Hello and welcome to The B-Side, a mastermind group for entrepreneurial women! On the first of each month, I share my business-related goals, challenges, and triumphs while inviting you to do the same! I'd love for you to join me; you can learn more about participating by clicking here.Happy New Year! That went by fast, no? 2014 is officially GONE! How did you do on your business goals last year? What are you shooting for in 2015? Below are my results for December, plus what I'm doing to start the year off right:

Last Month's Results

1. Plan my January event. I spent a lot of time this past month planning my event in Atlanta. I had some hiccups with the dates, but it is officially happening January 31, 2015! My ticket is booked! And on an even more exciting note, I'll be partnering with Natasha Cole of The Go and Glow Project for this event! This will be an in-depth workshop where we will teach women how (1) to build their brand and online presence, (2) create an action plan for their business or side-hustle, and (3) develop the mindset necessary to succeed in 2015. Even if I wasn't hosting this event, I'd want to come, so if you're in the Atlanta area, stay tuned for event announcements. And if you aren't in Atlanta, I eventually want to do a "Think & Grow" tour around the country, so let's consider this the first of many events to come. ;-)
2. Complete my new workbook and get it ready for print. This one is pretty much done, I just have some finishing touches to put on it. This workbook...is so awesome. Seriously, I'm not just saying that because I made it. If there's one thing that will help you get clear on what you want out of life and break it down into actionable goals, it's this workbook. It's coming out soon, be sure to check back for it!
3. Finish designing my personal website. Womp, womp. This is the one thing I didn't get to. I was so busy with the workbook and the Atlanta event I didn't have enough time to work on this too. I'm going to put this on hold until my other, more immediate projects are finished.

This Month's Business Goals

1. Plan my January event. Oh I didn't say I finished planning this event, last month. There's still a LOT of stuff to do, so I need to really ramp it up this month to make sure it is a success, especially since I'm planning from out-of-town.
2. Successfully launch my workbook. This will be the first product I offer on Think & Grow Chick so I want my launch to go smoothly. While I'm putting the finishing touches on the book, I need to also finish the marketing plan so I can launch at the beginning of this month.

Current Challenges

1. Wanting to do more than what I can do. I love, love, love that I've had so much momentum over the last few month; however, I find myself longing to take on more than I can possibly do. I can only work on so many things at one time, you know? But I have a ton of ideas and projects I want to launch, like, RIGHT NOW, so it's tough forcing myself to focus on the handful of things in front of me. *le sigh*...

Current Successes/What's Working

1. Pomodoro Technique. Have you heard of the Pomodoro Technique? It's where you set a timer for 25 minutes and do your work, then you get a 5 minute break when time is up. You repeat the 25/5 minute cycles 4 times, after which you get a long break of 15 minutes. If it sounds incredibly simple...that's because it is. But it works! Having only 25 minutes to work on a project really helps you focus. When I find myself stalling or just wasting time, I like to set the pomodoro timer app on my phone and get to work!
2. Scheduling my to-do list. I'm one of those people who will put more on their to-do list than is humanly possible to get done in a 24 hour period. To combat the frustration of always having things undone at the end of the day, I now schedule my tasks in my planner. Instead of just writing down "answer emails", I'll actually schedule it in a time slot (say 1-2pm) and do it at the time. I love it because (1) I always know what I'm doing and (2) I can't schedule more than what can possibly get done in one day.

Your Turn!

Mastermind Rules

• Share your goals, challenges and successes in the comments.
• The goal of this mastermind is to support each other, so be sure to read all the comments and check out all the participating blogs and businesses! If you have something to offer, leave a comment and help each other out!
• If you are a blogger, feel free to create a post sharing your entrepreneurial goals, challenges, and successes (via the format above) on your blog and link back here. You can even grab the button and include it in your post:

B-Side Facebook Group

Be sure to join the B-Side Facebook group! Since the B-side post will come out monthly, this women-only Facebook group will serve as a "hub" for us to ask questions, share what we have going on, and generally connect with each other on a day-to-day basis. You can join right now: http://facebook.com/groups/bsidebythinkandgrowchick