As a business owner, it’s easy to get into the habit of putting everything and everyone else first. You keep serving your clients, helping them accomplish their goals, and grow their businesses. What you want, like speaking, gets put on the back burner.

I see this happen all the time with our clients. And I do the exact same thing. I’ve spent so much time helping my clients move forward on their speaking journey (which I love) but I haven’t spent enough time on my own speaking platform!

It’s time we changed that. It’s time to prioritize yourself in 2024.

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My four-part process for achieving goals

Whenever I’ve committed to achieving a goal in my life or business, I’ve noticed that I follow a certain process that includes the same four things, every time. It’s not the four-phase Speak to Scale Framework, but it has four parts, too. Close enough!

Here’s what I need to accomplish my goals:

A vision for why I want to do this thing. What’s the impact it’ll make for me and others?
Accountability. It’s easy to quit when you’re on your own, but when others are involved, you don’t wanna let them down.
Deadlines and plans. If it’s just an idea without any intentional action, there’s a higher risk it’ll get brushed aside and forgotten.
Help. Because I know I do my best work when I have people in my corner.

In order to prioritize myself in 2024, I’m leaning on this process again. Keep reading to find out why!

Outline your vision

My big, scary, exciting vision for 2024? A new message, new speech, and new book. It’s time to share the next chapter of my story.

I’ll reveal more details in the coming months, but with this new book, I hope others will remember that their own story matters. And that it’s never too late. No matter the mistakes they’ve made, setbacks they’ve faced, or what life has given them, it’s never too late to make the most of the second chances they are given.

Find accountability buddies

Here’s where you come in, my friend! I’m not good at sharing the messy middle of a process. It’s easier to off a pretty, polished product at the end. But people like seeing progress. They like seeing the effort, determination, and hard work pay off in real time. It makes the end results so much more satisfying.

So, consider this my public declaration and call for accountability! I want you to know what I’m working on this year. It’ll help me stay on track, and hopefully, inspire you to tackle one of your own goals. I’m going to take you on this ride with me, so buckle up. We’re in this together.

Implement deadlines and plans

At the end of 2023, we began doing some of the heavy lifting for our clients through done-for-you speaker support. Event research, pitching, all that good stuff and more. Suffice it to say it’s going pretty dang well. We didn’t plan for this small one-off service to evolve into managing, supporting, and representing speakers.

While it’s been incredible, I want to give myself that same kind of speaker support. I’m onboarding myself as a client starting this week!

We’ll be setting up a full-blown speaking strategy with a project plan and support. No more setting aside my own goals. My team and I will be putting in serious work to bring this new book and talk to life.

BTW, I’ll try and take you behind-the-scenes on this journey, so follow me on Insta @jessicarasdall and keep an eye on my stories!

Ask for help

Prioritizing yourself and your goals doesn’t mean you have to do it all alone! It’s okay to ask for help from others, and even hire experts to support you on your journey.

For me, that means working with our internal PR specialist to help me bring my vision to life. I’ll likely bring in more help at different points of the process later, which I’ll share more about along the way.

How will you prioritize yourself this year?

Consider this a tough love moment and an accountability check-in for you. Is there a big goal, vision, or project that you’ve been putting off? Do you keep pushing this thing to the side because other people and parts of your biz are taking up all your time and energy?

There’s nothing wrong with devoting yourself to your business! But I don’t want you to lose yourself and forget your own dreams while in the service of others. You deserve just as much support and space as you give your clients.

Whether you officially make yourself a client, start blocking off time on your calendar, or tell others about your goals, let’s do this together. Let’s make this year our year.