Mia Poklopovich [00:00:03]:
Welcome to The Freedom Therapist Podcast, your safe space to learn and unlearn all the things about scaling your business without losing yourself in the process. I'm your host, Mia Poklopovich, a previously burnt out mental health occupational therapist and business owner who found her way to fall back in love with business and life all over again. Because success doesn't have to come at the cost of your freedom. You're going to get so much chat, a lot of energy, and of course, a little bit of chaos because it comes with the territory. I can't wait. Hello, beautiful listeners. Welcome to the Freedom Therapist podcast. So excited to be in your ears today as we talk all things 2025 planning and going into q 4 with q one energy.
Mia Poklopovich [00:01:02]:
I really wanted to dive into this topic today because I am currently doing this planning in my business myself at the moment, and we are also doing this with all the members in the Freedom Therapists Club at the moment too. So at the start, we map the year into quarters. And at the start of each quarter, we have a goals and intentions document that we work through and share because, you know, you've got to put it out into the universe, what you're calling in, and you've got to have a strategy around it to make it easeful as well. We start every quarter with our freedom goals and intentions document. And this is where we map out what we are working on, what we are putting out into the world, what our goals are, how we're showing up, and what we're essentially working towards for that quarter. Now what I tend to see, especially with a lot of therapists, is that towards the end of the year and as we start q 4, we see a real decline on planning. We see a real decline on energy. We see a real incline on burnout.
Mia Poklopovich [00:02:11]:
We might be feeling really exhausted, and we might not have any energy for q4. And this is really, really critical because I would argue that q 4 is the most important quarter for your planning. And I say that because you want to go into q 4 with q one energy. So you wanna be going into the end of 2024 in your therapy practice, in your business with 2025 energy, with that New Year's energy, with that New Year's excitement, with that embodiment of that therapist in business that you want to be in 2025. So I'm going to go through how we start the process, how we start the process at OT Inspire, how we start the process at the Freedom Therapists Club, how I personally start the process. And, essentially, it involves 3 really important things. It involves setting your goals. It involves levelling up and showing up as the person who's going to achieve these goals, and it involves figuring out who is going to be in your corner or what supports you need to achieve these goals as well.
Mia Poklopovich [00:03:35]:
But the other factor that I really want to touch on is not waiting until 2025 to make these changes. And too often than not, I will talk to therapists or women in business who are like, yep. I am so keen to change the way I run my practice, to change the way I run my business, to incorporate more freedom for me in my business, and I'm going to start addressing this stuff next year. Like, this year is a write off. It is way too much, and next year, I'm gonna have more space, more capacity, more room to do all the things. Right? And I can say that with full transparency because I have absolutely done that in my business as well. It's like we are getting to the end of the year. We are tired.
Mia Poklopovich [00:04:25]:
We are overwhelmed. We are exhausted. However, if we don't start doing something different now, it is going to look exactly the same next year. So I sometimes think that we go into the end of the year with all these visions and ideas for how the new year is gonna look. But if we are doing the same things the same habits the same rituals the same systems the same ways of working. Nothing is going to change until we do. And I speak to that because even though I know there is a level of discomfort that can come up with that I think it is so beneficial in your practice to start looking at the new year now to start forward planning, forward thinking, and starting to embody some of these things now. And that is what I encourage so much in our q four planning.
Mia Poklopovich [00:05:31]:
And when I talk about going to q four with the q one energy, it is going to make your next year, your Q1 of the year so much more easeful and less overwhelming if we begin to implement some of these small changes now. And if you take anything from today's episode I so hope it is permission to begin to change one thing to make that little 1% shift in your business that is going to support you to run a beautiful freedom giving business of your dreams in 2025. Because if we continue to keep running and working in a really urgent, really reactive way, which I know it can feel like this towards the end of the year. I know I've felt like this before at the end of the year in my practice. But if we continue to run our business in this urgent reactive way, we're not actually giving ourselves the space. We're not giving ourselves the time. We're not giving ourselves the room for thinking, for clarity, for planning, and just to sit with all the things to really weigh out what's currently working, what's not working, and what do I want to look different in the new year. Right? So all of the little changes that we begin to make in q 4 are really changes that we have we will be trickling into q 1, and it then means that q one is going to be 5 steps ahead for us already just with some small 1% changes this year.
Mia Poklopovich [00:07:17]:
So I know it's hard. I know it's tough, but I do promise that getting this planning in now is so incredibly beneficial not only for Q4, not only for your Q4 when you are feeling burnt out and a little bit dysregulated, but even more so for your Q1 of 2025 to come back into a business that feels regulated, that feels supported, and that feels beautiful. Right? Okay. So now that we are sitting in all of that q four energy, diving into today's episode, the first thing that we look at when we are doing our goals and intentions document for the Q4 is making sure that we have really clear Q4 goals and intentions. And our Q4 goals can look a little bit different for every practice, but they are so incredibly important at this time of the year, especially because that Q4 can look so completely different to every other quarter in your practice at that time of the year because we know essentially for so many of us and for a lot of therapy practices that the Christmas shutdown period happens. And so sometimes that can be quite stressful as we're trying to plan for clients going on leave or not having as much work or trying to balance our reports that might be due. There's a lot in there. Right? So in knowing that quarter 4 comes with its challenges of shutdowns, of reduced work, of people going away on holidays, of us wanting to take a holiday or vacation as well, it's really important to consider this in our goals and our forecasting.
Mia Poklopovich [00:09:04]:
So when we do our goal section of our goals and intentions document, we also look at our cash flow forecast and prediction for Q4 so that we know exactly how much cash is coming in, how that profit is coming in, and what our overheads are over that period as well. This is so important because it is going to mean that there is no surprises when you are coming into that Christmas shutdown. It means that you can take leave and actually switch off. It means that you know that you have brought in enough revenue, enough cash flow to be able to cover your overheads, to be able to cover your wages if you have staff, and to be able to have a holiday, which I know you deserve so much because you, as therapists, you are one of the hardest working communities on the planet. So when we are forecasting and predicting our profit, our revenue, our cash flow, whatever you wanna call it, I interchange between all 3 as you can see. But we are essentially knowing how much money is coming in and how much money is going out of the business. And all too often, I know from my own personal experience, I used to be terrified of opening my accounting software. Love you, Xero, now.
Mia Poklopovich [00:10:24]:
Thank you. But it is a really scary thing, especially when we're not sure how to accurately predict it or we don't feel confident in predicting it either. So getting really clear on what our cash forecast looks like, being able to predict what we should have coming in and what is going out, having a little bit of a buffer because even though sometimes it can feel a little bit overwhelming, a little bit scary looking at, you know your p and l and starting to predict your cash flow knowing that it's gonna be a little bit less. I promise you that the unknown is going to be way more terrifying than knowing all the numbers because when you know what is coming in, when you know what is going out, even if there is an imbalance there and you're like, oh no, I need to bring in a little bit more cash, you now have the time and the space to be able to do the things that you need to do to bring in a little bit more revenue into your practice or your therapy business, which is so much more supportive than hoping for the best and waiting to see if you have enough to cover everything. And I know that often the profit and loss and the figures as somebody who hates numbers themselves can be the least thing that we want to look at when we are running our practice. But if we can get to know it in a really gentle and open way, it does become easier and there are less surprises. And it can support us so much to run our practice run our practices in the most regulated way. Now the second part of our goals and our intentions that we do in the Freedom Therapists Club are around our business vision goals.
Mia Poklopovich [00:12:16]:
So this is around the business that we are creating and that we are envisioning in this quarter. So what do you really wanna focus on? What do you really wanna be selling? What do you wanna be creating or in the process of marketing? And how do you really want to be serving your clients in q 4? What do you wanna do in your final quarter of the year? Where do you wanna make that magic? What big goals do you have here? Is it goals around finally launching an offer that you have had sitting there waiting for its moment to shine? Is it goals around showing up consistently on your social channels, whichever channels feel aligned for you? Is it goals around creating more space in your calendar? Whatever your goals are, I always recommend they should include some business goals, so planning for the business as a whole and also some personal goals too. So in previous years, I've had personal goals around, like, getting on top of my calendar, being really clear on my availability, and still having flexibility where I needed it, but not working on the fly, which was a really big personal goal for me. And this manifested into a big business goal of having really clear systems of how referrals were coming in, what the booking process was, and what next steps were when someone was engaging with our service. So speaking to these goals, looking at them from a personal level and a business level are so so important for your business and for yourself. Now if you love a bit of woo woo and you don't mind a bit of manifestation, you'll also know that a huge part of setting goals and intentions is writing them all down and then letting them go because we don't wanna get too attached to these goals. We don't want to have our self worth or our productivity attached to these goals because there's so much more to business and life. But we need to put it out to call it in at the same time, which brings me to the second thing I wanna speak to in our q four planning and the next part that we go through in the Freedom Therapist Club in our goals and intentions document, which is taking the action.
Mia Poklopovich [00:14:36]:
So we have set and claimed our beautiful goals and our vision, but goals need action. So we've set our goals. We've set our intention. We've got our vision. We've got this mapped out. However, they're not just gonna happen on their own. So what we need to sit with here is how am I going to begin to embody the person who is going to achieve these goals? And what actions, no matter how big or small, do I need to be taking in order to do this? Now we know that our comfort zone is safe. It's familiar.
Mia Poklopovich [00:15:19]:
We know that in our comfort zone, we're we're already living it. We're already putting out and getting in the level that we are able to at this level of comfort. But in order to reach goals, we need to grow. And that means there will be some sort of level of discomfort, of unfamiliarity, and it might feel a little bit stressful or unsafe. Now we are going to need coping strategies and tools to be able to help us to grow into these goals and to be able to embody and become the person who achieves these goals too. So I really like to sit with what sort of habits, what sort of rituals, what sort of self care, supporting strategies does the therapist in business who is going to achieve these goals already embody and live. Now this is a really big part of it because when we are growing, it's gonna be uncomfortable. It's gonna be sticky.
Mia Poklopovich [00:16:22]:
It's gonna stretch us. If we can identify some supports and they don't have to be huge, drastic changes. We know that the 1 percenters are so much better because they are likely to be consistent. But what sort of practices do we need to lean into? What sort of strategies are going to help us show up as that person? For me, this looks like keeping my mornings really clear, and this was really hard to do for a really long time because as soon as I would open my emails, I would feel really pulled to just dive in and hit the ground running. And that was one of my traits that I was really celebrated for. But also, knowing that some of our strengths can also be our shadows in these moments, that when taken too far, it's not as helpful as we would like. So a big part of me growing into my own goals in my own business was making sure my mornings were really clear, and that was really hard to do. There is absolutely nothing I hate more than letting people down.
Mia Poklopovich [00:17:27]:
I would much rather wake myself to the bone than say, no, I'm not available at that time, knowing that I do have free time at that time. But it was beginning to look at it in a different perspective. That was not just free time to be written over. That was free time for me to have the space to think creatively, to engage in whatever self care activities I needed on that day, and to be able to reflect on what was working and sit really objectively in my business too. Now keeping my mornings clear has allowed me to have space to add new content to our curriculum. It has allowed me to have space to be able to really think clinically and come up with some amazing clinical interventions. It has allowed me to really sit and take a beat before acting on big decisions, and my business is forever grateful for that as well. So when you are looking at embodying the person who achieves these goals, it can be really helpful to sit and to visualise.
Mia Poklopovich [00:18:32]:
What does this person look like who is achieving these goals? What do they do on a daily basis? What sort of things do they do in the morning? What sort of things do they do in the evening? How do they wind down? How do they switch off? How do they feel when they wake up in the morning? How do they feel when they go to sleep at night? And starting to lean into small practices and also feelings, how leaning into the emotions, starting to really get in tune with how this person wakes up in the morning because this person is you. Right? It's you. It's just you at the next level. So we really then we wanna merge them together. And so we wanna start to weave these daily practices into our everyday life as well. So when we are looking at daily practices, daily rituals, anything that is going to support us to grow, it's going to look different for each of us. For me, that looks like my morning's being really clear. Having a really solid meditation practice, no matter how much I hate it some mornings, really leaning to gratitude and journaling as well.
Mia Poklopovich [00:19:38]:
And these are some of the principles and practices that I use every single day in my practice, and I will be recording an episode on these later down the track. But really sitting with and learning from experience and from trying new things with yourself as to what works and what doesn't work for you, and getting really clear on if something doesn't work or if it feels uncomfortable because it is new, is going to support you so much as you level up in your business and start to become that person who achieves those really big goals that you have that deep, deep desire for. When we talk about this in the Freedom Therapists Club, we love sharing daily rituals and supporting strategies because we can learn so much from each other in this space as well around around our practices, around our rituals, around what sort of strategies help us to show up, not only as the best business owner, but as the best human as well that we possibly can be, so we can feel our best too. Now, the last point that I wanna talk to in our planning and going into Q4 with all of the Q1 New Year Energy is the support. Who's in your corner? Who's in the room? Who are you supporting yourself with? And what are you listening to? This has been a huge one for me. When I first started my business as a very strong, fierce, independent woman, I was adamant about doing things independently. I was probably a little bit impulsive with business decisions, which wasn't as supportive as I would have liked it to be because I really wanted to be independent in my business. I wanted to be able to independently, financially support myself.
Mia Poklopovich [00:21:31]:
I wanted to be able to independently be able to make big decisions. I wanted to independently show up in the best way possible. But if having my practice for the last 7 years and working with so many practice owners and therapists in business has taught me anything, it is that you need support. You need people around you. You need a community. It is so important in this space. All of the biggest level ups in business that I have achieved, all of the biggest goals have happened when I've had an incredible community supporting me. I have been able to confide in really trusted people who aren't just going to tell me what I want to hear.
Mia Poklopovich [00:22:21]:
I think that is really valid as well, because you want to make sure that your community is able to challenge you too. It is about who's in your corner. It's about who's in the room with you. It's who you're listening to. I'm not saying that all of your social interactions and social relationships have to be up leveling, up leveling, up leveling, Because that is not how we're supposed to live as humans. You know, we have people in our lives for different reasons, and that is the most beautiful part about friendships and relationships. Every single one of them is so unique. But when we are talking about our business and growing as a human in our business, growing as a business owner as well, we need to make sure that the people in the room are people who are going to challenge us, who are going to inspire us, who are going to help us to think differently as well.
Mia Poklopovich [00:23:17]:
And I say that because I see the effects myself, personally. I have a group of women that I consult with. I work with my own business coach, and that has been one of the most incredible supports for myself and my business over the years. It is such a huge part of me being able to reflect back choices and decisions and thoughts. It It helps me to organize my thoughts and the creative process as well. But it is also so important to have a group or a community of people in that room who are going to offer a different perspective. And I can also speak to this seeing the incredible growth that I see on a daily basis with the group of women who are in the freedom therapist club. You know there is so much accountability there's so much high energy there's just something so magic around surrounding yourself with people who are going to inspire you, people who are going to challenge you, who are going to reflect back to you, and who are there in your corner to listen to to listen to debrief, to unpack everything and to grow together, there is such a magic in that that, oh my god, if you could bottle it, it would just change the world honestly.
Mia Poklopovich [00:24:35]:
And while it is so so necessary and supportive for that big stretchy growth, I mean, we have seen new practices start and be profitable within like 6 weeks. It's it's wild, but there is so much magic in that growth, but there is also the flip side of that that there is going to be support for those hard times, for those challenging times, for the times that might feel a little bit more isolating. Now, I know as new business owners and women in business and experienced business owners, there is a lot of imposter syndrome too. And sometimes it can feel really shitty for someone to say, I don't think that's a great option. But if we can learn to sit with it, to feel uncomfortable, and to be open to feedback, not saying that we have to change things, we have to take it on, but to take from it what we need, it will support us and our business so much long term. Because it is going to push us out of our comfort zone. It is going to help us to grow. It is going to keep us accountable.
Mia Poklopovich [00:25:50]:
Accountability is a massive one for this as well. We have a weekly thread in the Freedom Therapist Club where we post in there what we are calling in for the week, what we are showing up for, what we want to achieve that week. And absolutely, 9 times out of 10, all of that gets achieved plus more. Because the energy and the up levelling that comes from working in a group and community setting, there is such a magic to having a community and to having a group around you. And we know that being a therapist, this journey was absolutely never never created. This journey was absolutely never to be done alone. It is not something you can do solo. Trust me.
Mia Poklopovich [00:26:36]:
I've tried. I failed miserably. You need people in your corner and you need people you can trust whether that is paid supports, whether that's coaching, whether that is peer support. It needs to be people that you really, really trust to get really deep and vulnerable and raw, and to probably cry with too because we know that's going to happen eventually as well. I am such a huge supporter of having a community or a group of people that you trust around you to help you grow in this space. I personally have found that investing in these supports means that I have somebody with more experience, somebody that inspires me, who is just as invest just as invested in my business to be so incredibly empowering and beneficial as I grow and expand. Because the other reality of the work that we do is that it can be really isolating at times too, especially if you are a sole trader too. If you are a solo practitioner, it can absolutely be isolating in this space.
Mia Poklopovich [00:27:41]:
You might work from home and get to the end of the day and be like, did I did I talk to anyone today? Or what's going on? Like seeing you there because I have absolutely been there too. So having a community of people around you to help you grow that you can confide in and that can help you stay accountable are going to be so is going to be so supportive in your business growth as well. Now in closing out today's episode, recapping on all the incredible things that we have been doing to ensure q four is full of energy and so regulated, it involves setting goals. So getting to know your revenue goals, getting to be able to forecast your revenue, and setting your big business vision goals, including your business and personal goals in there too. It is taking aligned action and starting to embody the person who is achieving these goals, and it is also knowing who is in your corner, who is in the room, and who is there to support you alongside all of this expansive growth. And if you take anything from today's episode, I hope it can be your permission slip to take some space to begin to plan for q 4 to begin to go into the end of the year with a different energy and with excitement about the planning that you have for your business. I know from experience when I was working in a really urgent and reactive way in my business that planning and goal setting used to leave me feeling really anxious because I would have so many things on my to do list that was so unrealistic. And if I can speak to that, it is that an urgent and reactive business model doesn't leave very much room for growth, Growth of our business or growth of ourself.
Mia Poklopovich [00:29:38]:
But it is so so possible to change the pace, to change directions, to write a new chapter. I mean, I'm living proof of that and you absolutely can. So if you're waiting for January to be that permission slip, I so so hope that today's episode can maybe change it a little bit for you and give you that permission slip to start making those changes however small they are today, tomorrow, and right now. So that you can go into q four feeling supported, feeling regulated, feeling excited, and feeling ready for q one and just getting so excited about this beautiful practice that you are going to be running and just getting so excited about this beautiful business that you are going to be running in 2025. I hope this perspective shift has been supportive to you today and that maybe it might inspire you to start implementing some of those little one percenters that are going to make such a big difference now and an even bigger difference by the time January 2025 comes around. I promise it's going to be so so worth it making those adjustments now and really just enjoying the end of the year and getting excited for next year because it gets to be that good. I would love to hear your thoughts on this episode. I love having conversations in my dms after these podcast episodes and hearing your reflections or how this episode may have resonated with you.
Mia Poklopovich [00:31:19]:
You can find me over on Instagram at Mia poco m I a p o k o and I would love to chat. We know I love to talk and I hope that you can go into q4 with all of the q1 energy and start to get excited about that beautiful freedom giving business you are walking into in 2025. I'll see you soon. If this episode connected with you today and you are wanting to grow your practice in 2025 and are so keen to start now, I would love for you to join me for my free masterclass, how to create and market your scalable therapy offer so that it sells on repeat. I will be hosting this one live on Tuesday, October 22nd at 4:30 PM Australian Western Standard Time. If you are thinking about how scalable offers could look in your practice or you know this is something you wanna be implementing in 2025 it is absolutely something we need to be thinking and planning for now. Scalable therapy offers are how we can expand beyond the one to one, how we can support more clients, how we can increase our profits, and how we can make a bigger purposeful impact with our business. I am so excited to share everything I know on this topic so that you can take all of the practical tips and implement them into your business right now to share your own beautiful, unique, much needed skills with the world.
Mia Poklopovich [00:32:53]:
I know we already have so many people signed up on the wait list, and if you are listening to this episode live and would love to save your seat before we add capacity, jump on your phone or your laptop and head to www. The freedomtherapist.com.auforward/scalableoffer, and you can sign up for your free spot to the masterclass here, or jump over onto Instagram. You can find me over at mia poco, m I a p o k o, and DM me the word masterclass. DM me masterclass so that I know you want to join us, and I will make sure that we have a spot saved for you. It is going to be so, so good, and I am so excited to be delivering this training at a time when I know that it is going to support us so much for our practice growth now and in the beautiful new year. I can't wait to see you there.
