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Do you want to increase your focus, be more intentional in your planning, and effectively set and achieve your goals? Entrepreneurial powerhouse Sarah Light shares her secrets for intentional planning, setting goals, and saying no to distractions, in order to create focus and fulfillment. If you’re a woman entrepreneur balancing business and life, these insights will empower you to take charge of your goals and hold yourself accountable in achieving them. Join me as we explore the power of goal-setting and accountability in reaching your desired outcome.

Today on the Quotable Podcast, I’m thrilled to welcome Sarah Light, the creator of the Sol Planner. With a passion for combining functionality and aesthetic appeal, Sarah’s journey to designing her own planner showcases her expertise in intentional planning and effective goal-setting. Her commitment to crafting a highly functional planner with a focus on color and smart layout has resonated with entrepreneurs and busy moms alike. Through her innovative approach, Sarah has empowered countless individuals to achieve increased focus and productivity in both their business and personal lives. Get ready to gain valuable insights into goal-setting and accountability from Sarah as she shares her inspiring entrepreneurial journey and expert tips on the show.

Successful Female Entrepreneur Journey

From her start in direct sales to founding a successful planner business, Sarah Light’s journey speaks volumes about her determination and passion. It demonstrates the power of identifying a market need, taking risks, and finding creative solutions to overcome obstacles. For aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly women balancing business and homeschooling, Sarah’s experience provides valuable lessons and inspiration.

Functional and Beautiful Planners

Sarah Light’s Sol Planners stand out for their balance of aesthetics and functionality. The designs are visually pleasing, but not at the expense of organizational features, such as half-hour time blocks and integrated goal-setting. By fusing form with function, Sarah has crafted a tool that not only keeps users organized but also inspires and motivates them daily, making their planning process more effective and enjoyable.

Effective Marketing Strategies

The importance of intentional marketing becomes evident from Sarah Light’s approach. She effectively leverages email marketing, focusing on building relationships with her audience and growing her email list. At the same time, she explores avenues like podcast appearances to extend her reach. This multifaceted strategy underscores the role of piloted marketing efforts in the success and growth of a business.

I encourage you to be willing to honor what is most important to you in your life and in your business too. Like what is most important to your business right now. And that means being willing to say no to a lot of other things, including what other people think is most important for you. – Sarah Light

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Learn effective goal-setting and accountability tips for lasting success.
• Discover functional and beautiful planners to streamline your life.
• Organize your life with functional and beautiful planners.
• Achieve your goals with accountability tips that work.

Find Sol Planners here!

Find info on Sarah’s Frazzled to Focused program here.

Connect with Sarah and Sol Planners on Instagram.

The key moments in this episode are:

00:00:00 – Introduction to Quotable Podcast

00:00:49 – Sarah Light’s Journey to Creating the Soul Planner

00:08:00 – Testing the Market and Launching the Soul Planner

00:10:23 – Evolution of the Soul Planner and Team Dynamics

00:11:59 – Balancing Motherhood and Running a Business

00:13:28 – The Importance of Consistency in Marketing and Business Growth

00:14:16 – Intentional Business Growth and Marketing Strategies

00:16:08 – The Unique Approach to Goal Setting and Proactive Planning

00:21:09 – Balancing Personal and Business Goals

00:23:59 – Planning Tightly but Holding Loosely

00:27:35 – Monthly Review for Goal Recalibration

00:29:28 – Reflecting on Priorities and Accountability

00:30:45 – Strategies for Reaching Goals

00:36:26 – Building a Community and Goal Accountability Program

00:39:09 – Anticipating Success and Distractions

00:40:01 – Honoring Priorities

00:40:35 – Flexibility in Planning

00:42:08 – Personalized Planning Resources

Timestamped summary of this episode:

00:00:00 – Introduction to Quotable Podcast
Alessandra Pollina introduces the Quotable podcast and its focus on female entrepreneurs building successful businesses while living life to the fullest. She shares her background as the owner of Quotable Media Co. and her passion for learning from other women in business.

00:00:49 – Sarah Light’s Journey to Creating the Soul Planner
Sarah Light shares her journey to creating the Soul Planner, starting with her love for design and her struggle to find a functional yet visually appealing planner. She discusses her transition from direct sales to launching her own planner business after realizing the market need.

00:08:00 – Testing the Market and Launching the Soul Planner
Sarah talks about her creative approach to testing the market by offering pre-orders for the Soul Planner. She shares the initial success of gathering 189 orders within a short timeframe, highlighting the empowering experience of putting her product out into the world.

00:10:23 – Evolution of the Soul Planner and Team Dynamics
Sarah discusses the evolution of the Soul Planner over the years, focusing on maintaining high functionality and aesthetic appeal. She also shares insights into her small team, consisting of a graphic designer and a photographer, along with her kids helping with packaging.

00:11:59 – Balancing Motherhood and Running a Business
Sarah reveals her work schedule, balancing motherhood with running her business, dedicating 8-10 hours a week to the Soul Planner. She emphasizes the importance of prioritizing her time

00:13:28 – The Importance of Consistency in Marketing and Business Growth
Sarah discusses the consistent effort needed in marketing and building relationships. She also reflects on the unexpected role of marketing in business ownership.

00:14:16 – Intentional Business Growth and Marketing Strategies
Sarah shares her intentional approach to growing her business and the challenges of expanding beyond her immediate circle. She emphasizes the effectiveness of growing her email list for marketing.

00:16:08 – The Unique Approach to Goal Setting and Proactive Planning
Sarah explains the importance of integrating goal setting and time management in her planner. She highlights the need for a planner that supports both personal and business goals.

00:21:09 – Balancing Personal and Business Goals
Alessandra and Sarah discuss the significance of balancing personal and business goals in the planner. Sarah emphasizes the planner’s design for women working from home, juggling both personal and business responsibilities.

00:23:59 – Planning Tightly but Holding Loosely
Sarah elaborates on the concept of planning tightly but holding loosely. She emphasizes the importance of having a plan while remaining flexible to navigate challenges and obstacles effectively.

00:26:49 – Adapting Curriculum for Sibling Relationship
Sarah discusses adapting curriculum for her children’s sibling relationship, emphasizing the importance of knowing what’s important and being flexible in choosing a different route to achieve goals.

00:27:35 – Monthly Review for Goal Recalibration
Sarah talks about the importance of having end goals in mind and using monthly reviews to recalibrate and adjust plans based on progress or challenges, such as illness in the family.

00:29:28 – Reflecting on Priorities and Accountability
Sarah emphasizes the value of reflecting on priorities and being held accountable, mentioning how asking questions at the end of the month helps filter through challenges and avoid feeling like a failure.

00:30:45 – Strategies for Reaching Goals
Sarah emphasizes the importance of being clear on little steps towards goals, breaking them down for progress and motivation. She also discusses the significance of repetition in staying focused and motivated.

00:36:26 – Building a Community and Goal Accountability Program
Sarah shares her journey of building a community around her planner and the development of a program to help users take their planning to the next level, emphasizing the importance of accountability and support in goal achievement.

00:38:39 – Starting a New Program
Sarah Light discusses her upcoming program “Frazzled to Focus” and how she manages homeschooling, running a business, and the program with the help of a good planner.

00:39:09 – Anticipating Success and Distractions
Sarah reflects on how she wishes she had anticipated that success leads to new opportunities, which can be distracting. She emphasizes the importance of staying focused on what initially brought success.

00:40:01 – Honoring Priorities
Sarah encourages women entrepreneurs to know what’s important in their lives and businesses and be willing to say no to things that don’t align with those priorities, even if it goes against others’ expectations.

00:40:35 – Flexibility in Planning
Sarah discusses the importance of making plans while also being open to change throughout the year based on what brings joy and fulfillment, emphasizing the need for wisdom and intentional self-reflection.

00:42:08 – Personalized Planning Resources
Sarah shares her website “soulplanners.com,” where listeners can find planners, programs, freebies, and a quiz to identify their planning personality and receive personalized tips.

The resources mentioned in this episode are:

Visit solplanners.com to explore and purchase the Sol Planner, a comprehensive planner designed to help you set and achieve your goals, both personally and professionally.

Check out the freebies available on the website, including the goal setting guide and the planning personality quiz, to gain valuable insights and tips tailored to your planning style.

Consider signing up for the Frazzled to Focus program, designed to help you take your goal setting and planning to the next level, providing accountability and guidance to help you stay on track throughout the year.

Connect with Sol Planners on Instagram for updates, tips, and inspiration related to goal setting, planning, and productivity.

Share this episode with anyone who might benefit from learning about the Sol Planner and the valuable resources offered by Sol Planners.

Transcription

00:00:37 – Alessandra Pollina
I’m so excited to have Sarah lightHere today, the creator of the Sol Planner, which I personally love and cannot wait for everybody to hear more about. So, Sarah, thank you so much for coming on today.
00:00:48 – Sarah Light
Thanks for having me. I’m excited to chat.
00:00:51 – Alessandra Pollina
Me too. And we were saying right before we
Started recording that this is like, I don’t know, some kind of. I feel like it was meant to.
Be some kind of synergy or something, because I have used your planners for a couple of years now, and people who listen to this podcast might recognize it. I don’t know. I have talked about it. I have shared on social media. I did, like a long video one time how I love it.
And then when I came in and.
Saw that you had submitted, applied, whatever, emailed to be on the podcast, I was like, oh, my gosh, we have to have this conversation. I’m so excited. I really am. But I want to let people hear basically how you got started straight from you. And, I mean, I want to hear, too. I don’t know. As a preface, we don’t know each other. I just am an actual customer of yours, so I’m super excited to hear how you’ve created yours in your business.
00:01:41 – Sarah Light
Yeah, I’d love to share.
00:01:43 – Sarah Light
Well, I think it starts way back in 7th grade when my dad brought home our first computer, our family computer, and we dialed it up and I discovered clipart for the first time in my life. And fonts. And from then on, every single school report I ever made had borders and colors and five different fonts on each thing. And that’s where it started. That’s where the planner design started, was just my love for colors and stationery and markers and stickers.
00:02:17 – Sarah Light
I always loved all that.
00:02:19 – Sarah Light
But it’s funny, I ended up going into direct sales for ten years, I had a direct sales business and had nothing to do with stationery and stickers and fonts. But in my season as a leader in that industry. I was always looking for a planner and I would walk into a stationery store and find the prettiest planner I could find. I would be so excited to open it up. And it was beautiful on the outside, but when I opened it on the inside, it was like kind of just blank paper with little boxes and not going to work for me. And I’d always so disappointed, but I would still keep trying. I’d be like, maybe this is the one.
00:03:02 – Alessandra Pollina
I feel like I’ve had a parallel life. I’ve always been such a planner person ever since forever. High school, I guess.
I always painstakingly pick out the best and always feel like they’re so, they.
End up being disappointed, literally. And I’m going to let you finish the story. I want to hear more, but if that’s the one thing I would say, the fact that I literally said, I’ve had your planner for the last couple of years, I have never bought the
Same planner twice because I’ve never felt.
Like at the end of the year.
Like, oh, yeah, this really was everything.
I needed and wanted and really helped
Me stick to my plans.
00:03:37 – Alessandra Pollina
They’re always disappointing on the inside and I’ve got the fanciest ones. I’ve got expensive ones.
00:03:42 – Sarah Light
I’ve got all the coolest, best planners.
00:03:44 – Alessandra Pollina
And this is the first time I.
Ever was like, this is it, this.
00:03:48 – Alessandra Pollina
Planner now, from now on.
00:03:50 – Sarah Light
So.
00:03:51 – Alessandra Pollina
Yes, no, I hear you. I’m like, they’re like so beautiful on the outside, usually, and then it’s like not really much going on inside. It’s just like Gallup or something.
00:03:58 – Sarah Light
Yeah.
00:04:00 – Sarah Light
And I’m like, this probably costs like $2 to print. It’s just black and white and it’s charging me $75 for basically. So I would end up with the boring staples office Max planner that was just black and white, but it was really functional. As someone who was running a home at home, as a mom, but also a business owner or running a direct sales business at the time. I had appointments and phone calls and follow up and things I wanted to.
00:04:31 – Sarah Light
Track and I needed to do it in my planner. And so the most functional planners were.
00:04:37 – Sarah Light
Just the boring ones. And so after a while, I’m like, I’m just sick of this. I’m making my own.
00:04:41 – Sarah Light
I want it to be cute, but.
00:04:43 – Sarah Light
I need it to be functional. And so I just made my own and I was happy with that. And then a couple of friends were like, oh, I want a cute planner that is functional. And so I just cut and paste go to FedEx to print. I, and then I really started thinking, I think there’s a market for this, for women who really want a beautiful planner, but they need a legit planner. They need something highly functional that’s going to help their business and their home run smoothly. And I would love to be the one to create that. And I would sit and design something on the computer and I would walk away just so energized. And I just started noticing, I think I have a lot of strengths that could be utilized in this business. So eventually I walked away from my direct sales business. And that was probably one of the hardest seasons I’ve ever had in my life, was to set something down that was going well. But side by side with the beginning of this planner business, I could see my strengths being utilized better in this new opportunity, but I had to let one go. I really felt I came to a crossroads where I had to decide, I can’t continue forward in this new direction without letting the old go. And so eventually I set that other business down to pick this one up.
00:05:55 – Sarah Light
And take it farther.
00:05:57 – Sarah Light
So that’s how it started. It’s been about six years now.
00:06:01 – Sarah Light
Oh, wow. Cool.
00:06:03 – Sarah Light
I love that.
00:06:03 – Sarah Light
Yeah.
00:06:04 – Alessandra Pollina
I mean, I’m so glad you did it.
00:06:05 – Sarah Light
So the things in the planner now that I’m fully committed to is high functionality, but color on every single page, like the beautiful cover on the outside that could fit into a stationery store.
00:06:19 – Sarah Light
But when you open it up, because.
00:06:22 – Sarah Light
Honestly, your planner is actually open most of the time, you don’t even see the COVID once you’re working. You want that aesthetics to be brought into the inside. And so I’m really committed to having it full color on the inside and laid out really smartly on the inside, too.
00:06:38 – Sarah Light
Yeah.
00:06:38 – Alessandra Pollina
And we can go into some of what that looks like, literally what it looks like in the planner. Like, why I love it so much.
00:06:44 – Sarah Light
But I want to hear a little more.
00:06:46 – Alessandra Pollina
How did it go from that first.
00:06:48 – Sarah Light
When you were like, okay, it’s going.
00:06:49 – Alessandra Pollina
To be a business I’m going to sell to more than just my friends. How did you start building that?
00:06:55 – Sarah Light
I don’t even know.
00:06:56 – Alessandra Pollina
I found it. I was trying to think about it.
00:06:57 – Sarah Light
Right before we come on here.
00:06:58 – Alessandra Pollina
I’m like, where did I even find this for the first time?
00:07:00 – Sarah Light
I don’t know if you ever did.
00:07:01 – Alessandra Pollina
Ads or something, I’m sure I would have been targeted for it, but I can’t. Of how I came across it for.
00:07:06 – Sarah Light
The, yeah, so interesting.
00:07:08 – Sarah Light
Well, so when I was like, okay.
00:07:12 – Sarah Light
I think I could get this manufactured? And I found a printer that I loved. However, when you’re going to get something manufactured at the quality, I wanted it. There was some ordering minimums. And the other thing is, I was in a season. I had just had my third baby, and it was a really tight financial season for us. I did not have income to just throw at a new business because I was stepping down from the other one.
00:07:43 – Sarah Light
And it was like, okay, I’m really bootstrapping this.
00:07:47 – Sarah Light
I have, like, $30 to invest in this new business. And so they were like, yeah, we can print this planner for you, but you have to order at least 500. And I was like, I don’t think.
00:07:59 – Alessandra Pollina
I can do that.
00:08:00 – Sarah Light
I don’t think my $30 is going to cover that.
00:08:02 – Alessandra Pollina
But it was so good because it.
00:08:03 – Sarah Light
Forced me to be creative, and I calculated that if I sell it at.
00:08:08 – Sarah Light
Market value, I really only have to sell 150 planners in order to cover the whole cost. So this forced me to test the market, and is this marketable? And I had about five to ten friends that I knew would buy it, and I was going to have to find the other 140 people to purchase this planner.
00:08:26 – Sarah Light
And so I just put it out.
00:08:28 – Sarah Light
There in the world on social media and said, here’s this thing I’ve designed. I was able to order one sample, and I was able to take pictures. And I said, I have a goal in the next ten days to gather 150 orders. And if I do, you can check out on this website. If I hit my goal, I will place the order and then send you the planner. So it was like a preorder kind.
00:08:48 – Sarah Light
Of thing, and if not, give you your money back.
00:08:51 – Sarah Light
And it was like a safe way.
00:08:52 – Sarah Light
For me to test it.
00:08:54 – Sarah Light
And at the end of the ten days, I ended up with 189 orders.
00:09:01 – Alessandra Pollina
Yeah.
00:09:01 – Sarah Light
It was so encouraging and so empowering.
00:09:04 – Sarah Light
To me to put something out there.
00:09:06 – Sarah Light
See it respond, even though 189 now is such a small number, but it just breathes so much belief.
00:09:13 – Alessandra Pollina
First ten days, too, of ever putting it out there, that does seem impressive.
00:09:18 – Sarah Light
Because that’s not alone.
00:09:21 – Sarah Light
That’s a short amount of time. Yeah. And it was so unlike me. I’m such a personality that really precalculates things, and I want it to be perfect, but this was just like, let’s just do it. Let’s just put it out there and try it. And so I’m glad I did. And I placed that first order, and, yeah, here I am six years later. Wow.
00:09:42 – Sarah Light
Yeah.
00:09:42 – Alessandra Pollina
And it’s, like, such a timely thing. Not only do you have to order it by a certain time so that.
00:09:48 – Sarah Light
People can use it. But also if you end up with.
00:09:53 – Alessandra Pollina
Extras, you can’t really use them again later. It’s not like any other kind of.
00:09:57 – Sarah Light
Purchase order where it’s like.
00:09:59 – Alessandra Pollina
And we can keep selling them afterwards. It’s like, I imagine once it’s like December 31, or at least after the first couple of days of January, people aren’t to get a planner for that year again.
00:10:09 – Sarah Light
I know.
00:10:10 – Sarah Light
And I had to decide in the summer, like, how much I’m going to order and just project and guess and ask myself what I’m committed to doing.
00:10:21 – Sarah Light
And take the plunge. Wow.
00:10:23 – Alessandra Pollina
And then you’ve made it better and better every year. Right? I feel like there’s little tweaks, at least.
00:10:28 – Sarah Light
Has it changed a lot since the first year?
00:10:31 – Alessandra Pollina
Because I only discovered you, I think, two years ago.
00:10:34 – Sarah Light
Okay. Yeah, it has changed a lot since the very first one. It has gotten better, but the last two, I would say, have remained pretty. I feel like I’ve hit the stride. I have figured out what everybody needs and now I can just keep it consistent. What’s working is working.
00:10:55 – Alessandra Pollina
And you’re just, like, changing the covers kind of, to make it look.
00:10:57 – Sarah Light
Yeah, I change the full graphic design every year.
00:11:01 – Sarah Light
Cool.
00:11:02 – Alessandra Pollina
And what is about the company itself? Is it still you doing everything? Do you have any support or team or. What does that look like in terms of the back end now?
00:11:11 – Sarah Light
Yeah, good question. It is just me. I have a graphic designer. She helps me with the design. I’ll do any layout, tweaks or content, and then she pulls it all together with the design. She’s awesome. So I’m working with her in a season every year, and then that’s it.
00:11:28 – Alessandra Pollina
I have a photographer that takes a.
00:11:29 – Sarah Light
Picture of it, and those are, like, the two people I consistently work with. But I don’t have a team or anything yet.
00:11:35 – Alessandra Pollina
Amazing.
00:11:36 – Sarah Light
My kids help me package the planners.
00:11:38 – Alessandra Pollina
Really? Oh, my God. And you have more than three kids now?
00:11:42 – Sarah Light
I have five kids, yes.
00:11:43 – Sarah Light
Oh, my gosh. Wow. So, yeah, that’s a team. Yeah.
00:11:48 – Sarah Light
There you go.
00:11:48 – Alessandra Pollina
That’s totally a team. So you’re doing this basically running this.
00:11:51 – Sarah Light
Company alongside being a mother of five.
00:11:55 – Alessandra Pollina
Kids now, which is a lot in itself. Like, that’s a ton.
00:11:58 – Sarah Light
I can’t even imagine.
00:11:59 – Sarah Light
Yeah. Yes. It forces me to live out what I teach about prioritizing my time.
00:12:07 – Alessandra Pollina
Yeah. Okay, wait, so.
00:12:10 – Sarah Light
What is your day or your week?
00:12:12 – Alessandra Pollina
Whatever is easier to. Yes.
00:12:15 – Sarah Light
Honestly, right now I only work about eight to 10 hours a week on this business, it’s a Monday and Thursday, so I have about 4 hours each day and then I’ll try to grab another 2 hours on Saturday or after the kids go to bed. On Monday I work half a day and on Thursday I work half a day.
00:12:34 – Sarah Light
Amazing. Yes.
00:12:35 – Sarah Light
And on one day I try to make it all like working on my business, like writing emails, writing product descriptions, updating website, that kind of thing. And then the other day, like today, working in it, doing, collaborating, connecting with other people. I have a program that I run, so all the workshops and meetings would be on a day like this. So that way I can kind of get in the zone on depending what day it is, I can get into that type of work and be more efficient.
00:13:05 – Alessandra Pollina
So is it because it’s obviously, as we said, sort of like a seasonal thing. And once you have the planner now, so is most of the business like marketing it and just making sure people are going to buy it when it gets to the end of the year.
00:13:16 – Sarah Light
And people are thinking about planners for the next year?
00:13:19 – Sarah Light
Yeah, right now, October through January, I do spend a decent amount of time packaging them and putting the shipping labels on and doing that kind of thing. And then it transitions to more design.
00:13:31 – Sarah Light
Like I start thinking about the next.
00:13:33 – Sarah Light
Planner and brainstorming and doing that and then going back and forth with the printer and all of that consistently. I try to be really consistent with my weekly email, which would be part of marketing and building that relationship all year long. And so I am consistently spending time.
00:13:52 – Sarah Light
On that and marketing. I didn’t realize that marketing is just.
00:13:58 – Sarah Light
Such a big part of your business and always will be. When I first started this, when I first said, does anyone want a planner? I did not realize I was signing up for do I want to learn all about marketing?
00:14:07 – Sarah Light
Right.
00:14:08 – Alessandra Pollina
Business ownership.
00:14:09 – Sarah Light
Right.
00:14:10 – Alessandra Pollina
Well, what’s been like the biggest way? I mean, have you been trying to expand the business every year? Like grow the business every year or.
00:14:18 – Sarah Light
You’Re just kind of like people are buying it?
00:14:20 – Alessandra Pollina
So we’ll keep going with that. But I guess what I’m getting at.
00:14:23 – Sarah Light
Is what do you think has helped.
00:14:26 – Alessandra Pollina
It catch on and keep growing? Assuming it has?
00:14:30 – Sarah Light
Yeah, it’s a great question. I do intentionally try to grow it. I feel like in the beginning it happened more organically, just as words spread and you’re in your immediate circle and their friends. And now I’m working on branching outside of those outer circles. Has been a little harder and has taken a lot more intention and still testing things out. My emails bring the most return. And so when I’m kind of in the off season, I work really hard on growing my email list so that when it’s time to sell the planner.
00:15:07 – Sarah Light
There’S more people to talk to.
00:15:09 – Sarah Light
That’s been the most consistent way I’ve done it.
00:15:13 – Sarah Light
But still, I would say I want.
00:15:16 – Sarah Light
To grow more and I’m not always sure how that’s going to happen or.
00:15:20 – Sarah Light
How to do that.
00:15:22 – Alessandra Pollina
That’s why I need somebody like you. Yeah, I mean, I was going to say, I know you’re obviously taking action steps towards growing your visibility on things like podcasts and stuff, which I’m sure will help. I just love it.
00:15:35 – Sarah Light
I think that I do want to.
00:15:37 – Alessandra Pollina
Talk a little bit about literally what makes it different, because it is unique, as you mentioned, and as I mentioned, which I feel like just goes back into why people will like it so much and why it’s such a cool business, why I’m like, I want to talk to you and I know there’s a million planners out there, but I do feel like you’ve created something that’s just so different. And it comes down to the goal setting stuff, I think, and proactive planning. I don’t know, I’m curious.
00:16:08 – Sarah Light
How it.
00:16:09 – Alessandra Pollina
Came up for you when you were like, here’s what needs to be in it is that speak to how you’ve decided that and what should go in it, and maybe that will illustrate it.
00:16:18 – Sarah Light
For people a little bit.
00:16:19 – Sarah Light
That’s a good question.
00:16:20 – Sarah Light
And I think this would help any.
00:16:23 – Sarah Light
Business owner, even if you don’t have this particular soul planner, because I think these are things that you should look for and have in your week consistently. The first thing is the half hour time blocks. If your planner is currently just a blank square that says Monday, I would challenge you to find something that breaks it down a little bit more than that. It doesn’t have to be hour by hour or half hour, but at least morning, afternoon and evening. Because I do think seeing your schedule visually helps hold you accountable to your day and how much time you have in that day. And it also brings a little reality check to you can’t do everything in the day because if I just had a box where I could list as.
00:17:10 – Sarah Light
Many things as I wanted to, but.
00:17:13 – Sarah Light
I didn’t have to tie it to a time, I would think I have a lot more time or I could do a lot more. But when you have to say at 02:00 I’m going to work on that from two to three and then from three to four you start realizing how much that one to do item cost you in time, you start realizing that exchange. So, yeah, that’s like the first thing I was like, it has to have time chunks like half hour. And then bringing the goal setting piece into it, I think is really important because especially as an entrepreneur, you have goals and you don’t have a boss telling you what to do. You have to come up with those things on your own and you have to track those things on your own. And I just don’t like being the bag lady carrying like the goal tracker and the finance tracker and the time tracker. I just want it all together. And your goals and your time are so interwoven and so they should be together in the same place. And what you’re doing today should be bringing you closer to your goal. And when you look back at your week, hopefully you can look at it and say, yes, I made the needle.
00:18:18 – Sarah Light
Move on the most important things, but you wouldn’t know that if you hadn’t.
00:18:24 – Sarah Light
Identified your goals and weren’t tracking your goals. And so that’s why I wanted goals and your calendar to be put together into, I guess you could call it a goal planner, but it is a calendar, too. It’s not just tracking your goals, it’s.
00:18:37 – Sarah Light
Tracking your time, too.
00:18:38 – Sarah Light
Yeah, so those are the biggest things.
00:18:42 – Alessandra Pollina
I literally used to have several notebooks because I’m very goal oriented and I.
00:18:48 – Sarah Light
Have so many different pieces to what I do. I think because I would have, like.
00:18:54 – Alessandra Pollina
And I used to make a little thing I printed out, like, basically like a little page that I made on the computer and would print out for like every, I don’t even remember quarter or every month.
00:19:03 – Sarah Light
I think, I think both because I.
00:19:05 – Alessandra Pollina
Think what I liked about your planner is it’s very much the way I think about things.
00:19:09 – Sarah Light
And I would be like, here’s my.
00:19:11 – Alessandra Pollina
Year, here’s my quarter or whatever, and here’s each month what I need to do in order to reach those goals. And then here’s each week what I need to do out of that plan to make sure I’m actually getting there by the end of the month.
00:19:23 – Sarah Light
And then I would just put the.
00:19:24 – Alessandra Pollina
Daily things in my actual planner because that was all there was space for.
00:19:28 – Sarah Light
Right.
00:19:28 – Alessandra Pollina
But I had literally printed out sheets.
00:19:31 – Sarah Light
Of the goals for each piece, for.
00:19:33 – Alessandra Pollina
The agency side of my business, for.
00:19:35 – Sarah Light
The podcast, for the magazine, whatever main.
00:19:38 – Alessandra Pollina
Big things I had goals towards, which was like everything. And then really fill out those sheets.
00:19:43 – Sarah Light
I made and then put the daily.
00:19:45 – Alessandra Pollina
Stuff in my actual planner.
00:19:47 – Sarah Light
And, yeah, that’s when I found this.
00:19:49 – Alessandra Pollina
I was like, oh, my gosh. This actually thinks about it the way I think about it, or has space to write things down the way I think about it.
00:19:56 – Sarah Light
Overall goal, and then.
00:19:58 – Alessandra Pollina
Yeah, that’s exactly what you have, right? Quarterly, monthly, and then the weekly, and then every day. And it just literally makes you stay.
00:20:05 – Sarah Light
So on track with everything because you’re.
00:20:08 – Alessandra Pollina
Seeing it all the time.
00:20:09 – Sarah Light
Yeah.
00:20:09 – Sarah Light
And that was a challenge to figure out, to be like, okay, this planner cannot be humongous. It’s already like a hefty planner. But if you’re going to track yearly and quarterly and monthly and weekly and daily and put it all on one page and not have the font be size six, how do you lay it out? So that’s what year to year. And how do you make that flow?
00:20:34 – Sarah Light
So someone who’s just beginning to goal.
00:20:37 – Sarah Light
Set or someone who’s really experienced at goal setting can both use this planner. What flow would make sense? So that’s what I’ve tweaked the most.
00:20:44 – Sarah Light
Over the years, is how to get.
00:20:46 – Sarah Light
This to flow smoothly and not be a ten pound planner, but not have to be quarterly either. I want it to be all in one because. Yeah, you don’t want to lose. Sometimes you need to go back and look at what you wrote in January, when you’re in October. And so if you had multiple planners, I felt like that would be confusing.
00:21:06 – Sarah Light
Yeah, no, I love it.
00:21:07 – Alessandra Pollina
And then at the end, there’s all the other things. Like, as you kind of mentioned, the.
00:21:11 – Sarah Light
Financial stuff and all the other.
00:21:14 – Alessandra Pollina
You might just need to be, like, tracking the books you want to read and what people recommend to you and all those things. All of those things at the end, too. So it’s all in one place.
00:21:22 – Sarah Light
And I think it’s so great and.
00:21:25 – Alessandra Pollina
That it’s half personal and half business.
00:21:26 – Sarah Light
I forgot to even touch on that.
00:21:28 – Alessandra Pollina
Which, to be fair, I always feel.
00:21:29 – Sarah Light
Like I leave the personal side, too.
00:21:31 – Alessandra Pollina
A little too blank, because very business focused.
00:21:35 – Sarah Light
Yes, me too.
00:21:37 – Alessandra Pollina
But I like that it has both of them. It encourages you to think that way. Like, here are my personal goals, and then here are my business goals. And you’re supposed to be making progress.
00:21:47 – Sarah Light
Every month, which is wonderful.
00:21:49 – Alessandra Pollina
Even if you sometimes leave the personal one blank.
00:21:51 – Sarah Light
Yeah. And I think that’s unique because there’s.
00:21:55 – Sarah Light
A lot of women who work from home. Some people can go to an office and they might even have an assistant that does their scheduling for them. Or you have a quiet office where you can shut the door and you can get your most important work done and then you can leave it there.
00:22:10 – Sarah Light
And you can come home.
00:22:11 – Sarah Light
There are a lot of women that do not have that privilege. They are working from their kitchen table and they have their kids there and they are juggling all of the home things and all of the business things. And so how do you do them both at the same time? And that’s like the main person I’m thinking about when I design this is the person working from home and has.
00:22:34 – Sarah Light
To do it all. Yeah.
00:22:36 – Alessandra Pollina
And I’m feeling really inspired to use the personal side more next year because I feel one of the things that I’ve been thinking about as I’m kind.
00:22:43 – Sarah Light
Of reviewing my year and thinking about just everything is like, I feel like.
00:22:49 – Alessandra Pollina
I let the personal stuff slide way too much. And I don’t even mean like personal stuff, but things that I do because I like to, but it’s not necessarily work related.
00:22:56 – Sarah Light
Like being involved with my kids, school.
00:22:58 – Alessandra Pollina
Or I’m on the board of an organization, which I do that because I like it.
00:23:04 – Sarah Light
Right.
00:23:04 – Alessandra Pollina
It feels kind of like work, but it doesn’t really go under my work. Bold, but just wanting to take more accountability and responsibility for some of the things that I want to be involved.
00:23:14 – Sarah Light
With in those aspects and putting those.
00:23:17 – Alessandra Pollina
On the personal side. So if I’m like, hey, I really.
00:23:19 – Sarah Light
Want to help with this and that.
00:23:22 – Alessandra Pollina
In those things, that could be things.
00:23:24 – Sarah Light
That become those personal goals and things.
00:23:27 – Alessandra Pollina
I want to do just because I want to make sure I’m doing things.
00:23:29 – Sarah Light
That light me up outside of work, too.
00:23:32 – Alessandra Pollina
Yeah, we have to be intentional about that sometimes, too.
00:23:35 – Sarah Light
Yeah. And it will help, you know, what.
00:23:38 – Sarah Light
To say yes and no to probably.
00:23:41 – Sarah Light
Well, and you talk a lot about.
00:23:42 – Alessandra Pollina
Or you mentioned at least this concept of planning tightly but holding loosely. And I want to talk about that a little bit because that’s something that resonated with me, too, because I am such a planner. Well, I want to hear what it means to you first, actually, and then what I think of it about it.
00:23:59 – Sarah Light
Yeah.
00:23:59 – Sarah Light
I’m also obviously a planner. And on the spectrum of type a to, let’s just wing it. I’m way more on the type a, but there are a lot of people that live on the other end of, like, I don’t want to be constrained by a schedule. Let me just wing it and respond as things come my way. And there’s danger in both sides because if you over plan and you rigidly hold on to your plan, we all know our plans do not. Life does not go according to our plans, always. Usually they don’t. There has to be some flexibility, so you can’t plan and cling to it. You have to plan, but hold it loosely. But at the same time, you do need some planning. Can’t just wing it. I think it’s especially as an entrepreneur and if you don’t have any goals at home, it’s almost irresponsible to not plan. If these things are truly important to you and on your heart, it takes some intention to live those things out and to honor them. You don’t have to over plan and be, like, rigid, but you do need to have some plan and know what’s most important.
00:25:04 – Sarah Light
So you want to plan it, but.
00:25:06 – Sarah Light
Then hold it loosely so that you can navigate around the obstacles and the challenges that come up. If you had not planned at all, and some challenges come up because some people will say, well, what’s the point of planning? If it’s not going to go according to plan, then why did I plan? But here’s the benefit of planning. If you plan tightly on the front end, which really means you know what’s most important to you, that’s the key. If you know what’s most important to you, because that’s where it all starts.
00:25:35 – Sarah Light
Then when something comes up, some kind.
00:25:38 – Sarah Light
Of obstacle or challenge that knocks you off your planned course, you knew what was most important to you, which really helps you navigate around those challenges. It helps you with the flexibility piece. If you hadn’t planned at all and some kind of obstacle comes up, you just react to it. You don’t actually usually maneuver around it. I’m trying to think of an example to make it make more sense.
00:26:02 – Sarah Light
I think of the example of this year.
00:26:06 – Sarah Light
I homeschool my kids, and our home school was so draining to me and actually to all my kids. I’m like, this is not why we’re doing this. We all hate this right now. So I took a step back and was like, what’s actually most important to me in our home school? And one of the things that came up was the sibling relationship. I really wanted to prioritize their relationship with each other.
00:26:28 – Sarah Light
That was really important to me.
00:26:30 – Sarah Light
And so when things came up throughout the year, like, this curriculum is not working for us, or a new opportunity came up, like, should we join this co op or not? I was able to look at the priority of the sibling relationship and navigate around it easier. Like, yes, this is a yes or no.
00:26:48 – Sarah Light
This is a no.
00:26:49 – Sarah Light
I might have had this curriculum that I thought would really feed into their sibling relationship. But that didn’t work.
00:26:55 – Sarah Light
I threw that out the window, but.
00:26:57 – Sarah Light
I still knew what was important. I could pick a different route, if that makes sense.
00:27:02 – Alessandra Pollina
Yeah, totally. I think it does, and I think it’s true. It’s knowing what your end goal is. Kind of like, where do we ultimately want to go?
00:27:10 – Sarah Light
Because then even if the day to day or the week to week, things that we set up aren’t actually getting.
00:27:18 – Alessandra Pollina
Us there, we’re not enjoying it enough. It’s like, okay, but we know where we’re still going to try to get so we can still make that happen.
00:27:23 – Sarah Light
Or even if something terrible happens one.
00:27:26 – Alessandra Pollina
Month and you don’t get any work done or whatever, it’s like, still know where I want to go. So I can still alter what I had planned for the following month to make sure we’re still going to get there. Yeah.
00:27:36 – Sarah Light
Having that end goal in mind, kind.
00:27:39 – Alessandra Pollina
Of, which was really helpful from planning from at the beginning of the year.
00:27:42 – Sarah Light
I mean, that’s how I’ve used it a lot, too, because that’s where this comes into play to kind of review every month.
00:27:50 – Alessandra Pollina
It’s like you map out the quarter.
00:27:51 – Sarah Light
But then every month you’re still going.
00:27:53 – Alessandra Pollina
To go in and put in. Like, here’s what I’m actually focusing on this month, and it allows you a chance to recalibrate every single month at least, and then again every single week. And it’s like, okay, maybe I actually, something came up and I didn’t get this.
00:28:04 – Sarah Light
It’s happened with us a lot this.
00:28:06 – Alessandra Pollina
Fall with illness in my family, sick a lot. So there will be like whole weeks.
00:28:11 – Sarah Light
That go by and I’m like, I didn’t really get to do the things.
00:28:15 – Alessandra Pollina
On my list this week for the ultimate. It was like I was just kind of doing the bare minimum for clients and stuff and that was all I can manage.
00:28:21 – Sarah Light
And then my bigger goal, things of.
00:28:24 – Alessandra Pollina
Like, what’s going to move the needle in my business ultimately? I wasn’t touching those for a whole week at a time. And then it was like, okay, the next week I could kind of recalibrate and be like, okay, I still wanted.
00:28:35 – Sarah Light
To do this by the end of the month.
00:28:37 – Alessandra Pollina
So what, can I reorganize?
00:28:40 – Sarah Light
Yeah.
00:28:40 – Sarah Light
And I think those like being asked a simple question, like, how did you honor your priorities? Or reviewing why did I not hit these? Or why did I?
00:28:49 – Sarah Light
I think it helps you filter through because you could have felt like a failure.
00:28:55 – Sarah Light
Like, I didn’t get to any of.
00:28:56 – Sarah Light
My stuff, but when you look at it.
00:28:59 – Sarah Light
Like, why didn’t I get to it? Okay, we had some illnesses come up, and I took care of my family, and I prioritize that. And so you no longer view it as a failure.
00:29:07 – Alessandra Pollina
It’s just like, okay, that was the.
00:29:09 – Sarah Light
Challenge, and we’ll get around it.
00:29:11 – Sarah Light
On the flip side, there could be times where I’m avoiding something and I don’t want to do the uncomfortable work, but I probably wouldn’t catch that if I wasn’t being asked a question at the end of the month, like, what worked well and what didn’t? Or what am I avoiding?
00:29:28 – Sarah Light
There’s literally that question in the planner. What are you avoiding?
00:29:31 – Sarah Light
I wouldn’t catch that for maybe years.
00:29:34 – Sarah Light
If I wasn’t being held accountable to that. Yeah.
00:29:37 – Alessandra Pollina
It’s the intentionality of paying attention and.
00:29:40 – Sarah Light
Being like, okay, what’s working?
00:29:42 – Alessandra Pollina
What’s not working? And for me, it’s also just a.
00:29:44 – Sarah Light
Matter of if I’m writing the same.
00:29:46 – Alessandra Pollina
Thing down for a couple of weeks in a row, I’m like, okay, if I wrote this down and if I’m feeling like, oh, it’s the same thing.
00:29:52 – Sarah Light
As last week, I’m like, yeah, I could go weeks without really facing that.
00:29:57 – Alessandra Pollina
But when I find that I’m writing it several times in a row for.
00:30:01 – Sarah Light
What’S not going well or what is or whatever, but at least I’m aware.
00:30:06 – Alessandra Pollina
Of it, and I’m like, okay, if I wrote this more than two times in a row, then I should do something about it.
00:30:10 – Sarah Light
I should address it.
00:30:11 – Alessandra Pollina
I should think about it more.
00:30:13 – Sarah Light
Yeah.
00:30:14 – Sarah Light
It’s a gentle accountability.
00:30:17 – Sarah Light
Yeah.
00:30:17 – Alessandra Pollina
So you don’t get stuck in the ruts. Right. It’s shocking how fast time goes by if you’re not being intentional about it, especially as a business owner and a mom and stuff, I think. And it’s like, literally a whole year.
00:30:28 – Sarah Light
Can go by, and then you’re like.
00:30:30 – Alessandra Pollina
I didn’t really address this thing that kind of was coming up, but I wasn’t letting myself focus on it.
00:30:35 – Sarah Light
And this kind of, like, forces you to on it.
00:30:39 – Sarah Light
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
00:30:41 – Sarah Light
What do you think are the best.
00:30:43 – Alessandra Pollina
Ways to reach your goals? What do you think makes the biggest difference? Is it what we’ve talked about already? Maybe we’re just reiterating, but as someone whose job is around goals.
00:30:54 – Sarah Light
I think, well, you need to know what the goal is to set it in the first place. Which seems silly to say, but it’s actually a step a lot of people skip is they just hope they grow. So just being aware and then breaking it down smaller. Like, we haven’t talked about that, but that could be a whole nother thing, is how to break your goals down.
00:31:17 – Sarah Light
But my biggest tip to a business.
00:31:20 – Sarah Light
Owner who wants to reach their goals is to be really clear on the little baby steps along the way because you want to be able to take those steps. But if it’s just this big, vague goal, it’s really hard to take steps towards it. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by it, and it’s really hard to see any progress towards it. And that’s just not a recipe you want. It’s not going to lead to great feelings. So if you break it down so you can actually take some steps, you’ll feel the progress, you’ll see the motivation.
00:31:50 – Alessandra Pollina
I love the smaller you can make them because then you can stick it in. Like, stick one thing in on one day and you’ve made a lot of progress over the week.
00:31:57 – Sarah Light
You’ve done maybe several things, but it’s.
00:32:00 – Alessandra Pollina
Like, okay, I can do one thing.
00:32:01 – Sarah Light
That’S going to take like five minutes and put that in on the slot.
00:32:05 – Alessandra Pollina
On Tuesday when I have a little.
00:32:06 – Sarah Light
Extra time and then, you know, making every single week. Yeah, so fun.
00:32:13 – Sarah Light
What helps you reach your goals?
00:32:14 – Sarah Light
Usually I think it is that it’s.
00:32:17 – Alessandra Pollina
That repetition of how it’s like, okay, I wrote it down for the, wrote down the big goal for the quarter.
00:32:23 – Sarah Light
For the year, wrote down the pieces.
00:32:26 – Alessandra Pollina
For the quarter, wrote down the pieces for the month. And then every week having to go back and check it and be like, okay, it’s just that thing of as.
00:32:32 – Sarah Light
If you said time can go by so fast, if you’re not paying too.
00:32:36 – Alessandra Pollina
Much attention, you can be like, oh, I’ll do that later. I’ll just do that later.
00:32:39 – Sarah Light
Right.
00:32:39 – Alessandra Pollina
And then before you know it, literally a whole month will have gone by or two months will have gone by.
00:32:43 – Sarah Light
And then you’re like, yeah, there’s no.
00:32:44 – Alessandra Pollina
Way to make enough progress towards this goal in the year, in the quarter. But if checking it every single week.
00:32:50 – Sarah Light
Because you know you have something to.
00:32:53 – Alessandra Pollina
Do every week and just the way.
00:32:55 – Sarah Light
It’S set up, then it’s like hard.
00:32:57 – Alessandra Pollina
To ignore it, kind of.
00:32:59 – Sarah Light
Yeah, I agree.
00:33:00 – Sarah Light
Those little steps add up. Yeah.
00:33:02 – Alessandra Pollina
And also, for me, it’s also keeping that motivation because it’s like sometimes you.
00:33:07 – Sarah Light
Know what to do, but if you.
00:33:09 – Alessandra Pollina
Really don’t want to, then that can be tough. So for me, it’s like, oh, yeah, the podcast or connecting with other people who are doing cool things, even if it’s not related to my thing. But that always makes me more motivated to go back and be like, oh, yeah, what are my goals? How do I make sure I’m reaching mine? Because what she’s doing sounds so cool.
00:33:26 – Sarah Light
Yeah.
00:33:27 – Alessandra Pollina
I also want to be doing cool things. Yeah. That helps me get remoteivated, I think, when I start to lose it a little.
00:33:37 – Sarah Light
Yeah.
00:33:37 – Sarah Light
And that’s so good to know about yourself, too.
00:33:40 – Alessandra Pollina
Yeah, well, it is because I can literally, consciously now sometimes be like, I’m feeling kind of like low this week. Let me make sure I’m going out and making some connections, talking with other people or just listening to some podcasts or something like that because I know it’s going to help. And then I know ultimately I do want to reach people, even if right now I don’t feel like doing anything right. I don’t want to be annoyed with myself later for having lost all that.
00:34:04 – Sarah Light
Time and then being behind.
00:34:07 – Alessandra Pollina
There was things else I was going.
00:34:09 – Sarah Light
To say about that, but I just.
00:34:10 – Alessandra Pollina
Forgot what it was. Well, tell us, any ideas for the future?
00:34:13 – Sarah Light
Do you think there’s anything else you’re.
00:34:15 – Alessandra Pollina
Going to do in the next year? Oh, no, wait. I just remembered. I was going to actually say, just to throw out there, it’s not even that important, but I was going to say I felt like it’s really also really useful how you have videos, because what we’re saying is how to use it and all these things to do to kind of break it down. You had really useful videos, I think, on the website or something, or maybe.
00:34:34 – Sarah Light
Even on social media of like, here’s.
00:34:37 – Alessandra Pollina
How to use the pages. And it was basically, here’s how to break down the goals in the way that we intend on these pages. And that was really helpful to me. I totally used those the first, oh, good.
00:34:47 – Sarah Light
I’m glad a lot.
00:34:49 – Alessandra Pollina
The first time I was filling it out because I was kind of like, what do I put here?
00:34:52 – Sarah Light
How do I make sure I’m thinking.
00:34:54 – Alessandra Pollina
About it in the right way?
00:34:55 – Sarah Light
Because I’m like, I don’t want to.
00:34:56 – Alessandra Pollina
Make a mistake in my planner. I think that was like, cool. I think I was about that just from even the marketing standpoint, like, when.
00:35:02 – Sarah Light
You said what you’ve done to be.
00:35:04 – Alessandra Pollina
Marketing it and stuff, I feel like.
00:35:05 – Sarah Light
The way that you’ve put stuff together.
00:35:08 – Alessandra Pollina
Made it really easy to be like, yes, I need that.
00:35:11 – Sarah Light
The videos, photos that you had and.
00:35:15 – Alessandra Pollina
Also the fact that you seem like a real person, she seems like a real person who really gets what I need. I think that actually really helped it.
00:35:22 – Sarah Light
Wasn’T like, oh, this is some huge.
00:35:24 – Alessandra Pollina
Company where printing planners. I was like, she’s like seriously busy woman who’s getting a lot done.
00:35:30 – Sarah Light
Every time I make a video, I’m like, wow, that’s so unprofessional looking, but.
00:35:34 – Alessandra Pollina
I just have to get it out there.
00:35:35 – Sarah Light
I don’t know, the team or whatever. Every year my husband and I talk like, this is so terrible, Sarah, this.
00:35:42 – Alessandra Pollina
Is a bad video, but whatever, we have to just put it on mean, there’s so many websites where they don’t have anything, where you can’t really see exactly what to do or you can’t even see great photos of the pages. So I really appreciated you getting to.
00:35:57 – Sarah Light
See all of that stuff.
00:35:59 – Alessandra Pollina
I think that was really useful. Even if it’s not the most high quality video that ever existed. That didn’t matter. I could see what the pages look like and see how to use them.
00:36:08 – Sarah Light
And that kind of actually leads me to your next question, because what’s coming next? I send out a survey every year after everybody has their planner and started to use it. And before I start working on the next one, I want to know what’s.
00:36:21 – Sarah Light
Working and what people would like to.
00:36:23 – Sarah Light
See change and just any feedback in general.
00:36:26 – Sarah Light
And a lot of answers were something along the lines of like, I love.
00:36:31 – Sarah Light
The planner, I love the way I’m using it right now, but I feel like I’m not using it to its fullest potential. Over and over, this guilty feeling of like, I’m just not using it to its fullest potential, I’m not using all the pieces of it, which is actually fine. People were like feeling guilty about it. And so the first thing I did was make some videos that would help them understand all the different pieces. And then I created a program too that helps people take it to the next level. So you got your planner. Great step one. And then for those that are comfortable.
00:37:05 – Sarah Light
Setting goals, but really want help being.
00:37:09 – Sarah Light
Held accountable to those goals, or how to break them down even smaller and how to track them and how to measure and how to really run a home and a business at the same time, I ended up creating a program which is so different from creating a planner, but that’s what’s next. Is like perfecting that program now and filling program every year.
00:37:30 – Sarah Light
Wow.
00:37:31 – Alessandra Pollina
Yeah, well, talk about building a community. The fact that you have enough people buying your planners that a program seems to come out of it, I feel like is amazing because that’s not something.
00:37:41 – Sarah Light
That someone’s going to sign up for.
00:37:43 – Alessandra Pollina
From a planner they bought at Staples. That’s for like, you literally have built some kind of community around this where people actually want to do that to begin with. But also that sounds awesome. And it actually makes so much sense because it’s such a stereotype that you set all the goals at the beginning of the year and then fall off the bandwagon.
00:38:02 – Sarah Light
Right.
00:38:02 – Alessandra Pollina
And people don’t keep accountable after January 15 or whatever they say.
00:38:07 – Sarah Light
Right.
00:38:07 – Alessandra Pollina
Yeah. I feel like I’m very self motivated about goals or I don’t know what the church, there’s some word for that, I’m sure. But I’m really good at holding myself.
00:38:17 – Sarah Light
Accountable for things like that, which is.
00:38:20 – Alessandra Pollina
Why I love the planner so much, I think.
00:38:21 – Sarah Light
But I totally know. I feel like most, so many people would struggle with that, with sticking to it throughout the year. Yeah.
00:38:31 – Sarah Light
And then there’s some seasons where you need it more and don’t need it.
00:38:34 – Sarah Light
At other seasons too.
00:38:36 – Alessandra Pollina
Yeah. So if people want to sign up for that, can we link to that in the show notes or something? The program, yes, it kicks off in.
00:38:41 – Sarah Light
Mid January, so I’m not sure when this goes live, but yes, the program is called frazzled to focus.
00:38:48 – Sarah Light
Yeah.
00:38:48 – Alessandra Pollina
That’s awesome. So you’re going to be really busy. So you’re still pretty much homeschooling and running the business and the program.
00:38:56 – Sarah Light
That’s a lot. Yeah.
00:38:59 – Alessandra Pollina
I got a good planner. Yeah. Seriously. Amazing.
00:39:03 – Sarah Light
Okay.
00:39:03 – Alessandra Pollina
Well, I always ask people what’s one thing that you wish you knew more about when you first started the business?
00:39:08 – Sarah Light
It’s such a good question. I wish I would have anticipated more that success leads to new opportunities, which is awesome. But then those opportunities can distract you from what initially brought you success. And then after that initial success, sometimes people flounder around for a little bit. And I wish I knew how to have stayed focused on the things that brought success in the first place. And to have had an eye for that on the front end would have saved me some time.
00:39:37 – Sarah Light
Interesting.
00:39:38 – Alessandra Pollina
That’s such a unique answer. I don’t feel like I said that, but it totally makes sense.
00:39:43 – Sarah Light
I like that. Amazing. Any last word of advice for other women and entrepreneurs?
00:39:49 – Sarah Light
Okay. I would say just again, know what’s important to you in your life, but in your business too. Like what is most important to your business right now. And I encourage you to be willing.
00:40:01 – Sarah Light
To honor what that is.
00:40:03 – Sarah Light
And that means being willing to say no to a lot of other things, including what other people think is most important for you. That’s why you need to know what’s most important for you and to be willing to live that out, which means saying no to some tough things.
00:40:19 – Alessandra Pollina
Yes. And that actually reminds me of what I was going to say, too.
00:40:23 – Sarah Light
When you were talking about planning, I.
00:40:26 – Alessandra Pollina
Already forgot the phrase we had, like, planning hard but holding loose or whatever. I feel like to me, that’s part of it, too.
00:40:33 – Sarah Light
Right? It’s like I make all these plans.
00:40:35 – Alessandra Pollina
But you have to also intentionally check in with yourself, too, because even what you want throughout the year can change. And being able to be like, actually, that’s not what I want anymore. That’s what I thought I was going to want January 1. But maybe I’m going to shift things a little and that’s okay. Even if I had been up a whole year, I can shift things in the middle or whenever I want to.
00:40:57 – Sarah Light
More fit what I feel like is.
00:41:00 – Alessandra Pollina
Going to bring me joy right now or, like going forward.
00:41:04 – Sarah Light
Yes.
00:41:05 – Sarah Light
That takes wisdom and work. Absolutely.
00:41:08 – Alessandra Pollina
Well, I am feeling very inspired to go order my planner right now because I admit I did not order yet for next year. Fully intend to. And then I was looking at them and I was like, I can’t choose.
00:41:18 – Sarah Light
Because you have one that’s like pink and then one that’s like blue with like a pattern.
00:41:22 – Alessandra Pollina
And I was like, I’m like, such a pink. I normally would always just go with.
00:41:25 – Sarah Light
The pink, but the blue was, like, stunning.
00:41:28 – Alessandra Pollina
And I was like, maybe I want that one. And then I never did that because I couldn’t decide. But I’m going to do that now. And I encourage everybody else to go check it out, too. And we’ll put links in the show notes so people can. I’m going to really try to get this episode up really quick so that people can actually get them before the new year and use them if they want to. Because I just feel like this is.
00:41:48 – Sarah Light
Such a perfect episode to do right.
00:41:51 – Alessandra Pollina
Around the new year.
00:41:52 – Sarah Light
Yeah.
00:41:53 – Sarah Light
I’m so glad that our paths cross again.
00:41:55 – Alessandra Pollina
I know. Thank you so much for coming on. Tell people actually where they can find you. And the planners, what’s your website? Wherever else they should connect with you.
00:42:03 – Sarah Light
Yeah, you can go to soulplanners.com. It’s solplanners. And there is, obviously, the planner is on there. The program is on there, and there’s some freebies on there. Like, there’s the goal setting guide, which honestly, this is the perfect time to work through a guide like that. And there’s also a quiz on there and that’ll tell you your planning kind of personality and give you some tips on if you’re like a wing it kind of person, some planning tips for you or if you’re a type a kind of person. I will give you some planning tips.
00:42:36 – Sarah Light
Because everyone’s a little different in their planning style.
00:42:40 – Alessandra Pollina
Yes.
00:42:41 – Sarah Light
Oh, my gosh.
00:42:41 – Alessandra Pollina
I’m going to go check that out.
00:42:42 – Sarah Light
I don’t think I read it, that quiz.
00:42:44 – Alessandra Pollina
See my tips? I’m sort of in between. I know I sound like such a planner by what I’ve said, but I’m actually more wing it in a lot of cases and a lot of life.
00:42:52 – Sarah Light
Like in business, I’m very planet planner.
00:42:55 – Alessandra Pollina
Focused, but I would never call myself type a. So that’s very interesting.
00:42:59 – Sarah Light
Yeah.
00:43:00 – Sarah Light
Probably like a goal, like a, you know.
00:43:04 – Alessandra Pollina
I’ll let you know what my results.
00:43:05 – Sarah Light
Yeah.
00:43:06 – Alessandra Pollina
Thank you so much for coming on today, Sarah. This was really fun. I’m glad we got to talk.
00:43:10 – Sarah Light
Okay, we’ll talk soon.