Ep. 134/ Forget the Gym! New Year’s Resolutions You Need That Will Move Your Business Forward
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As you write your New Year’s Resolutions, ask yourself: Will you really meditate daily? How much will you use the gym after January 31? Forget about your personal aspirational goals, this year I’m sharing some resolutions that will move your career and business forward. I’ve gathered experts from various areas of expertise: branding, marketing, business development, and mindset to get you ready. You’ll hear from Executive and Team Coach Caroline Stokes, Kate Kordsmeier, Life and Business Coach and Launch Strategist and Copywriter Brenna McGowan.
You will learn:
How to get you and your team to be more productive and creative
How to decide to prioritize your time
Tips on deleting and automating tasks
What to do to build your personal brand in 2025
1 thing you should do each week to build authentic connections to move your business
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You will learn:
How to get you and your team to be more productive and creative
How to decide to prioritize your time
Tips on deleting and automating tasks
What to do to build your personal brand in 2025
1 thing you should do each week to build authentic connections to move your business
Quotes from our guest:
“Forget shiny new productivity apps—2025 is the year of brutal time honesty. Spend a week tracking where every minute goes. Then ruthlessly cut, delegate, or automate the things that don’t align with your goals. Time audits aren’t sexy, but they are game-changing.”
“Create a post vacation idea sharing system for people to return to work inspired to share their ideas as soon as they return from vacation.”
“Do one good deed a day for a fellow colleague.”
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LINKS:
Kim (00:01):
Happy New Year. This episode is focused all on New Year's resolutions, but not the gym membership. Not the meditation practice, but rather active proactive business resolutions that you can make for yourself. So I brought in some great experts with some awesome tips, so make sure to listen how you can grow your business in the new year, both business development, business coaching, mindset marketing. We got a lot for you. Make sure to listen. Welcome to the Exit interview with Kim Rittberg. Do you work for yourself and want to supercharge your business while still having fun? Well, this is your go-to podcast, part MBA Part Cheer Squad. Every week I'll be joined by top business owners who share the secrets to their success. After I found myself working during childbirth true story, I quit my executive media job to bet on myself fighting the fear and imposter syndrome to eventually earn six awards in InDemand speaking career and features in Fast Company and Business Insider. Now I'm here to celebrate all you rock stars betting on yourself, and I want to help you win. Tune in every Wednesday to hear from remarkable founders and don't miss our Solo Friday episodes, a treasure trove of video and podcasting mini masterclasses with me. Exit the Grind, enter success on your own terms. Don't forget to subscribe today and grab my free video tips at my website, kimrittberg.com.
(01:28):
I recently wrote an article for Fast Company about New Year's resolutions, and one thing I think is really important, I'm a big believer in New Year's resolutions. I really appreciated it. It is a time to reflect. Also, I'm Jewish at the beginning in the fall of every year there's the Jewish New Year and Yo Kippur, which is a day of atonement, and that's also a time of reflection. So I find myself twice in the year really sitting and just thinking about how was this year? What do I want to change about it? What's going well? And likewise, if you've ever been at a company or you do your own resolutions, there's all different formats to take. But I liked, I worked at Netflix, there was a stop start, continue method. What do you want to stop doing? What do you want to start doing? What do you want to continue doing?
(02:11):
And I like that because it's not like it's all good or bad or I want to start doing this and everything else is garbage. You're probably doing a lot of things that are going well in your life. So I like the idea of saying, okay, these are going well, I'm going to continue with those, and then what are the other things I want to tweak? So for me, for New Year's resolutions, I really appreciate for the business. I start doing it months in advance where I get an idea of like, Hey, next year I want to focus on this. So I kind of added into the document earlier in the year. But anyway, this is not about my resolutions document. This is about your resolution. So one thing I want to talk about today is for New Year's resolutions, I don't want to talk about gym memberships or meditation or blah blah, blah.
(02:50):
That's all important. But I want to talk about business resolutions to make your business have the best year yet. So I brought in some experts for it. At first, I want to give my recommendation on resolutions for your business. So obviously I'm a marketing expert, specifically video and thought leadership through video and podcasts. So when I think about how I recommend for someone to grow their business in the new year, it is all about building that personal brand. I actually hate the term personal brand, so I'm going to call it your professional perspective. The new year is the perfect time to start this. So the very first step to do is get out of supermodel mode. Supermodel mode is when you're really thinking about everyone watching you and everyone judging you, your hair, your makeup, your outfit, every word you say that's not realistic, nobody's watching you like that.
(03:41):
But instead, shift from supermodel mode into teacher mode where you're really thinking about the message you're bringing. A teacher's not standing at the front of the classroom analyzing how they look and how they sound. They're just doing their work, they're just teaching. So shift from supermodel mode to teacher mode and think about how you can teach about your area of expertise. Next, you're going to identify three areas you're passionate about and consistently post about that. Don't repost random articles without commentary. You're, we want to see your unique opinion and I'm going to bring in the experts. It's just a second, but I want to share my input first, after you're sharing your unique opinion, I want you to also share something you learned from a client or a colleague this week or react to industry news. It's really, really, really important. I see a lot of people sharing their company posts or other posts, but that doesn't have your own perspective on it.
(04:31):
So do you like it? Do you not like it? Do you agree with it? Do you disagree with it? The whole point of sharing is to really build that connection, and if you're just resharing an article, but you're not adding your personal perspective, you're missing that potential point of connection. And then I believe in the two Cs, the connection and credibility, meaning that's the key to growing on social media. Everything should be building you up as credible, knowledgeable, authentic, like an expert. And the other one is connection. You could build connection through your personal content. It could be about your hobby, it could be about your dog, it could be about your family, it could be your love of chess. So share personal content as well. Personal content actually does really well on social, even on business platforms like LinkedIn. So build that point of connection.
(05:14):
So don't be afraid to share more personal content. You will see people connecting with you. On a personal level, we are talking about AI this year, so I'm not going to say too much about that, but if you don't know how to use ai, just a little bit is a perfect time to just learn. I'm not a technologist, but I've been using AI a lot more for my content and it's helped me save a lot of time. I use it for content in terms of content or branding. I use it to recycle content and I write the first draft of emails, I write the first draft of my emails. From that. I found it really, really helpful to do that. Speaking of efficiency, I bring in Kate Kordsmeier. She's a life and business coach and founder of Success with Soul, and she says, forget about productivity apps. Actually this year it's a time for brutal honesty and you should spend a week tracking where every minute goes. I love this because I feel like so much of us waste time without really thinking about it. Even if you can save half an hour, an hour a week, that actually adds up a lot, obviously. Next for someone to bring in is executive and team coach Caroline Stokes that has a really, really cool recommendation about how to prompt more creativity from your team that when they come back from vacation, have them share the ideas quickly.
Kate (06:26):
Hi there. This is Kate Kordsmeier from Success with Soul, and I wanted to share one of my New Year's resolutions for y'all. So my thought is forget the shiny new productivity apps. 2025 is the year of brutal time honesty. So spend a week tracking where every minute goes, and then ruthlessly cut, delegate, or automate the things that don't align with your goals. Think of it like this. You wouldn't let your money bleed into pointless expenses. So why do it with your time? Stop letting your time leak into low value tasks. I know time on its aren't sexy, but they are game changing because burnout is the new black, and in an increasingly distracted world, your ability to ruthlessly prioritize is your biggest competitive advantage. So AI might be making some tasks easier, but the real differentiator is where you choose to spend your human energy.
(07:20):
So here's how you can kind of combine human intelligence with artificial intelligence. Commit to this one week time audit. Just use a free Google Doc and track every minute of your time also noting how you felt and other thoughts about each task that you're doing. At the end of the week, upload your time tracking to chat GPT and ask it to analyze how you spend your time. This is one of the most eye-opening things I do every month, getting an objective source to make observations about you. It's a little bit scary. Sometimes I find things that I don't want to know about myself, but always I'm able to find improvements and ways I can optimize my time and find where the holes and leaks are in my business and in my life. So here's some of the questions that I ask mine. What are five things you notice about me?
(08:12):
Where does most of my working time go? What do I actually do? What are you surprised to see that I don't do that a lot of people in my position would be doing? What are you surprised to see that I do do that a lot of people in my position would not be doing? Give me five suggestions for how I could improve my time management. It is amazing what you can see about yourself and which tasks truly move the needle versus drain deer energy. I hope that helps. And if you're looking for more time management tips, head over to successwithsoul.co/shop and check out all of the amazing courses that we have about time management. My personal favorite is called Clockwork Queen, and I know it will help you spend your time better in 2025.
Caroline (08:59):
Hi, I am Caroline Stokes, author of Elephants Before Unicorns, emotionally Intelligent Strategies to Save Your Company and a Certified Executive Coach to Pioneers. The resolution I recommend for 25 is an office-based one that you can kick off on day one back at work. We are living in a BNY world, a concept coined by futurist Jamay Kau to describe how life has become brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible. It captures the uncertainty we're all navigating from geopolitics to economic shifts and climate challenges. So that's why starting strong is so important this year. As soon as you sit down at your desk, you open slack or you face that inbox with 5,000 messages, the holiday glow and your best ideas can quickly fade. It's too easy to lose cycle the remarkable solutions you probably dreamed up while recharging solutions that could tackle innovation bottlenecks, boost morale, or make your team more competitive.
(09:53):
Here's how you can make it happen. If you're a manager before the holidays, set the tone by challenging your team to gather on day one and share their ideas for improving collaboration, productivity, or innovation. All ideas count, so this is really important. Everyone's ideas has to be listened to without judgment. Then consolidate those ideas, decide what's actionable and get started. Bonus points for the manager will be if you can create a monthly check-in to evolve and track progress throughout the year. So let's say you're not a manager, why not take the initiative? I know that when I wasn't a manager, when I was much, much younger, I had to take the initiative because I had all these ideas brimming and I wanted to come in and it made an impact if I was able to communicate effectively. You can be the bold one here where you can start a slack thread or you can spark a conversation on discord or potentially email your boss and say, Hey, I had some ideas over the holidays. Can we take five minutes to see if anything clicks? My top tip for everyone with regards to this is don't let these ideas live in writing alone. Urgency and energy fade quickly after the holiday, so act while the spark is fresh. So if you want to keep momentum going, use this approach after vacations long weekends or anytime people return refreshed and ready to contribute. I'm Caroline Stokes and I wish you a thoughtful and impactful start to 2025
Kim (11:14):
As we talk about automation and hyper productivity launch strategist and copywriter, Brenna McGowan recommends doing one good deed day for a fellow colleague. I love this because I feel like I'm so focused on productivity that I forget. The most important thing is be a human and just be your regular person you, and that will grow your business naturally. I think we're so focused on doing, doing and grinding, grinding, grinding. I really love this bit of advice, shouting out a podcast you listen to on your Instagram stories, sending someone a direct message to say you loved a piece of their content or that you enjoyed reading their email. I just think spreading the kindness is so, so great, and she also flags that work from home can feel isolating. So those simple acts of kindness can help you stand out.
Brenna (11:58):
Hi, my name is Brenna McGowan. I'm a launch strategist, copywriter, and facilitator of the pre-launch plan program. The resolution I recommend for 2025 is one that might feel overly simple, but it's one of the best things that you can do for your business and career. That is do one good day to day for a fellow colleague. This could be replying to an email and telling them how much you loved it, shouting out a podcast you listen to on your Instagram stories, and then tagging the host and guest or sending someone a DM to tell 'em about a piece of content they created you loved, or you can simply reach out and tell someone how much you admire and appreciate them. There are so many simple acts of kindness you can do that sometimes get overlooked during our crazy days and busy schedules. Not only does it make you feel great to give genuine compliments and share your gratitude with others, but it can also open up business opportunities organically that you might not have otherwise have gotten.
(12:56):
Personally, I've seen the positive effects this practice has had on my own business from being asked to be on a dream podcast to getting a sponsor for my online event, not to mention making new friends and deepening relationships. I think this practice is always relevant, but even more so in 2025 when people are so busy, markets feel saturated, and so many of us work in isolation from our homes. These simple acts of kindness help you stand out from your competitors and cost you absolutely nothing besides a couple minutes of your time. And especially in the age of ai, people are craving true connection. Plus, it's just nice to have someone validate you and your work. Thank you so much. I know this easy to keep resolution is one that will grow your business in 2025.
Kim (13:46):
I hope this was helpful for you to head into 2025 feeling really, really good about your reflection on how your year was, but also what you want to do for the next year to make it the best year yet, right? To really grow your business in terms of marketing, but also business development and to be more focused, more focused and more creative. So anyway, thank you so much. I hope you have an amazing holiday and new year's season. Thank you for listening. Please rate and review the episode and if you could share it with a friend, that would be awesome. My name is Kim Rittberg, in case you don't know what you're listening to. You're listening to the Exit interview with Kim Rittberg, exit the grind and enter success on your own terms. And you can find me on Instagram, LinkedIn at Kim Rittberg, and you can grab my free download right there on kimrittberg.com. 10 tips to make video that makes you money and how to go from camera shy to camera shine. Happy New Year.