It's a planning week
I'm writing to you, surrounded by post-its, from my temporary HQ in the middle of the countryside.
I’ve always been a planner. I like to sit down with notebooks and plan every little thing, which is why I end up with lofty goals — I can see the route there.
Most planners tend not to follow through on their goals and some of mine absolutely fall by the wayside. But, when I make business plans, they are a road map for the future and that’s exactly what I’m working on this week.
I’ve booked an Airbnb in the middle of the countryside to get some serious work done and I wanted to give you an insight into that process.
My project manager and I are squirrelled away with a full focus on all the ‘Jess Shanahan Brands’ — as they are known. We’re looking at the future of Racing Mentor, how to build Jet Social’s client base, and how to give me more authority as a speaker and subject matter expert. (Here’s an insight into the first step of the latter.)
Planning involves a lot of post-its on big sheets of paper that we can transfer back to the office. This helps us to visualise our plans moving forward.
So far, we’ve created:
A timeline of Racing Mentor products and events
A growth plan for each of the brands
A series of talks
Clear goals and KPIs for each brand
But this is about so much more than planning. It’s a time for Rose and I to get our heads in the game because we both know that hard work leads to success.
It’s also been a chance to recharge and get away (I even wrote some of my neglected novel, last night!).
Running branding sessions for businesses has really helped me to hone these planning skills and running workshops on my own businesses has been a hell of a lot of fun.
We’ve still got more to go but I’m shortly about to head to Snetterton for a meeting about the Sponsorship Podcast with my co-host Toby Trice, and to get some well needed race-car time.
🏎 In fact, this will be my first trip to a race track this year….
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Jess Recommends
♠️ Cicero Public Speaking Card Deck - The cards you can see on the footstool above are from a brand called Cicero. These cards are specifically designed to help you plan and build any kind of talk. While we have built anything yet, just reading through the booklet that comes with the cards has sparked SO many ideas.
Read more from Jess of All Trades:
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