Issue Reading Time: 6 minutes

Issue Summary: I'm back, and the Legacy Journal has been rebranded to the Decision Maker Digest! I have made some changes in my business, and this newsletter has also been updated. Continue to expect top-notch insights and recommendations for resources to support you in your business! View our new Digital Shop,  learn more and apply for our Refresh & Revitalize Incubator™, and check out the links in this month's Resource Kit.

The Rebrand 

So with growth comes changes. After much thought and reflection, my newsletter version of the Legacy Journal no longer fits with how I wanted to serve you and how I can address the trends and pain points I'm seeing women business owners wrestling. Though you can continue to expect great insights and recommendations to resources and tools in this newsletter, I wanted to change the format on how to deliver my thoughts and advice on how to grow your business towards momentum and longevity.

What I’ve observed over these past three years in business, is though strategy is important, it can become too much of a focus area that then becomes a hindrance to true growth.

The one thing that causes business owners to gain momentum in business is strategic action. However, I’ve seen many women business owners either:

1. get stuck (with things like imposter syndrome, shiny object syndrome, distractions, FOMO, being risk-averse, procrastination, etc.) or

2. not knowing how to make difficult decisions (with things like enforcing boundaries, having difficult conversations, addressing conflict, feeling guilty about saying no, etc.)

In the Decision Maker Digest, every month I will address a topic and break it down on how you can take your next steps to help your business move forward. I will also tackle how to overcome the things that get us stuck or prevent us from making tough decisions.

Most of my topics will deal with the operations and business development functional areas of your business so that you can see progress. If there’s something you would like me to address on how to make a more strategic decision in your business, reply to this email and let me know!

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To start us off with this first issue, I’m going to share my framework for strategic decision-making: the IPD Method™.

I hope this gives you a foundation so you can start taking more active steps in your business.

IPD Method™ to Decision Making

• Identify the Decision - Get clear on what the decision is and how it will impact you by asking yourself the following questions:

  • Purpose: What’s the purpose of the goal?

  • Time: What’s the timeline/timeframe for implementation?

  • Importance: How important is this goal or task?

  • Expectations: How disappointed will I be if I don’t take action on this in the next week/month/year?

• Prioritize the Next Step - Choose one of the options below as your next step.

  • Research - Gather more information to determine your next step.

  • Take Action - Create, Plan and Timeline, or Schedule the next step.

  • Reflect - Continue to brainstorm, process, and ideate. Seek help from others.

  • Put it Away - Don’t have enough time or resources, or it’s not urgent. Consider when or if you want to revisit this decision.

• Determine the Deadline/Milestone - Set a clear date or metric to know when the decision needs to be made or evaluated.

  • Decide on a deadline to complete or come back to your decision.

  • If you need some time to assess whether the decision was a right fit, determine a milestone marker or benchmark for you to evaluate and decide on next steps.

Get Focused. Gain Momentum.

So let’s see the IPD Method™ in action with …. 

End of Year and Opening Tasks

 📌Clarify Your Strategy📌

As busy business owners, December will be upon us quicker than you think!

Do you find yourself in a position where you’re scrambling at the end of the year trying to close out client projects, completing all of the financial end-of-year tasks, and trying to get new clients and the business on the right foot in the new year?

Let’s break this down…

First, you need to identify what are all of your end-of-year and opening tasks that need to be completed by December and what tasks have to be completed by the end of January.

Second, understanding the tasks and projects you need to achieve will allow you to prioritize what’s important now and what can be pushed off into the future.

Third, start assigning some deadlines on when you and/or a team member will complete that task.

 💥Take Action💥

Now that you’ve identified your tasks, you need to put them into a place where you can see them and hold yourself and/or your team accountable to getting them done.

I suggest a task or project management system like Todoist or Monday.com.

If you don’t have a system or you don’t know what tasks or projects you should be working on to close or open your year, I have a new digital product in my digital shop called the End of Year and Opening Checklist. It’s a spreadsheet that will help you:

• organize your end-of-year tasks and projects,

• allows you to do a soft audit of your business to make sure you’re addressing each functional area,

• recommends which months and what tasks you should start working on your closing and opening activities, and

• you can assign who's responsible for getting things done.

 💭Shift Your Mindset 💭

With any decision we make, it requires a shift in mindset.

This is your reminder that:

• You can ask for help.

• Give yourself permission to let things go. Whatever it is, the timing may be off right now for what you want to come to fruition. You can always come back to it, or if it’s for you, it will come back to you - don’t force it.

• If you have a team: delegate, delegate, delegate.

• Remember to celebrate your wins!

🌸Refresh & Revitalize Incubator™ 🌸

Refresh & Revitalize Incubator™ is now open to receive applications for our 2025 cohort!

The 2025 incubator cohort will participate in our Pop-Up experience which is a one-and-a-half-day retreat where business owners can focus on one or two business goals over a weekend. This experience services a group of up to three to four women business owners. The 2025 incubator will take place from August 16-17, 2025 at the Inn at Serenbe in Serenbe, GA.

So, what is the Refresh & Revitalize Incubator™?

The Refresh & Revitalize Incubator™ is an all-inclusive, operations and strategic planning retreat for women entrepreneurs and small business owners. You don’t need more strategy. You need the space, time, and accountability to execute your goals and plans.

As founders and business owners, we often prioritize the urgent over the important. We forget to take a step back from the day-to-day to refresh our thinking and gain clarity about our next steps, so we can refocus on what’s important to revitalize ourselves and our businesses.

This incubator is a bespoke experience focused on supporting women entrepreneurs in the following ways to gain momentum in their businesses.

• Tackle and achieve intentional business goals in a non-distracting environment.

• Receive custom accountability and operations guidance to bust through implementation roadblocks.

• Be paired with subject matter experts to provide actionable insight to take strategic next steps.

• Associate and lean on the experiences of like-minded women business owners to grow your strategic network.

As you consider your 2025 goals, you don’t want to miss out on this opportunity to give yourself and your business space to clarify your goals and implement the important strategies and activities to grow your business.

Apply today!

Resource Kit 🧰

Looking for another way to keep track of your contacts? 

Check out Dex. 

Think of a digital contact book that integrates with LinkedIn.

A Must Read Article

Read the 2024 State of Meetings from Calendly. 

Here are two takeaways I want to highlight from the report.

1. Set boundaries around your calendar. If you've been reading my newsletters long enough or have ever had a deeper conversation with me about meeting management, putting boundaries around your calendar is the hill I will die upon. As your business grows, you must determine who gets time with you and how much time they can spend with you. It has nothing to do with you not being nice when you say no to someone to meet with you. Setting boundaries on who meets with you is about being strategic and intentional so that you can show up as your best self to serve your business well.

2. Use calendar automation to schedule meetings more efficiently. The Calendly report stated that 43% of respondents are spending at least three hours a week scheduling meetings. Y'all we got to do better. You don't have to use Calendly. There are many calendar scheduling applications out there, but there are ways that you can incorporate automation in your workflows so that you don't have to send 10 emails back and forth to schedule a meeting. If you're not using calendar automation in your workflows and are struggling with how to build this into your business, please reach out to me.

P.S. Need some more direction or know someone who could use some advice??  Here's some next steps...

• ☎️ Book a Discovery Call -  Need some help figuring out that next step? Let’s chat! Schedule a discovery call or text "Discovery Call" to 470-387-0243  and let's discuss how we can get you organized with a plan to execute your vision.
• 🙋‍♀️Refer a Client: Do you know of someone who is feeling challenged in growing their business or is looking for ways to reduce their networking activities, so they can expand or scale their business? Let me know! Share your referral (here).

For the Skimmers:

Newsletter Rebrand

• The Legacy Journal is now the Decision Maker Digest!

• Expect the same great insights and recommendations to resources and tools but in a different format.

• Every month I will address a topic and break it down on how you can take your next steps to help your business move forward. I will also tackle how to overcome the things that get us stuck or prevent us from making tough decisions.

Refresh & Revitalize Incubator™

Refresh & Revitalize Incubator™ is now open to receive applications for our 2025 cohort!

The 2025 incubator cohort will participate in our Pop-Up experience which is a one-and-a-half-day retreat where business owners can focus on one or two business goals over a weekend. This experience services a group of up to three to four women business owners. The 2025 incubator will take place from August 16-17, 2025 at the Inn at Serenbe in Serenbe, GA.

• Digital Shop - Our Digital Shop is now live! Check out our new digital products.
  
• Looking for a way to keep better track of your contacts, try Dex.
• A Must Read Article (takeaways above): 2024 State of Meetings Report by Calendly.

Disclaimer: This email is for educational purposes only. Emails, and social content from Anitra Deen Consulting, LLC are not legal, tax, or health advice. Please consult a professional before making any business decisions based on this information. The content in this email are copyrighted works of Anitra Deen Consulting, LLC.