Strategic Planning Put Into Action

Brad Cooper

Welcome, to the latest episode of the Catalyst Health and Wellness Coaching podcast. My name is Brad Cooper and I’ll be your host. And today’s episode is in response to a question we get probably about as much as any other question from either current coaches or those who are on the fence. And they wonder if they go this route, well, then what? Kind of where’s that strategy piece fit in? Today’s episode is all about that strategy and our guest, Chris Hughes, you couldn’t find somebody better for this. Let me tell you a little bit about Chris. Chris brings a unique perspective to our role as a certified health and wellness coach. She earned her master’s degree from the university of Illinois has been a licensed architect and commercial interior designer working for over 25 years in the healthcare industry. As a design professional in 2009, Chris was looking for more balance in her life and decided to pursue her wellness coach certification from the Catalyst Coaching Institute. And she’s been coaching ever since. So a little over 10 years. Chris will actually be one of our guest speakers at the Rocky mountain coaching retreat and symposium that’s taking place in September. She’ll be part of the business track option. If that’s something that strikes a chord for you. Now, just a side note to that, keep in mind the deep discount for the early registration, it goes away here pretty soon. So if that’s something you’ve been thinking about, don’t wait that, check that out because it’s a, it’s a huge discount, but whether or not you decide to attend the retreat, strategy is a key element for all of us. And it is absolutely my pleasure to welcome Chris Hughes to the podcast today. And I know you’re going to, you’re going to love this stuff. With that, let’s jump into the latest episode of the Catalyst Health and Wellness Coaching Podcast.

Brad Cooper

Chris, so good to have you here today. We’re going to be talking strategy. We have a lot of coaches that are wanting to hear about this topic. Just out of the gate, you’ve been a wellness coach for close to a decade. You know, the profession, you know, the industry extremely well. When it comes to coaches growing either their independent business or expanding participation, maybe they’re within an organization expanding participation within the organization. What are some of the things you’ve noticed?

Chris Hughes

Well, thank you, Brad, for having me. It’s an honor to be here today. And, uh, yes, I, I feel like I’ve been in the industry a long time, but it is an ever-changing industry. And so, um, so I’m always working just like everyone else to keep up, um, with what’s new and exciting in the industry. I will say that when it comes to growing your business, coaches, working with coaches is such an amazing group of people. We are all so passionate about being in this industry and I think we’ve followed our hearts into the industry. Right. And, um, so I find though that that can be a blessing and a curse at the same time, sometimes coaches are, so hyper-focused on being great coaches, you know, serving their clients that sometimes I think they sometimes forget that running a business. It’s kind of like that old adage where, you know, people say doctors are great at treating patients, but maybe not always the best businessmen or best business women. You know? Um, when, when I talk about that, I guess I’m always talking about two sides, there’s the operational side of business, but then there’s what we’re here to talk about today, which is the strategic side of business. Um, and that’s, um, and, and sometimes we struggle with both of those. Um, sometimes only one of them.

Brad Cooper

Excellent, excellent lead in. So why strategic planning?

Chris Hughes

Well, great question. It’s pulling back from the day to day and doing that big picture thinking so that you find your true North, you find the why, why am I in this business? You know, what, what drives me? What makes this all work for me? And by doing that, you know, after you’ve done the work for the strategic planning, and we’ll talk a little bit more about that throughout the podcast. Um, I mean, it, does some very basic things for you. It helps you become more effective in your business, better performance, right? When you know why you’re doing this, what drives you, um, what you’re up against, um, you can become better performer, you know, your mission is clearer and more enhanced. And again, when you have clear vision for yourself, you can guide yourself so much quicker and so much easier to better decision making and, um, a better firmer direction. You know, it honors when you’re honoring your, what value, what is important to you when you’re honoring what’s important to you and what your values are that also kind of, again, that true North. And so I guess the other thing with the effective piece that I wanted to say is when an organization is responding proactively to things you’re able to have better, decision-making right. You’re not just responding. So, you know, for example, our industry has so much change right now. Um, there’s national board certification, there’s all these different things going on. And if you are just kind of waiting in the wings to see what comes at you, that’s really going to affect how you respond. Versus if you see these things coming and say, okay, I may see this as an opportunity or a threat, but, um, oftentimes there’s both sides of the coin, right? So you can take something that you’ve maybe come at and say, well, I’m not board certified yet. This may be a threat to me. Um, you can often look at the flip side of the coin and find opportunity within there as well. Yeah. And so, um, again, more, more of why strategic planning, you can become more efficient, right? Again, that true North drives you. And you’re not doing things that don’t align with that vision, you have better understanding of your company and yourself. So it guides that strategy and development and implementation and, you know, and, and ultimately bottom line, it helps you make better decisions. I think, I think those are some of the reasons that I see strategic planning being so critical.

Brad Cooper

Excellent. Excellent. I’m so intrigued by your background, you have a masters in architecture.

Chris Hughes

How did I get here? Right.

Brad Cooper

Well the perspective that brings to the whole vision and guiding your goals and then moving to actions. Can you talk a little bit about that connection and some of the lessons you’ve learned from your background in architecture that you’ve brought into coaching and strategic planning in those aspects?

Chris Hughes

Absolutely. Yeah. Um, you know, it sounds like an unlikely place to start, but, um, actually it’s, it’s amazing how natural the progression was. Um, over 25 years in the design industry, architecture and design, um, and I’ve worked in healthcare high-tech and corporate design industries. And, um, I just think, honestly, that experience in design is so aligned with being a coach. And then also the strategic planning piece that we’re talking about today, you know, design is all about big picture thinking, right? You’re asking your client, you know, what’s your vision. What’s, let’s talk about where you want to go, what you want to create, what kind of environment you’re trying to, um, create for your occupants and your job as the designer is to ask the right questions and help guide them through the process of goal implementation, right? Creating goals for the space design, and then ultimately, um, and maybe most importantly, how to execute those goals, how to keep them on track and execute them so that they can see the results they’re looking for. And that is exactly what we’re talking about here with strategic planning. And that’s why in my career as well, I’ve done. Um, and I’ve been very fortunate to work with some incredible companies to do, help them with their strategic planning as well. I’ve both sat in on large healthcare organizations, strategic planning processes. And then I’ve also done for some high-tech corporations like Keysight technologies and things like that. Uh, I’ve worked with them as well to, um, run and facilitate their strategic planning sessions, but just was a very natural progression for me to become a coach in life. And then also I think, you know, the strategic planning piece has really become a big part of my business, uh, along the way. And they all align, right. All three of these things we’re talking about.

Brad Cooper

Interesting. So if we start macro and we can, you can take this either or both independent coach trying to build their business or a coach within an organization trying to enhance what they’re doing for their employees. Are there some tips you can provide our listeners about how to effectively approach the whole vision planning, execution process?

Chris Hughes

Mm, absolutely. There’s so much I can share, um, more than we can share today on this call, but I would say, um, and, and you brought up a really good point. It really doesn’t matter if you’re a company of one, a powerful company of one or company of 100, you know, every company needs to do this same work. If, if you’re a sole proprietor and you’re saying, Hey, this, this all sounds like sort of big corporate kind of stuff. It’s not at all. And so I encourage you to be very open to the strategic planning process for yourself. So I would say for the visioning planning and execution process at a macro level, I’d say, start with your resources, start with bringing in your team. And by that, I mean, big picture thinking really happens best in groups. We all know that like we build off each other’s ideas. Uh, we learn from each other when we have dialogues. So don’t try to do this in a silo, bring in friends, peers, others that are, are also coaches with you ask mentors, ask people completely outside of your industry. Folks that know nothing about coaching. Um, you’d sometimes be amazed at what they can bring to the table in these discussions because they think from through a whole different lens, you know, they see through a whole different lens. Um, so I would say that’s maybe the first thing to do is pull those resources. Next, I would say set aside time for thinking about the business and this strategic planning and, and by time, I mean, real uninterrupted time, I think so often today, it’s like, okay, you want to do this? Let’s take, you know, I have an hour tomorrow, let’s do it. You know, you can’t think strategically like that. You really need to separate yourself from your environment. You really need to, um, you know, it needs minimum a half a day. And I really encourage clients a full day of uninterrupted focus time. And, and oftentimes, you know, a lot of clients do this in a retreat type of scenario. They’re completely away from the day to day. So they’re not checking emails every five minutes. They say, I am out of office and I am focused on this because it’s this big picture thinking that it really does require a lot of energy it’s that, uh, you know, that urgent, unimportant stuff that they talk about that Covey talks about to really get that big picture thinking done. So that’s the next thing is that uninterrupted time. And then I think, you know, ultimately like we were saying that the true purpose and reason of doing all this is to find your company’s, why to help you develop that true North as a company. Because by doing that, you create vision, you create mission, then you find, you know, your objectives create an action, plan. It all, it all flows into one another and that’s kind of gonna lead, you know, set you up for success. Right. What we’re all trying to do is have more successful businesses. And we do that by sort of honoring ourselves and how we’re unique.

Brad Cooper

So good, Chris, I just, I’m just making notes here. The setting, the time aside, that is your point there of us, we’re just in that constant, urgent, but not important quadrant that. So we never do anything important. We get our checklists done, but we never do anything that really matters. So very, very powerful. How about on a micro level? What, what, you know, applying similar concepts to actual coaching of an individual client, do those concepts also apply?

Chris Hughes

Absolutely. Right. It’s the same thing. You just bring it down, bring it down, bring that lens in right. As coaches, what do we do every day? We’re always stepping back and assessing our clients in what they’re truly saying, not just what they’re telling us. Right. But what they’re saying. And, and I always say to people, um, being a wellness coach is a thinking man’s game. It’s sort of, you know, your, your job is to use your critical coaching skills, to help them to plan smart goals for themselves, to help them understand their why, help them understand, help them understand what’s important to them, that cream on the top of the coffee, I always call it, you know, it’s that thing on the top that truly, truly matters to them and help them execute that in their day to day life, those goals in their day-to-day life. And so we’re doing the same thing. We’re planning, uh, we’re assessing we’re planning and we’re creating goals that you want to put into action. We’re doing that. Day-to-day with our clients.

Brad Cooper

So good. So last one on this concept here, uh, probably about half of the folks listening, or maybe slightly over half are people that are, they’re pondering the idea of pursuing wellness coaching as either an adjunct and add on to their current career or they want to do on the side. So could take these concepts and help that person utilize them in making that decision?

Chris Hughes

Oh, absolutely. Right. You know, this is exactly it. Strategic planning is this applies to life. Uh, it’s a great way to conduct that self exploration and weigh your options about either a career change or career addition. And I feel like, you know, the modern world where sort of Renaissance men and women, you know, we, you don’t have to define yourself by being one thing. And so, um, if, if the stars align, right, if that’s where for me, for example, how I saw that connection between, you know, the design work I do and the facilitation and strategic planning work I do in the coaching, uh, you find that alignment and you say, you know, I feel like I’m doing much of the same thing, but just through a different conduit, you know, I, I really encourage folks that are on the fence, um, with respect to what, you know, what they’re thinking about changes in their profession and, um, or, or maybe even contemplating, am I in the right place, right. Am I doing the right thing and should I not make a change? Right. Um, the strategic planning process is so powerful in those areas. Yeah, absolutely.

Brad Cooper

All right. So let’s get into a specific tool. I know you’ve referenced some things when we’ve chatted before, in some of your presentations called a SWOT analysis, S W O T can you talk the audience through that process? How to apply it again, not on an expansive basis, but at least for them to be able to kind of jump into it or they jump on Google and they look at it, they can get a, get their arms around it. Just for those that may not be familiar with the traditional SWOT analysis.

Chris Hughes

Yes, absolutely. So SWOT is an acronym S W O T. Okay. So it stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, everybody’s business has those factors to consider. So a SWOT analysis is a working session. It’s so much fun. You know, I pull out all the sticky notes, get a bunch of Sharpies. You get everybody in the room, your team that we talked about at the beginning of this process, the mentors, the colleagues, the friends, you know, whatever, you all get into your room and pull out the sticky notes and you just set a timer and work independently. And what you find is you just stick them up on the wall. And you say, if you create an S a strength up, uh, location and opportunities, location a weaknesses, location, and the threats location on the wall, and you just stick up the stickies, okay. And then you go through the timer and it’s okay if there’s duplications, you just, you do this off the cuff. Right? And so in that process, I find it so fascinating that when you’re done, you basically, you spend a few minutes to rearrange them. And you find where there’s likenesses, where people say, boy, you’re, you know, six different people in this room said that your company, or you as a strength, have this in common. Right? And it’s like, that reinforces that strength. But what often happens as well is individuals from your group will find opportunities or strengths that you never knew you had. And you’re sitting there going, Whoa, you know, this is really cool. I never really like, I sort of, again, that perspective, you’re looking through your own lens at yourself and your business, and this process just opens up for people, the ability for you to see what others see in you. Right? And then this is where I think I mentioned this earlier in our discussion today, you often look at the other side of the coin. So you say, Oh, you know, for example, somebody saw this as a threat. I may be, this is my own business, I saw the national board certification as a threat to me. Then the group as a whole comes up with, well, what would be the flip side of the coin for that? What might be some opportunities in that area for me? And it’s amazing again, when those minds come together, what great opportunities you can find. And so it becomes, you just organize all the cards. And then in the end, it really helps create a lot of clarity for you. And then later on in the strategic planning process, you use this information in different ways, but it helps create clarity for who you are, where you shine bright and where, you know, you say, okay, I gotta look out for this. I’ve got, you know, maybe some threats in this location, but that’s okay because I’m going to look at the flip side of the coin and see where that might be opportunity as well.

Brad Cooper

So my favorite part so far is, um, I’m guessing your audience is laughing at this a little bit. They’re thinking they came into this thinking, uh, strategy, uh, planning. And you’re so excited about this. Like, I’m excited. I’m going to go do some strategic planning. This is awesome.

Chris Hughes

Oh, it’s fun. It’s so much fun because it’s like that creative side of you comes out and you, you find these opportunities for yourself where you’re like, I never even knew I had opportunity there. Right. You know? And so opening your mind is just a really powerful tool. And like you said, we spend so much of our day in the weeds, all of us that it’s hard sometimes to get to this place.

Brad Cooper

Well, I think you have so many people that are creative. They are energetic, that’s that’s who is drawn to coaching is the people that they love that piece. And they look at something like strategic planning or SWOT analysis and they go, uh, and it just like drains. But when you hear you talking about it, you start thinking, Oh yeah, that could keep, that could be kind of fun. That could be cool. So nice job! So you talk a lot about branding. Usually when people think branding they’re like Pepsi, Coke, you know, Ford, Chevy, that kind of stuff. What do you mean when you’re talking about branding and why as a coach, independent coach or within your organization, is it important to, to brand yourself?

Chris Hughes

Really good question. And that’s exactly what we think of, right. We think of the big fortune 500 companies spending billions of dollars on getting their marketing out in front of us. Right. But it doesn’t have to be that. Branding, is it it’s the promotion of a product or a company, right. And through advertising or distinctive design. So, you know, I’m focusing right now on the distinctive design piece, it’s that brand recognition, right? Like you’re saying Coke or Pepsi, we brand recognition Ford or Chevy brand recognition, but it doesn’t have to be for big fortune 500 companies. And you don’t have to spend millions of dollars. It can be done on a shoestring budget. What it is is the bow on the top of the package that puts it all together, that puts you out there in the market. It shows professionalism, right? It, it sends a consistent image to your clients and tells them who you are. All they have to do is look at your email signature or your logo. And they immediately know what you stand for, who you are. They have snap decisions about quite honestly, when people look at your branding, they immediately say, do I have trust in this company? Do I have respect for this company? Do would I feel comfortable interacting with this company? Um, it, it says so much about you. And so I think that’s a piece of this whole puzzle that a lot of companies, especially small companies, like we’re saying, uh, individuals with their own wellness coaching business, you know, you think why do I need to brand myself? You know, I’m just one person. I’m just gonna put my signature at the bottom of my, email with my name. And, you know, that’s good enough. But you know, like we’re talking about, if you put that bow on that package and put it out there in the world, you’re perceived in a very different way, the level of professionalism, the way in which individuals are attracted to you as a, as a potential partner for them,

Brad Cooper

That’s such a great analogy.

Chris Hughes

Yeah, the bow on the package. Yeah. Yeah. And so it’s a piece of the puzzle that I really encourage everyone to, to not sort of let stand behind, but at the same time, you got to do the work of the strategic planning, this for you, figure out your branding, because if you don’t know who you are and what your true North is, as a company, you have no idea what your branding should look like. But if you do have that, it is sort of, it creates it for itself almost. I don’t know how else to say that. Like the, it all comes together very well. The branding that you have true purpose and your purpose is clear.

Brad Cooper

Very, very well said. And the way you bring those two together is outstanding. So let’s, let’s flip just a little bit here. We always like to find out from our, from our guests, like what’s going on in your life, on the wellness side. So not presenting the we’ve got it all together, but what’s an area that you’ve been kind of struggling with, that you wouldn’t mind sharing with the audience in terms of any category. It could be life balance, sleep, nutrition, whatever. Giving our audience a little peek into our guests.

Chris Hughes

Well, I would say top for me lately is tennis. I have found at 51 years old, my passion in life. I love tennis. I have not played for 40 years. I had lessons when I was a really young kid. A friend of mine told me she was taking a tennis class and invited me to join her, to do that class with her. I was like, I haven’t taken tennis in 40 years. I’m not going to take a class. And she said, no, it’s a beginner class. So I signed up for it and immediately fell in love. But the challenge part, right. Um, I will say the thing that has been so interesting for me is I’ve really wanted to progress very quickly. And because I had that background from when I was very, very young, I had some sort of muscle memory or something in me that allowed me to really progress pretty quickly, but there’s been some obstacles along the way. And so I signed up for a lot of tennis classes, as well as a weight training speed, agility class, uh, for tennis, all that side, word, side, sideward motion, you know, all of that. And so, um, that helps a ton. And so the muscle memory is coming back. I’m enjoying it. And I’m actually last night, I was online registering with USDA to get on a, a three O league. So I’m really excited. And, uh, yeah, it’s been, it’s been just a wonderful thing for me. And I’ve been saying to myself, where has tennis been, all the, all my life, you know, these last 40 years, but at the same time, I’m just thrilled that I’ve rediscovered it. And, uh, that it’s in my life. So that’s kind of what’s going on there.

Brad Cooper

Yeah. I love, I just had lunch with somebody the other day that described it the same way you did. Hadn’t played, jumped back in, fell totally in love. And it it’s, it’s their focus. I won’t tell your husband about how passionate you are about tennis. That it’s your love.

Chris Hughes

Exactly! It’s great. You can play it for life too.

Brad Cooper

You can. Well, and the point I made this weekend at a talk was you can play tennis for your entire life for the cost of one round of golf. So that’s a nice advantage.

Chris Hughes

Exactly. There you go.

Brad Cooper

So just kind of wrapping things up again, thinking you have two different, generally two different groups of folks listening to you. Some that are on the fence about, should I even go into wellness coaching? It sounds kind of interesting. It sounds like me, but I just, I don’t know. The other group, they’re coaching already, there, they might even be nationally board certified, but they’re looking to grow professionally, any kind of closing words of advice? This doesn’t have to be strategic planning, oriented, just closing words of advice for a, the person on the fence, be the person that is just looking to enhance their career, grow professionally and enhance essentially what they’re doing with their profession?

Chris Hughes

Yeah. I would encourage all of those people to consider this process of strategic planning. Also, I offer planning sessions, but it’s something that I really encourage individuals to explore. Like you’re saying, do I make a career change or how do I grow my business? You know, all of these kinds of big life questions, this process is, uh, is tremendously helpful. And I always like to close with this one piece, the gentleman that wrote, uh, built to last, um, James Collins and Jerry porous, I think are the gentlemen who wrote that, um, they talk about a big, hairy, audacious goal. And I always love to throw this out there because it’s just such a silly, you know, a silly thing, but, um, the way they call it, but it’s like this, this idea of, you know, sometimes if you don’t dream the dream, it’s just like athletes, any kind of athletic thing that you talk about or athlete athletic goals. If you don’t put it out there, this big, hairy, audacious goal, you will never get it right. But if you dream big, you are, can often be so amazed by the results. You can see the results you achieve with those big picture thinking and really putting yourself out there to say, Hey, you know what? I’m not putting any limitations on myself. I’m not going to let anybody define who I am or what I, uh, what my company stands for. I’m going to just dream big and, and, um, it’s amazing the results you can see when you do that.

Brad Cooper

Fantastic. Fantastic. What a great way to close. Thank you again for joining us so many valuable insights and we’ll keep building from here.

Chris Hughes

Sounds great. Brad, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Brad Cooper

You had no idea strategic planning was so exciting. Did you? No. Seriously, Chris Hughes, wonderful job appreciate her so much. And it’s real stuff, folks, you know, I’ve got some decent experience with strategic planning. I’ve got an MBA, uh, run a couple of companies, but the process Chris described, that’s exactly how we do it with our organization. It’s an annual and sometimes as often as quarterly process, and it’s powerful. So if you haven’t done it before, just go through the steps Chris talked about again, she’ll be speaking at the retreat. If that’s something you decide to join us for, there’s going to be two options. There there’ll be a business track for those of you who are trying to build your coaching business or enhance what’s going on with your organization. And there’s going to be a coaching track for those that are wanting to focus more on their coaching skills. And we’re going to let you mix and match. If you want to get a little, like if you’re like, Oh man, I’m going to focus on my coaching, but I definitely want to hear Chris you’re, you’re going to have that opportunity to you can, you can kind of go back and forth as you go through this. If you’re not familiar with the details, you can go to CatalystCoachingInstitute.com, go to the retreat dropdown, and it’s got all the details. We’ve priced it. Especially if you get registered within the early registration deadline, it’s incredibly affordable a, we priced it pretty low, but we also are hosting it the YMCA of the Rockies, which allows you to keep your housing and your food, frankly, as low as you’ve ever seen it for any conference you’ve ever been to. So take a look at that really cool opportunity we’ve created it. So it is both a symposium where you will earn CEUs? You can get 17 CEUs, but you can also, you will also have plenty of opportunity to get re-energized and rejuvenated and spend time with other folks or spend time by yourself, going for hikes, sitting on a rock and journalizing, whatever it is in an absolutely beautiful, beautiful part of the country. That’s my quick highlight on the retreat. Hope it works out for you, but again, just want to say thank you to Chris Hughes as we kind of wrap this thing up. Just another reminder, keep helping folks work toward better. We, we tend to emphasize that best self in our industry and that just can get overwhelming. You know, a best self is just so far out there that we sit there and we go, Hey, nevermind. I’ll never get there, but if we can encourage each other, encourage our clients, our family members or community members, whoever it is that we’re spending time with to move toward better. That’s one step that’s, that’s something that we can all achieve. And the cumulative effect of that is so powerful. Thanks for joining us. I’ll look forward to chatting with you soon on the next episode of the Catalyst Health and Wellness Coaching Podcast.