The New Year

The start of this month and the 3rd Quarter got me thinking about how 2025 is already half gone.

I started wondering what might be different one year from now as we venture into Q3 2026.

The only thing I do know will be the same is that I can't plan it all ahead of time.

I once believed I could.

But 2024 taught me that was impossible.

In no plan did I expect to learn on a dream Paris trip that my brother had a blood clot, or that in two weeks after returning home he had just a few short weeks to live.

Pancreatic cancer and losing my brother were not in my plan.

But it taught me some important lessons.

They are what I chose to focus on this year.

Maybe they will help you too.

One: I stepped away from my business for four months and my incredibly competent team stepped up and it ran without me and my husband.

Lesson: Continue to invest in my team and help them get what they need personally and they will deliver those things back for you.

Two: Not even one month back from my four-month hiatus, two key team members got health diagnoses and one has had to step away for months to manage her health and the other has had repeated surgeries over several months.

Again, my amazing team stepped up and took on more work to fill the gaps and take care of our clients.

Lesson: We didn't have our processes documented fully for the client specific nuances that occur, and we needed a concentrated effort on that this year.

Three: I travelled to Paris and London that year to invest in myself.

In Paris, I was working on a life coaching certification so I can help clients more fully.

Many money issues are the result of life issues, and I want to help clients get to the root of their issues.

In London, I spoke at an ecommerce conference organized by a Profit First colleague in the UK.

I took an extra day to attend an accounting conference.

Honestly, I felt both of these trips were a bit extravagant and I felt a few twinges of guilt for being so bold to think I needed to travel “across the pond.”

Lesson 1: My time invested in learning coaching skills and filling up my internal buckets of inspiration have seen me through the challenging time when my brother was ill and dying, and his death.

Lesson 2: One person I met at the accounting conference in the UK gave me new ways to think about process documentation.

The conversations we had led to him generously offering to help with creating the documents needed when our team members had a health issues.

This year I have focused on how I'm going to invest in myself, how I can continue to invest in my team, and how I can connect in meaningful ways with others to advance our mutual interests.

I'm curious how this broader view of planning will allow me to trust my intuition and be open to possibilities in ways that are much more creative, flexible, and responsive to what unfolds between now and this time next year.

If this type of approach is interesting to you, I'd love to talk more about our Cash Accelerator Program.

Phase 1 gets clear on your cash resources.

Phase 2 dials in your business and personal goals, then you work with me directly to align them.

Phase 3 creates the road map so you can take the next steps with confidence.

Set up a call and let's chat about it.

Cyndi