Plan the Next 90 Days Like a Pro

Today’s Skill: Planning For Success

Most large businesses are structured with Annual and Quarterly goals.

They have to report to shareholders and/or their board and become metric-driven to show growth or other drivers that the business is exceeding expectations.

However, many smaller businesses don’t do this at all. Not because it isn’t important but because they are trying to stay above water while dealing with the day-to-day chaos. It can become overwhelming.

→ I bet you set a couple of big goals to start this year. Am I right?

But, being almost halfway through the year, how are you are doing with them?

→ Are you on pace or behind?

→ Have they fallen off completely?

→ Do you even know?

We all have great intentions to start the year but, inevitably, we get near July and putting out the fires become more urgent than planting new trees for the future. It’s the age-old question, “Are you working in the business or on the business?”

In today’s newsletter, I want you to do both. I developed a framework that will help you build guideposts along the way to make sure you’re continually moving forward.

I call it the F.E.E.L. Framework.

I think it will dramatically change how you look at the quarter ahead.

Here’s Are The 4 Categories Of F.E.E.L.

FOCUS

This category will contain your big projects or most important endeavors.

This could be something brand new or a part of that yearly goal (or longer-term goal) and completing this part gets you to the next part.

It’s like running a marathon, you won’t complete the race in mile 1 but you need mile 1 to complete the race.

→ What one important project is best to focus on right now?

ELIMINATE

Removing can be just as important as adding. (A great reminder of this from a past issue: Why More Is Killing Your Sales Growth)

These are all the things like bad habits, distractions, procrastination, etc, that are taking you away from your priorities, both personally and work related.

Ex: Put the phone in the other room during focus time, Don’t reply to emails right when they pop in your inbox, only allow yourself so many “coffee chats” a week.

Could be anything.

→ What could you eliminate that would help you free more time or remove stress?

EXPERIMENT

I’m a firm believer that we should attempt to “prototype” ideas to see if we like them or they make an impact on our business. Some we’ll keep with and others we’ll toss out.

But, we’ll never know unless we try.

Want to start a podcast for your business? Do 5 episodes. Want to create a newsletter? Write one for free on substack the next 4 weeks. 

Experimenting is like when you were a kid playing in the kitchen sink. We don’t know what will happen but it’s fun to cover the faucet and see which way the water shoots out.

→ What haven’t you attempted to try because you’re too busy or scared?

LEARN

In today’s fast paced content cycle, we mostly “headline read”. The learn category is geared towards topics that we are curious about, passionate about, or would like to get a better understanding of. It’s all about depth.

Take this newsletter, for example. You’re interested in improving your sales or you wouldn’t be reading this. What deeper topic could you pick that would directly affect your sales? Maybe it’s a deep understanding of your industry, human psychology or learning to communicate effectively.

→ What is a topic you’ve wanted to learn more about but haven’t invested the time into?

Now, Here’s What You Do:

1. For the next quarter, pick 1 thing for each category of Focus, Eliminate, Experiment and Learn.

   → Write it where you can see it!

2. Schedule it out on your calendar

   → Ex: Spend 30-minutes every Friday morning with your “Learn” category.

3. Hold yourself accountable

   → Or, find an accountability partner where you can help each other.

4. At the end of 90-days, assess how you did.

   → Either stick with certain ones longer or pick new items for the next 90 days.

Organizing your goals and calling them out helps them become more actionable. Not only will your yearly goals become more achievable, you’ll remove distractions and free up time for your most important work, relationships and activities you enjoy!

Here’s my F.E.E.L. For Next Quarter

Focus → 90-Day Coaching Program. I am working on a “building blocks” approach to my sales coaching programs to make it easier for Founders and will be using next quarter to map it all out.

Eliminate → Procrastination / unnecessary phone pickups. During one 90-min time-blocking session each day, I am going to plug my phone into the charger downstairs to get it out of sight.

Experiment → AI Agents. I’m fascinated by AI and the opportunities that exist. I’m going to experiment with building my own AI agent for my business.

Learn → Hubspot Certifications. I have started to get certified in Hubspot’s SalesHub platform and will continue to do this throughout next quarter.

Even if you only pick one of the four. Even if you hit 80% success rate. It can all be beneficial to getting you on your way to thinking differently about the quarter ahead and building momentum in your business.

I’d love to hear what yours are if you decide to use the F.E.E.L. framework. Reply to this newsletter and let me know.

Your Action Item:

Carve out 30-minutes this week to think about your F.E.E.L. categories for July 1st - Sept. 30th.

Write them down and schedule time on your calendar.

Prioritize those each week.

Remember, it’s not about being a perfect 10/10. It’s knowing that working on the business is vital to growth as much as the day-to-day grind of working in the business.