2023 Intentions & Word of the Year

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Hi, and welcome to another solo episode of The quietly ambitious podcast. It is actually one of the final episodes of The quietly ambitious podcast. But I am going to talk a little bit more about that in a minute. So yeah, welcome to my 2023 intentions and word of the year, doesn’t matter that we’re already basically a month into the year, these things these things come through when they are ready to come through. And actually, you know, the whole new year goals setting vibe, I am actually someone who’s pretty motivated by that. I’m very motivated by setting goals, I set really big goals. And I think it’s really important to say actually, that I don’t always meet them. Like I often don’t meet my goals, let’s normalise not always meeting our goals, because I firmly believe that my goals still support me to make more happen along the way, even if I don’t quite meet them. But But or, and at the same time, something I have learned about myself in recent years. And honestly, I feel like this has shifted a lot since I had a child. So you know, took me quite a few years, he’s five now to me a few years to figure this out. Is that December is very busy, December can be overwhelming that end of the year period can be overwhelming. So I do need to give myself more space to ease back in a bit more slowly to reflect on the year that was and I did publish my 2022 Urine review last week. So you can go ahead and listen to that if you haven’t already. I need all that space before I can slowly feel my way into whatever it is that I desire to create in the year ahead. So now that I’ve given myself that space, I am ready to publicly declare my 2023 intentions and to share my word, or should I say words, plural of the Year at the end of this post. So my first intention is to start a new podcast. So in case you missed it, I shared some big podcast news in my 2022 year in review, I am ending the quietly ambitious podcast in just two weeks time. Part of me doesn’t even want to say a specific timeline, because knowing me, I’ll probably add in an extra episode or something. But the plan right now is to end it in two weeks time. And it’s one of those big decisions that just seemed to drop in. And you immediately know that you got to do it, even though it seems to come out of nowhere. And I know and trust that it is time for a change even though this podcast has meant so so much to me. And I actually think it’s probably responsible for pretty much everything, all of the ways that I’ve been able to stretch my comfort zone since I started this. But I will save that for the final episode. So yeah, even though the podcast has meant so so much to me, I know that it is the right time to bring it to a close. And just aside now, I really would love you to be part of my final podcast episode in two weeks time. So I want to invite you to share your experiences, your memories, your aha hours, your learnings, your favourite guests from the podcast with me for a chance to feature in the final episode. So you can feel free to Voxer me a little voice note or just email me an audio file of you sharing think short clips with a brief intro to who you are and where people can find you. So you do get to give yourself a brief plug as well. But if you’d rather not share your voice, please just send me a text based thing that I can share, read out, send me a DM or email team at Ruth poundwhite.com. I really want you to be part of this. I mean, if I get no submissions, that’s fine. I’ll just talk about what the podcast means to me. But I would love for you to be part of it because you have been a huge part of the journey. Anyway, back to the year ahead. I absolutely intend to be podcasting again, before the year is out. It’s just a matter of waiting for the next iteration of the podcast to drop in. So yeah, time will tell exactly what that’s gonna look like. My next intention is more money. And actually more money was my top intention for 2022 as well. So I’m holding it again for another year. I did grow my income last year. So I did achieve more money, but not in the way that I had intended. It was steady, small growth, but the plan was big growth. So it’s okay that I didn’t meet it. And actually, I wanted to talk about that here. Because how many of us have a big goal, fail to meet it and are no longer able to hold the energy of that goal going forward? Because we’ve disappointed ourselves because it’s too hard, right? So this is why I’m sharing with you that it’s totally okay to keep the same goal from one year to the next. And I also want to keep talking about money, unapologetically. Knowing that it is a huge part of creating the personal freedom that I desire to create in my life. So yes, it is on my list for 2023. Again, to make a lot more money both from things that I’ve already created. So I’m talking like evergreen courses. And by the way, all Have my courses or on my website or Ruth poundwhite.com, forward slash everything. And yeah, I didn’t focus enough on the Evergreen stuff in 2022. So yeah, partly from the Evergreen stuff, partly from one to one services and charging what I know, their worth, and what I know, works for me for the energy that goes into them and also based on what my clients get from them as a result. And of course, from new ideas that are still waiting to materialise. So I mean, really, what I’ve got in mind is a powerful new group programme, but who knows who knows what’s going to drop in. And I’m going to repeat here what I said last year, I already have the ecosystem in place to make so much more possible. It’s simply a question of when I feel so excited to share that. And it’s so true. And PS, I’m going to be talking a lot more about setting up your business model in a way that everything supports everything else that supports this kind of growth in your business in an upcoming training in February, called the ecosystem. And there is a link to that in the blog post. I’ll read out here it’s a bit of a long one, but it’s offers dot Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash V hyphen ecosystem. So that’s offers dot Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash the hyphen ecosystem is currently discounted if you preorder it before I run with it. And I will fix a date for that soon. Might So yeah, that was my second intention, more money. My third intention is more space. So my five week trip to Barbados in 2022, taught me so much about what it means to really let go of the urgency. And the sense of spaciousness, I felt a result as a result was just beautiful, magical. I found myself though, falling back into old patterns, shall we say, during busy times, like when I was hosting the summit. And when I was publishing the book, I have created more, I have made progress in creating more spaciousness in my business overall. But there are also some tangible ways I’m going to continue to prioritise this in 2023, which I will share with you now. So the first way I want to create more space in my business is, and, by the way, maybe you expected that I was going to say something like self care taking time off. And obviously, that is part of it is a big part of it. And I have, I have pictures of fancy hotels and beautiful country gardens that I want to visit on my vision board. But I have also come to realise that there is freedom within structure and systems. So the first way that I’m going to create more space in my business this year is with systems. Now, I was actually running my previous copywriting business for a decade before I started this one. And it took me a while to build up the systems behind the scenes. And once I did, it really enabled me to step back to keep things running on kind of semi autopilot while I focused on other things, including taking five months off maternity leave when I had my son. Plus actually starting this business, like I had so much focus on this business while the other business was still running at the same time at first. So yeah, I know what it’s like to have that freedom. And I want to create that more in this business as well. Now, I also make no secret of the fact that I I find freedom in being able to make intuitive decisions and being able to go with the flow and change my mind and do what I feel like. But I do feel like having a certain level of structure behind the scenes will support me more with that. And I’ll share in some of the following points what that structure is going to look like. So the second way that I want to build more spaciousness into my business is with regular business meetings with myself. So this is something that I did a lot more prior to the pandemic. And then after locked down and stuff, it all became a bit like spaced out and random. So this year, I am planning at least one business meeting with myself every quarter and putting them into my calendar. And I do have a freebie about this process, by the way, which I will link to in the blog post. Or you concerned on my site for a blog post called there is power in stepping back. The third way I’m going to create more spaciousness in my business is to keep focusing on voxel coaching. So I experimented with voxel coaching big time in 2022. I mean, I had been doing it. I’ve been doing voxel coaching since 2020. But I really ramped up how I was doing it last year. So I was already using it in between calls for my one to one clients. I was using it as bonus support, like doing box office hours for doing live rounds of my programmes. And I also ran a really powerful standalone group coaching week in Voxer. In summer last year, which I have not repeated yet, but it is definitely on my list of things I want to do again because it was transformative. It was amazing.

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And actually from September I also started taking on one to one clients who I work with exclusively on Voxer. So in short, the results have been amazing. Like I can hand on heart say that Voxer is no less transformational than coaching via calls, there are a few specific techniques that I can’t do on Voxer that I can do on calls. But apart from that, everything else translates it’s a very transformative way of coaching. The only caveat to it is that the client has to show up and use it right. But it’s the same with everything. And doing Voxer, only one to one coaching has really enabled me to make my coaching more affordable. So it is more affordable to work with me now than it was even though I’m about to Roseburg prices at the time of recording this. So if you want to work together, go and have a look. And if you apply now ready to start in February or March, you can benefit from the current prices. It’s also enabled me to charge more for my time that I do spend on calls. So I still have a one to one package where you can have calls with me if that’s the way you prefer to work. But I do charge accordingly. I don’t charge more for it, because it’s worth more in terms of the value you get out of it. Like I said, Voxer coaching is as transformational as calls. The only reason I charge more is because of the time and energy that goes into being tied to calls in my calendar. That is the only reason they’re both as transformation is as each other. So it really is up to you what you desire to how you desire to experience the coaching. And yeah, more Voxer absolutely more Vox coaching, the main challenge of Vox coaching is just describing the benefits of it, because I think until you experience it, you don’t really know what it’s going to be like. But I do do a day of Voxer for anyone who wants to try a one off day. So yeah, go and go and look at my website, if we’re thinking of working together, because my prices are going up in a few days at the time of recording this on the 31st of January. So all you need to do is apply now, you don’t have to have, you don’t have to actually start working now for you to benefit from that price. And I think I’m gonna have to record something separately about my experimentation with Voxer coaching. But there was a podcast episode a few weeks ago where I spoke to Meg Harrop about how she uses Voxer in her business. So go ahead and listen to that, I think you’ll find that helpful. So they are three ways I want to create more spaciousness in my business, I’ve got a couple more to share with you. So the fourth way is to do more lazy live rounds and focus more on evergreen sales. So I have really perfected my way of running lazy live rounds for my group programmes off the back of doing very lazy launches for them as well. So my aim is to more strategically plan these out throughout the year. So like I said, I’ve really perfected the way I do it haven’t necessarily prioritised strategically planning it in. So that is a plan for this year, because doing those kind of live rounds is it creates a lot of spaciousness because it brings in money in a way that does not take loads of output from me. And then each time I launch, then after I’ve launched, I can create some sort of evergreen funnel based on the launch content, which is something I did not prioritise enough in 2022, even though it’s one of my big goals, so I’m really not sure why I prioritise that I’ve got to this year. And just as a side note, I might actually do a training about doing lazy live rounds, because it’s so powerful. When you are able to rerun your old stuff, it’s obviously helpful for the money. But that is not the only reason why it’s powerful. So yeah, if you’re interested in that, stay tuned. And then finally, the last way that I’m going to prioritise, creating more space in my business this year, is with more healing. So, spaciousness. I don’t think come, spaciousness does not come without the healing. I mean, it depends on how you are wired. But so many of us fill our minds and fill our brains with things that will trigger a certain nervous system response because we don’t feel safe to do any differently. I mean, the deeper I get into this work, and the more I know this to be true for so many of us, and personally, 2022 was a massive year of healing that for me, and the intention is to continue that deep work in 2023. Okay, so my next broad intention for 2023 is more daydreaming. So I have always been a big dreamer. And I was actually really surprised recently with when my coach asked me about my big bold vision, and my mind was kind of blank. Like, I can’t, I couldn’t believe it. And I don’t know if it’s something to do with the experience of all these COVID years. But I personally feel less connected to the bigger vision of what I want to do with my life. I’m really connected to why it matters to me to do what I do. So I know that I am here to support entrepreneurs to align their businesses to their truest version of themselves in the name of full self expression. I know that’s what I’m here to do. But I don’t feel like I’ve really been daydreaming about life in general. Like, I’m talking about these audacious life goals like moving abroad, or setting up a charity or that kind of thing. And honestly, I feel like my trip to Barbados was the closest I got to that in recent years, but that’s already happened. So yeah, when I want to have more daydreaming time in my life. And by the way, I don’t actually believe that we need to have big goals like that the day to day experience of how we are feeling how we are living how we are working really is the most important thing. But I am personally feeling really drawn to playing with all the possibility. I’m also a firm believer that playing with possibility makes space for new ideas, it makes space for new solutions, new desires that wouldn’t, we wouldn’t always know that we had if we didn’t give ourselves that time to dream, right. So basically, I’m adding to my quarterly business meetings with myself a reminder to dream. And finally, the final intention for 2023 is to is more free expression. I do feel like this is a bit of a clunky way of saying it, but I couldn’t think of a better way of saying is the best way to describe my intention to show up with less overthinking, less worrying about what makes for the perfect post or what’s going to bring in more clients. And actually, at the time of recording this, I have been challenging myself to post daily on Instagram, not because I think that it’s the right strategy for Instagram like, Well, firstly, there is no one right strategy. But it’s more to do with disrupting myself. So basically, I noticed that I was holding back, I noticed that I was overthinking things. And I decided to disrupt that by challenging myself to be more free by posting daily. And honestly, it’s already showing me where scarcity is showing up with fear is showing up, you know, thoughts like I don’t feel like I have enough ideas. I don’t want to waste the good ideas every day, if they don’t get the reach I want, I don’t want to put the wrong thing out there. All of that kind of thinking really, really helps with that. And that is so not the energy that I want to bring into 2023. The good news is it only took a few days of the challenge before I was already feeling more free to just share what I want to share, to care less about the numbers, to sell and promote my things every day and to connect with my right people. And by the way to put off the wrong ones, which I think is something that we fear, but it’s actually part of the process. And I also know that the why that I have you know wanting to support people to be their truest selves and most fully expressed selves through their business means impacting more people and growing my visibility. So to make that happen to make that more easeful, I have to let go of it, I have yet another layer of perfectionism. So this is really helping with that. Plus, I do have a bonus goal that I thought I would share here. And my bonus goal is to double my email list and double the number of people enrolled in my courses and programmes in 2023. And I actually did do this by accident in 2022. And it feels so fun, just to put it out there that it’s going to happen again. And when I say did this by accident in 2022. I don’t mean that I wasn’t intentionally growing my audience, I was intentionally growing my audience Oh, yeah, it’s just I didn’t have a specific goal. So I thought I would just write it out in actual words this year. So there are my intentions for 2023. And I just want to share my words, my words plural for 2023. And the word that I had in 2022, by the way, was embodied and it served me so well. And you can listen to my 2020 through 2022. Post, if you want to hear more about that. Anyway, my words for 2023 The first word that I have chosen came to me when I was putting my vision board together at the end of 2022. And I just ended up cutting it out of magazine. And it just I got the feeling and the word is love. So love was actually an unintentional, or maybe unconscious theme for 2022. And I and I just want to intentionally choose love in 2023. Making decisions from a place of love versus fear, choosing love and openness in my relationships, loving my life and loving myself. And I mean love fit felt like the perfect overarching theme for the year. But I just felt like I wanted something else, something that would speak more specifically to my ambition.

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Kind of like the yin and the yang of the words of the year. So I did come up with a second word. And my second word is overflow. And what overflow means to me for my life and business is more than enough money. More than enough time. More than enough ideas. Knowing that I am more than enough basically everything is more than enough. Overflow is a really good reminder for me to tune into expansive magical thinking. Plus, personally for me, it does give me a little bit of a nudge to protos to prioritise those systems behind the scenes and that evergreen stuff. And yeah, overflow fits perfectly with love. Right. So there it is, they are my words for the year we will see how this all plays out and my intentions for A year. I would love to know if this speaks to you in any way. And I just want to remind you before we wrap up this episode, firstly, that if you’re thinking about working together, now is the time to make that big, bold commitment. Just make sure you submit the application by January 31. And like I said, so like a lot of my packages have actually become more affordable, as I am moving to better ways of working for me, which equals better results for my clients as well. And yeah, the quite the ambitious podcast is ending and I really want you to be part of the final episode. So in order to be part of it, I would love to invite you to record a short share about your experience with the podcast could be a memory of favourite guests, something you’ve learned a connection you’ve made, whatever it is, thoughts and feelings about the podcast, record a really short audio, you can include yourself in a link to your website, so you do get a little bit of a plug as well. And if you don’t want to be on audio, and by the way, you can send me the audio on Voxer. Or you can record it yourself and attach it to an email if you don’t want to record yourself speaking, but you do want to be part of the final episode, then just write me a short message and I will read it out myself. And again, you can include who you are and a link to your website or you can stay anonymous if you prefer. So you can just send me that as a DM or to my email team at Ruth Poundwhite europe.com It would mean a lot to me if you could just let me know how this whole thing has impacted you. And what it what it has meant to you or anything that you feel called to share about it. And yeah, just thank you for being here. Next week, we will have our compilation episode I asked all the guests from this season a bonus question so it hasn’t been released before and I’m gonna put them all together in a compilation episode. And then it’ll be the final episode of the quarterly ambitious podcast starting after that, which is bittersweet as all these kinds of things are like I’m not gonna get into that now because I will talk about it more in the final episode. But yeah, thank you for being here and I hope 2023 is a magical year for you. You