January is supposed to be about planning. It’s goal-setting season. It’s “new year, new you” energy. It’s the time when every business podcast – including, historically, this one – tells you to set your revenue targets, map out your marketing calendar, and basically plan your way to world domination.

And look, I’m not going to tell you planning doesn’t matter. It absolutely does – all of that stuff IS important. I’m not saying ignore your metrics.

But somewhere along the way, we started treating the metrics as the goal instead of as indicators of whether we’re achieving the actual goal.

The actual goal – for most of us, if we’re honest – is freedom.

Freedom to do work we’re proud of. Freedom to spend time with people we love. Freedom to not be constantly stressed and reactive. Freedom to build something sustainable, not just something that looks good on Instagram.

When you plan for revenue without planning for how you want to feel, you often end up optimising for the wrong things.

So here’s what I want to talk about today: what if most of us are starting our planning in completely the wrong place?

What if the reason so many brand owners end up exhausted, burnt out, and quietly resentful of the business they built… is because they planned for the wrong thing?

In this episode, I’m going to share with you my alternative approach to planning for the year ahead. Plus, as always, share some steps you can take today to put this into action yourself.