Riding Tandem

[00:00:52]
Let's dive in. Hello, my friends, and welcome to the first 90 days of 2023. I hope you're excited about the first 90 days. I am excited to have you here and be talking about them, and I reflected a lot on this topic. It's one of the things I like to think about is kind of 90 day increments, but I read this the other day.

[00:01:14]
Basically, what this article was saying is, the first 90 days of the new year determine your success or failure and have implications for the rest of your business life. It's like, whoa, way to hit it heavy, right? I think it was in the same article that I saw this line, so I'm quoting this here. It says, how many people are fully prepared and treat this three-month period of their lives with the planning and respect it deserves? And I thought, wow, that really, on the one hand, resonates with me, especially as a business owner setting up the first 90 days.

[00:01:50]
But on the flip side, I've got to be honest, my internal dialogue also said, oh, boy, the pressure is on. And there was a little bit of this sense of like, gosh, give me a break. As I'm recording this right now, we're just entering into the holidays. We're in our 1st 90 days. So we're just coming off the holidays.
[00:02:22]
It's been kind of cold and gray, and I have this feeling and desire to just hibernate away. And so I get this, people describe me as once foot on the gas and one foot on the brake. And I have to say, the first 90 days and leading up to them, I really feel that big time. I'm excited about the new year. I'm super excited about all the potential and possibilities, and I've had some downtime.

[00:02:52]
And so my brain is able to think about all of these things that I want to do in the new year, how I want to grow the business and new product launches or how we might engage with our team differently. And I'm just spinning with all these ideas. On the flip side, my foot is also just like stamping on the break because I've just come off of a year and it's been a wild, crazy, awesome year and I just need a breather. And so I don't know if you can relate with that, but that whole feeling of break and gas, break and gas and in the first 90 days of the year I feel this big time.

[00:03:33]
We're officially in winter now. And to be honest with you, I don't love the winter. I've never loved the winter. I have some friends who are just all about the snow sports and experiences and they love the cozy sweaters. Like when pumpkins come out and sweaters and scarves, they're like, yes, this is my moment and my time.

[00:03:55]
And for me, basically right around the time kids start going back to school, my mental decline starts because I don't see it as this cozy, fun fall time. I'm like, Winter is coming, right? I could completely resonate with the Game of Thrones and that line over and over again of winter is coming. And every time they would say that, I would cringe because I was like, okay, no, there aren't crazy evil forces clamoring over the mountains at me, but in my mind it can feel that way. However, this winter I've really challenged myself to think differently and approach these cold winter months with more of a sense of reflection as well as strategy building.

[00:04:41]
And so it's funny, right? Because basically what I'm talking about is I'm going to intentionally be approaching these 1st 90 days with one foot on the brake reflecting and one foot on the gas, making these strategies and how I want to shape the months ahead, especially as it relates to our business. I've often in the past jumped into the new year with some pretty wide-eyed crazy ambition and then ot happens, I burn out. Or I've also taken the approach where I ease in really slowly. I'm like, okay, last year I kind of came out of the gates too fast and so I burned out really quickly.

[00:05:18]
So this year I'm going to ease in super slowly and kind of creep into this and then all of a sudden it's the end of Q2 and I'm not sure how we went from Christmas to the year being halfway over. And so then I feel behind and then that creates anxiety and none of the feelings that I want in the year. And so over the years I've been learning and growing and refining and trying. And what I'm realizing at this point in my life. And this may change, right?

[00:05:47]
I'm just sharing where I'm at right now. But it seems like the key. And the trick to kicking off the first 90 days of the year as a business owner or just as a human successfully, is to take this approach a little bit differently with a sense of both reflecting and strategizing and being okay with the bounce back and forth here, but always going into it with this idea of I'm going to reflect for a while and then I'm going to start creating a strategy for a bit, then reflect for a while and then create strategy. Winter is the perfect time for that, right?

[00:06:23]
If we think about the season, there's those moments where the snow is coming down and it just feels like the right time to be cozy and reflect and take a moment. But winter also has moments where you go, oh my goodness, I need to prepare. I've got to get ready because that snow is coming. I'm going to make sure I have everything in place that I need. Or the sun comes out and you're like, I'm just yearning to bust out of this hibernation stage, and I'm going to go hit the ski slopes or go for a walk or just get outside or sit in the sunshine.

[00:06:53]
So winter is perfectly placed in our lives, I think, for this moment. So as I'm thinking about this, owning my year and owning the first 90 days of the year, because I do think, like the article said, the first 90 days are strategic, and I think they are the time where we can really make a difference in the rest of the year ahead. And so even though reading the article, it came across a bit strong and I was like, okay, don't panic here, right? There's a lot of truth there. Am I giving respect to the first 90 days as I think about how that's going to set me up for the next what are we talking here?

[00:07:31]
I'm not great at the mathing. Somebody is going to send me a comment here. Well, Vivian, 90 days and then you subtract the year, so feel free. How many days are left after 90 days?

[00:07:48]
For those days, though, I want to be set up. And so as I'm thinking about that, there's a couple of areas that I'm thinking about that I wanted to share with you all as well, because I know as you come and you listen to these episodes and you join with me, pieces of this is we're discovering things together. So the whole point of the podcast is that we're Riding Tandem, right? I'm not riding ahead. I'm not coaching from the sides, none of those things.

[00:08:15]
We're riding together, and sometimes we're figuring this out together. And so here's what I'm thinking about for the first 90 days. And maybe you'll take a piece of this or all of this. And it might be something that you apply to your 1st 90 days as well. So one of the first things I'm thinking about and I'm going to be reflecting on and then creating a strategy for us.

[00:08:37]
Remember, that's kind of my approach here. In the first 90 days, I'm reflecting on how I've connected with my team. Because a hallmark of a good leader and as business owners, we're leaders, is to ask questions and then sit back and truly listen. So as I'm setting myself up for the new year, I'm asking these questions about how the year went before with my team, with my business partner, with contractors, with client partners, those people who have helped make the business happen. These are the types of questions I'm thinking about.

[00:09:17]
And I'm going to challenge you to think about these as well. And by this, this might be also maybe you're a solo printer. And so some of these, they might be friends, they might be coaches, they might be mentors, right? But who are the people? And so I'm kind of thinking more in terms of teams, since I do have a team and a friend has said he actually has a whole line, but I'm going to pull two pieces out here.

[00:09:41]
He talks about how people just yearn to be heard and respected. And when they're heard and respected and they're happy and they're energetic and they're excited, they're just better equipped to deal with issues that arise. I fully believe that when your people have happy, energetic excitement about them, when they feel heard, when they feel respected, when they have a piece of the pie with you, they're going to provide a better experience to customers with their positive energy and it's going to be infectious to the rest of the team. So taking a bit of time in the first 90 days to connect and listen with a team I think is so important. And so I would challenge you the same to listen to your team in the first 90 days.

[00:10:29]
And so a couple of ways that we can do this, I think we have to connect with them on a personal level and on a professional level and mix those two things together. And so the types of questions we can be asking is, well, let's get to know them. What about their life? And it's funny, you can think that you know the people that you work with, you can think that you know your team member or your employee or even your business partner, but until you actually stop to ask the questions, you might be really surprised at how much you don't know about them. And so I'm reflecting on that.

[00:11:01]
And as I'm putting a strategy together, these are the types of questions that I think we should be asking our team. What is keeping you up at night? What are you excited about? What's happening with your family? What are your family's goals for the year?

[00:11:18]
Let's ask our team members. What is your partner excited about for the year? Not just about your team members' goals, but what about the significant people to your team member? What are their goals? Because remember, your team member, your employee, your contractor, they're not only pursuing their goals, they're also helping support and pursue the goals of the people they love in their life.

[00:11:41]
And that really connects back to you as well. Maybe there's something you can do that supports their partner. Maybe there's something you can do that supports your team member so that they're better able to support your partner. And doesn't that grow, just respect, happiness, energy, and excitement? Absolutely, it does.

[00:12:00]
Also, I'm thinking about professionally, what do my team members want out of their careers or out of their position? Where are they going? What do they want to accomplish? And by the way, I fully expect and anticipate and hope that the people that we work with that were not their end game. And that's kind of a hard thing to say because we have an awesome team.

[00:12:25]
And when I think about some of the people on that team, I don't want to lose them, right. Selfishly, I love working with them. But on the flip side, I want them to grow in such a way that they can move on to other things. And I want us to be growing as well. And so I think asking these questions are really important.

[00:12:44]
What do you, the team member, want to accomplish? What are ideas you would like to discuss? Is there anything keeping you from your goals here? What do you want out of your career? What do you want out of this position?

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What's a skill that would be fun for you to develop that might lead to the next thing, whether that's here with us on our team or maybe it's the next thing moving on from our team. So connecting with people on a personal and professional level I think is really important. As I'm reflecting back on what did they say, I think that's important too. Let's think about maybe you have asked some of those questions and you asked them over the last year. Take a moment to reflect back on those and go, okay, have we actually accomplished those things for them?

[00:13:28]
Have I connected with them again on that? Did I make that a priority in some of those areas? Maybe you have. And I think it's important to point that out, recognize it together and celebrate it. And then there's probably going to be things where you think, that's right, that team member said they wanted to do X-Y-Z and we actually didn't prioritize that for them or because this project took over, it had to take second place or second seat.

[00:13:52]
And so as I think about it, I'm going to reconnect with them this year, see if that's still something they're interested in and let's get a game plan together for that, right? That's going to make a huge difference. So we're reflecting and putting strategy together. And then I think the biggest thing is listen. Listen to them.

[00:14:08]
So, so important to ask the questions, but then not insert yourself. Let them just talk, hear them out. I've heard this tip before and it's something that I think I'm going to actually try this year. I've done it once in the past and I had good success with it. And it's one of those things where I've thought, why didn't I keep doing that?

[00:14:27]
Learning here too, right, friends? Learning to keep a three by five card with the key conversation points and the goals and those dreams that you talk about with your team when you're asking those questions and reference back to that for each person. So keep a little card for each person on your team or each of those people that you feel that you need to connect with and write some of those things down, because that's going to help you when you go back and have those conversations or when you're reflecting after this 90 days. And you're like, okay, I've taken the time to reflect, to have set up some strategies, but I'm just going to review this again. And then you're going to review it again at the second quarter and third quarter and fourth quarter.

[00:15:05]
And then by the time we get to the end of the year next year, we can look at that three-by-five card. And I think we're going to be a lot further along. And I think too, our people are going to be heard and they're going to be respected like my friend refers to. And because of that, it's going to create that energetic energy, that excitement, that happiness, and they're going to feel equipped and ready to deal with anything that comes their way. One of the other things I'm thinking a lot about is just embracing random connections this year.

[00:15:36]
So what about just wandering around your place of work or popping into your Slack channel or Telegram channel or hopping randomly into your email just to send a team member a question about themselves or their experience working with your company, or to see just where the conversation goes? Sometimes all of our conversations with our people are so transactional or they have to do with the projects that are at hand and we forget to just treat each other as humans. And so that's one of the things I'm thinking about in these 90 days is how to set up a strategy to just treat everyone on our team as humans. What are questions that I can ask? What is something that I can put into Telegram that would just be a fun question just to get to know you.

[00:16:21]
And this is something that I've done a bit of over the past year and I've loved the results and I've learned so much about people. And it's funny, I've put some questions into our Telegram, for example, and the answers back, and they're just totally random things like, what are your kids dressing up for as Halloween? Or do you love sports? If so, which ones? And I'm not a sports person, by the way, so sometimes I have to Google things like, I wonder what team that is or what sport they play, but it helps me get to know these people that I work with on a day to day basis.

[00:16:50]
And then it's funny because so often those little conversations that seem so random and disconnected end up being the connection point for a piece of success in business later. Because I realize, like, oh, you know what, this person actually would be perfect for this client because I know this about them and I think they're going to connect really well. Sometimes this might mean that you need to schedule time in your calendar for random connections, which sounds kind of funny, like schedule time to be random, but you don't necessarily have to schedule exactly what it is you do. But I do think getting time on your calendar just to say I'm going to use this time for a random connection, whatever that connection is. Whether that's I get up from my desk and walk around, I'm going to pop up into our digital connecting channel through Slack or Telegram or messenger or Voxer or whatever it is for you, and I'm going to make it happen.

[00:17:40]
So getting those on the calendar now in the first 90 days would be the strategy point, and that's something that we can easily do to set ourselves up for success. If we get those calendar points in on our schedule now, then it's so much easier. And that's something actually Mikayla and I do unrelated to the connecting, but we actually schedule out ahead of time off for the whole year at the beginning of the year. And so too, you can schedule things in like this of I'm going to have a random connection point with somebody on Tuesday in February and then again in April and then again in June, right. So schedule it the whole way out.

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And here's the thing. Sometimes people say, vivian, I can't schedule that far out. I don't know what I'm going to be doing. Like, what if something else more important? Well, the lovely thing about this is you haven't actually scheduled it with the person.

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You're just scheduling a time in on your calendar so that you remember to do it. And when that week rolls up and you need to move it from 01:00 on April 18, right? You need to roll it from 01:00 to 04:00. Fine. Just move it when the week comes, but when it's holding a place on your calendar, you're likely to actually make it happen and move it to a new block.

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You know, one of the other things we can do too, talking about random things, but we can also make it formal and create an interactive listening session for your team and ask formally for feedback and give your people a voice and give them a vote and hear them out in more of like a formal collected group setting. And it's important to plan this early in the year so that you have time to truly digest the feedback, think about what you can do with it. Right? So doing that, reflecting and then put a strategy together. And so I think this would be a fabulous thing to do within the first 90 days is to actually conduct a formal feedback listening session with your team, with your people.

[00:19:33]
So this could be with your employees, this could be with your contractors. Right? There's a whole different ways you could do that. Maybe it's one with employees, one with contractors, or maybe you mix people together. But these are so powerful and it's actually something that our team at Tandem Works Works has been offering more of.

[00:19:49]
We got started with this, actually doing the Tandem Works with iOS foundation. And if you're curious about that, there's a couple of episodes that unpack what that is and we'll link those in the show notes. You can find them that I had a conversation with Nicole Linquist. But that's what got us really started with more formal feedback gathering practices. And since then, we've actually put together a series that allows us to go into a business or an organization and unroll that experience for their people, for their team, collect the feedback, and then be able to go back to the leadership team and unpack that.

[00:20:28]
And it's been really eye opening and powerful for us to see what a difference that makes for the team. Because the team is being heard, they can give feedback and they present such fabulous ideas and it creates so much innovation and it also is creating trust because they're seeing that their leadership team is interested in how they think and what they value and what's important to them. And also recognize that their team is boots on the ground and therefore often has the best innovative ideas to help the business move forward. And so it's very twofold. One, it builds so much good vibe equity with the team, but also it's mining and gleaning out the gold nuggets that help the leadership team innovate and move forward in some really interesting ways.

[00:21:24]
And so this can be something that you hire out to an organization like us, like at Tandem Works Works, or this can be something that you actually put together and roll out yourself. There's so many ways that you can do an interactive listening session for your team, but I highly recommend it. And don't be afraid of what people say. I think a lot of it will surprise you and I think you'll be able to handle any negative feedback because oftentimes there are some pieces that come back that are a little hard to hear, but you can handle it. And I think a lot of the positivity is actually going to surprise you as well.

[00:21:59]
And that's one of the things that we specially craft into our listening feedback sessions with teams that we go and pack this for is an opportunity to recognize the positive and the good, but then also an opportunity to recognize, hey, there's some things that could be better here, right? And so having a healthy mix of both is so important. One of the other ways I think we can engage with our people, as I've been reflecting on this and then thinking about a strategy in the first 90 days is getting really intentional about scheduling time with the team and individual meetings. This is something that we've actually been really good at, at Tandem Works Works. And I would say we see the fruit.

[00:22:41]
Yeah, that's how I would put it. We're seeing the fruit that's bearing good fruit in that we do a weekly meeting with our core group of people. It's called an l ten. We actually use the EOS method of running a weekly meeting called an L Ten. And EOS is the entrepreneur operating system.

[00:23:00]
And that L Ten meeting format has been huge for us. But one of the key components of it is that you have it every week without fail at the same time. And this is one of the areas we've been a little flexible where sometimes we'll move it around based off of the fluidity of our schedules. But we work really hard to never miss it in a week, to always have that L Ten. And we work really hard to actually have it the same day, same time, and that has borne so much good fruit for us.

[00:23:28]
So that is an area that I would say in reflecting, like, yeah, we've done a good job with that. But as I'm thinking about moving forward, I'd really like to get more individual meetings created where I can have those conversations like we were talking about earlier, where I can have them define their goals and make sure that they do have a voice and that I'm building that trust with them. That they're building trust with me and I'm building trust with them. And I really want to, in those moments, encourage my team to set ambitious goals for themselves at both work and in their personal lives. So thinking about strategies and putting that together for them as well is as a business owner, I truly believe that we are holding like a front row seat or we have the prime opportunity to be a coach and mentor to the people we engage with in our business.

[00:24:19]
We're more than just their boss. We're more than just the business owner. We're really in this unique, prime, awesome position to help them define goals and cheer them on and develop the people around us. So, a quick side note from my solo printer friends. You might have just checked out thinking, Vivian, it's just me, so this doesn't apply.

[00:24:46]
And when you hold up and stop right there for a second, this totally applies to you as well. You might be a solopreneur, but you still have your people you need to check in with. And that could be your vendors, it could be contractors, it might be your spouse or your partner that you need to be having conversations like this with or setting up a monthly meeting with. I can't tell you how many times I've suggested to friends and to family and random strangers, frankly, because I love it so much. McKay and I do a same-page meeting once a month.

[00:25:19]
It's one of our regular check in points. And I've recommended that so many times to spouses and partners when they're like, we're just not on the same page. And like, yes, you need the same page meeting, my friend. So it might be with your kids, it might be with friends. So really dive in and think about those people that support your business structure and how you can build in and know more about them.

[00:25:46]
All right, so the second thing that I've been thinking about in reflecting back on and thinking of a strategy for that's the theme today, right, reflecting back and creating a strategy in the first 90 days is with our customers and our clients. So taking some time to look back and read through like customer reviews or surveys or emails anywhere that I've gathered feedback from the year prior and taking notes and looking for recurring themes, I'm looking for patterns and then following up on those. And out of those, I'm able then to set goals for the next 90 days to guide me through the year. And you can do the same. You want to be looking back on these reviews over the next year and be able to see growth or look back on these surveys and see growth.

[00:26:40]
And so the way we can do that in the next 90 days is to reflect back on them. Look for and mine out of them. The patterns that we're seeing, celebrate the ones that were so good, make sure to maintain those, but then also look for, like you know what? I didn't really see anybody ever say anything about our amazing new product. I wonder what the disconnect is there.

[00:27:06]
Okay, I'm going to set up a strategy for that. Or everybody always mentions our amazing customer service, and they especially mention so and so, but they never mention the other team member pattern there. How can I build into that person to make sure that their name is also popping up in these reviews or surveys or feedback? So sometimes people will say, all of our reviews are good, Vivian, so there's really nothing to glean here. Sometimes what you can be looking for is, yeah, but what's missing?

[00:27:35]
What do you know that's magical about your business that no one else is talking about? And how do we get that to the forefront? Now, of course, you might have some things that are popping up in reviews or feedback that you know are pain points and their challenges, and those are huge opportunities to lean into, reflect back on, and think, okay, why does that keep reoccurring for us? What's the underlying issues here? And what's the strategy I can put together in the next 90 days that's going to allow us not to repeat history?

[00:28:06]
I will say that connecting with your clients does take time, but it's so worth it. And if you want to take this a step further, this is something that I've done in the past. And in reflecting, I thought, you know, that was super smart. Yay me. I was super smart and did this thing, but I didn't really do it last year.

[00:28:26]
And so in this next 90 days, I'm strategically thinking about how to get these on my calendar as well, and that is to set up in person meetings, if possible, or a Zoom call and spend 30 to 45 minutes with my current clients. And what I want to do in this, and I've done before and had great success, is to celebrate our recent wins together over the past year. And I'm doing this even with clients that haven't connected with a whole lot, right? So we might not have a ton of connection points for the past year, but that's okay. Just celebrating recent wins together or celebrating recent wins I've noticed they have had even if we weren't directly involved, and then asking them to share what direction they're going and what they need to be successful.

[00:29:07]
And so I've come up with this list of questions to ask. And so if you're one of our clients, you should probably be expecting to hear some of these, but you can use these too when you're having those conversations with your clients. And I would say set them up intentionally. Certainly if this is a random connection thing that happens, that's great. But I think this is so valuable to be reflecting back on your clients work, but then putting a strategy together.

[00:29:32]
Right. For the next rest of the year, for the next three quarters, use this 1st 90 days to have these strategic conversations with your current clients. So here's my list of questions. What's been a few of your biggest wins last year? What are you looking forward to this year?

[00:29:50]
Do you have any big goals on your radar that you've either set for yourself or your business or organization is set for you? What have been some of your biggest challenges? Have you overcome anything in the past year? What solutions or connections are you looking for? Is anything in your role changing?

[00:30:12]
Are there any new opportunities on the horizon for you or for your business? What could we, as our business offer as a partner to you that would make your life easier or your work easier? And then I think it's always important to ask questions like this are there any questions about my business and the processes that we do that I can answer? And I've had conversations like this past, and I have to say it has opened up so much knowledge to me where people have said back to me things, and I'm like, I had no idea that that's how people thought about our business. I had no idea that they thought that's what we did, or I had no idea that their business was so focused on XYZ, because I only see this other small piece of their business, right?

[00:30:59]
And so because we only interact with them on this level, I had no idea that all these other things were going on. And now that I have those connection points with them, even more trust is built and I have a deeper understanding about them, I can make better connections for them, and sometimes I can also help connect them better into our business and offerings. It has been out of conversations like these that we have realized that we're not a good fit for a partner and we know a better fit for them. Or it's been out of conversations like these that we've realized that we have a whole slew of tools and resources that we could provide to this client and they had no idea that we were even involved in that. And so there's so many good things that happen here, not to mention just the great human connection point.

[00:31:46]
And so I would say that when I've done this in the past, I've tried to have these conversations with current clients one to two times a year. And that's one of the things that I'm setting up in the next 90 days: looking back through the client list and going, okay, who do I need to connect with? And can I get those connection points in within the first 90 days or very soon after? Because I don't want to end up halfway through the year and going, I really wish I'd had a conversation with this client. We could have navigated this in a different way or provided this, or I could have made a connection point that would have made their life a lot easier.

[00:32:21]
So those are two of the things that I'm thinking about. The first being connecting with people, our people, then learning about our customers. But then the third thing is expanding my network. Expanding your network is huge. And Mikayla is the master at this.

[00:32:40]
She is for sure our super-connector. And so one of the things on her radar is really expanding our network as a business. And I'm so grateful to have a business partner who is thinking that way and going, I have to get out more. I've got to make more of those connections, and that's really in my wheelhouse, but that doesn't take the ownership off of me completely. I also need to be expanding my network as well.

[00:33:04]
And so this is something that I would challenge you to think about in the first 90 days is how are you going to expand your network? Because the things we're talking about right here are what set you up for the rest of the year. Certainly you can be expanding your network all the time, but putting some intentionality behind this in the first 90 days makes a world of difference as those summer months hit and you're super busy or, oh my gosh, it's crazy to think about. But as the holidays roll back around again, right, so making a list of who you want to meet in the next 90 days is great because it will launch you into then that whole network spiral that starts to happen for the rest of the year. So I would say this is what I'm going to do.

[00:33:47]
So I'm going to offer it as a suggestion for you as well. Make a list of the people that you want to meet or connect with in the next 90 days and then start connecting with them. And ways you can do that is it might be connecting with them on LinkedIn or ask for a connection to that person if you don't already know them from the people in your network that you do know. Hey, can you introduce me to so and so? I noticed that you have worked with them in the past, or would you mind making an email introduction?

[00:34:15]
You'll be really surprised how often people are more than willing to make an introduction, so ask for it. And then when you do meet them, have a short set of questions you want to ask them. There's a reason they're on your list of why you want to meet them, so be sure you're prepared to use their time well when you do meet them and have that list of questions ready to go. You can also create opportunities to meet people you don't even know should be on your list right? Who aren't even on your radar.

[00:34:45]
And when you do that, you've got to be intentional. So again, we're back to blocking time in your calendar to attend events, go to trainings, or just go work at a coffee shop and then intentionally meet people, like actually talk to the barista and actually ask intentional questions or turn to the person in line next to you with a plan. Right. We can go into these random situations knowing that we're going to meet random people, but do it with intentionality, and you will be surprised at where that can go. So having a set of questions that you ask people right in line is like, you know, I've never ordered that coffee before.

[00:35:24]
Is that something that you get all the time. Why do you like it can be the launch point to the next best connection you've ever had for your business or for your life. Nothing bad ever comes from expanding your professional network. It just doesn't. Nothing bad ever comes from expanding your professional network.

[00:35:44]
And Mikayla my business partner, and I say that all the time. We go to a networking event and we've never gone to a networking event and not had some positive outcome from it, whether that's we made a connection point for them, we helped somebody, or they were interested in services that we had, or we just felt uplifted and encouraged by somebody in some way. So expanding your network and set up a plan and a strategy for that in the next 90 days, I challenge you to try that. I will be doing that. And remember, I'm an extreme introvert, so if I can do this, you absolutely can do it too, and I'd love to hear how that's going for you.

[00:36:19]
And if you have some great events you're going to and you're in the local area and you want a wing person, get a hold of me because it's hard for me to go into events by myself sometimes. If you're not in the local area, find somebody who will go with you. Okay, so then the next thing I'm thinking about in the next 90 days, and I've been reflecting on this, is securing early wins. So what are the low hanging fruit we can accomplish quickly in the first 90 days that we can celebrate? That's so easy to see.

[00:36:51]
Like there's celebration points for myself, for my clients, or for my team. Because quick wins help generate a long term narrative and storytelling in your business culture of winning, of being successful. And small success stories quickly fuel the energy needed to create bigger success stories. So I think this is so important to do in the first 90 days. This is something I've been learning more about and I'm getting much more intentional about.

[00:37:20]
And so I invite you to join me on this ride. Let's figure this out. A quick win, to clarify, is an improvement that is visible, it has immediate benefit, and it can be delivered really quickly. So the best quick wins are there are things that are easy to implement.

[00:37:44]
They're inexpensive, generally speaking, they have a narrow and focused scope and they can be fully implemented. You can see it realized within 60 to 90 days. That's what makes it a quick win. So one of the interesting things about this, as I've been looking into, is that research shows that when we see visible progress and we experience these small wins or quick wins along the way, we become much more engaged, we become more productive and we get way more creative in our roles. So helping yourself and your people focus on quick wins is something worth doing in the first 90 days because it's a great way to set yourself up for the big wins, right?

[00:38:28]
Focusing on the quick wins sets up the momentum to then start realizing the big wins. And it also makes it easier for us to recognize the big wins. And it sets up trust in ourselves that we can have the big wins. Sometimes those big wins, the big contracts we want to land, or the project we want to do, or the building we want to buy, or the employee we want to bring on, or maybe for you, it's that you want to launch your business. Those are so big and they're big wins that are going to be awesome.

[00:38:57]
But celebrating and creating for yourself and even manufacturing in a way, quick wins is what's going to help lead you to actually realizing those bigger ones. And then when you realize them, you're going to be able to recognize them, which I think is important too. So if you're planning, for example, to launch your business this year, then you'd want to be doing things like spend the next 90 days creating quick wins for yourself. And it might be things like filling out the paperwork for your LLC. That's a quick win.

[00:39:25]
Or setting up a business bank account. Easy peasy. But it has a nice, like a reward. We can see it's visible. It might be engaging a CPA to help with some financial planning.

[00:39:35]
It could be taking a Udemy course on something where you can learn something quickly, beginning to end, and have a sense of accomplishment and move on to the next thing. It might be attending some chamber events or becoming a chamber member. Or it might be contacting your local SPDC, Small Business Development Center, and having that first conversation or creating a business plan with them. All things can be accomplished quickly within the first 90 days. It could be increasing your social media presence.

[00:40:05]
That's an easy quick win. If you're already in business, you might be thinking of quick wins that look something like updating a page on your website or setting up and rolling out one new key process. Notice I said not overhaul your entire business, right? But set up and roll out one new key process. It could be that you're engaging a mentor and you complete the first step of their program or that you are engaging with a coach.

[00:40:32]
It could be closing one new client, or it could be generating five positive Google reviews. These are all quick, easy wins that as they start to stack up and you take the next step, they're going to start building into those big wins. It doesn't really matter what it is, so long as it's in line with your goals. You have to make sure too that it's visible and you can make it happen in the first 90 days. That's it.

[00:40:57]
So what are some of those quick wins. Establishing this quick win culture for yourself and if you have a team for your team is only possible when you set up projects with multiple levels of wins. Think of them like layers. Each business goal you lay out needs to be made up of many thin layers. And as you knock off and peel back each of those layers, that's the quick win.

[00:41:21]
And then that makes it easy for you and your team to easily see that incremental progress and to celebrate them along the way. So often we blaze right past the quick wins without taking a moment to recognize them. So watch out for that too. And that's something I'm going to be watching for as well in the first 90 days is are we having quick wins? And as we do, am I actually feeling them and am I celebrating them or am I just letting it kind of blaze by because it's so quick that I'm on to the next thing?

[00:41:53]
I have a planner and in my planner it's the high performance planner. There's actually this question in there and it says in it, actually, take it back. I have the high performance planner that I've used and then I have another one and it's like Fox Pro, I think is that one. I'll link it down in the show notes and one of the questions that it says in that planner is, what are you trying to accomplish this week? Like, what's your goal?

[00:42:16]
What's your quick win and how are you going to reward yourself? And I struggle with that and I often will leave it blank. And so that's something I'm thinking about a lot, is like, no, if I'm going to celebrate and strategize around these quick wins, then yeah, how are we going to recognize that and how am I going to fill that question in? When we communicate those quantifiable progressions with ourselves and our whole team, we're really building a healthy sense of completion and then we have that celebration and we have collaboration as we go. So using these quick win milestones, I think is exactly what's needed to build your company's story.

[00:42:56]
And those quick wins are the story that we're telling ourselves internally and it's also creating the culture of winning through repeating the stories to each other as we recognize them. And then this turns outward and they're the stories that we're also telling the world. So they want to join you. People love to join in your celebration and they want to join and collaborate on good things where winning is happening. People like to join the winners, right?

[00:43:23]
So creating that story is so important. Okay, so then the last thing I'm thinking about in reflecting back and looking forward is to set up a personal growth plan. So this year I'm specifically focusing in on leadership and putting together a list of books to listen to or to read. I listen to a lot of books. I'm adding a couple of podcast recommendations to my list as well, and one of them is by Brene Brown, and I'm excited for that one.

[00:43:55]
And then I'm also setting up with someone who's willing to be a leadership mentor for me, someone I can check in with and bounce ideas or issues off of. And so all these things are coming together into a personal growth plan because as I've reflected back and I am reflecting back, leadership is one of the areas that I really am passionate about and want to grow in. And so that's part of what I'm setting up a plan for. And then in reflecting through that, I'm also thinking, okay, so what's the strategy? And so I'm putting that together.

[00:44:28]
It doesn't mean I have to complete a whole leadership program in the first 90 days, though, if you notice, I'm just setting up the strategy to lead into the rest of the year. That's the whole point, is that sometimes I come out of the gate too fast and I'm trying to do all the things in the first 90 days. And this year it's all about reflecting and setting up strategy to help me move forward. But I do think that a personal growth plan is essential, and the next 90 days is the perfect time to set up yours, and you want to make it simple and easy to follow. So think about an area you'd like to focus on, reflect back on the year prior.

[00:45:05]
Where do you want to improve or what's something you're just passionate about or really curious about, interested in? Personal growth plans don't always have to be things that you need to improve on. It doesn't always have to be like, oh man, I'm terrible at XYZ, so I'm going to get better this year. And that's my personal growth plan. It can be things like that, but it also might be something where you're like, I am just really passionate about this thing and I want to learn all about it.

[00:45:31]
I want to know more about inviting people in hospitality into my life because I love hospitality and I want to learn more about that, right? It can be anything like that. It could be time management, it could be your health, it could be time with family. It could be creating space for yourself to be creative. Maybe your personal growth plan has everything to do with watercolor.

[00:45:52]
Or maybe you want to learn more about investing. Maybe you want to figure out how to become a better boss or a leader. Or maybe you're diving into writing skills, or you're honing your understanding of TikTok. Maybe you want a personal growth plan for becoming the best TikTok dancer, right? There's so many things that you can do.

[00:46:10]
So what is it that you keep thinking about and you go, I need to know more about that. Or I wish I understood that better, or I feel a calling here, but I'm not sure the skills and really how to own it. Make that your topic and then spend the next 90 days putting together a plan. What's it going to take to learn more about that and make it part of your life and flow into it in a great way. You may want to look for a mentor.

[00:46:35]
There's certainly lots of courses, trainings, experiences, books, podcasts, there's classes. But you want to create your own custom plan and it doesn't have to look like anyone else's. You could have 100 things on your plan, or you might have ten things on your plan, or you might just have three things on your plan. It really doesn't matter as long as you're putting together a plan and it's something you're passionate about. They're all things that you can start and it's something that's simple and manageable if you're like.

[00:47:03]
Well, I want to take a master class in this and that's going to cost $8,000 and I'm going to read 120 books and I'm going to listen to twelve podcasts. That might not be feasible. So just walk it backwards and go, okay, but what is feasible? Because here's the thing, you can always add to your plan, right? You can always add things.

[00:47:24]
So start with something that feels manageable. For me, what I'm doing is I'm choosing four leadership books to read or listen to, one podcast to follow, and then asking that person to be a mentor that I can check in with and I may add to this plan or that might be it. So we'll just see how it goes. I'm going to ease into that that feels manageable, so that then I can spend the next three quarters of the year focused on rolling that out. And so by the time the year rolls to an end, I'm excited to know that I'll have made some progress because I'll be able to look back at the time in the first 90 days where I took a moment to get a plan together.

[00:48:03]
Okay, so those are what I've been thinking about reflecting on strategizing on 1st 90 days. The first 90 days I do think set the tone and trajectory for the life that you're designing and the business that you're designing, whether that's growing it or launching it. And if this is the year you plan to launch or you plan to grow or you plan to make a change, then, yeah, I think the first 90 days are crucial and taking time to reflect and then come up with a strategy is important. And so manageable and so doable. It is easy to come off the holidays and hibernate until spring.

[00:48:46]
And it is also easy to come off the holidays wide eyed and, like, full throttle and burn out before spring gets here. But I think there's a way to ease a little into both to pump the gas and pump the brake at the same time so that you are creating the healthy momentum that you need to succeed and you're realizing your dreams. So my challenge to myself and to you is that as we come into this 1st 90 days that we do hit the ground running but pause on occasion to reflect back and then reconfigure and just take the time. To get ourselves set up in a way that feels amazing so that we can start seeing and realizing the goals that we have for this year and that you and I are going to look back on this year and we're going to have an episode together where we look back on this this new year and we go, wow, look what happened. Because I took those 1st 90 days to be reflecting and strategizing.

[00:49:49]
All right, my friends. I'll see you guys in the next episode. Riding Tandem is recorded on location at the studios on South Fourth in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in cooperation with Time Productions.