Thriving End of Year Review – Episode 66 – She Leads She Thrives Podcast

Shannon Dunn  01:16

Hello, everyone, and welcome to a new episode of She Leads She Thrives. I am excited to bring you the second part of I guess a three part series to wrap up the end of this year 2023. In our last episode, we looked at an aligned business model. And I hope that there was a value in that view no matter what your business model is, whether it’s something that you’re certain about or something that’s in evolution like mine has been. I hope that the questions I posed for you to reflect on where you’re at, and what to consider, in terms of creating an online business model were useful. 

Shannon Dunn  01:52

Today, we shift into looking at reviewing your business. And I find that this is such an important thing to do on a probably more frequent basis -I’ll get into that in the episode today – then people tend to do. So I’m going to share with you a framework and a process that I’ve used for a number of years now. I have certainly reviewed it this year like I review this document that I’m going to be referring to every single year to keep it fresh and up to date and to see if there’s any opportunity to change or to add questions in relation to the current business landscape and how things are flowing in the world. So if you are a longtime listener to She Leads She Thrives, welcome, you recognize my voice if you are new, also a huge welcome to you. 

Shannon Dunn  02:43

My name is Shannon Dunn, and I am the host here at She Leads She Thrives. I’m a long term business and self leadership coach. And I absolutely adore everything about bringing these episodes to you. Both the solo ones like today and the guests that we have. I’ve mentioned recently, I’m sure that I have recorded another batch of incredible guest conversations that are going to roll out from the New Year. And they’re just such incredible souls all over the world, doing phenomenal things, of course, because that’s how we roll around here at She Leads She Thrives. 

Shannon Dunn  03:17

So let’s get into the focus for today’s episode, which is about your business year in review. As I mentioned, I feel that personally, this is certainly through my own, I guess love of planning and visioning, too, but also my reflection on well as I head into 2024, 19 years in business and business coaching, that reviewing where you’re at what you’ve done, what you’ve achieved very much so doesn’t get done very often. And yet this review process, if you want to call it that, is of incredible value to be able to make informed decisions in your business, which is one of the many reasons why I love it so much. So the content for today’s episode, I’m going to be guiding you through most of a process that I use in the form of a document, My Business Year in Review workbook. 

Shannon Dunn  04:14

Now, I will make this available to you want to check there, rather than share the link with you now. Please go to the show notes from wherever you’re listening. And you’ll be able to find the link there, if you’d like to download a free copy of this workbook. It’s about 35 pages. It’s got plenty of review opportunity in it and also has some opportunity for you to think about what you want to bring to life in your business and life, to be honest, moving forward into a new year. 

Shannon Dunn  04:42

So we know being in business can be one of the most challenging things that we’ll experience. There’s no doubt about that. I’m all for the ease, effortlessness, easeful favorite words of mine. I started using them many years ago when I realized that I was creating all the difficult, hard, heavy stuff that was going on in my business and my life. And I truly believe that things can be easier. But that’s not denying that things can be incredibly challenging. And I feel more than I have in a long time, I’ve seen a wide diversity of people who are in business, in different parts of the world, sharing either they’ve had their almost their best year yet. And then the polar opposite of that, their most challenging year in business, irrelevant of what they do, and how long they’ve been in business. So I feel that at times like this, it’s even more important to do your review on a regular consistent basis. 

Shannon Dunn  05:47

Now, I find that people say that they want to create something like balance or alignment, you probably have picked up that alignment is a favorite word of mine if you’ve listened to recent episodes. And with that, they then want to create their own definition of freedom. And it’s great to want these things. But what I found in some of the conversations I’ve had over the years is that people talk about wanting things like balance or alignment freedom, but they haven’t spent time to reflect on and define what those things mean for them. So if you want to, if you haven’t yet gone and downloaded a copy of the workbook, and you want to work through this in a notebook or a journal or something, you might want to pause as you go along. Or if you’re listening, come back and do this or download the workbook and you’ll be able to fill in this different sections. But the first thing before we move into any of the actual review process, I would encourage you to spend some time exploring what balance, alignment and also what freedom actually means to you. 

Shannon Dunn  06:55

Now, I’ve also, over the years done many different types of processes, where I’ve had the opportunity to think about what areas of my life I want to create those things. And in reflecting on that, and considering the things that clients have shared with me, things that come up are topics in relation to our wellbeing nutrition, relationships, intimacy, travel, spirituality, creativity, wealth, security, the home, personal time, family, adventure, sleep, friendship, health, transport, so whatever you drive, or however you get around, opportunities, you know, less stress, and learning. These are the kind of the main things that people want to create things like balance, alignment and freedom in, you might have something else but there’s a space in the workbook for you to reflect on that and to consider. I also frequently get asked, When should I complete the review, like this is a business year in review. 

Shannon Dunn  07:57

So while this is reflecting on an annual timeframe, I think you could easily use this in a more frequent timeframe. And I certainly do, I complete a review in my business every calendar quarter. And then I do an annual one, just to see where I’m at what’s worked, what hasn’t worked, what I’ve loved, what I haven’t loved, what I want to keep doing moving forward, and what I’m ready to say no, this is not right for us, sometimes, because it’s not working sometimes because it’s just run its course. S

Shannon Dunn  08:33

So the answer to when should I complete my review. Really, it’s any time, you may be someone who likes to do your review to a calendar year or a particular time. So if you started your business, say in March, then maybe you want to do it to your own calendar and your annual timeline around your business anniversary. Depending on where you are in the world and your tax year you might like to do in relation to your tax year. Like I know, for example, in the US at some pretty sure the end of March. In Australia, it’s the end of June. In other parts of the world, it will be different times of year. So think about what works for you. And as I said, you can certainly do it more frequently than on an annual basis. But I would definitely suggest you do it at least annually, because a lot happens at a 12 month period. And it can be really hard to keep track and remember all the great things that I have no doubt you’ll accomplish. And also the lessons that go along with all of the things that maybe didn’t work so well that we wouldn’t do again, that might have worked well but didn’t feel good doing them. 

Shannon Dunn  09:44

So some questions to reflect on when you will do your review. How often does it feel right to review and plan/vision? Why is this timeframe important? How can I ensure my planning and reviews happen in line with my preferred timeline? Is there anyone who can hold me accountable? So, you know, do you have a coach or a mentor? Someone that you work with, a really good friend in business – you could do this together, you know, so reflecting on who could hold you accountable? And also, how do I want them to hold me accountable? What would work for you? And I always think it’s valuable to reflect on what else you might like to remember about reviewing your progress and identifying the lessons that the last year or quarter or month has gifted you.

Shannon Dunn  10:30

So in the visioning that I do, it’s focused on a thing, a process that I created, called the Effortless Success Framework. And I created the Effortless Success Framework. Oh, goodness, me, I don’t even remember what year it was. But we’re probably coming up to, I would say, over 15 years, considering how long I have been in business. It’s a framework that is holistic, deliberately, and was really focused on capturing aspects of the self, as well as business. So it’s a planning framework already, I like to use the word visioning that’s definitely influenced by my Visionary Creator Archetype. And it was actually around early December 2020, to an episode 11, of She Leads She Thrives, that I actually walked you through. You may have used it, gone back and listen to that episode, if you haven’t, I encourage you to do so if you want to do some planning for yourself. But yeah, Episode 11, where I actually walked you through the Effortless Success Framework. So I’ve been using it since I created it. And I created it because I wanted a, as I said, a holistic in a simpler way to plan. Having come from a corporate background where I was my most recent role in that space – such a long time ago now – I was a senior project manager. So every single thing about my days and weeks in a workspace was highly planned and managed in many regards. Yeah, project manager, I think about that, you know, every single action that was taken was scheduled and detailed and reviewed, and either ticked off or changed or altered and was reliant on other people often, there was so much going on, if anyone’s worked in the project management space you’ll understand. 

Shannon Dunn  12:24

And when I first started my business, my natural planning instinct and love of being having things in order, honestly went out the window, I almost did a rebellion of, I didn’t need to do that anymore. I’m in my own business. And then I quickly realized that that actually wasn’t of value. And when I searched online for business plan templates, what I found while of value were so lengthy, so complex, not really motivating, and they certainly didn’t reflect to me. So that was the opportunity to reflect on well, what would what could work or what what felt like it was easy to create, to work with, to reference. And that actually took me into consideration. Because as a sole business owner, even when you have a team, you’ll understand that when things are happening in your business, it’s influencing your life and when things happening in your life, it is highly likely influencing your business. That’s just how it goes when we’re emeshed those two aspects and we ever realize. 

Shannon Dunn  13:31

So the core focus of the Effortless Success Framework is reflecting on for different types of growth in relation to your planning or your visioning. So as I said, go back and check Episode 11, if you want to do this for yourself, which I will certainly be doing during the Christmas/ New Year break, is when I at the very latest create my annual plan for the coming year. And then I also create a core quarterly version for the first quarter of the calendar year. But in the review process, I also reflect on what these four core areas of the Effortless Success Framework mean to me, so that I can then use those four core focus areas as a reflection tool as well. 

Shannon Dunn  14:18

So the next thing I do in my review process is actually reflect at this current time when I’m completing the workbook. What does business growth mean to me? What does wealth growth mean to me? What does expertise growth mean to me? And what does self growth mean to me? So those are the four growth areas encompassed in the Effortless Success Framework, business, wealth, expertise, and self. And I will just point out right now that self is you as an individual outside of your business, not your self growth within your business. So this would be a great opportunity if you are pausing and kind of playing along with the workbook to document for yourself what those different areas mean to you. 

Shannon Dunn  15:03

So next I reflect on those four areas in relation to my review from the current calendar year or whatever the last year where I find myself. And I tend to work through the four core focus areas of the Effortless Success plan in the same order. But do know that I don’t actually believe that any one particular of the four focus areas is more important than any other. I believe, doing a review for and planning for all four is incredibly important. And that’s where the holistic piece comes in. 

Shannon Dunn  15:43

So business growth is the first one. So we’ll go business, wealth, expertise and self. So the first question and these questions is about eight questions for each of the different areas. The questions are in no particular priority order, they just have a came to me when I first created this review document, as I said, I review this document itself every year as well to see if there’s any opportunity to change or alter or add anything to it. And I made a few tweaks this year for sure. So the first thing in answer to the guests the core overall inquiry, how I grew my business this last year, is what three main things did I invest my time in attracted more clients, you could also if you wanted to, add in attracted and converted more clients, it’s up to you, you know, use this workbook with this framework as a guide, and adjust it to make it work for you. 

Shannon Dunn  16:40

Then the second question is, what were the results of each of these activities? Just to make a note for yourself on what those results actually were? 

Shannon Dunn  16:50

The third question I ask and reflect on is how many clients that I have at the beginning of this year, and how aligned were they to my ideal clients. And you want to capture clients from all of your key products and services. So if I look at different things, like I’ve got my private coaching, I’ve got masterminds, I have retreats, I have profiling, and then I have Thrive Factor coaching, they’re all different types of ways that people can work with me. And so they are not, there are similarities across all those client groups. But there’s also little nuances that make them individual as well. So I would capture how many different types of clients I had in each of those core services. Also I reflect on because I have products in my business, as I reflected on and shared with you in the most recent solo episode around the aligned business model. I also document you know how many books I sold – those kinds of things as well. 

Shannon Dunn  17:47

So capture the products too if you’re a product and a service blended business like I am. 

Shannon Dunn  17:53

The fourth question I ask for business growth review is how many clients do I need to have to achieve my business growth goals in terms of two things, how much time I want to work, and what my turnover needs to be each month. So it’s really important to know those numbers, and to be able to keep them I guess, front and center and present in your decision making as you move forward. 

Shannon Dunn  18:22

The fifth question for business growth, what new products or services did I introduce or launch in the last year? And what was the response to each from my existing and potential customers or clients? Next question, which of these new products and services were enjoyable to create and deliver and led to a wanted or needed result for my clients?

Shannon Dunn  18:44

Question seven, what kinds of growth did I experience in business this past year? So just a general question there about business growth? And question eight, how did the growth I experienced make me feel? I’m sure this is the you know, the counsellor, therapist, reflector, cares about emotions, part of me coming through, but I ask a lot about how things make me feel. And if I think about that, it’s very much about tuning into, I guess the energetics of things. We’re not always going to feel on top of the world, fully energized and completely successful all of the time. But if we can be mindful about how we you do feel with what we’re creating, what we’re delivering, how were servicing our business, how we’re supporting our clients, whether we are product or service businesses, I think that’s an important thing to reflect on. And I mentioned that, I guess in some depth in the most recent episode 65 around that aligned business model.

Shannon Dunn  19:45

 So after business growth, we move to wealth growth, and we reflect on how I grew my wealth in these last year. The first question, what were the five core products or services I offered that netted the greatest income and profit in the last year and what was the gross Income they produced. So the gross income is what is left. So truly, it’s also your profit, so what’s left after the expenses that went in to create that particular product and service. 

Shannon Dunn  20:12

Now, sometimes that’s not easy to capture. But do your best. And if you’re not sure, please reach out to your bookkeeper or your accountant to find out how to work out your profit margins, and your gross income for individual things that you deliver in your business. Again, really good numbers to know. The second question around wealth growth, what three products or services bringing the greatest profit? And what is the percentage of that profit? So overall, if you look at the profitability of your business, and I do hope you have a profitable business, you may not just yet that’s okay too,  work towards that for sure. But work out, you know, what percentage of the overall profit that you make comes from the key top three things that you offer and sell? 

Shannon Dunn  20:57

Question three, what wealth growth goals did it even though last year, and how does it feel having achieved them? Now, when I talk through wealth growth in the Effortless Success Framework, I talk about it in relation to money and other things that make us feel wealthy and abundant. So it’s not 100% on money goals, but I do encourage you to include some money goals, or in your wealth growth section when you’re actually doing the planning and visioning piece. Because you’re in business. And I am certain that you’re not in business to make no money. But also consider other things that make you feel wealthy and abundant too. Question four around wealth growth, when did I last raise or change my pricing and by how much and what was that experience like? There, you may have reviewed your pricing recently and increased it or you may have decreased it, you may have added different kinds of payment plans, different ways for people to pay you. So think about all of the changes that you’ve made in this last year. And also reflect on what the experience was like doing that. And I guess communicating it as well. 

Shannon Dunn  22:20

Question five for wealth growth. What do I pay myself? And what percentage is this of what I want and need to pay myself? What you want to pay yourself, and what you need to pay yourself are two different things. It’s also good to know those numbers. 

Shannon Dunn  22:33

Question six, if the percentage being paid as less than what I want or need to be paying myself? Why is this the case? This is not an opportunity in question six for you to judge yourself or get critical about anything. It’s just to be factual. So you understand what’s contributed to the change or the actual current reality. Like I know, for me with the change in my life, from a health perspective, after my knee injury and surgery this year, that my business income has gone down. It’s not what it was 12 months ago, and therefore, there is not as much to pay myself as there was previously. That will change, there is no doubt in my mind about that. So there’s a very real reality that contributed to that being what the present situation is. 

Shannon Dunn  23:23

Question seven for wealth growth, are there any particular beliefs, behaviors or other things that I know have influenced my wealth growth this past year? You know, did you do some money mindset work? Have you had other things going on that have influenced what’s been happening? Have you worked with a particular person, listened to a particular podcast, read a book, something that has changed and influenced your wealth growth in the past year? And influenced doesn’t necessarily mean influenced negatively, or positively. Add it all in. And every question eight for wealth growth, how have these things influenced my wealth growth? Really important to understand that? Yeah, what they were and how they influenced. 

Shannon Dunn  24:05

Moving on from wealth growth, we move into the next section of this whole Effortless Success Framework to you use it as a framework for review, as well, is to expertise growth. So how I grew my expertise is last year. Now, I will just add for anyone who hasn’t or isn’t familiar with the Effortless Success Framework, I have found over the years and expertise can be a challenging quadrant for a lot of people, not so much for Mentor Teachers of which is, you know, the high 90% of women in my client community and actual clients I work with, have the Mentor Teacher Archetype, but I feel that expertise is under valued, and not recognized for what it is. So expertise was a non-negotiable inclusion when I first created that framework. 

Shannon Dunn  24:58

So in reflection on how I grew my expertise this last year, some questions for you. First one, in what ways did I grow my expertise last year? Now you might need to start with actually understanding what expertise means to you. It’s not claiming you’re an expert. It’s claiming you have expertise, which, in my thinking, and experience is a combination of what you know, what you do, your experience doing that, where you stand in terms of maybe thought leadership, there’s lots of things to consider there in terms of your expertise. The second question for this focus area is, did I complete any additional training? So maybe courses, workshops, qualifications of some kind? And if so, what did I learn that can enhance my business and life? 

Shannon Dunn  25:44

Question three, what expertise is required in my industry? And do I have all the qualifications and experience I need to build trust and position myself as a specialist or expert in my industry, if that is what I want to do? Some industries have very specific requirements in terms of qualifications, registrations, experience, some don’t. Just it’s good to be aware of what that is. And just because you may be in an unregulated industry, doesn’t mean that you can’t seek out qualifications to support you in what it is that you deliver. In fact, if you have been around here, any length of time, you will know I’m certain that I’m a big fan of qualifications. Yes, definitely my Mentor Teacher influencing that, but working for as long as I have in an industry like coaching, that is technically unregulated, or I think the other way to say that, that a lot of people saying is self regulated. I am very much a believer in qualifications. 

Shannon Dunn  26:43

The fourth question for expertise growth is did I collect any testimonials or feedback from clients last year? And if so, what was the key message they conveyed? Yeah, what did all the people that you’ve worked with if you’ve collected their feedback, or testimonials, if you can, I know there’s some industries where you can’t technically collect and share testimonials? But if you can, you should be doing that for sure. 

Shannon Dunn  27:08

Now, the fifth question, when asked to describe what I do, what do I say? This is just a great check in, just to see what do I say? It’s kind of like the time when you share your elevator pitch. I’m sure you’ve heard that phrase before. But I feel like we’ve evolved so much beyond the elevator pitch kind of frameworks these days. 

Shannon Dunn  27:29

Question six, what are the top three to five benefits I offer clients or customers? And in terms of benefits, I want you to think about, you know, what do I offer that solves the main problems or pain points my clients have, or contributes to create the desires they haven’t and want to achieve? I am a big believer in what I refer to more as like desire messaging, definitely influenced by my Inspirer Believer Archetype, which is more of the kind of positive spin on things, then focusing all the time on problems and pain points. Well, you can’t ignore that our clients have a mix of both, they will have challenges or problems, whatever word you want to use is fine. They will have what is traditionally referred to in marketing as pain points. But they will also have things that they are aiming to create or desire to create, realities that may be very different to what they are experiencing now. I’m a big fan of being able to understand both sides of that coin.

Shannon Dunn  28:31

Question seven for expertise, growth, is there anything that contributed to me owning my expertise in a greater way, this past year? And if there was, what particular things contributed? Good to know, and good to reflect on? And the last question for this area of focus is, how can I share more of my expertise, having reflected on my expertise growth this past year, I feel that if you have actual tangible expertise, it’s really important to share that. To let your customers your clients know that you have a certain qualification that stands you apart from others in your industry. We all have something and often many things that are unique about us. But I don’t see those being shared as often as we probably could share them. And it’s not about always kind of pointing your finger and going look at me, look at me, look at how I’m different. But at the same time, if we don’t tell our client community or our potential client community, what’s different about us, how are they going to know. 

Shannon Dunn  29:29

Self growth, the last of these four focus areas. How I grew myself this last year, firstly, in what ways did I grow myself this year? Yeah, reflect on what you did at that self level? As I said earlier,  self outside of business. 

Shannon Dunn  29:43

Second question was self care an important part of my week? And if so, what did I do to take care of myself? You know, this year, not just because of the injury I had and the subsequent surgery. I had already decided early this year that I was going to prioritize rest in a different way. I have done for the entire year, sometimes through necessity. But when it wasn’t, you know a necessity, it was still a priority for me. The third question for self growth, what personal goals am I most proud of achieving last year? 

Shannon Dunn  30:15

Question four, how do I feel when I achieve personal goals? And how do they motivate or support me in business? Yeah, good to know that one. The fifth question in relation to how you grew yourself in the last year is, in how much time in the week do you dedicate to the following different key areas. And this is something where you can break it down to a percentage. I’ve actually included in the workbook an empty circle, so circle shape, so that you could create this like, you know, percentages diagram if you liked, but in relation to business, family, recreation, or exercise, learning, sleep, wellbeing, housework/home, friends, and other. Break it down until you’ve got a percentage for each to give you a rough idea about what you dedicated to each area in your life, until you reach that 100%. If you’re a visual person, definitely go and grab the workbook, it’ll make it much easier to see what I mean in relation to you reflecting on this. But good to understand. 

Shannon Dunn  31:19

And then the next question leading on from that is how do I feel about these results. If you’ve suddenly had a realization, that you’re spending 60% of your overall time on your business or in your business, that might not be the best for you, if you’ve also got a family you’re trying to do other commitments, maybe you volunteer, maybe you’re trying to see your friends, you need time for home, you need time for your own well being, for exercise. So think about what you know, as I said, the question is, how do I feel about these results? Question seven, what do I need to prioritize in terms of self growth to move forward the way I want to? And question eight, how did I lead myself in this last year that I consider self growth? 

Shannon Dunn  32:05

I refer to myself as as well as a business coach, a self leadership coach, and everything about the Thrive Factor Framework and our 12 Archetypes in that, is self leadership focus. So I guess there’s no surprise to you that I would have a question related to self leadership. And in fact, you could ask that same question in every one of the other focus areas in terms of how did I lead myself this last year that I consider self growth, business growth, wealth growth, expertise growth. 

Shannon Dunn  32:33

The next part of the workbook actually reflects on some visioning, and gives you the opportunity to capture what I refer to as the 80 bold visions. There are 20 each for business growth, wealth growth, expertise growth and self growth. And this is the space where I like to vision, to dream, to write down what’s possible. So I use these pages to write down what I refer to as 80 possibilities or bold visions for the coming year. So this is taking a reflection and considering what we want to create moving forward. So in this space, you could document goals, dreams, visions, ideas, or anything that you want to do that is related to your business, your wealth, your expertise, and yourself in the coming year. This is the kind of moving forward into the next phase or the next year. 

Shannon Dunn  33:25

And then the next piece that I love to include is kind of a what’s next. And I use the space on the page provided in the workbook, to imagine myself 12 months from the time at which I create or complete this review process. And I write myself a statement including as much detail as possible. I imagine what I’ll have achieved, what I’ll be doing, who I may be sharing it with and also how it’s going to make me feel. 

Shannon Dunn  33:57

So you may have done something like this before. I don’t know if you ever have, it’s great to reflect back and read on these 12 months. For example, in doing this review process for myself to wrap up this year. And then doing the Effortless Success Framework to plan ahead for the new year in 2024, I’ll be going back and review reviewing my statement that I created 12 months ago. But it’s a bit of a you know, fill in the blanks. It is now at the date of the month and the year. And as I reflect back on the year that has passed “I..” Yeah, so future date that. So for example, if I was going to do that now it would be it is now whatever date it is of December 2024. And let’s reflect back on the year that has passed, I.  So future pace it 12 months from now. 

Shannon Dunn  34:51

 And then I also have a space of more what’s next moving into the future because I do think that the review is the ideal time for you to consider what you want moving forward. And I use the following pages that come then in the workbook to track my overall progress as I work towards achieving my goals, my visions, whatever it is,I want in relation to those four focus areas of business, wealth, expertise, and self. So if you do reflect on the workbook, you’ll see that I have sections, there is a number of pages for each of those areas, where you’ve got month one through to month 12, so that you can just capture things as you go along. It will make your review that you do 12 months from now, or more frequently than that, so much easier if you’re just capturing kind of key highlights and notes in this document for yourself. I very much like to print out my year in review and my Effortless Success Framework template as well. Because it makes such a difference to being able to see things when I’m creating, documenting.  

Shannon Dunn  36:00

So, to wrap this up, there’s a three kind of final questions that I love to ask myself in this year in review experience. And they’re things that I reflect on and refer to as my year highlights. It’s like kind of putting the cherry on top of the icing of the cake of your year if you like. So I ask and reflect on the answer to you know, one awesome thing I accomplished, I’m super proud of. Just narrowing that down to one can be really difficult to do. But it makes such a difference. Being able to kind of pinpoint what’s one really cool thing,  really amazing thing that I’m super proud of. 

Shannon Dunn  36:42

I think for me this year, while there is always a number of things that I’m super proud of, my podcasts and the experience with She Leads She Thrives and the fact that just in the last two – three, we have had over 10,000 downloads, some podcasts don’t even get kind of 15,000 downloads in a year  -just is blowing my mind. So we have exceeded what I thought we would have in terms of downloads for this current year, and overall since we launched in December, October of 2022. And I am super proud of that. So thank you for being a part of the experience. 

Shannon Dunn  37:22

The next question for these highlights is one big overwhelming challenge I had and the lesson I have learned from it. So that’s a reflection for you to really think about, you know, it might be from a challenge, it might be something that was just really niggly thing that really impacted you. It might be something you consider and would define as a failure. Doesn’t matter what it was, what did you learn from it is what I would love to know. And one story or belief I’m willing to release and let go off before moving forward to what’s next. Yeah, what is it? What have you been telling yourself? What’s your narrative been around your reality? Is that serving you? Or is it something you really as I said here, willing to release and let go off before moving forward.

Shannon Dunn  38:01

Now to wrap up the workbook, I’ve included a couple of different processes, creative exercises, that I also love to do. Something I refer to as a year in pictures, and also creating an intention jar. I’m not going to go through those with you on this episode today. Definitely go and download the workbook. As I said in the show notes, wherever you’re listening to She Leads She Thrives podcast for this episode, you will be able to grab the link and download the workbook. 

Shannon Dunn  38:29

So I hope this has been of value to you. It’s, as I said, I find one of the most valuable things I do. And I really do try and schedule it in and to do a review like this quarterly for the most recent calendar quarter, and then do an annual year in review for my business so that I can really see where I’m at, what happens, what’s going on, and make better informed decisions about how I want to move forward. So the way that I use this in relation to the Effortless Success Framework is I will create or complete the review for this to wrap out visit calendar year of 2023. And then I will use the Effortless Success Framework and template that I have for that to create the vision that I have for 2024. And it is something that I tend to do at the end of the calendar year, moving into the beginning of the new calendar year. And then I use the same process to do a quarterly review and planning as well visioning. And it served me well for such a long, long, long time now. And keeps me motivated, keeps me focused, in terms of creating my effortless success plan for the coming timeframe. It also gives me an opportunity to reflect on you know if I have an opportunity that comes to me, an invitation to do something I can check in and it doesn’t mean it’s an automatic yes or no but I do check in with my plan and go, is this kind of  on plan, is this part of the bigger picture? So I look at that in relation to the calendar quarter that it’s in relation to, but also to the annual kind of plan or vision I had for through everything to do with Thrive Factor Co. And, you know, sharing the Thrive Factor Framework, coaching in the way that I coach, hosting the retreats that I host, the speaking I am doing and want to do more of, different ways that I’m working with clients, and also the self leadership coaching certification focusing on the Thrive Factor Framework as well. 

Shannon Dunn  40:35

So any questions you know where to find me reach out to my DMs Instagrams definitely the best place to come and find me. I would love to hear from you if you go through this review, anything that you want to share as a win. If you share that on your social media, please tag me as well. Particularly if you are on Instagram, I find that easiest way to tag people, which my handle is @shannon_thrivefactor. 

Shannon Dunn  40:59

For now though, as we round out the end of this calendar year almost, I hope that you have going to have an incredible time with hopefully family, friends, loved ones, people that are important to you over this holiday period, no matter how you celebrate the end of the year. There will be another episode in this little mini series that we will have just coming into the actual end of this calendar year of 2023. And I’m going to be sharing key aspects of a program that I have loved sharing in the past that may be retiring it’s delivery and the way I have delivered it as I shift into my I guess more aligned business model, but the program was called Intentionality and I feel that bringing intentionality into each new calendar year can make such a difference to how you move forward. So I look forward to sharing some of the gold if you like from the gems, the magic from the Intentionality program with you. So wherever you are in the world, stay safe look after yourself and I look forward to you know being in your ears with a new episode very soon.