My 2023 Goals (plus goal setting tips from a life coach)

This is Part 2 of my 2023 goal setting series. Read Part 1, my 2022 year in review, here!

This year already feels different. Do you feel it too?

January is usually the longest, gloomiest month of the year for me, even more since we moved to west MI where the sun doesn’t rise until after 8am and lake effect clouds drown out any glimpse of sun. 

However, I’m finally getting that magical boost of second trimester energy and it’s completely overpowering my winter blahs. Especially in contrast to how low I felt through the past few months, with a tough first tri combined with endless daycare courtesy of the 3 year old. I probably don’t need to tell you how insane this virus season has been, but woah being sick and pregnant really sucks ha.

Anyways, I entered the new year feeling a surge of energy and motivation I haven’t really experienced in a long time. Maybe ever!

Like I said in my previous post, last year felt like a year of staging. Lots of not so fun growing pains (house hunting, trying to conceive, moving, etc) necessary to get to the other side.

And now I feel suspended in a magic bubble of time where we’re settled into our home and routine, I have the time, energy, and support to do all the things I want to do while also taking care of myself, yet the chaos of a new baby is still a comfortable four months away.

So I’ve been fully enjoying this quiet, gloomy, hibernation mode month to get back to work and map out all the plans and ideas that have been simmering in my head.

I’ve been using the Power Sheets goal planner for the past 5 years now as a tool to help me plan out my annual goals and then break them down into monthly, weekly, and daily actions.

This process works for me because I’m a visual, big picture person. I love brain-dumping and getting everything out on paper, and then seeing how my monthly and weekly plans connect back to my greater vision. It helps me stay focused and in action mode on a daily basis instead of spinning out in FOMO overwhelm with all my ideas!

How I set my annual goals

I’ve found it most helpful to think about a few broad, long term goals that reflect the areas of life I want to focus on this year and then break them down into quarterly, monthly, and weekly plans. 

As a certified Beautiful You Life Coach, I’ve been trained and had years of fun practice in creating goals that aren’t just specific/measurable/etc etc but feel inspiring, heart centered, and really encapsulate who I want to be as I grow into this next phase of myself.  

My annual, bigger picture goals tend to be more broad, and then I break them down into smaller mini-goals and actions to visualize how I’m going to get from point A to point B. 

The very first action step I recommend after setting a goal is to break out your journal and dig deep into why this goal is important, how you want to feel as you work towards it and then ultimately achieve or embody the end result, and where you are now at the starting line.

This helps you mentally and emotionally connect to your goal and makes taking the necessary actions much easier and natural. Sometimes I don’t even create an action plan - after leaning into my vision for my goal I “set it and forget it” and let myself intuitively and subconsciously flow into where I want to go. This takes a lot of self trust though!

When I’m working with a life coaching client, our very first session is a goal setting intensive where we establish the goals they’ll be working towards in our time together. Then I help them create personalized journal prompts and foundation-setting actions to ground into their vision. If this sounds like something that would be supportive to you, you can book a free mini consult here to get a taste of what it’s like to work with me!

We can’t predict the future or see what plot twists the year will bring (RIP my 2020 vision board), but I do know our family has an enormous life change coming in May aka the ticking time bomb inside my uterus who is kicking me as I type. So my 2023 goals are a mix of “this needs to get done before Bebe Dos,” and “this could flow into a 2024 goal and that is totally fine.”

Goals don’t have to be timeline dependent :) you just need a way to measure progress, whether that’s tangible check lists or events with a deadline, or simply recording how you feel over time and grow as a person.

Here are a few of my core 2023 goals for life and business!

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LIFE GOALS

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Welcome Baby 2 into our family

This is pretty self explanatory. He’s due in late May, which still seems far away but I know in a month or two it will start getting real! 

What does “success” look like for this by the end of 2023?

• Finding our groove as a new family unit of four.

• Feeling recovered physically and rebuilding my strength.

• Getting the support we need, and taking care of my mental health.

Mini Goals/Action Steps

• Continue with my walking and strength training routine

• Find a therapist, pelvic floor PT, and lactation consultant

• Sign up for postpartum home fitness program

• Order a bed for T

• Set up nursery

• Go through baby stuff/make registry of things we need

• Sew all the newborn clothes I want to :)

• Spend intentional 1:1 time with T

(Obviously these mini-goals and actions will shift and new priorities will emerge once the baby is actually here)

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Build our community here in Grand Rapids

The biggest thing I miss about leaving Chicago is our community of friends and family there. I’ve made some great new friends so far here but now we’ve been in MI for over a year (and pandemic restrictions continue to lift… for now…) it’s time to get more intentional with getting out there and being social! We are on the hunt for a church community, and I’m hoping to find some kind of new moms group like I had with Thomas too for early postpartum sanity. 

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Create routines and habits to support my mental and physical health

What does success look like?

• Seeing a therapist regularly and feeling mentally and emotionally stable through postpartum

• Rehab my body postpartum

• Continue exercise routine to have a strong and healthy pregnancy

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Settle into our house and create a beautiful, cozy home

What does success look like?

• Feel settled and organized vs. messy and chaotic

• Have all our rooms set up

• Complete a few projects

• Hire cleaners 1-2/month

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BIZ GOALS

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Grow my life coaching business with purpose and joy.

This is my number one goal for 2023/2024. As I shared in my last blog post, I’ve massively streamlined my coaching business so I can solely focus on my 1:1 life coaching this year. Building deep connections with women on an individual level and supporting them through life transitions so they can feel confident and at home in themselves is something I consider a spiritual calling, but also something I’ve resisted focusing on because the things that are closest to our hearts also feel the most scary !!

What does success look like?

• Support 6-8 other women and moms in creating an inspired life through 1:1 coaching

• Launch Back to Biz with Baby group program this fall with 5+ members

• Feel like I have the childcare support I need

• Feel supported and intentional through maternity leave and return

• See bank accounts growing

Mini Goals

(most of these have their own set of mini-mini goals and obviously lots of actions, lol)

• Book 4+ clients by maternity leave

• Grow email list to 750 subscribers

• Build my audience with regular social media strategy and collabs

• Buy a new laptop!

• Plan for 8 weeks off for mat leave

• Create LLC

• Launch Back to Biz with Baby group program in fall

• Blog and send a newsletter 3-4/week

• Run free masterclasses and update opt-in

• Take December off for the holidays

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Continue to cultivate joy, inspiration, and creativity with my Etsy shop

I’ve run my Etsy  since 2013 as a fun creative outlet (and way to fund my fabric and yarn obsessions) but last year I started viewing it as a more official side hustle. I went through all the CPSC compliance hoops to officially register as a small batch manufacturer and launched my first collections of children’s clothing! I love making adorable baby clothes, accessories, and home goods to add a pop of color and beauty to every day life. And I love love LOVE curating fabric collections and buying allll the Rifle Paper Co, hehe. Since sewing is extremely time consuming I’m leaving this goal a little open-ended since I don’t know how life will look after baby arrives, but I’d love to continue releasing seasonal children’s collections, doing more custom orders, and maybe even selling at my first makers market or pop up show locally!

What would success look like?

• Have fun!

• Turn profit in my seasonal drops

• Learn and expand my skills

• Buy a serger with profits

• Do my first market! (holiday?)

• Increase listings to ~80

Mini goals/timeline

• Seasonal collection drops:

Jan - spring kitchen

Feb - Easter baby

Mar - spring/summer collection

Apr - finish orders and prep for mat leave

May to Sept - mat leave

Oct - holiday launch

• Grow IG reach and email list (post reels, update hashtags, engage with other accounts)

• Do my first market ?

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Goal setting tips from a life coach

“It always seems impossible until it’s done”

— Nelson Mandela

This quote has been in my mind constantly, especially when the little niggle of self doubt creeps in.

It’s fun and inspiring to create a vision or exciting goals for your life, but when we get back down to reality it’s so hard to discipline ourselves to take the action steps required to bring them to life. Usually actions either feel boring and a grind, or else require us to go out of our comfort zones and trigger lots of insecurities and fear. Either way it’s easy to let our many responsibilities of daily life to distract us from the deeper things we actually want to do. Which is why so many of our goals and new years resolutions “fail” or sit on the backburner year after year.

• What would it take for you to choose one goal to fully devote yourself to achieving this year? 

• What would that goal be? 

• What would you need to do? 

• What support would you need? 

• What would it feel like to be the person you need to be to live out that goal?

And then instead of feeling discouraged or beating yourself up for “failing” to achieve your goals or falling behind in life, what if you could send yourself some epic compassion and love, celebrate what you HAVE been through over the past couple of years, and decide that you get to start fresh this year?

Unsurprisingly, one of the easiest and fastest ways to actually get from where you are to where you want to be is to invest in the personal support of a life coach. Supporting you in pursuing and achieving meaningful goals and creating a life you love is literally our job description 🙂

If you’d like to work with me, I invite you to schedule a free 30 minute Mini Glow Up session here! This is a chance for us to get to know each other, for you to share your ideas, and receive a sample of what it’s like to be coached by me. You’ll walk away with one powerful takeaway or mindset shift and get a feel if working together would be a good fit for you this year.

Cheers to a new year and new adventures ahead!

xo Anna

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2022 Year In Review - highs and lows from life and biz

2022 was a year.

I was listening to an Etsy sellers podcast this morning, and the host said she considered 2022 a year of “staging” for Etsy, i.e. maybe not a ton of capital growth but many important behind the scenes updates and new features were rolled out that will pave the way for growth and expansion in this year and beyond for the platform.

And that’s how I think of 2022 for me too: a year of staging.

It was an impactful year full of lots of exciting change and deep growth, but in the kind of enormous life shifting moments that are going to take time to really settle into and see come to life.

As someone who thrives on stability and comfort, overall it felt challenging and scary in many ways instead of exciting and joyful, but I know all the changes are setting the foundation for the future I deeply desire. So I’m trying to stay present, trust the process, and enjoy the ride as much as possible!

Before I share my goals and intentions for 2023, I wanted to look back and recap the year we just completed. To bring a bit of structure to the chaos, I’m dividing my review into 2 main categories - Life and Business. These two areas are fairly intertwined for me on a day to day basis and influence each other, but I like considering them separately.

Let’s start with life updates!

Here are the major highs and challenges of 2022.

I’m choosing the term “challenges” instead of “lows,” because hard times don’t necessarily mean everything sucks and there are bright spots even in the hardest days. But let’s just say these experiences really stretched me… and really sucked at times, ha.

2022 Life Highs

• Buying our house!

When we moved from Chicago to Michigan in October 2021 we decided to rent for a year to get familiar with the area before looking for our first house. It just so happened that we moved during the most insane housing market ever. Even though our lease went through October 2022, we started the home search process in early spring and braced ourselves for rejection. Oh boy did we get rejected! 

Thanks to record low interest rates, crazy demand, and limited supply, most starter homes were selling for up to $40-50,000 over asking prices, which already seemed ridiculously high. 

In July, after putting in over 13 offers (I lost count) and attending dozens of open houses and showings, rising interest rates started to cool the competition a bit and we got an offer accepted on a mid-century brick ranch in a quiet residential side of town, closed at the end of August, and moved in mid-October! Despite all the rejection, the entire process felt pretty smooth and it’s still hard to believe we own a house. It has many quirks, but it is ours! I have to give Ben major credit for navigating us through the buying and moving process since I was mentally and physically incapacitated for many months (see: Challenges).

• Getting pregnant with a healthy Bebe Dos

Sometimes when it rains, it pours. And things just have to happen all at the same time. We decided the time was right to start trying to expand our family at the same time as searching for a house. I do not recommend. But I also have no regrets and wouldn’t change anything if I had the choice. 

It took us a few months to conceive our first two pregnancies (one loss, one Thomas) so I assumed it would be the same this time, but lo and behold I am now a goddess of fertility at the perfect age of 35 and got knocked up verrrrrrry quickly two times in a row. 

The first embryo pulled the emergency evacuation lever and jettisoned itself, but the second babe decided to give life a shot and is due to make his arrival in late May! The first half of the pregnancy was rocky but I’m feeling a lot better and starting to feel him kick and move now at 21 weeks pregnant (have an anterior placenta so that has been muffling things a bit) and it’s feeling more and more real!

• Spending lots of time with family and friends

It has been a joy watching Thomas bloom from a sweet and sensitive toddler into a confident and silly 3 year old. Even if he is still too stubborn to use the potty, ha. And we were able to spend lots of time visiting family and hanging out with old and new friends, which I want more of now we’re in a post(ish?) pandemic world.

2022 Life Challenges

• Miscarriage number two in July

I wrote a full post to process this experience that you can read here. 

• Mental health challenges from all the change and transitions

When it comes to mental health, I used to think of what it felt like to have postpartum depression, or having a stressful fast paced schedule and a loud inner critic. But stress can be happening deep beneath the surface and bubble up in weird ways.

I started noticing heart palpitations in the spring and actually went to the doctor for an EKG and blood work because feeling uncontrollably “off” in my body is a huge anxiety trigger in itself. Everything came back normal. Then in August and September I went through the worst physical anxiety of my life. It culminated in what felt like a 24 hour panic attack where my body was flooded with adrenaline and I couldn’t shut it off, even though my mind and thoughts were “calm.”

Looking back, this happened the weekend we were closing on our house, and also probably the same time my body was getting pregnant again, so add some hormonal whackadoodle in there too. But in the moment it felt like I was going to be dealing with debilitating anxiety for the rest of my life.

Luckily I’ve been able to get the support I need to feel like myself again, and I’ve taken a lot of pressure off myself, embraced a season of surrender, and am in the process of finding a therapist (especially one specializing in perinatal mental health).

And now onto a quick business review!

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

Reflecting on our “failures” is a gold mine of insight and can be a path back to the light in both life and business, especially in seasons where everything is new, we are doing things we’ve never done before, and don’t even know what we need. I always tell my clients sometimes you have to go past your own limits to know where they exist.

One of my lowest moments in 2022 was a week in May while Ben was gone on a work trip and I was solo parenting with no childcare, attempting to launch my cycle awareness course as a live group program, and Thomas decided to drop his nap. Let’s just say I felt like I failed on all counts as a mom and coach and was so burned out by the time Ben came home, I literally cried for 2 days just to decompress.

That week was a big eye opener and gave me a lot of clarity for what I personally need to thrive, or at the bare minimum stay afloat. These insights and “life lessons” are PRICELESS!

So here are the 3 biggest biz lessons I learned the good old fashioned hard way this past year:

• Launching lots of small offers and virtual events and chasing my bright/shiny ideas without giving myself enough time to implement… resulting in lots of fails and flops. Turns out the “throw spaghetti at the wall” approach is not the way to create momentum in online business.

• Trying to sustain my business with zero or minimal childcare … some women can do this with success and grace but I can’t. And that’s ok! Lesson learned at least in this season. I need at least 3 full days plus a co-parent on the other days to feel like myself.

• Letting the feelings of constant change and un-groundedness get to my head and prevent me from taking action. It’s a constant work in progress to remember that life is always going to be chaotic and messy, and we have to choose to show up anyways instead of waiting for better or calmer circumstances!

WHAT WORKED/IS WORKING

• Investing in support!!

The first investment I recommend to anyone starting or growing their own business with small children is childcare. The second is some kind of coaching to help you stay focused, accountable to your goals, and out of your own head. I avoided these two things for way too long because “I didn’t have the money,” but sometimes you have to invest money to make money.

• Streamlining the heck out of my business to focus on just two main priorities for 2023. 

Launching lots of smaller, low cost programs and memberships in 2022 didn’t work and kept draining my energy and distracting my focus, so for 2023 I’ve let go of every shiny side project except for my 1:1 life coaching, which is ultimately the only thing I want to do anyways and will allow me to support a small number of clients in a deep, meaningful way while creating consistent monthly income. I’m also keeping my Etsy shop open as a creative outlet because it brings me joy and fulfillment.

• Figuring out what’s important to me right now, what brings me joy in this season of life, and dropping all expectations, pressure, and comparison to others.

I’m allowing myself to be supported instead of trying to do everything by myself more than I ever have before, because I’ve been forced to. This goes from letting Ben step up as a co-parent and take over house stuff, to starting anxiety medication, to allowing my more go-getting friend to schedule much needed girl time.

And heading into 2023, I feel like a completely different person than I was this time last year.

I’m more at peace, grounded, and optimistic about where I am, who I am, and where I’m headed even if I can’t see everything that’s coming. I know I can trust myself and my support system to make it through hard times, which makes it easier to appreciate and soak up the good times.

In my next post I’ll share my 2023 goals and intentions, because after two years of drifting and giving myself space to BE through some big life transitions, I finally feel ready to take a more intentional and active role in showing up in life and business. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little behind the scenes peek!

xo Anna

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How I'm planning for maternity leave as an entrepreneur and life coach

It’s crazy to be able to finally say that my baby is due next week !!

I guess I’m ready? At least I feel like I’ll be ready if we can hang in there through the weekend, ha!

One of the questions I’ve been getting is whether I’m taking time off work or how I’m managing maternity leave being self employed.

Maternity and paternity support in the US is an issue in itself, but planning for maternity leave as a solo-entrepreneur and first time mom is uniquely tough because there are no established policies or standard procedures to follow, and although I can learn from the experience of my entrepreneur/new mom friends, everyone’s business, relationships, babies, and financial situations are different.

Honestly, the whole thing has given me a lot of stress and anxiety, especially since I am a Type A control freak and like to have everything planned out. Obviously when it comes to having a baby there are so few things that are actually in your control, so the process has also been a big lesson in letting go, trust, surrender, and practicing what I preach as a life coach. Mainly, that breakdowns come before the breakthrough. Oh my gosh SO MANY BREAKDOWNS.

I’ve approached this whole trying to conceive/miscarriage/pregnancy/matrescence season of life as a personal and spiritual growth journey which has given me a really great perspective and allowed me to feel more or less grounded as I navigate the anxiety, emotional breakdowns, hormonal rollercoaster, and the general fears that pop up when you grow a baby.

I’m not really taking an official “maternity leave” because my work and business is an extension of my everyday life, so there’s really nothing to leave from. However, I am making conscious shifts so that I can be as present as possible during the first weeks and months at home bonding with our baby.

I’m thinking of these first few months more as a baby sabbatical than a leave.

Luckily the way my business is set up gives me complete flexibility. But it’s also kind of terrifying to venture into the unknown.

I’ve always wanted to be a work from home mom, so I’m not afraid of navigating work/life balance or figuring out the actual nuts and bolts of WORK.

For me, the biggest stress has been the financial aspect of giving myself time off, while allowing for a flexible schedule and lots of change and transition.

We depend on my income, so I don’t have the luxury of taking an extended time completely off. But I also want to make sure the hours I’m spending on work over the next several months are as productive, efficient, and income generating as possible.

After months of stressing, obsessing, listening to podcasts, crowd sourcing entrepreneur friends, and trial and error, I’m finally feeling good about navigating this next season of business and new motherhood.

Whether you’re having a baby, dealing with a health crisis, or simply want to take an extended time off from work, I believe one of the biggest perks to self employment is having flexibility and freedom over your schedule.

And personally, one of my primary motivations for being self employed is to work to live, not live to work.

Looking back on the last six months, I can distill the whole messy process of planning for self-employed leave or sabbatical into three components:

1. Mindset work (bigger vision as well as finances and money)

2. Plan for your return

3. Creating and implementing systems

1. Mindset Work

Vision

Before diving into the “how” and all the details, it’s always important to start with your bigger picture values and vision for how you want life to look and feel like through the changes ahead.

What do you want your maternity leave to look and feel like? Do you want to completely unplug, have flexibility, how much time do you want to take off? If money were no object, how would that influence your decisions? What are your childcare options? What if your baby needs extra care and attention and you aren’t able to follow through on your back to work plan? Do you want to work up until you go into labor, or slowly decelerate and start your leave at the middle or end of pregnancy?

In January I invested in a 6 month spiritual womens’ leadership mastermind with Sara Avant Stover, and with her guidance and mentorship decided that my number one priority for this year was to create a work environment that centered around my pregnancy so I could feel mentally, physically, financially, and spiritually supported through this immensely powerful initiation into motherhood.

My ultimate goal is always FLEXIBILITY. I want to be able to focus on my baby and recovery with no pressure to make money or keep up to date with my inbox. I don’t know how much time we’ll need or want, but in a perfect world I see myself coming back to limited part time work hours by the end of the year, and then working flexible part time hours from there. I’ve always wanted to be a work-from-home mom, to be able to be home to raise my kids while also maintaining a personal creative outlet through work that fulfills me and allows me to make a difference and feel connected to the world.

At first I wanted to have all systems in place, projects completed, and feel comfortable with unplugging the last several weeks of my pregnancy so I could focus completely on resting and self care, but in reality I discovered keeping busy with a little bit of work combined with baby prep has felt the best to me, and has kept me from feeling too isolated or impatient with the waiting game.

Abundance mindset

One major personal lesson I’ve been learning the hard way is that whenever I’m stressed or overwhelmed (which happens a lot when pregnant or going through any major life change), it dredges up all my insecurities and fears around money and triggers my basic survival instincts around needing to feel supported...which in turn triggers obsessive worrying and feeling like I’m not good enough/not earning enough/not doing enough/won’t have enough. 

Some women turn to emotional eating, drinking, shopping, or other outlets when reacting to overwhelm, but I start to compulsively freak out about how much money I’m earning or not earning, even if what made me feel overwhelmed in the first place had nothing to do with it.

So LET’S TALK ABOUT MONEY!

I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mindset ever since I was in grade school, and LOVE earning money by selling things I create or do for others. The thought of my earning capacity being limited by a newborn really freaked me out and sent me down a desperation spiral of “MUST MAKE ALL THE MONEY BEFORE BABY IS BORN!”

But then I caught myself, because that’s a horrible energy to come from!

So when it came down to planning my work schedule over the last months of pregnancy and into the second half of the year, I had to be careful not to be motivated by my scarcity mindset and ego, and instead kept asking myself:

“If money wasn’t an issue, what work would feel fulfilling, supportive, and fun for me right now?”

In addition, I’ve been focusing on a lot of inner work around abundance mindset, and learning that true abundance isn’t just about earning or manifesting more money, but about releasing emotional attachment, and shifting from a scarcity mindset of “never enough//I need to control it” to a belief that money is energy ultimately is sourced and returned to a divine source.

If you’re sick of all the law of attraction//manifesting//just work harder dogma and interested in the spiritual and energetic aspects to money, I hiiiiiighly recommend Tosha Silver’s book It’s Not Your Money.

When we stop stressing out about having enough, our nervous system relaxes and this allows us to receive.

I’ve seen this happen magically over and over. Unexpected rebates, gift cards, hand me downs from friends, Facebook marketplace deals, extended payment plans with zero interest financing, generosity of our “village” of friends and family, we have been supported every step of the way.

I wanted to save more money than I did, but I am trusting I’ve saved enough.

I wanted to have more clients lined up than I do, but I am trusting they will be waiting when I am ready.

I wanted to be able to pay off my credit card balance before baby, but I trust it will be paid off in perfect timing and in the meantime it is a lesson in being ok with a little debt and re-writing old money stories and family beliefs about what it means to be “responsible.”

So most of my work prep for baby has revolved around doing energy and mindset work around my bigger vision, abundance, and shifting into a state of receiving, but obviously we live in the real world and need to make tangible plans as well.

It’s hard to find examples or blueprints of how to structure a sabbatical or extended leave as an entrepreneur because everyone’s business is unique and looks different, but in case you’re curious I wanted to share my plan and how I’m making it work in a way that feels good, which brings us to the next step:

2. Plan for your return to work

I think this is something I heard on the Startup Pregnant podcast and it is a GAME CHANGER:

Instead of getting caught up in the maternity leave itself, start with the end in mind and plan backwards from where you want to be when you plug back IN to work. This way, you won’t feel completely lost when you return and will be able to maintain or build momentum so hopefully your return to work is seamless and supportive.

I decided that what felt best and made the most sense would be to keep my Beachbody business “simmering” through the rest of the year, plan to enroll up to three private life coaching clients by November/December, and let everything else go.

3. Create your systems

This is where the details, strategies, and nuts and bolts come in. What moving parts, ongoing projects, or loose ends do you need to complete or delegate before baby?

I have three sources of income, and would recommend to any entrepreneur to diversify your income streams so you aren’t dependent on any one source.

Here is how I’m shifting biz around so I can still maintain base levels of income, while setting myself up for a successful return to the part-time working world when baby and I are ready:

Beachbody coaching

The majority of my income actually comes from my health and fitness accountability biz with Beachbody, and is about 85-90% residual (subscriptions and bonuses), and 10-15% new sales. I know everyone has their own thoughts on network marketing, but Beachbody has been the KEY to making things possible for me to back off my work hours, because I know no matter what happens, I have dependable income coming in every week due to the organization I’ve intentionally built over the last 5 years. This has been such a blessing and relief!

(and am now required to share the disclaimer that Team Beachbody® does not guarantee any level of success or income from the Team Beachbody Coach Opportunity. Each Coach's income depends on his or her own efforts, diligence, and skill. See our Statement of Independent Coach Earnings for the most recent information on the actual incomes of all our Coaches.)

What I’m doing

Since the majority of “work” for Beachbody consists of sharing my life on Instagram, focusing on my own self care, and chatting with other new mom friends, I’m not really planning to completely disengage but am giving myself permission to view it as a positive outlet for my mental/emotional/physical health, and not a necessity. I don’t want to feel pressured to show up and work when I am not ready or don’t have the energetic capacity, so I have set up systems to support my team and customers while taking a backseat for a couple months. 

I’m collaborating with a few leaders on my team to keep our groups fully supported, our team calls covered, our new coach trainings are on autopilot, and BECAUSE DIVINE TIMING ALWAYS COMES THROUGH there’s a brand new program with 20-30 home workout and a no-impact modifier releasing October 1st. Pending a smooth recovery this should be perfect timing for me to ease back into exercise, so I know my personal postpartum fitness plan is covered and I will open up my accountability coaching then for any other women or new moms who want to join me.

Life coaching

This income stream is partly from group programs and digital courses, but mainly from 1:1 private clients. 

What I’m doing

I’ve turned three of my most popular group programs into evergreen digital courses. I’m most proud of my signature program Wild Synchronicity, which will teach you how to plan your life, work, and self care around the cyclical energy of your hormone cycle.

Since I obviously won’t be able to be present for client sessions, I’ve phased out my 1:1’s and am putting my life coaching business on hold until later this fall or winter once we’re all settled in and I know I’ll be able to get baby care a few hours a week. Life coaching fills me with so much energy and joy, so I can’t wait to get back into it! My plan is to start with just 3 new clients this winter, and see how it goes.

(click here to join my waitlist to be the first to know when I open those spaces!)

In the meantime, I’ve set up an email series sharing my best posts on mindset, self care, and authentic biz from my blog archives, which will be scheduled to my email list and Facebook page over August, September, and October. I’m excited to share this valuable content with my community while not having to be physically or energetically present to create new posts or newsletters.

(click here to subscribe to my email series for free)

Etsy shop 

The Anna Maria Locke Etsy Shop started as a way to fund my yarn and fabric addiction, but has evolved into a really fun creative outlet and small income source, bringing in about $2,000/year. 

What I’m doing

Because it is so labor intensive (and not actually profitable when you account for the time I spend cutting fabric, sewing, and packaging orders), I am closing down the shop for the foreseeable future. This decision sounds kind of bittersweet but ultimately feels very freeing to me and not a loss at all. I’m easily inspired and could see myself shifting into the baby accessories market in the future… but for now I want to spend at least the rest of this year getting used to actually having a baby! And if miracles occur and I have a spare 20 minutes to sit down at the sewing machine, I want to be able to spend that time making things for my little nugget or my friend’s babies.

Final thoughts on prepping for a sabbatical or leave as a self employed creative entrepreneur

Overall I feel really good about this “plan.” It feels good, expansive, achievable instead of overwhelming and scary. I think the key is to remain completely flexible and detached from the outcome.

I’m learning it’s important to make plans, but even more important to hold them loosely and be open to things working out differently.

I am choosing to believe everything will unfold even better than I could predict or plan myself.

That having a baby will make my business EASIER, my overall life BETTER, my days more full of joy and happiness, and will launch me into greater levels of personal growth, service, and income.

And don’t hold back from asking for support, investing in a virtual assistant, and receiving help from others! I know it’s hard when you’re a solo-preneur and want to control everything, but trust me, you don’t have to do this alone.

Finally, a reminder for my fellow coaches: every time we grow and evolve, we bring that growth into our work so our clients get to benefit from our experience. Every time we are stretched past our breaking point, we gain resilience and a deeper capacity to feel and relate to others. 

So lean into the breakdowns, the overwhelm, the panic attacks, feel the feels, honor the sacred unraveling of everything you’ve known until now.

The very fabric of your business, identity, body, and life is shifting and integrating into something even stronger and more powerful than you’ve ever experienced before.

Trust it and let go.

Remember that in the end, this too shall pass :)

xo Anna

Beachbody does not guarantee any level of success or income from the Team Beachbody Coach Opportunity. Each Coach's income depends on his or her own efforts, diligence, and skill. See our Statement of Independent Coach Earnings located at https://images.beachbody.com/coach-office/downloads/statement_of_independent_coach_earnings.pdf for the most recent information on our Coaches' actual incomes.