Leverage Festive Season Now for a Strong Year Ahead

For many December (and sometimes November!) is the sign of speeding up and chaos or slowing down and abyss. And whatever is true to you, sometimes we give up and stop taking chances or seeing opportunities during this time. When we make a decision or take a stand we start acting it. For example, no one will buy from me now because it’s Christmas and people just aren’t interested, or it’s the end of the year so I’ll deal with it next year and ideas alike.

The truth is that whatever we believe in becomes the reality. Whenever you decide that the end of the year is too busy or too quite you are risking losing the sight of opportunities, solutions, sales or even momentum. Many people are checking out mentally during this period for different reasons.

I find this period inspiring rather than chaotic or dead. December is a perfect opportunity to increase my leadership, connections and conversations and often sales as a result. And most of all, I love taking this time to evaluate my entire year’s work, seeing what worked and what didn’t work, planning for my steps in January.

Holidays don’t slow me down or speed me up – they give me a mental and physical opportunity to audit my efforts and plan for a much stronger year ahead.

Planning requires a lot of mental capacity, more than repetitive work for example, and it also requires mental space. Taking time away from your desk and common for you distractions can be a powerful exercise. It really matters to take time with it because looking at your past data can be both emotional and overwhelming for some. Many entrepreneurs often compare their figures to what they see others do – this can feel very discouraging because it gives you a very inaccurate picture of your efforts and results. And some people compare their figures to their expectations, clouding the reality.

Either way, many end up avoiding evaluating all together, ensuring to repeat their poor experience next year.

In order to break the cycle or excel your work you need to understand your goals, bottlenecks and gems – things you will be navigating in your work whether you realise them or not. It helps to be more aware of all the moving parts. Sometimes that requires an honest conversation with one self.

Today I want to try encouraging you to conduct a social media and business audit before you take a break this festive season.

I think it’s especially important to do it now because the outcomes of your planning will help you keep on track during the silly season of holidays and especially in the new year.

Practice Awareness and Be More Delibarate

Many people will shut down now and lose the momentum, only coming back to creating income and impact in February or March. If you are taking a longer time off, that is fantastic. However, make sure to plan for a swift come back to avoid losing two more month of trying to get the momentum back. For example, I love scheduling in work related events and meetings first few days I am back from holidays – this swings me back into my work without dragging my feet through my week. These first few days back after holidays can often feel a little slow. You can make small changes in your planning to shift how you feel during the holidays and straight after.

Bad Marketing Prevention

There are often too many cooks in the kitchen with bad marketers, confused business owners and ill advising peers who can often pull you away from your strategy – this can delay the results leaving you disappointed. Taking a couple of days off in December to plan your social media strategy next year won’t only make you feel a lot more confident about your future but also less susceptible to bad advice.

Less Distraction with More Focus

Over the last ten years in my work I’ve been seeing similar underlying attitudes in marketing and business – many are focusing on finding someone else’s secret formula of success they can replicate to collect instant and endless results. The truth is that there is no such secret. Every business is different faced with a number of unique variables such as their definition of success, years operating, goals, niche, target market and many more alike. You cannot rely on someone else’s marketing solution because it isn’t serving your work. You must find / create your own solution that works specifically for you.

Many bad marketers and some entrepreneurs often find / create a solution that works for them, which they subsequently offer to the world. Whoever buys in often feels disappointed with the underwhelming or no results outcome, turning away from finding a suitable solution. Sometimes it works; however doesn’t last. They refine, keep it going and continue selling to those seeking magical formulas. Whoever buys in often finds themselves feel disappointed with the underwhelming or no results outcome. And the cycle repeats.

I think we need to step outside of what’s common on the web and look within.

If you found a working solution, keep validating it, collect and record data, evaluate, adjust and don’t compare your work or outcomes with anyone else’s.

I think each of us must step outside of the bad marketing repetition and be honest with our vision, realistic with our goals and vigilant with our choices.

In order to do it we need to slow down and focus within. Take this opportunity now and plan for a strong year ahead.

P.S. Whenever you are ready… here how I can help you leverage social media technology to really power your mission:

I design simple and effective social media and Facebook ads strategies helping gifted not for profits and businesses for purpose leverage their social media technology and loyal community to really power their mission, building more donations and creating impact. My work is custom solution aiming at the specific needs of your work.

There are many ways you can reach out to see if I am a good fit for your goals. Check out the Facebook Messanger bubble on the bottom right, contact page on the top and/or a form and a calendar, if this type of communication suits you better.

I look forward to supporting your vision of the future!