I knew was going to affect so many things. And I’m sure there are similar situations in your business, whether you’re moving or you’re launching a new offer, or you’re thinking about creating, you know, a new revenue stream. There’s just so many what ifs in the year. I love quarterly planning though, because typically, when you look at a calendar, you feel the most confident and what’s right ahead. So while you might not know, six, nine or 12 months ahead, you likely know three months, you can likely look at the next 90 days and say like, okay, yeah, here’s what’s happening. And so like in this particular time, we’re talking about q4, which is October, November and December. So in September is the great time to look at then those final three months. And just like Dolly said, for so many of you, it’s probably really busy. Like, I’m willing to bet most of you guys listening are in the like, it’s crazy. You’re not in the ramping down category of like ramping down, like that would be wonderful. We’re all like ramping up. It’s just like a lot happening in the final three months of the year. But you know, that you can be realistic about okay, here’s what life looks like in October, November and December. Don’t look at January yet. Don’t look at March of 2023. Yet, like just focus on those three months, those 90 days. And then let’s set strategic goals based on what’s going on in that 90 Day increment.

Dolly DeLong
Okay, before we move into like the actual strategy and the workflows and the systems, in developing the strategy, how did you discover that this is your superpower? Because you are literally the queen of quarterly planning cat that is like what you’re known for. But I mean, you’ve had to have discovered this at some point. When was that moment for you?

Kat Schmoyer
I think it was when other people started telling me you’re good at it. Like, oh, you’re good at this, like helped me do it. I don’t know about you guys. But sometimes I feel like the things that we’re good at in our, in our businesses or in our lives. Like they’re typically the things that come really naturally to you like, you either really enjoy doing them or you’re just you can do them quickly. Or when you’re stressed out. It’s the thing that you’re like, I just need to go do that. Like it just helps. It’s like a relief, like, Okay, I got some joy back like this. I just got to do this. So for me, I think it was really 2019 was when it was the first time I ever spoke on quarterly planning at a conference. And then from that moment, I just started getting more feedback from people like wow, helped me. And that made me see like, oh, not everybody does this the way that I do this. And I was able to think through how I could teach it better.

Dolly DeLong
Oh I think I was at that conference. I think so. Yeah. Like the very first time I ever spoke on it. I literally never would have known it was your first time because when I was listening, I was like, wow, she is she knows so much. She’s been doing this for so long. I was so nervous. I was like I hope this makes sense. Like I hope people understand the process. Yeah. It was amazing. It was like it was like a game changer for me. So I’m so glad. Wow. Yeah, I love it. And I love that other people have been pointing out this superpower to you. It’s not just something that you’re like, I think that this will be my new superpower you literally like people like drew it out of you and helped. I don’t know like if it made you feel a little bit more confident about yourself and your abilities. But for me like that always makes me feel confident when other people point out Mike’s really that’s so cool. So that was my selfish question of this little mastermind that we’re about to have with you. So I guess like going back to that original question now that we are ramping up for q4. So we’re looking ahead at October, November, December. And I know a lot of us, a lot of us are as creative business owners we are going into busy season. So how can we have a good strategy in looking at the next 90 days and not be so overwhelmed and not burn out and not just like I let this year swallow us instead, at the end of the year we reach it. And we’re like, Yes, I feel so good. Like, I may not have accomplished all the things, but I feel good about what I did accomplish.

Kat Schmoyer
I love this question, because I think it’s like, there’s two things here, I want to like, share first, I feel like number one in our industry, we constantly feel like we have to do more, be more do the next thing like check off that. And maybe it’s because there’s a lot of Enneagram threes in our industry. And maybe it’s because I am one. So like, that’s how I feel when I like I’m on Instagram. But I think that there can be a lot of pressure to, you know, feel like we have to keep achieving or keep doing this next thing. So and I’m going to talk about, well, how that affects planning here in just a second. But I think that that exists. I also think that there I mean, you guys have probably all heard the saying, I want to work on my business, not just in my business, right. And so this balance of we’re working in our business on like the day to day because we have clients to serve things that need to happen, like deliverables and deadlines that need to be met. But we also want to focus on our business. And so we want to think about the goals that we have, and projections and things like that. So in light of those two things. I think q4 is an interesting dilemma. Because q4, we’ve already said, it’s probably very busy for all of you. I know, for me, it’s crazy, Dolly, it’s crazy, like so for at least for Dolly and I we know it’s busy. So we’re assuming that for all of you guys, it’s really busy. q4 is probably really busy, both on the business side, but also like probably family stuff, like there’s a lot of holidays happening. You know, you’re gearing up for things maybe traveling during that timeframe. Like there’s just a lot of busy and a lot of noise and life in general in q4 of every year. So with that being said, if we think about the busy of the quarter, but then also think about this like pressure, we tend to feel to do more and be more and achieve all the things. And the fact that we’re like, well, I need to work on my business, not just in my business, it can be a lot like keyboard can just be really overwhelming mentally, our mindset can get like all out of whack. So if you leave this episode with nothing, I want this to be like a permission slip that q4 needs to be what you want q4 to be like I don’t want you to think about unwanted pressures, I don’t want you to think about the focus of working on your business. And in your business. I actually think that one of the great things about quarterly planning is that every quarter looks different. So for example, q4 might be a quarter for you, where you’re focusing in your business, like you don’t have time to work on your business because your clients need you. And your clients are your business, your clients deserve the best, and you want to deliver and you want to serve them and you want to be the best for them. So that might mean that you’re not going to launch your new website that you thought you would get to launch this year, or you’re not going to launch that new course or you’re not going to do whatever like on your business tasks, quote, unquote, you said you were going to do because you have a lot of client work, and you’re focusing in your business, so that you can end the year really well with them. And if that is you, when you’re thinking about those final three months, I want you to feel proud of that and feel good that you are in a season where you get to serve your clients really well and don’t put this unwanted pressure or unwanted to do of creating goals that just are goals that like don’t actually happen. And we don’t get to make a plan to bring them to life. So if that’s you, your quarterly plan might be serving your clients really well. And like you guys, again, let me be the one to tell you like that’s a great goal, like your goal doesn’t have to be something new and exciting. It can be like let’s maintain, let’s sustain let’s end your year, not just surviving but thriving in the work that you had on your plate, not adding all of these goals into the mix, that don’t feel doable because of how busy the season is.

Dolly DeLong
I really want to jump on that, like add more to that quarterly planning might be serving your clients. Well. That’s, that’s an incredible point. Because as a photographer, there might be a feast or famine mentality isn’t feast during fall, it’s famine during late winter, early spring, depending upon where we are you in the United States, even in the world. So if you were wanting to sustain your clients for the next year or through the year, I think like to infuse like maybe a really good think of a really good client experience process that you can add to your workflow as you’re serving your clients this upcoming quarter and you all know like I’ve spoken with other client experience experts, I will tag those links to the show notes of this podcast episode. I know had Kate Dye who is like the queen of client experiences so I will link that show to this podcast episode but maybe like one of your goals could be like Kat was saying like, serve your clients really well. Well then if you don’t have a system in a process for that will then hash that out in a day, it’s really easy to hash that out in a day. And to see like, what parts can be automated, what parts you’ll need to do manually, like, personalize it. Because if you leave a really good impression for that person, they’re either going to recommend you for you know, like that next quarter if you’re like a family photographer, or branding photographer, or whatever type of photographer or they might be a repeat client, and you have that income coming in again next year. So this is just something to think about, like future forecasting for yourself so that you’re not going into q4 and you’re so frazzled, because if you’re frazzled, I have discovered that your clients will feel that frazzled Enos and they won’t have that good client experience, and it won’t be sustainable for next year.

Kat Schmoyer
I think that’s so smart Dolly and I Kate die is so good at this. So I’m so glad you’ve like had her on the podcast before and can like link that so people can hear that conversation. And again, like, this might be like the opposite like Doll, you’re probably like, Wait cat, I thought we’re gonna talk about like, let’s set goals like how do we, and I’m like, you don’t have to set a goal. I just feel I just, I feel so strongly that goals need to be realistic. And again, when we think about q4, when we’re like really zeroing in on what that timeframe looks like, you need to be so realistic with what is already on your plate. And what you think is the best goal for right now, knowing that you don’t have to feel these unwanted pressures from the industry, right? Like, you don’t have to feel like a lot. But if I don’t do this, now, somebody else will. Or I have to do it. Like I should have done it yesterday, like no it, it will still be there in January, like it’s gonna be okay. I just want to be that permission slip for everyone that, you know, you don’t have to shoot for the moon in q4, if you really just need to be laser focused on what’s already on your plate and how to do that really well.

Dolly DeLong
Okay, I do like love example. So we one example you gave was quarterly planning on how to serve your clients for the next 90 days and how to sustain it. But let’s say there is a business owner and they are going into there, they’re slowing down, they’re going into a slower season or they’re able to maintain working on their business and in their business. So what would you recommend a that type of business center do when looking at the next 90 days?

Kat Schmoyer
Absolutely. So for that person, and really for either one, I think you can work through this these next steps. I’m going to outline for quarterly planning and maybe this will help you decide like, can you take on you know that that goal? Or does the goal need to be more about sustainability and what’s currently going on. So whenever I start quarterly planning for myself, or for clients, I always want to take a look at four things. Time, money, dreams, and dailies. These are like foundational, if you’ve ever heard me talk about this, you might be like, okay, cat, I’ve heard you say this, like 1700 times, but they just like this is what I do for every single quarter. And even when I’m annually planning, time and money are the foundation of every goal time is looking at again, like the time so what is the time of year, so October 1 through December 31. That’s our q4. So taking a look at what’s happening, what’s going on in the business. What’s going on in your personal life, I always measure both. Because as you all know, as small business owners, our personal lives affect our business, our business affects our personal life. It’s all very much intertwined. So I’m going to take a look at family things, travel, kids schedule, everything on the family and personal side. I’m also going to look at business. If you’re you know, in an industry where you’re doing events, so like wedding planning, wedding photography, or you know, family sessions, like what do you have on the books? What deliverables deadlines just what is your time look like? Time is First, money is Second, money is revenue, okay? You’re running, hopefully a profitable business. If it’s not profitable, I want quarterly planning to help you make it profitable. So in money we’re looking at, well, what revenue was coming in q4 is an interesting time because again, it’s like towards the end of the year, so you should have a very good idea of are you going to hit your revenue goals by December? And if not, could you do something extra if you are, give yourself a pat on the back have like a glass of champagne or whatever your drink of choice is and then think about like what else it could be but look at money because we want to make sure you are on track for what your revenue goals are so that you’re not blindsided in December if you’re not close to hitting your income goal for the year so time and money are the foundational aspects because time is limited and money is finite. So I want you to make sure that like we’ve assessed what is time look like and what is money look like first and foremost, before you even start being a dream caster and like visionary and all the things which I know gonna be hard because it’s so easy for you guys to jump to dreams, you jump to the vision, you’re like, Well, I want to do this. But we need to look at time and money first to know if that thing you want to do is realistic. So we look at the finite things, then we look at what I call dreams and dailies dreams are your visions dreams are the things that you want to accomplish. I personally have a parking lot list and I teach a lot of my students to create a parking lot list so that anytime throughout the year you get an idea, whatever, like whether it’s your own, or you see something on Instagram or whatever it is like throw it on your parking lot list. And so when your quarterly planning, take a look at that list, what feels fun, what feels doable, what feels like, that should be the next thing that you make a goal. So we look at those dreams, and we then assess them compared to time and money. Like again, how is time looking? How is money looking? Is this dream from the parking lot list gonna fit nicely into that puzzle piece. And then dailies is basically the micro of time. So dailies is not necessarily like every day, but at least every week, like what does that look like for you? Like if you’re, you know, you’re you know, you’re booking, you have 20 sessions in October. But what does that look like on a weekly basis for you and can that dream, then factor into that daily, you know, we can work on it regularly. Because the purpose of the goal you guys isn’t just to like, write it on a calendar and throw it on the wall, the purpose of the goal is to write it down and create action steps to get there, which means you have to work on your quarterly plan all quarter long, so that the goal happens. If you don’t have time to do that on your daily calendar, then it shouldn’t be the goal. So that like in a nutshell, very fast is like the four components of quarterly planning and how when you look at those four pillars, that really brings in a puzzle piece for you to see if the goal is doable for you right now, this season.

Dolly DeLong
I love this so much. And it’s so true. I will say as an example of cats dreams, like the parking lot list, I have my own parking lot list in my Trello board. And this podcast was actually on that parking lot list for two years.

Kat Schmoyer
It’s all over being like, alright, I’m gonna put it here and then we’ll like bring it to life when we can.

Dolly DeLong
Yeah, and it felt like ages like, especially now where everything is happening so fast. And I thought, like I convinced myself like, Oh, when I start this podcast, and I started it in fall of 2021, like, Oh, this is gonna be irrelevant, like everybody and their mom and their dog. And their pet fish has a podcast. And like, even my son has a podcast. No, he doesn’t have a podcast, but like, I just literally thought, well, this is going to be irrelevant, and nobody’s gonna like it. And it was the exact opposite. I’m so glad that one I listened to you and like put it in a dreams list and didn’t do all the things like every quarter. And it’s been very manageable for me. Because I I batch out everything. I work with a great Podcast Producer that like works with me through each quarter and like helps me cast out a vision for each quarter. So like this parking lot list idea works you guys like it may take a while. But like if you are very realistic with yourself and you don’t cram everything into every quarter because I used to do that. I used to be guilty of that because I am also a Enneagram three I used to like hate boxing myself into as an Enneagram. Three, but it’s true. I’m an Enneagram three, I am embracing it now. But I used to wonder like, why is it what is it about me that has to cram everything in into a week like I felt like I do accomplish all the goals, but it really is so relaxed. I have so many ideas on that parking lot list, and they’re gonna come to fruition eventually. And they’ll either like stick or I’ll learn like how to evolve them over time. I don’t have to make it a make it or break it situation. Absolutely.

Kat Schmoyer
Honestly like that’s exactly what it’s for Dolly is for you to then be able to assess like, when is the most realistic time for that to move out of the parking lot list and become like an actual goal. And also, I have things on my parking lot list that I’ve like deleted off the list for a while. I’m like, wow, like why did I think I wanted to do that? And I like I’m almost laughing at myself. But it was like, again, this like comparison pressure. Like in the moment I’m like, oh my goodness, I have to do this because so and so is like doing something similar or you know, I just I put that on myself. And so I throw something in my parking lot list. But then if I actually take some time to think about it, and like remove myself from that pressure situation. And I’m thinking about it in like a healthier like mental mindset. I realized like, No, I don’t want to do that. Like I don’t have to do all the things and that is definitely not one of the things that I want on my to do list. And so I think either way, it’s just great to have that list for yourself.

Dolly DeLong
Yeah. And I also think like what When you have a strategic plan, I’m gonna be tying in Amanda Warfield episodes with this as well, because she was on earlier episodes before this episode airs. And she was talking about how to be strategic with your content. So once you have your your next 90 days planned out, you can be very strategic with your content as well. So I wanted you to know, like, there is a strategy in like mapping out your next 90 days not just for your personal or for your business, but also for your content. And you know, like what’s doable for you what you need to batch versus what you can do on the, let’s say, you have a week where it’s like slower, so you can be more hands on for your content, your business and your personal life during that week. So that’s why it’s really good to look at the next 90 days reasonably,

Kat Schmoyer
Absolutely. I always start with quarterly planning. And then based on my quarterly goals, then I content plan. So I do my content plans and a 90 day increment as well, especially for those of you guys that if your quarterly goals have direct relation to revenue. So if your goals are specific to a number of clients that need to be booked, or like a digital product, you’re launching, list growth, things like that, then I mean, that’s very directly tied to marketing. So knowing like, Okay, on my content calendar, what when you need to get into priming when you need to, or doing potentially a live launch, like you’re just able to plan all of that out so much more strategically, when you have those goals first.

Dolly DeLong
Oh, I love that. And I just want to like this is something that I’m going to be working on this year specifically is around this time is when I’m going to start priming my audience to lead up to a Black Friday sale, because this is the time to start doing that. Do you have any nuggets of wisdom about how to prepare for like, q4, yes, you’re sharing that, but like, especially like a launch for a Black Friday sale? Or like something specific around Black Friday?

Kat Schmoyer
Oh, okay. This is a fun question. So I feel like with Black Friday, I want to, I guess my piece of advice would be really reminding your people what you have. I mean, yes, I feel like we can be very obvious about like, I’ll be hosting a Black Friday sale, like just tell your people like, let them know. Because I mean, I don’t know about you guys, but I know I usually have like a note on my phone of like places I’m going on Black Friday week, like, just because I know like the businesses I want to support are the things I’m specifically looking for it either personally or in my business. And I’m like, I need to remember to like go to this shop or whatever, because people are primed and ready to buy just in general, because of that time of year. So that’s great on the selling end. So I would definitely let them know. But then also, in your priming, just be really heavily reminding them of all the things that you do don’t necessarily focus too much on one product. If you’re planning that, like all five of your products are going to be on sale, really try to give each one equal love so that people will remember like, oh, yeah, Dolly has that template, or oh, she’s got that mini course. And then when Black Friday rolls around, they’re really excited to see it on sale.

Dolly DeLong
What about for for the audience who’s listening, and they don’t necessarily have a digital product, or they don’t want to have digital products. Like they’re more service based? Like what would you recommend for like either priming audiences in that case, or, I don’t know, like being strategic with the offers in the next 90 days.

Kat Schmoyer
So when your service based, if you are doing some sort of Black Friday sale, I still think you can let your clients know. So if you have an email list, that’s, you know, past clients, and maybe you’re planning, maybe you’re a photographer, and you’re planning to do some sort of sale around albums, or you know, something like that, in that Black Friday timeframe. I think again, just letting people know, hey, this is going to happen is really helpful. Because again, we it is a busy time and we are getting a lot of emails and there’s a lot of different sales going on. So we want you want your warm people to know like oh yeah Dolly’s hosting this, like I want to get on it. I’m also a big fan and making your Black Friday sales last a little bit longer than just either the one day or even that weekend. So maybe you go maybe it’s like Wednesday to Wednesday, or maybe you start it on Black Friday. And it’s you know that Friday to Tuesday, like you go just a little bit over that cyber monday timeframe, again, knowing that people are getting really inundated so let’s just give people a little bit more time to either sort through their inbox or just like remember what it is that you’re doing that’s either for digital products or service. I think that you know, that could work in that regard.

Dolly DeLong
And even if like again, like as you’re mapping out your next I’m just like repeating back so that people if you are taking notes or if you need to re listen, I want to remind everyone, like the whole point of this like topic is just to be very intentional with your next 90 days. And even like you don’t I know Kat has said this repeatedly. And I appreciate this, that she said this but don’t put pressure on yourself like if the in the next 90 days. Your whole maybe your whole point should be just making sure you’re following through and you’re serving your clients well. so that you’re leaving a good impression, and then you’re sustaining your business for next year’s round a client so that you will have business again, or this year, you have a little bit of, let’s say off time during your busy season. And so you’re able to accomplish one or two big goals. So for the next 90 days, map that out and see realistically how it’s going to fit in your time, money, where’s your money coming in? Can you like take a vision that you have cast for yourself, like from that vision board that you’ve laid out? And then like, what will be some daily baby steps for you to take to accomplish that goal in the next 90 days? So those are the four pillars that Kat was referring to?

Kat Schmoyer
Yes, absolutely. And also something that like all throw out there, too, with q4, I always want to make sure that I’ve given myself capacity at the end of the year to review the year and feel more set up for the next year. So again, just considering that when you’re looking at goal setting, like if you’re looking at things and thinking like, wow, I don’t have as much in like November in December, as I thought like maybe I do want to do X, Y and Z, like maybe you absolutely can, and you should. But I also sometimes just like to give myself a little bit more margin at that end of your time, because I am winding down the year as a whole. And so I know I personally love to do like a big end of year review and like really look back at what’s worked and what hasn’t, and then feel like I’ve stepped into 2023 feeling more confident about everything that happened in 2022. So just to like a side note to throw out there too. For you guys, when you’re assessing everything think about that, too.

Dolly DeLong
And this is like more of a personal note, for those of us who have kids, especially little ones like q4 late, I feel like that is like the season where like everyone gets sick in the house that in like the early like, winter season. And so I just want to like encourage any of my listeners who are parents and caregivers of little ones, or anyone who gets sick all the time, just like have some margin for yourself for just like the unknowns of like for health concerns. I like packed my q4 Last fall, which is like fits my personality. But I think I’m going to be scaling back just a little this year as I look ahead for q4 because like my husband and I got COVID. And like I wasn’t expecting that at all. And Blaze got sick several times. And he had to stay at home from school. So all of these things happened. And it stressed me out even more. Because like I was like I have all these goals for myself. I have like I’m very black and white with these goals like I have to finish them. So like give yourself a lot of grace, like as you map out the next 90 days because hopefully you’re doing this before October 1 hits. Hopefully you have like the next 90 days mapped out or like a rough draft of it. So just like consider all these different factors and you know yourself better than we do.

Kat Schmoyer
Yes, I couldn’t agree more.

Dolly DeLong
Well, Kat, thank you so much for sharing so much wisdom about quarterly planning. I didn’t know if there was anything else that you wanted to add to this quarterly planning masterclass before we wrap up?

Kat Schmoyer
No, I mean, my I know, Dolly will like put links below. But my DMs are always open. And so I love having conversations with people like who are quarterly planning or you know, if you listen to this, and it’s kind of getting your wheels turning and, you know, you want to just share anything with me like I’d love to see it. I also love just seeing people quarterly planning. So like if you’re doing quarterly planning on like Insta, and like your Insta story, I like tag me or whatever. Like I love seeing it. It’s so fun to just get to follow along with everybody who’s working on that.

Dolly DeLong
And I just want to say shameless plug for cat, she doesn’t know I’m doing this, like if you want a visual calendar for helping you with quarterly planning, she sells calendars in her shop and cat fees like her, her calendar is right behind me. And like it’s amazing, like it helps me map out the next 90 days. And I just have one night that like I make sure blazes in bed and like I have nothing on my calendar for the next two or three hours that evening. And I just like map everything out in it. I map it out with my family goals and timelines as well. So go to her shop, check it out, you guys. It’s $9. So that’s $9 You’ll spend for your quarterly planning. So I will link that all in the shownotes but is there anything do you want to talk about your freebie your Trello template freebie that you’re going to be offering to the audience

Kat Schmoyer
for sure if you are so if you’re thinking about you know, quarterly planning, I have Trello templates these are actually my my week Trello templates. So this is how I organized like my weekly to do so remember when we talked about quarterly planning I talked about that like daily aspect of okay, how are you making sure that things are getting done on a regular basis? and your business, whether it’s client facing whether it’s like, you know, working on your business, whatever it might be. So I use Trello. I know dollies Is it too? Yeah, it is my favorite tool, it’s free, which is I feel like just I only have to plug that forever. I’m like, Guys, it’s free. Like try it for your business if you have it. And so I created these templates that will make sure that we link below. So if you’re curious and either getting started with Trello, or maybe you use Trello, and you’d love a way to streamline your weekly structure, so that those quarterly goals can actually be happening like on a regular basis, they are available for y’all.

Dolly DeLong
Awesome. And guys, again, this will all be in the show notes. And that way you can just click on over and access set freebie. And then I’ve attached cat shop and her YouTube channel and Instagram. Just all the links for you. So please get to know cat. Thank you again, cat for coming on and being a guest. You’re amazing. And I just I just love you so much.

Kat Schmoyer
Well, thank you for having me. It’s always fun to chat. And this is my like my favorite topic. So it was extra fun.

Dolly DeLong
Course. So everyone, I hope you all have a wonderful, amazing week and I will talk with you all next week. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to the systems and workflow magic podcast. You can find full show notes from today’s episode at dolly DeLong photography.com forward slash podcast. If you’re loving the podcast, I’d be so honored if you’d subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast player. Be sure to screenshot this episode, share it to your stories and tag me at Dolly DeLong education over on Instagram. Until next time, go make some strategic workflow magic.