What To Focus On In The New Year To Expand Your Business & Feel Aligned AF

I know you want the dollars, clients, and accolades. You want to feel sure of yourself, clear on your purpose, and prepared for massive success. I know that you want to help people transform their lives for the better, improving the world one day at a time.

I also know you already have everything you need in order to do all of those things. But, you won’t find them if you’re looking in all the wrong places, focusing on all the wrong things.

Yes, “Make $____ in ___ days,” goals are enticing, especially when your bills are begging to get paid each month.

But, think about the Trevi Fountain in Rome. I took 30 years to build it.

30 years!!!

Thousands of tourists still trust it with their heart’s wishes, every single day.

I’m not saying you need to build your business slowly. I am saying that building a masterpiece, like you want, takes time, attention, and care.

In this week’s episode of Under the Surface, we’re diving deep into what to focus on in the new year to expand your business and feel aligned AF in the process.

Listen to it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Reflecting on the Past Year

Many of us are reflecting on the past year as we prepare to enter a new year, and a lot of us are disappointed about 2022 in certain ways.

For me, 2022 was a shit show of a year. Mostly personal, but also business stuff too. This is the first year I’m giving myself a lot of grace for not hitting certain goals in my business. Up until this year, I would usually be beating myself up about not hitting my goals.

I also used to find myself scrambling at the end of the year. Like, I said I was going to have this many clients, or make this many dollars, or launch this many programs… whatever those arbitrary goals may be.

Whatever those goals may be, when we get to the end of the year we may try to scramble to hit all these goals in the next two weeks. But, I’m here to remind you that time is not linear. Time is a construct that humans created. It’s not f*cking real, okay?!

While I understand that we do live in the 3D, and we live in society, we are supposed to have this construct of time and do things that we know need to happen… I want to recognize that the pressure to make things happen and hit goals feels so heavy.

I get it. Truly.

Being a human being and living in a human body feels so hard (is that my Aquarius moon talking?) I think it’s because there is a part of us that knows that time is not real. At least that’s true for me.

Sometimes I’m so tired of living by all of the rules. I want to be in my black hole of bliss, ignoring anything that’s going on.

Anyway, that was quite a tangent to go on for this morning, but I’m coming back to the subject of reflecting on your year and thinking about the next year.

You may be feeling so motivated and have all this energy for setting goals in the new year. Basically, to do the same thing that you just did this year—which is to hope that next year’s going to be different and you’re going to achieve all the things!

That’s cool.

But, I think that the reason we have such a hard time hitting a lot of our goals is that we’re focused on the wrong things.

Look, I see you. I know that you are someone who is doing the inner work.

You want to know yourself and be more you, because you know that the more you can show up as you in the world, the better you’re going to feel. You know the more you live out your potential, the more you can actually help others, the more you can actually have an impact on the world, and be who you’re meant to be.

If you’re listening to this episode, you likely own a business. So, part of your path has been the wondering of: How do I take who I am and what I feel passionate about and what I feel my purpose is, how do I monetize that while also impacting the world around me and improving lives?

You are the helper and you want to be of service in this world. Yet, you know sometimes you feel pressure to focus on things that take you away from your purpose because of the things you see online and are marketed towards you.

The point is that you need to come back to the whole reason why you started your business in the first place. Focus on that. Focus on the things that are actually meaningful to you, so that you are building a business as your most authentic version of yourself.

When you’re building in that way, it’s going to feel good and feel aligned.

Setting Goals

You probably went into business to work for yourself because you didn’t want to have to work for anybody else’s dream.

You wanted freedom. You didn’t want to play by anybody else’s rules.

Don’t come out here and start a business and start playing by “the rules.” Don’t focus on what everyone else focuses on.

Setting goals according to how everyone else says you should set goals is a big NO. You need to focus on what matters to you.

I’m going to share with you some of the things that really helped me shift my focus so that I’m still working towards the goal, but in a way that feels much more intentional, purposeful, and aligned with me.

Revenue Goals

My first example is around revenue, because that’s a huge focus in the online business world.

I’ll preface this by saying that you do need to focus on revenue to some degree if you have a business. However, when you’re only focusing on revenue so that you can hit a certain number in your business so that you can market that to others, please understand what you’re attracting.

You’re coming from this vanity metric. Your revenue is a vanity metric in marketing. It doesn’t mean anything. There is zero context.

We don’t know how many team members you’re paying, we don’t know how many expenses you have, how much overhead you have, your personal expenses, etc. We don’t have any context whatsoever for your number. We don’t know what country you live in and what the conversion rate is. We just don’t know.

Revenue is arbitrary. We want to care about profit.

Ask yourself what you care about when it comes to setting sales, revenue, and profit goals (aka, money goals).

For me, when I think about money goals, I’m not starting with revenue. I’m starting with reflecting on what my financial responsibilities will be. What needs to be paid every month automatically without stress?

Now, what do I want my profit margin to be? Why?

This is a lot of the work I’ve been doing in the past year and a half. I spent a lot of time at the beginning of my business looking at all the problems. I was becoming very problem aware and building limiting money stories.

So, I started with the emotional and energetic side of money. I started learning how to raise my energetic minimum. That was super helpful in my business because when I did need to increase my revenue for whatever reason (e.g. making an investment), doing the manifestation, emotional, and spiritual work around money was a game changer around creating more.

But, as far as feeling different around money and having a solid foundation with overflow and freedom with investments, that has been a product of something else.

Education and implementation of getting organized has helped me get there. I had to be really intentional about which goals that I set.

If you want to learn more, listen to my episode with Mandyy Thomas, my finance coach to hear more about financial intimacy. 

Basically, I had to take time to understand what my finances were like for both my business and personally. You know, not just what the expenses are every month, but also what do I need to be saving for taxes? What do I need to save for emergencies? What am I setting aside every month for my 401k? All of these things go into my financial health.

Looking at that every month and saying, okay, now what do I want my profit margins to be? And from that place, you can set a revenue goal.

If you’re setting an arbitrary revenue goal, because you know, Susie business coach said that that’s the goal to set, you’re not going to feel connected to that. You’re not going to be serving from the place that you really want to be serving from because you’re only looking at the dollar sign.

When it comes to 2023, remember that where you focus goes, energy flows. You want to be focused, feeling solid, and abundant.

At the base level, the revenue is like the last step. What are all the pieces that need to come before you can set that goal?

What do you need to be secure, stable, and creating the financial future for yourself and for your family? Then, think about what you want your profit margin to be. Look at all these different numbers, don’t just look at your revenue.

Client experience

When we think about business growth, we look at how many clients, customers, or community members we want. We look for more and more and more. Sign more clients. Get more customers. Grow the community to ___ people.

We tend to focus on the number, and then we look to that number to decide how worthy or good we are. How great that offer really is. I’m not saying we all do this, but I definitely have. Where, if I’m not hitting this goal of X amount of people, it means something about me or my offer.

I want to invite all of us to change our focus to the client experience instead of client acquisition. 

When we are focused on client experience and giving our clients, customers, or community an experience that really does convey the mission, purpose, essence, and magic of your brand… when we focus on tightening that up, improving that, the client acquisition will come naturally.

When you’re focused on generosity, service, and your intention is to show up in a magnetic way, you’ll show up different energetically. You’re considering how you can give the best experience possible in every interaction, from the moment someone finds you and your work, to the moment they’re inside your offer, and on their journey after your offer.

Focusing on being generous can mean a lot of things. It could mean setting up some on and offboarding systems on the back end so that things are more streamlined and efficient. 

It might mean getting clear on what your brand’s mission and purpose actually is. Like, getting clear on your own energy and how other people experience it so that you know what an authentic experience might look and feel like.

Maybe you have to learn and enhance your skills to improve your offerings. Maybe you have to revamp your offer because it’s been the same for the past two years. There are many different ways to improve your client experience that’s going to make you show up differently.

When you’re focused on signing clients, obtaining customers, and the more more more, things are going to fall through the cracks. You’re going to have more fires to put out because you’re not actually focused on what’s actually here. 

When you’re confident in what you express and bring to the world, your energy will be magnetic. This won’t resonate with people who are also in the energy of obtaining more, but you have to be honest with yourself… Is that who you want in your world?

Focus on quality over quantity. Trust that when there is quality, the quantity will come because you’re focused on that high quality experience for every single person in your audience, community, every client, student, and customer.

When you’re focused on giving them the best experience possible, they’re going to be attracted into your world. They’re going to be so happy, get better results, and stay with you longer. If you get them results and then offer something new, they’re going to want that too, because they had a great experience with you the first time. 

Beyond that, they’re going to want to share their experience with everyone they know, and that’s how you expand your reach to build your business.

You acquire those clients without having to focus on acquisition, because you’re intentional about client experience.

Doing The Work You Love

There’s a lot of pressure to talk about the narrative that the less you work, the more money you make, the better you must be.

I am all for learning how to rest, regulating your nervous system, and doing the work to become aware of how deep this capitalist culture runs through our veins. We have to untangle ourselves from it and find our own balance with being a human being on the material plane without killing ourselves to earn.

I get that, AND…

Having a business is a lot of f*cking work.

Building an aligned, purposeful business that provides services for people is a lot of work, especially when you’re starting from scratch.

When I started a business, it wasn’t like I had years of corporate experience. It wasn’t like I was able to replace my income in six months because I knew exactly what I was doing. No, I didn’t know sh*t.

I had to figure everything out myself.

I also didn’t have any money. I had to do everything myself and it was a lot of work. I started my business when I was pregnant with my second child. I had a toddler, I was pregnant, and I was starting a business with no experience and no money. My business was on a topic that no one on earth had heard of: Human Design.

It honestly grinds my gears to hear how working less, resting, or doing nothing is glorified in the wellness or spiritual online business space. It’s a disservice to new entrepreneurs who are seeking freedom in their lives. The entrepreneurs who are here to do what they really want to do in the world, and be compensated for it.

They come into entrepreneurship and it’s really f*cking hard. Then, they’re bombarded by Instagram coaches telling them how easy it is to receive payment notifications while you’re on vacation in Tulum—or some BS like that.

It’s DISCOURAGING to the entrepreneur who is working so hard, is so confused, and is trying to figure everything out on their own. They’re looking for help, and people are selling them the solution to not be working all the time and to make it easy. That’s not helpful!

Everyone is entitled to post their own sh*t. Like, I post about resting too. Sometimes I forget I have to give context to this and say that for the first two and a half years of my business, I did nothing but work. But, that’s not true either. I was with my family AND I had a lot of late nights. I worked every weekend for years.

So now when I post about taking the entire weekend off, I need you to know that context.

Everyone is entitled to post whatever the f*ck they want. It’s self-expression, I’m here for that. I just want to make sure that all the newer entrepreneurs out there know that if you’ve been spinning your wheels for the past few years and it’s just not happening—sometimes it’s like that.

It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you. It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with your business, offer, or talent. 

Put your hand over your heart and feel this: There’s nothing wrong. You are exactly where you’re supposed to be, doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing right now. Everything is happening. You think it’s not happening. You think that you don’t have it figured out. It is all happening. It’s been happening all along since the moment you had the thought, idea, or vision. This is a part of the process.

Don’t focus on working less. Focus on doing more of the work that you love. 

The work you don’t love, that’s what is going to be really hard. It’s going to burn you out and be detrimental to your mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional being. It’s where you’re driving yourself into the ground, working yourself to the bone, doing all the shit you don’t want to do.

The point of starting your business is so that you could literally do the opposite of that. You started it for freedom. You started your business so you could do what you want. So, don’t spend all day, every day, doing shit you don’t want to do. You don’t have to punish yourself to be worthy of the success that you want.

You’re worthy of doing the stuff that you enjoy. Go figure out what that stuff is and what needs to be done in your business. Do your energetic inventory (read about it in this blog post). It’s likely that you’re doing a lot work that you don’t actually have to be doing.

Either you could switch up your strategy so that you can delete those things you don’t want to do entirely from your business, or you could hire help and delegate.

And for those of you who are already thinking that you don’t have the money to hire support, get creative! Do a trade, figure out what you can offer to get the support that you need. The more time, energy, and attention you waste on doing the things you hate, the less energy you have to do the things that you’re actually here on earth to do. 

Every moment is a choice. The most successful entrepreneurs that I’ve seen are extremely clear on what their priorities are, and they’re efficient and organized with their time. 

I’m not perfect at this.

I do find myself spending an hour and half creating a post for social media. I don’t have to do that. I literally have a content manager who can do that for me. Yes, I like to write my own copy (and all my posts are my words), but I don’t need to be wasting time on my computer playing with graphics for an hour and a half. That’s a waste of my creative genius and of my precious time, especially when I am paying someone money to do that for me.

If I’m calling you out right now, just recognize that I’m doing it with love. I’m calling myself out too.

Be honest with yourself. Stop punishing yourself by doing every single thing in your business that you don’t want to be doing. It’s inefficient. Use your energy and your time effectively. This could be a huge reason why you’re not hitting your goals in your business too.

Building Stronger

You may think you want to build your business faster, but what if you built it stronger instead?

You don’t need to focus on how quickly you’re building. Focus on building a solid foundation.

How solid is the ground that you’re standing on in your business? Are you clear on all these foundational aspects of your business and how they’re working together? Do you know your mission and your purpose? Is your offer suite clear? Do you know the transformation that all of your offers provide? Do you know who all of your offers are for? Do you have a marketing plan and strategy? 

All of these aspects of your business are the foundations, and so is your client or customer journey.

Getting really clear and being solid in these things will help you build strong, and that’s more important than building fast.

Building quickly is not always sustainable. It is possible to build quickly on a solid foundation, but those of us who are trying to build a castle on sand… it’s going to crumble.

Like, it’s amazing that you signed 10 people into your high level mastermind and made a bunch of revenue. But, is your business solid? Do you know what’s coming next? Do you feel pressure to keep creating because you don’t have a solid plan that can be executed? Do you feel confident in your role and what you need to do in order to reach your goals?

There are going to be things that need to be done on a practical and strategic level to get there. There’s also going to be things that are emotional and energetic as well.

When we want to build stronger instead of faster, how do we build strong? Well, consider these things. How can YOU set the solid foundation for YOUR business?

In order for you to build a solid foundation for your business, what do you need to know? Do you need knowledge? Do you need skill? Do you need strategy?

Figure out what the foundational elements of your business are. Start there. Then, from there, look at the emotional and energetic side of things. Who are you in this process of building out your business? Who do you need to be?

Everyone’s foundation for their business is going to look different based on who they are (and I talk more about this in the Human Design And Your Business Masterclass).

If you don’t know who you are, you’re not going to know how to build a solid foundation that’s aligned and feels authentic to you. You’re going to build a business that isn’t authentic to you. In a year, or two, you’re going to want to burn it to the ground. You may burn out and hate it.

Really knowing who you are, what your gifts are, what energy you bring to the table, that’s the transformation and impact you’re here to facilitate for your clients, customers, and community. 

It’s a Process

This is an ongoing process.

Yes, you want to build the practical sides of your business to create a clear foundation. You want to make sure it’s authentic. You want to work on that emotional intelligence so that you can constantly be course correcting. Your role is going to change and evolve and your business is going to be ever-growing.

This is a constant process of checking in.

Reflecting and asking: What do I need right now to make this feel more solid? What do I need right now for expansion? Do I need to work on my craft? Do I need to learn more? What do I need?

A lot of problems could be eradicated if we could turn inward and ask ourselves: How could I get even better at everything that I’m doing right now?

How can I provide a better experience? How could I get so good that I don’t have to prove how good I am (both practically and emotionally)?

You have to do the work to be able to believe that you’re really f*cking good. Part of that work may be you needing to learn more. Sometimes it’s imposter syndrome, and sometimes it’s needing to learn more skills to feel confident in yourself. For you to be strong and show up in the best way that you can.

An Invitation

I know that a lot of you reading feel called to learn Human Design. That’s probably why you follow me and ended up here, right here, in this moment reading this.

You’re curious souls that want to go deeper with it.

I want to invite you to get on the waitlist for our next cohort of the Embodied By Design® practitioner certification. 

If you know that learning Human Design, receiving guidance and mentorship from me, as well as connecting with other embodied leaders is what you and your business need this year, tap here to learn more and join the waitlist.

Okay, I am sending you so so so much love. Have the most beautiful week(end), and I am so excited for all that your business will expand to in the New Year!

Before you go, make sure to share a screenshot of this episode to your Instagram stories and tag me @krystalewoods. I’m obsessed with reading about your favorite moments from Under The Surface!

It makes me truly happy.