Now you and I both know that when it comes to new beginnings or fresh starts, let's be honest, January 1st is really just an arbitrary day. There's nothing saying that we have to start over or start new on January 1st. There's also nothing that says we have to wait until January 1st to do something new. I firmly believe that any day of the year can be your personal New Year. So regardless of when you are listening to this episode, I hope that it inspires you, and brings a sense of possibility to your business and to your life. Because truly, no matter what day of the year it is, it is never too late to have a fresh start. I'm reminded of that quote, “It's never too late to be what you might have been or who you might have been,” I'm paraphrasing a bit. But you get the idea. Truly, it's never too late. It can be a random Thursday in the middle of July and you might decide that this is the day that you are going to start something new. And yet, I must admit that I do tend to get excited and invigorated when we are beginning a new calendar year. Now, admittedly, the last few years for me, I have felt a little off. And I daresay many of us may have felt that way. Which is totally understandable when you think about all of the things we've had to face over the last few years. But for whatever reason, that bridge between 2022 and 2023 felt very different to me this year. And I found myself really looking forward to the new year and feeling that fresh sense of purpose. And I suspect it's because I really allowed myself to take a break. 

I was really lucky that the last two weeks of December, I was able to travel with my family back to where we used to live in Europe. So those of you who have been listening to the podcast for a while may know my story. My husband was previously in the United States Air Force and from 2011 to 2015 we were stationed at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany. We lived in this lovely little part of Germany called the Eifel Region, right near the borders of Belgium and Luxembourg, and it really was an idyllic place to live for four years. We moved back to the states in 2015. And while I do admit I do find it easier to live in the States, I really have missed Europe for the last seven years. And we had talked about going back for a visit. In fact, we were supposed to go back December of 2020. We all know what happened then. We were also supposed to go back December of 2021. And that was at a point where we were seeing a surge in Coronavirus in Europe. And so we made the decision not to go. So this trip to Europe had been postponed for a few years. And finally we were able to make the journey. And I have to tell you it was a wonderful two weeks, we had the opportunity to go back to where we used to live. We visited with old friends, including our landlords from the apartment in the castle where we used to live. Yes, we used to live in a castle. It was pretty spectacular. And we were really lucky because my landlords had actually sold the property. They are in their 70s and 80s and so they were really looking to retire and not run a huge estate that included a castle from like, the 12th century. And they were literally moving their things out when we happened to come by to show the kids where they used to live and to take pictures. So we were able to visit with them for a few hours and reminisce. And it was one of the most meaningful parts of the trip for me. In many ways it felt like coming home even though we didn't live there anymore. I still felt really connected to the land, to that property, and to the people who took care of it. We also had a chance to visit some Christmas markets before heading off to my favorite little town in all of Europe: Bruges, Belgium, where we spent several days revisiting all of our favorite museums and restaurants and cafes. And what was so lovely was to see this through the eyes of my children, who were pretty young the last time we visited Bruges, they were eight and six. And my six year old, now 13, almost 14 year old, had all of these vague memories that he didn't know how to place, he didn't quite understand where they were from. And we would go to places and he would say, “Oh, I remember that I know where we are.” And so that was just really neat to witness as a parent. But I think it was also really special for him to have context now to these memories that previously had felt out of place. So after several days, in Bruges, we went and visited a young woman who previously spent several summers with us interning at my husband's dental practice. And we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day with her and her family. And then we headed to England, where we spent almost a week with my husband's best friend and his wife. She is stationed there, just outside of London, and we had a lovely time there before returning home. The entire trip was just extraordinary. And I have to admit that I wouldn't describe it as relaxing. I mean, you probably get the idea that we did a lot and saw a lot while we were there. And we were on the go quite a bit, not every day, but often. So while I wouldn't call it relaxing, I would call it restorative. I felt like I was able to replenish my soul by spending time in my favorite places in Europe. And I recognize that not everyone has the opportunity to do that. Not everyone has the opportunity to travel to Europe, or to travel back to some of their favorite places wherever they are in the world. And so I recognize that with this opportunity comes a level of privilege. And all I can do is express my gratitude for that, and to take my experiences and integrate them into my life in a way that serves other people. 

And I want to take a few minutes to do that right now, actually, because I did have a few epiphanies while traveling in Europe that are already informing how I approach 2023. Before we left for the trip, I made a commitment to myself that I was going to do as little business related work as possible. And I'm very proud to say that I held to that commitment. In the two weeks that we were gone, I think I opened my work laptop once. It was about a week into the trip and I was having a day where I was starting to feel, I don't know if anxious is the right word, but I did feel disconnected from my business, which is not a feeling I particularly enjoy. Everything from administrative tasks, like making sure the bills that I scheduled went through successfully to checking my emails, making sure there weren't any emergencies that I needed to attend to. I just felt like I didn't have a handle on where my business was. And so I gave myself permission to spend an hour or two, just kind of checking in, checking on the status of pending matters and the overall health of my business. And I really did give myself a time limit, I did not want to get sucked back in to doing work that didn't matter during my holiday. I wanted to make sure that I was doing work that would allow me to continue my holiday feeling really solid about my business and where I was. Now I aspire to one day, maybe taking the full two weeks off and not opening my laptop once. That was not this trip. But I also feel like opening it one time for a few hours just to touch base and make sure everything was okay, that felt like a huge win for me. 

So I want to connect that experience with another experience I had in Europe. And this sounds like no big deal, but it has really changed the way I am living my life and running my business. And it all comes down to a bottle of hand lotion. Now if you're on my email list, you may have already heard the story so bear with me. But one of the things I noticed when traveling in Germany and Belgium and England is that in many of the public restrooms in restaurants or airports and the like, next to the hand soap, they also had hand lotion. And it was cold and maybe at times a little dry and so I made it a habit that anytime I washed my hands I also followed up with hand lotion. A very small, seemingly simple act but what I realized was that the act of putting on hand lotion felt like a little luxury. And I savored every moment when I was applying that lotion. It gave me an opportunity to pause, to savor the moment, to express gratitude for where I was and what I was experiencing. And it was just this mini pleasure in the middle of my day that lifted my mood, increased my sense of gratitude. And I thought, why am I not doing this more in my life back home? This does not have to be a holiday thing. I started thinking about other ways that I might be able to incorporate these little luxuries into my everyday life. And so you know, as soon as I got home, once the stores were open, I went and bought a few bottles of hand lotion that are now seated right next to the hand soap at the sinks in my house. And I am continuing my, I'm going to call it a ritual, of applying hand lotion after I wash my hands. Not only is that act in and of itself really lovely and feels luxurious, but it also is serving as a cue to slow down, to check in with myself, to enjoy the moment. And really, it's become an opportunity for me to practice mindfulness throughout the day. So these two experiences that I had, number one, only opening my laptop once and having a very defined time period in which I was doing work. And then number two, applying hand lotion at regular intervals. I know they don't sound like they go together but for me, it inspired me to think about how I want to operate my business and live my life in 2023 and beyond. These were the gateway moments for me to get really intentional about my behaviors, my actions, my decisions, and my way of being. 

So for the first time, I have actually chosen two words of the year. I've been choosing a single word of the year for probably about six or seven years now. And it really serves as an anchor point, a reminder of how I want to be and how I want to engage for that year. This year, I did something a little different, I chose two words. And initially, I described them as one being a word to describe my personal life and my aspirations personally, and then the other for my professional life or my business. I'm not sure that's really accurate anymore, because I see the two of them actually working together. So whereas one feels a little more tied to my everyday personal life, and one feels more tied to my business, I actually think they go hand in hand. And the word that I chose for my personal life is very much connected to my experiences, while in Germany and Belgium and England; and that word is gentle. I want to explore what it looks like to lead a life that centers gentleness, and what it looks like to hold gentle and strength together. When I was a kid, I remember doing a vocabulary exercise where you had to come up with antonyms, or opposite words. And I remember that the opposite of the word strong, was gentle. And I don't know why that has stuck with me all these years, but it has. And I think now as an adult, maybe it's because I want to push back on that notion that if we are gentle, we cannot be strong. Or if we are strong, we cannot be gentle. Again, that falls into a very binary, either/or way of thinking and I'm really curious to explore in 2023, what it means to be both strong and gentle. And how I can bring that sense of gentleness, into my relationships, into my activities, my hobbies, my sense of self, and yes, into my business as well. So already this year, I have really focused on anchoring my day to day activities in this idea of gentle. For me that's looked like prioritizing, I hesitate to call it a morning routine, because it's not a scripted set of activities. But I do have certain things that I like to do every morning, and I'm approaching those from the spirit of gentleness. So it's starting off every morning with a full glass of water. It's taking at least 10 minutes to meditate. I've been doing Yoga with Adriene’s 30 Day Yoga practice and so I've been doing yoga most mornings, one day I didn't and quite make it in the morning, it was really more towards the end of the day. But I really feel best when I'm able to do it in the morning. It looks like doing my version of morning pages for those of you who are familiar with Julia Cameron and her work in The Artist's Way. 

So, I have been really embracing these activities, but approaching them from a place of being gentle. This is not about accomplishing things for the sake of accomplishing them. It's not about checking off a box on a to do list. But it's really about engaging in these activities in a way that feels good and it has made all the difference in the world for me. I have found that I feel less anxious, I feel more grounded and connected. I look forward to these activities more than I thought I would, even the yoga days that are a little more core centric, shall we say? I'm even looking forward to those. And so there's something about approaching this with gentleness that is really resonating with me. And it's also increasing my capacity for compassion, both towards others and towards myself. And it's also allowed me to more deeply explore the idea of forgiveness. And I'm gonna leave that as a little breadcrumb, I may come back to in a future episode. I'm really intrigued by forgiveness, and what it can look like, what it has looked like, and maybe the ways forgiveness has been used to manipulate or control people, versus a true forgiveness that is liberating. So I'm going to put a little pin in that right now because honestly, I think the topic of forgiveness is worthy of its own episode, if not its own series of episodes. But I will say that embracing gentleness has allowed me to deepen my self compassion and forgiveness, forgiveness of others, but most importantly, forgiveness of self. And so that has really helped me have a very powerful start to this new year. 

In addition to my morning activities, I have also prioritized finding little pleasures, in my day to day experience, just like the hand lotion, and one that I have returned to is reading for pleasure. When I look at the books that I've read over the last few years, the vast majority of them have either been business related, or self help/personal development for the purposes of my business. I had not been doing much fiction reading at all, maybe a couple books here and there. But fiction really had taken a backseat to more business oriented books. And I decided, “You know what, in 2023, I want to change that. I want to read for pleasure.” And so already this year, I've been able to read for pleasure every single day. Now, some days, that's like 10 or 15 minutes. Other days, it's like a few hours. But I have so enjoyed returning to fiction reading. It is inspiring. It's something I look forward to. And I'm really interested to see how that influences the other aspects of my life, including my business. I was recently interviewed for another podcast, and we were talking about New Year's and resolutions versus intentions and how we wanted to start our year. And I said something in this interview that I'd actually never said out loud before. And I'm not even sure I was aware that I had that thought but the minute I verbalized it, I was like, “Oh, this is true.” And I forget exactly what it was, I said, but it was something about the relationship between pleasure and profit. And that when we are doing things to enhance our pleasure, whether on a huge scale, or even just these little mini luxuries that I've already described, that that can influence how we show up in our businesses, how we show up for our clients, which will ultimately influence our success and our profitability. And so this link between pleasure and profit is something I'm really interested in exploring this year as well. And I want to clarify when I say the word profit, I know most of us, myself included, go immediately towards financial profit, how much money we're making, and more than that, how much money we're actually taking home. And yes, that is one way of being profitable. And actually, as I'm talking, maybe the word I mean is prosperity. Maybe what I'm really looking at is the link between pleasure and prosperity, and what it means to have a prosperous business and a prosperous life, and the relationship between pleasure and prosperity. 

Ooh, y'all seriously, I did not plan this. In fact, I didn't even make an outline for today's episode. I decided I was just going to show up and talk because I'm still kind of getting back into the swing of things with work. So I did not even plan on this. You can tell I'm definitely a verbal processor. And sometimes things start making more sense to me as I talk through them. And I just had that moment right now. So thank you for indulging me on that. And so yes, I think 2023 is going to be a year where I explore the connection between pleasure and prosperity. And I certainly invite you to join me in that exploration, if that speaks to you. 

So I mentioned that my personal word of the year is gentle, and that I had selected a professional word of the year as well. And I'd like to provide a little context for this word, because actually, I chose it, not for its primary definition, but for its secondary definition. And the word that I chose was elegant. Now, when I hear the word elegant, I have an image of my head of this person who is just chic and refined and does everything very intentionally, almost perfectly. You know, that's that elegance. And I love that, don't get me wrong. But for the purposes of my business, I'm actually thinking about the word elegant, more as it's used in science. In science, when we're talking about an elegant theorem, we're talking about something that is so simplified and streamlined, it needs nothing else. In fact, the definition I found was that it's pleasingly ingenious and simple. And that just resonates so deeply with me. When I breathe into the word elegant as it relates to my business, I get a sense of calm, of centeredness and a feeling grounded and at home. And so I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that elegant was going to be the word that guided my business in 2023. 

So let's talk a little bit about what that means for me and for you. First and foremost, it looks like streamlining and simplifying my business operations. I don't want to overcomplicate things, I don't want to be inefficient in how I use my resources, whether financial or person power, or energy. So the idea of being elegant in my business operations means that everything is streamlined and refined. And so that's something that I am going to be looking at specifically with my business operations and also with the offers that I make in my business. I talk a lot about having a spectrum of services, which really looks like everything that you provide to your community, to your audience, free and paid. And understanding how everything you offer falls on this spectrum so that they're connected, so that people can engage with you at any point along the spectrum, whether it's completely for free, say via this podcast, or whether it's through a paid offer. So in 2023, I want to make sure that I have an elegant spectrum of services, that I have just the right number of offers placed in just the right position, whether it's price point, or access or availability. I just want to make sure that my offers are so refined and so dialed in that it is clear what I offer, why I offer it, how they work together, how they differ. It's that streamlining and simplifying that comes with having an elegant spectrum of services that I am going to be prioritizing this year. 

And when I sat down to create my 2023 financial goals and my launch plan and my projections, I did so with this idea of “elegant” in mind. For me that looked like being really clear about how many times I would launch a given offer, what those launches would involve. It looked like being really clear on what my revenue streams were and making sure that I didn't have so many that I felt fragmented, but also that I didn't have too few so that people wouldn't feel like they didn't have a way to engage with me. And so that's why this year I've decided to focus on three primary offers. Number one is the Coach with Clarity Collective, that is my group program for coaches who want a space where they can improve their coaching skills, as well as build and grow their coaching business. So it's a lovely hybrid experience where we really help you become a better coach, and a stronger business owner. You can learn more about that at coachwithclarity.com/collective. And I'll be talking a little more about that probably in March. I think that's when we're going to do our first big relaunch of the Collective. But for now you can still learn more and join at coachwithclarity.com/collective. 

So the collective is one of the three main offers. The second is my certification program. Now I have talked about this on the podcast before. And I am so pleased that last year, I was able to submit my program to be re-accredited with the International Coaching Federation under their new accreditation model. And I'm still waiting to hear back from ICF, about that status. And it could be March or April, maybe even a little later before I hear anything. So I'm hoping to relaunch the certification program in the spring. So fingers crossed for that. And I will definitely let you know as soon as I have more information about the accreditation status, and when the next cohort will begin. 

Do y'all hear that? I'm recording this downtown in New Bern, North Carolina, and it is noon. And so the bells are tolling. I think there's about to be a song in the background. So if you hear that, just imagine you're sitting here with me enjoying the sounds of historic downtown New Bern. 

So as I was saying, the certification program will be offer number two, and offer number three are my Masterminds. And I absolutely love running my Mastermind cohorts. They're really small groups, three to five people in a cohort max, and we meet monthly as a group. I also meet monthly with each member one on one, and provide support through Voxer, and email, all sorts of goodies in between our sessions. And it's really the main way that I support people in a one on one capacity. So if that's something you might be interested in, I will be opening up two cohorts of my Mastermind this year, one in April, and one probably in October. So reach out, send me an email info@coachwithclarity.com. Or you can send me a DM on Instagram, I'm @CoachWithClarity, if you'd like to be on the list of invites for the Mastermind. Again, it's a small program, so there's not going to be a lot of space. If this is something you think you might be interested in, let me know. And we can hop on a call and discuss whether it's the right next step for you. 

But those three programs, the Collective, the certification program, and the Mastermind, those are my primary offers, and even just limiting it to those three feels like taking a deep breath. It feels elegant, it feels streamlined. And most importantly, it gets me excited about moving forward in my business and connecting with people in this way. Now, I do have some smaller offers available. And I view those as ways of initiating relationships, of building my community. And so I definitely have space, both on my calendar, but also energetic space to continue to refine and maybe even create one or two new small offers. In fact, one of them. If you're listening on the day, this episode drops, which would be January 16th. Tomorrow, January 17th, is the launch of the Coach with Clarity Kickstart bundle. Now I am so excited about this launch, I can't even tell you, I've been working on this bundle for about four months now. And I am so pleased because I have 29 other contributors. So including myself, there are 30 of us who are sharing some of our best templates and toolkits and resources, all sorts of goodies designed to help you build, grow and even scale your coaching practice. 

I structured the bundle so that we were really focusing on five areas that can support you in your business. And those five areas are content creation, marketing and visibility, sales and revenue, systems and organization, and wellness and self care because we need all five of those to run really strong coaching businesses. And so I am so pleased to offer you 30 resources across these five topics so that you can make 2023 the year that you take your coaching business to the next level. So you can learn more about this bundle at coachwithclaritybundle.com.

So that's coachwithclaritybundle all one word dot com Right now there is a waitlist sign up. So if you know you want the bundle, go ahead and sign up, I will make sure that you get immediate access when the bundle launches on January 17th at 9am Eastern time/6am Pacific time. And what's important to know is that this bundle will only be available to purchase for one week. So the bundle cart closes on January 23rd at I think, 10pm Eastern time. Now the good news is that you will have all the way through February 28th to redeem the offers in the bundle. 

So while you do need to make sure you purchase that bundle on or before January 23rd, you will have an additional five weeks or so to access as many of those 30 resources that you want. And what's beautiful is once you sign up for those resources, you are treated like a paying customer from each contributor. So if they have any sort of client only or customer only Facebook group, you'll get an invite to that. If they have special deals available just to their customers, you will be included in that. Oh, and I haven't even mentioned the best part yet. The best part is the price. This entire bundle is only $99. And I can tell you, I have contributed something to this bundle that I typically sell for $99. So simply by purchasing the bundle, you can get my product, and 29 other products all for $99. So head on over to coachwithclaritybundle.com to either get on the waitlist if you're listening on January 16th, or to purchase between January 17th and 23rd. This is one way that I can support you in building and growing your coaching practice this year. Because I believe that 2023 is the year of the coach. I believe that so strongly, that I'm pretty sure that's going to be the topic for next week's podcast episode. So I hope you will come back and join me then as we talk all about why 2023 is the year of the coach and why now is the best time ever to cultivate your skill and your mastery as a coach and grow a coaching practice you love. 

It's going to be a great year, y'all. I am so honored to be on this journey with you. I really missed you these last few months. It's good to be back. And I also kind of want to thank you because today's episode has been a little different than usual. Most episodes I find tend to be more informative or instructive. Maybe I'm even going so far as to teach on these episodes. This one was really more reflective, sharing some of my stories and experiences and talking about what I'm really excited to share with you in the coming year. So it's felt a little like an indulgence, and I thank you for that. I am still working on my podcast content plan for 2023. And I have some ideas of what I want to talk about. In fact, just on this episode today, I've already mentioned 2023 is the year of the coach and exploring this idea of forgiveness. I've got a couple other things in mind too. But I would really love to know from you what you would like to hear on the show. I make this show for you. I want it to be inspiring and informative. So if there's any topic that you would like my take on or you'd like me to dig into, I hope you'll let me know. Again, you can email me at info@coachwithclarity.com you can send me a DM @CoachWithClarity on Instagram. And you can be a part of creating the content calendar I'm currently working on for the Coach with Clarity podcast. I would really appreciate your feedback. And so I thank you in advance. All right, my friend. That's it for me today. First episode of 2023 in the books. I am so grateful that you have shared this time with me today. I can't wait to talk to you again next week. But until then, my name is Lee Chaix McDonough reminding you to get out there and show the world what it means to be a Coach with Clarity.