If you're a creative soul looking for a way to take your photography or event business to the next level without adding more hours to your schedule, you're going to love this inspiring story. Catalina was a wedding photographer working her tail off to make a thousand dollars for weeks of work, but when she added a photo booth to her business, everything changed. She started charging the same amount for just three hours of work, since then she scaled her business to seven figures. Now, if you're thinking that sounds like the dream, you need to check out this free masterclass from photo booth supply co. It's called capture success, how to turn your creative passion into a six figure photo booth business. Catalina's going to show you how you can take what you're already passionate about and turn it into a massive profit. You'll learn how you can earn a thousand dollars or more per event with a photo booth rental business. If you're someone who loves creating memories or maybe you've been looking for a fun side vessel, you've got to check this out head to photo booth supply co dot com slash gold digger to get your free access and my special promo code. This is your chance to work smarter, create more freedom and build something truly amazing. That's photo booth supply co dot com slash gold digger. I know for a lot of people, people wait until January 1st to start new healthy habits and I want to challenge you now is an amazing time to start making shifts in your health while we go into the holiday season and that new year energy. I'm Jenna Goodger, your host of the Gold Digger podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a $300 camera from Craigslist and a dream. Now I'm running a seven figure online business that feels even better than it looks all from my house in small town, Minnesota with my family. Here we value time as our currency. We mix the woo and the work and we are in the pursuit of building businesses that give us the freedom to live lives that we love. I've always loved turning big goals into reality and I'm here to help you do the same. This isn't just a peek behind the curtain. Come along with me and my guests as we tear the whole curtain down. Every week we tackle practical, no fluff marketing strategies and host honest discussions on what works and what doesn't. Join me and my expert guests for actionable insights to help you grow your dream business with confidence, pull up a seat and get ready to be challenged, inspired and empowered. This is the Gold Digger podcast. Is it just me or does it feel like just yesterday? We were having all that fresh January energy sitting there setting our goals, dreaming big for what this year could bring and now here we are with just a few months left of 2024. I honestly cannot believe it. As we head into September, it is the perfect time to reflect, to regroup and to make a strong finish. Now maybe this was you. Last December, you're sitting at your desk, you're sipping on a warm cup of coffee, jotting down your aspirations for the year ahead. You remember feeling so energized, so hopeful, ready to tackle new challenges and embrace pressure opportunities fast forward to today. And while you've hopefully celebrated many wins along the way, you've also likely faced setbacks and surprises like the rest of us. It is not just you, but it is also not over yet. I have learned that how you finished the year is just as important as how you started. In today's episode, I want to share with you six actionable steps that you can take right now to ensure that you end your year on a high note. Now these aren't just tips for hitting those last minute goals. They are strategies to help you reflect on your journey, reignite your passion and set the stage for an even better new year. Whether you've had a fantastic year or one filled with more challenges than you anticipated, these steps will help you make the most of these final months. So grab your notebook, find a cozy spot and let's dive on into how you can finish strong, feel accomplished and set yourself up for success as this year comes to a close. Are you ready to make these last few months count? Let's get started. It's no secret that starting a business is hard. Even if you have an amazing idea, bringing it to life can be super overwhelming. HubSpot's new entrepreneurship kit is designed to help you go from idea generator to full fledged business owner. And let me tell you, I wish I had this when I was first starting my business. This all-inclusive kit takes the guesswork out of entrepreneurship with step-by-step guides, practical resources and easy to use templates. It literally walks you through every stage of starting a business and even has freelance pricing worksheets and loads more to help you get up and running immediately. Now the best part is that it's free at hubspot.com/ent. With expert guidance from HubSpot, starting a business doesn't have to be hard. So don't wait to start yours. Head to hubspot.com/ent to download the free entrepreneurship kit. Call from a company who knows a thing or two about growing bigger and better. That's hubspot.com/ent. Growing a business can feel really hard. And one of the toughest parts can be figuring out which platforms you should be on. Did you know that a podcast could be your next best platform? That's right. Whether you launch your own podcast or advertise your business on other shows, there are a lot of ways podcasting can contribute to growing your business. But where do you even start? And what's the best strategy? There's a recent episode of a great podcast called "This is Small Business" with Andrea Marquez. That's all about this. You'll learn how to think strategically about podcasting as a marketing tool, how to grow an audience, and so much more. And Andrea is joined by none other than my friend Halataha, the host of the Young and Profiting Podcast and the founder and CEO of the Yap Media Podcast Network. So you know this episode has some great advice. It's called how podcasting can grow your business and increase revenue, and you can listen to it right now. This is small business answers so many of these kinds of questions, like why you need an email list, how to accelerate your business growth, how good design can help increase sales and so much more. If you love Gold Digger, check out "This is Small Business," an original podcast from Amazon on your favorite podcast app. And big thanks to "This is Small Business" for sponsoring this show. If we want to end our year strong, I think one of the best places to start is to do an audit. And I am talking like a forensic style audit of your life. Let me tell you a quick story. Here's the thing that I've learned about myself time and time again, and this is sometimes why I can hit this point of the year and be like, I am not where I thought I was going to be. So I am a visionary. I get so excited with new ideas. I am a manifesting generator. So when I get a new idea or I get inspired, I want to take action and I want to move fast. And while this excitement and effort can obviously lead to success and results, it can also unexpectedly derail my plans very quickly if I am not careful. So I have been learning a lot about myself, thanks to human design. If you want to figure out what your human design is and get a blueprint that can kind of be like a Bible to who you are, you can click the link in the show description of today and just check it out, it's been so life changing. But one of the things that I've learned about myself with human design is that I need to sleep on things. And sometimes I need to do more than one sleep. I might need like 30 sleeps on things. And that can be really hard for me as someone who loves to take action and loves to move quickly. But when I take space from things, I am able to really ensure that this brand new idea that I'm so excited about is truly my idea that it's coming from me and that it is something that I want to invest in and spend time on and work on. So one of the things that has been so crazy helpful for me is my basically VP of the company Marissa, she has been with me since basically Coco was born. She is so great at pushing back on me and reminding me, okay, Jenna, I hear this new idea. I know you're excited. But here was the original goal or here was the original plan we laid out. Is this worth changing for this new idea? And I can remember at first when she would push back, I would get really frustrated because I'd be like, no, don't you see this new idea? It's amazing. Let's do this. Let's run with it. Let's learn to appreciate and respect her, keeping me kind of in the guardrails of my life of what was the plan and is it worth changing the plan for something new? And honestly, most of the time it's not. And so why is an audit important? An audit is so important because if you are off tracker, off base in what you thought, I want for you to understand why. A lot of times we are so hard on ourselves when we recognize, okay, I'm not where I thought I was going to be. But we failed to realize, hey, maybe there was a new idea that was totally worth pursuing. And while it maybe took us off track, it also probably gained us traction in areas. And so I have really learned to approach the year. And I always say like with a loose grip, right? Like I want to have a grip on things. I want to have a plan for things, but I also want it to be loose enough to have flexibility and freedom. And so here are some questions that I want for you to think of when you do an audit. And I want you to actually sit down, write out these questions and take the time to answer them because I genuinely think this is going to help you finish this year off strong, but also give you the basis of understanding what an audit can do for you and your business and how it can kind of help re-center you, refocus you and get you back on track. So here are some questions. What were your goals that you set at the beginning of last year, the last quarter? Is this something that you have gotten into practice of writing down? If it's not, I highly encourage you to start now. You don't have to wait for January 1st, write down what your goals actually are. I want them to be goals where you can be smart, quote, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely so that at the end of the year or next year, you can ask yourself, was I able to achieve these and celebrate the heck out of the ones you have and evaluate the ones that you didn't quite make? So what were the goals that you set at the beginning of the year or last quarter? Are you on track? Did you fall off and here's an important one. Were they the right goals in the first place? Were they aligned with what you say you want for your life? Were they realistic for what's actually happening in your life? The next question is, how are you feeling or as Jenna Kutcher likes to ask, how are you really, mentally, physically, energetically, spiritually, where are you in your life right now? Like, how are you doing? And I think this is so important because a lot of times we take goals at face value, but we forget to mix in all of the factors of who we are, which is a multifaceted human living a very full experience of life and you might be in a place in your life mentally, physically, emotionally, energetically, spiritually, that isn't necessarily aligned with you crushing your goals, but maybe you can realign and re-center yourself. The next question, has your definition of success shifted for you this year? Are you clear on what success should look and feel like for you? And this I think is huge because there have been a lot of times in my life where I have set these really audacious and awesome goals. But when I peel back the curtain and I ask myself, okay, what is success for me? What do I consider successful? Those goals aren't aligned with it. Yes, I could go out and have an awesome mastermind. A mastermind is something that I loved doing, but at this stage of life, having a mastermind being away from my kids three times a year, planning, multi-day retreats, all these different things, that is not aligned with my definition of success. Would having a successful mastermind be considered successful? Yes, but is it aligned with my definition of success in this stage of life? No. And so when you get really clear on what success is for you, it helps to ensure that the goals that you are setting are aligned with that definition of success. If you're a creative soul looking for a way to take your photography or event business to the next level, without adding more hours to your schedule, you're going to love this inspiring story. Catalina was a wedding photographer working her tail off to make $1,000 for weeks of work. But when she added a photo booth to her business, everything changed. She started charging the same amount for just three hours of work. Since she's scaled her business to seven figures. Now, if you're thinking, "That sounds like the dream," you need to check out this free masterclass from photo booth supply co. It's called capture success, how to turn your creative passion into a six figure photo booth business. Catalina is going to show you how you can take what you're already passionate about and turn it into a massive profit. You'll learn how you can earn $1,000 or more per event with a photo booth rental business. If you're someone who loves creating memories or maybe you've been looking for a fun side hustle, you've got to check this out. Head to photo booth supply co dot com slash gold digger to get your free access and my special promo code. This is your chance to work smarter, create more freedom and build something truly amazing. That's photo booth supply co dot com slash gold digger. Okay, let's be real. Why are we still overpaying for wireless? 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New customers on first three month plan only speed slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan, additional taxes, fees and restrictions. Next I want for you to rate your days on a scale of one to 10 consistently. Just see if you notice any trends each month. And I don't want for you to wait until the end of the year to start doing this. When I have my journal, basically every single day at the very top, it says, how are you really? And it has a scale of one to 10. And I just feel like it's really important that you start looking at the trends in your life. When you go to honestly answer the question, how am I really? You will start to notice that there are different trends, whether it is with your menstrual cycle, whether it is with your rhythm and your routine, whether it is with your workload, and you'll start to be able to discern what areas of your life may be need a little restructuring or maneuvering or change. Rating your days is just a really, really easy way. If you are someone who can't journal or you don't have time to journal and you just have a little notepad and you can literally write down where you're at each day from an honest place, you will start to notice if there are things and shifts that need to be made in your life. I've noticed sometimes when I have too much on my calendar, I feel overwhelmed. My how are you really is lower than days where I have a little bit more freedom and flexibility. And so that helps me to change and structure my week and my days to really support the type of life and the type of success that I want to have. We also have a past episode about how to do an audit and this is more of like a business style audit. So the audit I'm talking about today is more goal and success based. But if you want to get really nitty gritty, episode number 748 is all about how to audit your social media strategy. So it's called is your social media strategy working? Do this to find out if you feel like you need a nitty gritty audit inside of your business. Episode 748 is going to be an amazing episode for you to go back and listen to again. We've linked it today in the show notes and show description for you. Okay. Number two, revisit your rhythm. Okay. I am so excited about back to school. My daughter right now is in and out of my office while I'm trying to record this. And I have loved summer and the flow and the flexibility of it. But oh my goodness, I am craving structure and consistency again. And it's interesting because when summer first started, we were kind of just like thrown for a loop of like, okay, how are we going to juggle all this working from home, both kids at home. What does this look like? And then summer flu and I felt like we didn't get enough time. And now I feel like my brain is back in back to school mode where like I am so excited. And so summer totally threw off my rhythm, it threw off my work and schedule. But I think that I did a good job anticipating it at the beginning of this year looking at June, July and August and saying, I'm not going to plan any huge launches. I'm not going to plan any really deep work. I know that being a mom and having my kids at home means I need to stay nimble and flexible on the work front. And so it's been exciting to me to think about getting back into a real structured routine and rhythm. My ideal week is something that I've really been kind of fine tuning. And I recognize that it is a massive privilege to even be able to call the shots in an ideal week. But that is why I love entrepreneurship. And so one of the things that I've been working through is figuring out how to really lay out a week that gives me time to do the deep work that I want to do to have the distraction free time to dig in, but also to do all the other administrative tasks that are required in my business. So I kind of established that Mondays are a day where I do no meetings. I get back into work. I do some deep work and planning Tuesdays and Wednesdays are my meetings and recordings day and then Thursdays are my day to do all types of reviews and finish things up and then Fridays are my day off. And so when I establish at rhythm at the beginning of this year, I kind of adjusted all the different calls that I need to be on and said, Hey, is there any way that we can make this happen on Tuesday or Wednesday? I batch all those calls. Those days are very call heavy and meeting heavy, but that gives me that freedom on Mondays and Thursdays to really be in the work. I found that if I have one call on a Monday and two calls on a Tuesday and one call on a Wednesday and three calls on a Thursday, I am not actually getting the deep focus work done that I need to get done that I'm craving to get done because my brain can't fully focus on it. And so revisiting your rhythm. This is a great time of year to really evaluate how you do your best work. What time of day you do your best work? If there are ways that you can set boundaries and parameters around those hours where you can really get focused so that you are using and leveraging that time to drive the most results and do the most beneficial work for your business. So now is a really good time to get out. What are the rhythms that support you? What are the rhythms that support your work and what are your goals? Maybe mornings are your creative time. Maybe you do your best work in the evening. How can you tune into your natural rhythms if you are able to and do your best to set up your schedule to support your energy and your creativity? The next thing inside of this key point is to look at your daily and your weekly rhythm. Are there places where you can optimize your schedule or rework it? So again, can you figure out a way to batch different things, whether it's your different call schedules or recordings or writing, whatever that is, when you look at your schedule, you can kind of see if there are gaps in it. And one thing, if you haven't been in the practice of doing it, is try to put everything into a calendar, whether you have a written calendar or a Google calendar. When you start to see your whole week laid out, you can start to see opportunities to optimize your schedule. And if you are doing daily ratings of how are you really doing, you can start to see like, oh, I notice on days that I have a million meetings, I am not doing very well. Or I notice on days where I have a lot of freedom, I feel excited, creative and energized to do the work. And so doing a calendar audit can be so incredibly helpful. And then the last question I would ask inside of your rhythm is, are there places to streamline your schedule? Are there opportunities where you can eliminate meetings? And is there room for you to actually do deep work? So even yesterday, I was noticing that I had a few back to back calls juggling the kids, figuring out this rhythm. And so I asked for one of my calls, I was like, Hey, is this call necessary? Instead, could you record a video that I can watch on my own schedule? And can we cancel that call? And that was totally realistic. And we were able to do that. And so it saved me from doing another call. And it gave me more free time to do the deep work that I needed to do. Number three is committing to consistency. So if you want to nail the rest of this year, we have to stay consistent. I know for a lot of people, people wait until January 1st to start new healthy habits. And I want to challenge you. Now is an amazing time to start making shifts in your health while we go into the holiday season and that new year energy. If you can start to gain momentum and get consistent with your health routines now, you are going to be far more likely to find yourself in February and March, killing it. And for me, I have never waited until January 1st. I have slowly integrated different things. So for example, I have not had an alcohol in over two years, I quit drinking alcohol in August, randomly one year. I just, it was done. It was not serving my body anymore. It was not feeding me energetically and so I stopped drinking alcohol, really prioritizing our sleep. You know, we have been parents for the last five and a half years. There have been so many sleepless nights and so many nights where we didn't know what type of sleep we were going to get and we're finally in this stage where we are sleeping really well. And so making sure that we are up to our bed, we try to be in bed, reading our books by 930 every night and prioritizing that, getting out and walking more, whether you are walking while you work, whether you are walking while you're on a phone call or a meeting, if you're able to, moving your body in that way. This is such a good time of year to start establishing healthy habits that will not only carry forward into the new year, but give you that momentum that you need to make those changes as we get all those targeted ads about new year, new you and all of that. So if you can start establishing some different habits right now, you are going to be far more likely to be successful in the new year. So committing to consistency. So get this. This is why I don't want you to wait until January. SunDried conducted a study with a reach of 4,000 people and found that 43% of people expect to give up their goal after just one month. In fact, the second Friday in January is known as quitters day when people are most likely to throw in the towel on their resolutions. So if you are waiting till January to give yourself this two week kick, start it now and do it in a very ease filled way that invites in consistency. Now, if you get consistent now, you are going to be confident going into the new year. And so my goal is for you to commit to consistency in one thing. So can you commit the next 30 days to a habit or working on a goal with consistency to not only prove to yourself that you're capable of it, but to build a momentum as we approach the end of the year. What is a challenge you can set to show yourself now that you can follow through? Again, your confidence is going to turn into competence, which is going to show you that you are capable of being consistent. And I am so excited for you to get that start now. So tell me what is a 30 day goal that you can commit to right now as we move through the rest of the year, because something magical happens when you start to see yourself falling through your identity shifts. And I want that to happen before January 1st, because then the magic will be unlocked for 2025. If you're serious about making connections that actually lead to results, LinkedIn is where it's at, especially if you're in the B2B world. With LinkedIn ads, you can get your business in front of the right people, like 180 million senior level executives and 10 million C level execs. It's like the ultimate business network, but way more targeted and with fewer distractions. And other platforms, it can feel like you're shouting into the wind. But with LinkedIn ads, you're building real relationships with the right people. And that's where the magic happens. 79% of B2B marketers agree that LinkedIn is their number one for paid media. And it's easy to see why LinkedIn gives you tools to drive real results. And with two to five times higher return on ad spend, it just makes sense. So if you want to build meaningful relationships, start making smarter moves with your marketing and grow your business. It is time to get LinkedIn ads working for you. Make B2B marketing everything it can be and get $100 credit on your next campaign. Go to linkedin.com/goal to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com/g-o-a-l terms and conditions apply. Number four is to break down a project or a goal into bite sized pieces. I feel like this one is so important. Sometimes we can underestimate what goes into a project or a goal. And other times we can overestimate what it'll take to get to where we want to go. I feel like both ends of the spectrum are so relevant. And both ends of the spectrum are what's holding us back from achieving what we want to achieve. Now, the best way to combat either side of the coin is by getting super clear on the exact steps you need to take in order to achieve your goal. A lot of times we either underestimate and we feel like we're behind and we're never going to do it and it's taking way longer than we thought or we overestimate and complicate things so that we never have to take action in the first place. When we started creating templates in my business, I changed everything. We started taking each project and breaking it down step by step. And when we started to do that, we cannot only see the steps that we need to take. We also can assign deadlines to certain tasks, assign team members if you have them, and we can track our progress all the way to completion. So when I hired Marissa five years ago, I told her, we had no project management software in place in the business. She's like, how are you doing all this? And I'm like Google Docs and email. And so we got Monday.com. We love Monday.com. If you want to see what it is, go to Jenna loves Monday.com, Jenna loves Monday.com. It shows you how we use it. And Monday is our project management software. It is where everything in the business lives. It is where every template lives. It's where I can see what every team member is working on. It's where my to do list lives. It's where all the tasks live. It's where we assign each other things is where we can comment back and forth on task. It is basically the holy grail of our business. And one of the things that is so helpful is that you can create templates for any type of project. And so if in your business you are doing anything more than once, whether it's creating an email freebie or creating a course or launching a new project or launching something digital, you can create a template so that you can see here are all the pieces required in order to do this successfully. And then you can assign yourself or someone else deadlines. You can assign different team members tasks and you can start to see here is exactly what it's going to take. And here's the timeline I can follow in order to achieve it. We often see our goals and they feel so far away that we are paralyzed from taking any action or we don't even know which action to take because we haven't taken the time to break it on down. And so take the time to map out whatever your project or goal is and then break it down into smaller, teeny pieces that you can do quickly and that you can map into your calendar. When you get clear on the steps you need to take to make that goal a reality and you make room on your calendar to complete them, suddenly that big goal doesn't feel so overwhelming and you start to get excited by the progress that you are making. So get very clear and break down your goals that you have for yourself into bite size pieces and then assign them to yourself or someone else with dates so that you can achieve them before January 1st hits. Number five is clutter and organize clutter, whether it's physical or digital can absolutely create mental blocks. It can reduce your productivity and it can lead to unnecessary stress. How many of us feel all of these things? Reduce productivity, mental blocks and unnecessary stress, say I, the crowd goes wild. When we declutter and organize, we can set the stage for a more focused and efficient end of our year. This process involves clearing out what is no longer serving you and creating a system that allows you to operate at your best. For me, I can feel when clutter is encroaching on my creativity. Even in this exact moment, I have a child in my office, I have stuff on the floor everywhere, we're talking Barbies, coloring books, I don't even know what else magnifying glass is all over the floor. I can just feel my brain shutting down because I feel overwhelmed with everything in front of me. It's so hard to focus and so I can often tell when I start to feel overwhelmed because I go on a cleaning spree, whether I empty out my entire bathroom drawer and start organizing, I can tell that there's something in my life that is stressing me out and I think that the same goes for our goals and our plans. When there is too much clutter in our life, again, it can be physical or digital. It can really keep us from being able to move in an organized fashion towards the goals that we've set for ourselves. Maybe you need a little fall cleaning, I know everyone talks about spring cleaning, but maybe we need to make fall cleaning a thing, whether you go through it, you clear off your desktop or you organize the photos in your album or you take time to structure your inbox. Having those organization systems can help your mind be able to sort through all the information coming at it and work in a more clear and organized fashion. The first thing is physical decluttering. Just look at where you are right now. As you listen to this show, start small, you can start with an area of your desk or a specific drawer. Can you remove distractions from your workspace and boost your productivity? I will never forget taking Marie Forleo's course Time Genius and she talked so much about how our environment plays into the work that we're doing and our creativity and the more set up our environment is for success and more successful we will be. There is also this method that I love, it's called the three box method that will help you sort and purge. When I start to get overwhelmed in our house with kids toys or other things, you have one box that is keep, one box that is donate and one box that is trash. I just saw this hilarious real the other day of this mom where she was like, "I am in this mood right now. I want to throw everything away. These moods don't strike often." When they do, I need to capitalize on them. The three box method can be really helpful sometimes when we're going through a house and just feel like everything is everywhere like you're finding a rock collection on every side table in your house. Having the three box method can be super duper helpful and key tip if you are a parent and you have children who love to collect things, save the trash box for like a week and if nobody asks about anything in it goes. Be ruthless about what you really need and what you don't need and what you can get rid of. I've just found that when I have a clean home and a clean space, I just feel so much more creative and I enjoy my work more. You can also reorganize. Have you ever seen those TV shows where they open their fridge and there's all those clear containers and you're like, "Wait, people really live like that?" One of the things that has been so helpful for us is investing in those organization things. Even in my bathroom, I have these specific bins for skincare, for makeup, all these different things, the more organized that I've gotten, the better I feel and move through the day. If you are able to invest in storage solutions for areas that give you anxiety, it can totally change the game. We are now like those people that have our berries in those clear containers and it also just helps us take inventory a lot easier of what do we actually need. Reorganizing and then lastly, set a routine. One thing that really helps is dedicating 10 minutes at the end of each day to tidy up so that you feel fresh in the morning. I have learned this again from Tanginess, it's called Miesen Plus and it's like looking at your day tomorrow and setting yourself up today. You are giving future you a gift. At the end of your day, look at tomorrow's schedule and see if there's any way that you can set yourself up for success the night before. Your future you is going to thank you massively and it also just helps you enter the day feeling good. We are the kind of people we cannot go to bed with dirty dishes in this thing like we just want our future us to enter a calm and peaceful environment. Okay, the last thing on this one is digital decluttering. Oh my gosh, so many of us need this including myself, especially as someone with ADHD. My computer has a million tabs open. You should see what my desktop can look like at times. My phone has a million screenshots on it. Oh my gosh. So here's how you can digitally declutter. Go to inbox zero, set that goal. I know it feels impossible. This is something that I've achieved a few times, not every time, but sorting your emails and just responding to emails and closing the conversations out. There are so many times when I get emails and I'm like, I'm going to circle back on that and then I failed to circle back on that and it's not exemplary of who I want to be. But sometimes I struggle with analysis paralysis or making a decision. And when I do that, usually the decision is no and I just need to confidently make it and move on. And so when I find myself delaying that, it stresses me out, it adds anxiety. When I see that my inbox has like 40 emails in it, I am just like getting anxious that people are waiting for me. So if you can sort your inbox out and create a system, respond to people and close the loop on things, it is going to help you mentally. Next is file organization. Create a logical folder structure for your digital files. Go through and clean things up, whether it's your downloads, your desktop or your tabs. Create a system that helps your mind not see a million things. The more you see, the more your brain is going down a million rabbit holes, the less you are able to focus. I know this is a huge one for me. Over the years, our team has gotten so much better, especially using Monday.com. It's basically this like depository of where we keep everything in our business so that we know, okay, here's where to find all the graphics for this. Here's where the copy is for this. And so creating some sort of organization system in your business, you are going to save yourself so much time searching for documents that should be organized and you're going to have that mental clarity of knowing that you can find the things that you're looking for. Next is desktop cleanup. Remove unnecessary icons from your desktop, create shortcuts for frequently used applications. Maybe you create folders for things that you are trying to get out of the habit out looking at like social media, do this on your phone and your computer, clean things up and do like a little inventory and audit there. And then lastly, backup and security. I was actually just at a mastermind and one of the biggest topics that we talked about was security. I thought it was so interesting, but making sure that any important documents are on the cloud and password protected, ensuring that your computer and your data is backed up, using your passwords and security settings to prevent digital clutter from becoming a security risk. I know this sounds boring, but taking the time to do this can save you a lot of time and money in the long run. And so just kind of doing an audit of that. We do password audits frequently and it's so helpful to go through and change your passwords for any major things. Make sure that you don't use the same password in a million places. You all think about this and you're like, I'll get around to it until it's a necessity. And that is never a good time. The last thing you can do to finish your year strong is to enhance your skills. So the end of the year is the perfect time to reflect on your skills and identify areas where you can go. When you recognize, hey, I need a little bit of help to get to where I'm going or I need a mentor or I need to learn this new thing to get me to that next level. You not only can improve your current performance, but you are also setting yourself up so much better for the future. So you can dive into 2025 ready to tackle those goals and not be in that position of being a beginner or being in that analysis paralysis state. You can be ready to hit the ground running. This is such an amazing time to invest in learning something new or implementing a new strategy. I have made so many different investments into online courses. Digital Course Academy taught me how to create my course. Time Genius, which I've talked about in this episode taught me how to be more efficient with my time and bring more productivity tools into my life. Recently, I took a gardening course. I have learned about sourdough bread. I have learned so many different things. And so when you enhance your skills, you not only enhance your confidence, but you also enhance your competence so you feel like you can take on bigger goals and actually achieve them. So first, if you're like, well, what do I need to learn? Do a little skill assessment. So reflect on the goals that you said and look back at both the achievements and the challenges you've had this year. What skills did you need, but you didn't have? And what would make your work easier or more impactful? Again, when you learn from someone else, you can turn decades into days. And so give yourself that gift of considering learning from somebody else so that you have the skills that it takes. And then next, are there opportunities for you to seek feedback? Is there a chance for you to ask someone whether it is a friend or a peer or a colleague or a mentor, even a client for feedback on where it is you can improve? Sometimes other people can see gaps that we actually could fill, but we miss them because we're so close to them. And so seeking feedback, this is a great time of year to seek that feedback. And then lastly, research trends. Stay updated with what's going on in your industry or in the world that you're in to identify any emerging skills that could give you an edge in the coming year. There are always new strategies happening, and while I am someone who loves to stick to the tried and true marketing principles, I also see it being advantageous to explore some of the trends if they are exciting to you in something you want to implement. And so diving in and learning them now can sometimes mean that your first to market, which means you can get maximize results. Lastly with this one, figure out your learning plan. So if you want to enhance your skills before the end of the year, which I strongly recommend, you want to figure out, okay, what is the best way that you can learn, whether it's an online course or a workshop or a book or a webinar, figure out which learning method suits you and what you can commit to. There are so many different ways you can learn, whether it's free or paid. So figure out what that commitment can look like to you and be consistent with it. Next set specific goals. Don't just decide to learn, set a specific and actionable result that you want from that learning. For example, you want to complete a course on search engine optimization by the end of November. What does that look like for you and how can you commit to that? And then schedule in your learning time. I recently talked about how important it is to make these blocks on your calendar and fit them in. If you are someone who buys an online course, go into the online course and block out time for every single module, literally put it onto your calendar. Today is module number one. It's going to take me 20 minutes to complete the lesson and 20 minutes to do the workbook. Set aside that time so that you actually make it. That is how I've been able to actually make it through all the online courses that I've taken is by literally mapping it out on my calendar and staying accountable to that. And then lastly, apply what you are learning. So implement as soon as you possibly can. Learning is one thing doing is an entirely other. And I want for you to understand that you are going to learn so much in the doing. And so you're going to get better results, but you're also going to really cement in the learning that you're doing. Okay, those are the six things I want for you to do to finish your year strong. I know you want to have a super successful 2025 and I want that for you, but 2024 is still here. It is not done yet and it is not over. I want for us to finish this year feeling excited, rejuvenated and proud of the work that we've done. I hope that you're feeling more inspired and motivated to take these next few months by storm, how we finish this year can set the tone for the next one. So let's make these remaining days count. And I do want to keep in mind that ending the year strong is not about perfection, okay? It is about progress and perseverance. It's about recognizing not only how far you've come, but also looking at where it is that you want to go and redefining what success looks like for you on your own terms. Take some time this week to reflect on all of these things. Do your audit, figure out what you want to learn, declare and organize, break down your goals, commit to consistency and revisit your rhythm. All of these things are right at your fingertips and waiting for you so that you can finish this year strong. Cheers to ending this year on a high note and stepping into the new year with confidence and excitement. Of course, until next time, gold diggers, keep on digging your biggest goals. And thank you so much for listening to this episode of the podcast. Thanks for pulling up a seat for another episode of the Gold Digger Podcast. I hope today's episode fueled you with inspiration, gave you information that you can turn into action and realigned you with your true north in life and business. If you've enjoyed today's episode, head on over to golddiggerpodcast.com for today's show notes, discount codes for our sponsors, freebies to fuel your results and so much more. And if you haven't yet, make sure you're subscribed so that you never miss a future show. We'll see you next time, gold diggers! [Music] (upbeat music)
