What if clarity comes after you let the plan go…

Core Article: What if clarity comes after you let the plan go…

Paragraph I’m Pondering: “When you innovate and build your business from a…”

Powerful Affirmations to Inspire: ““Money flows to me in ever-increasing amounts…”

Book Review: Marketing a Love Story by Bernadette Jiwa

Cool Stuff: Did you know that Snowy Owls live at Logan Airport in Boston?

AI Info & Resources: How to spot if an AI wrote it…

What if clarity comes after* you let the plan go…*

When it comes down to planning, in the end—it’s really just a plan, right?

You never truly know if it’ll come to fruition. Because a plan isn’t a guarantee, it’s an intention. And whether or not it works out depends on a lot more than just the plan itself—it comes down to your due diligence, your effort, your ability to adapt.

Then there’s the implementation… and all the unexpected stuff that shows up along the way.

You’ve probably heard a few of these before:

“Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.” ~ Albert Einstein
Planning promotes perfect performance ~ Debbie Phillips
“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” ~ Robert Burns
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Out of all of them, Einstein’s hits closest to home—especially when you go a little overboard with planning.

Some days you need a plan. Other days? You just need to wing it. Or have a “flow day.” Or give yourself permission to follow your feelings and whims—just to see where they take you.

What hits home for me about plans is that, truly, you don’t ever really know how it will turn out. You hope, you dream, you plan, overplan, and triple plan. Yet, until it happens, you’re in that “waiting in the balance” place, hoping place. Fingers crossed, hoping and maybe even praying it all works out according to plan… Yet, you may not realize it until you look back at your past.

When I did, I realized that I took chances several times in my life, based on pure courage. I was in a place of life that had so much to offer. I needed to take risks to get what I wanted.

Growing up and being incredibly shy, my Dad really was on my case, and I had to be more assertive if I ever wanted to be in journalism, marketing, or advertising.

So I just went all in after college.

That phase of my life was pretty crazy with all I accomplished because I took risks and had courage from somewhere, and it was more than I ever dreamed.

What I had never planned was being laid off and hired back twice by the same company. Then I was laid off for the last time, after being the one laying off others—Ouch, I didn’t see that coming…

When I finally had the courage after my last layoff to think that maybe there’s something more for me, and I got a phone call from my mentor to not go back and work with him so we can both build our businesses — that was a “you never know” what will happen moment for me.

Now, almost 20 years later, I’m still running my business. And something feels different. I’m going through a new phase about what to do with it and how I want to grow it next.

As I’m aging, I’m seeing a pattern, maybe I’ve lost my courage, my mojo, or maybe I’m just burnt out. Why haven’t I taken more chances?

Why have I been playing it so safe when I was such a risk taker in my 20s, 30s, and 40s?

What happened to my drive, my willingness to do whatever it takes? Is it still there, hidden or maybe buried under new layers of fear and self-doubt?

That’s where the exploration is beginning for me today. What do I want from this business moving forward as I head into my sixties?

What does success mean to me? How will I define this next chapter of my work?

Will that second book finally be finished and published? So many questions. I don’t know how much time I have left on this planet cuz you never know.

So what’s next then?

Maybe now’s the time to summon my younger, wiser self. And choose that it’s ok not to have it all figured out now. Having a loose plan may be the best idea…

And leaving it open-ended, because on the flip side, some of my best impactful moments in my life happened when I didn’t have a plan and just followed my inner guidance….

Adopting this lens, “You just never know what will happen in this next phase of your life,” and having a loose plan that leaves room for growth and healing could be one of the most impactful things I do…

I’ll be sharing more about what this looks like inside my business soon. You never know what might come from it.

If you’re in a similar season—rethinking how you work, how you grow, and what success really means—I’d love to hear. Just leave me a comment. 🙂

Paragraph I’m Pondering

Of course you’ve got to believe in the product, service, or solution you’re creating. But what you need more than a love of your product is love for your customers. You have to care about them to want to make something for them. And you have to understand them to care about them. Understanding the customer is why Apple’s packaging feels like a gift. It’s the reason Instagram became Unstoppable and how Lululemon amassed a cult following. When you innovate and build your business from a place of empathy and a desire to create difference for your customers, those values bubble up into everything you do. ~ Bernadette Jiwa, Marketing A Love Story: How to Matter to Your Customer

Powerful Affirmations to Inspire

“Every action I take is aligned with divine strategy and leads to exponential growth.”
“Money flows to me in ever-increasing amounts from multiple sources, expected and unexpected.”
“Balance is power. I honor rest as much as action, stillness as much as success.”

Book Review

This is one of my FAVORITE books in marketing and storytelling – It’s about creating an emotional connection with your dream clients. And your marketing needs to feel like building relationships, not transactions. People don’t buy products—they buy feelings, stories, and the identity your brand helps them achieve.
Marketing A Love Story:How to Matter To Your Customers by Bernadette Jiwa

Cool Stuff

Fun quiz where you get to guess if Confucius really said that – I’m in. Just know he’s attributed to way more quotes than he actually said…
Did you know that Snowy Owls live at Logan Airport, Boston MA? This is a fascinating short film about a man who takes care of them and gets them back in the wild. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Such big, beautiful creatures.
If you had to store something for over 100 years, how would you do it – this waay too long article explains how we’ve stored data through the ages. It does have a cool graphic opening tho…

AI Info and Resources

AI is being used more and more on so many different fronts. Here’s an article about how you can spot if an AI wrote something.
If you know anyone who’s intimidated by AI, this would be a terrific article to share with them.
Google’s got to stay on top of AI and search, cuz they’re already losing people who are using Perplexity, or ChatGPT for searches, cuz they’re tired of all the ads – here’s more.

Weekly Photos

Emma’s getting a bit close. Since we’re having a weird cold front, we’re spending our morning coffee time in the kitchen at our banquet, and Emma’s always wanting to be a part of it.
Love this picture of Mt. Lassen. We pass by it any time we want to go to town to get food, groceries, etc. You can see that her snow is starting to melt. She’s such an icon for being 10,457 feet tall. Mt. Shasta is still the tallest peak in the Cascade range with an elevation of 14,179 feet.
We had a huge thunderstorm this week. Check out those angry clouds. Oh, and avoid the photobombing dog in my picture. Apparently, she wants to be in all the photos this week!
Another series of pics – Emma watching us drink coffee in the morning.
Emma, getting her paws on the handle to see if she can try some. Ummm, no pups got a hold of any coffee in this pic.
What dog doesn’t like curling up in their owner’s office between all the furniture?! It is a cozy, safe place, even tho it’s a bit crowded in here.
The storm made way for some terrific sunrises this week.

P.S. My Waiting List for the Soulful Marketing Accelerator is open. If you’re interested in knowing when the next cohort is starting, you can get on the waiting list right here.

P.S.S. Whenever You’re Ready: Here are 3 Ways I can make an impact on creating greater success in your business using marketing that’s aligned with your mission and values without feeling like you’re selling your soul.

1. Make Money Now Sheet – It’s one of the bonuses in my 7-Step Soulful Marketing System. I wanted to give it to you for free to help you create more success.

2. Love Books Like I Do? – I’m always reviewing the best nonfiction books – Where Buddha Meets Business.

3. Get my proven 7-Step Soulful Marketing System. It gives you the framework you need to implement authentic and connected marketing using online customer experiences and launching your products, services, or courses. It will help you create greater success.

It’s a simple system, especially if you love to read like me. There’s no video or audio. Plus, you get my proven templates, tools, and worksheets, all with tremendous value. And I’m pricing it incredibly low so it can be more accessible to more people. 🙂

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