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Business success is dependent on a solid financial foundation & success looks different to everyone & there is a lack of equity of access to resources and information for small business owners and independent contractors & there is a societal narrative making us believe “balance” is our ultimate goal & … There are so many “&”s that impact being your own boss. Let’s have some frank discussions on the basics of business with a holistic focus on everything that helps business owners define and find success.
Molly Beyer: [00:00:08] Welcome to The Ambiguous &: Business Basics and Beyond, the podcast where we have frank discussions on the basics of business with a holistic focus on everything that helps business owners define and find success. Each episode is a reminder that success isn't one thing, it's a whole lot of ambiguous ands. Like, subscribe, or follow, and let's explore these ambiguous ands.
Molly Beyer: [00:00:35] Hello and welcome to The Ambiguous &: Business Basics and Beyond! I'm your host, Molly Beyer, and I'm here to lead you through frank and holistic conversations on the basics of business. Today I want to talk about reflection as a business strategy. Throughout my time in business, I've consistently worked with coaches. Different coaches have helped me focus myself, my strategy, and my business in different ways. The coach I've worked with for the last few years has been really amazing in pushing my business to that next level by distilling the chaos in my head so I can create actionable strategies. She's excellent at helping me figure out where I'm going and how to make things work for my business and for me. One of the exercises she does at the end of each year before the holiday season is using the Year Compass Model to review the past year and plan for the year ahead. Year Compass is an excellent free resource available at yearcompass.com. It's downloadable. You can fill it out online, or print it and use it as your reflection strategy, even after the new year or any time within the year. It's a great tool to stop, reflect, and say, my year starts today. This process allows you to review what's happened in your business life, in your personal life, in your relationships, really in everything, and to reflect before you set goals moving forward. This touches back on some of our earlier conversations on success and defining success as a fluid concept, and one that's a reflection of the current version of you. Not the Instagram version, not the hustle culture version, not the six figures in six minutes version. I'm really talking about your version, the definition that supports your life instead of draining it.
Molly Beyer: [00:02:19] Most business owners are operating on someone else's definition of success: a mentor's, a parent's, a competitor's, or honestly, whatever's trending on social media this week. And here's the thing, when you chase a definition that doesn't belong to you, you'll always feel behind. No matter what you accomplish, it won't feel like enough. Success only feels like success when it's aligned. And success isn't just revenue. Yes, revenue matters. I'm a bookkeeping and consulting professional. Trust me, I love good numbers. But revenue isn't the whole definition. Real success includes your time. Freedom. Are you able to step away? It's your mental clarity. Is your business peaceful or chaotic? It's your energy. Do you feel energized or exhausted? It's your alignment. Is your work still the work that you want? It's the impact you make. Are you building something meaningful? And, of course, it is the profitability. Is the business supporting your life financially? When you define success with these pieces, suddenly your goals shift from more and more and more to what actually matters.
Molly Beyer: [00:03:35] Now, often when we set goals, we only look forward. We might add percentages to previous numbers, like increasing sales by 50% or tracking take home pay. Data is a fantastic starting point, but it only gives one perspective. The first part of the Year Compass exercise is reviewing your calendar, literally looking back at events, projects, meetings, and even tasks. It's getting granular about when things shifted or changed. It's about noticing patterns, wins, and moments of connection. One big takeaway for me this year was noticing recurring tasks that I didn't always complete. So this made me ask myself, do I really need these? Is this something I can automate? Should this be delegated or can I just let this go? Another part of the reflection is identifying people who made a difference. Those are the names that just light me up when I see them on my calendar. Even if it's been a while since I connected, or if I only connected once or twice. These are the people that I want to prioritize building stronger relationships with through this next year.
[00:04:49] Reflection also shows you the bigger picture. For example, last year my health was really bad. It affected both my personal and my professional life. It would have been really easy for me to focus only on that negative space. But reviewing my calendar helped me see the positives too. The moments of joy, progress, fun with my family, and wins personally and professionally.
[00:05:14] So then next in the Year Compass, I look at the year holistically. My personal life, friends and community, physical health and fitness, career and education, relaxation and mental state, habits and routines. And after reviewing this data, I can really reflect emotionally and identify the best decisions that I made through the year. The lessons that I learned, things that surprised me, risks I took, contributions that I made for others, and just some accomplishments that I had along the way.
[00:05:47] It's a time also to take stock of the people not only who influenced me the most, but those that I influenced. And this is essential for recognizing impact and growth and not just numbers. So here, before I review my calendar, though, to step back and for a second here, I looked back on last year's goals. Often we set goals assuming circumstances are going to stay the same, but life happens and conditions change. Reflection really allows you to evaluate, "Did I make progress within the context of the year? Are my original goals even still relevant?". So this perspective really turns what we think of as missed goals into more of learning opportunities.
Molly Beyer: [00:06:30] It helps us to separate the data from the emotional context. So success really can't just be a number. It is progress. It is growth and it is experience. This is also that moment to review those success goal posts we've talked about before. Are they still in the same place? Is the one that I see still mine? And if it is, do I want it to be? Have the obstacles to get to that goal just become too great? All of these pieces of reflection really help me build the year ahead. But it does, again, help me see the success that has happened. It's living in that gain from where I was before to where I am today, because the person who completed my Year Compass last year was working under a completely different set of circumstances. So again, it would have been easy for me to see those goals and say, I didn't meet any of these. Instead, I was able to look at each and just say within the context of the moment, did I make forward movement on this goal? And so for some of them, it was yes, a resounding yes. For some of it was no. And so then on those notes again, is this still a relevant goal in the context of this current moment? And really, I found that most of them were a “not right now”, which just allows me to revisit or expand on them when the context of this moment shifts.
Molly Beyer: [00:07:52] So now we've reflected, we've seen where we've come. Now it's time to create the strategies for the coming year. And the key is really that value driven goals and not the data driven goals. One of my goals has continually been that I want to financially support my family, and that can mean different numbers at different times. But progress matters. So what was on my Year Compass last year was a lower number than I put for the coming year, and I didn't even make that first number. But I got damn close for almost four months before I decided that I needed to invest in a new team member to increase capacity so that I can get closer to meeting the number that I put down for this year. Reflection helps you create goals that are flexible, measurable, in real progress, and aligned with how you want to show up in your business and your life. So ask yourself in a year from now, what is success? What does successful me feel like? And it's not "look like", it's "feel like". Then build your definition from there. If you want peace, your systems need clarity. If you want more revenue, your pricing needs alignment. If you want more time, that means delegating or automating.
Molly Beyer: [00:09:03] If you want confidence, that means knowing your numbers. Your definition becomes a roadmap, not a moving target. If you don't define success for yourself, someone else will define it for you and you'll never feel like you're winning. We often hear people say culture eats strategy for breakfast, so building culture starts with you, and that includes reflection. Again, reflection isn't just for the end of the year. These great big reflection and goal setting sessions are fantastic. They could be monthly, they could be yearly, they could be quarterly. But also for every project you do, you need reflection points during and after execution. This is how we grow. This is how we improve and how we do better in business. Because data is really important, but it is absolutely not the whole story. Reflection lets you process feelings, recognize wins, learn from challenges, and move forward with clarity and intention. Reflection isn't just a tool, it's a strategy. Reflection is strategy. Thanks so much for hanging out with us today. We'd love to hear your feedback on today's episode, as well as any requests for future content. Drop a comment or suggestion and join us next time for more frank and holistic conversations on the basics of business. Please also like, subscribe, or follow so you never miss an episode. And until next time, I am Molly Beyer and this has been The Ambiguous &: Business Basics and Beyond. Have a wonderful day!