“What would happen if I spent a whole day on my body, mind and soul?”

–Mia

What would you do if you focused on YOU for a month?

I get really intentional about planning my birthday month, and I’m going to show you how to do that so you can plan for your birthday month too. If your birthday is far away, go put a reminder in your calendar two weeks before your birthday with the link to this episode. Or decide you’re going to embrace planning a month for you now.

May is a really busy time, and I think part of the push to do this is that it’s powerful to put yourself first when you are being pulled in other directions. I know that when I have a plan and I’m intentional, I can make things happen even in busy times. I have a business focus and as part of my uplevel, I’m inviting entrepreneurs to join me for daily business practices inside of FLOW365 for a month. I’m calling May Momentum.

Why a month? It takes the pressure off one day. It means I can flex with the weather, with big events and weekend plans. I can weave in the things I want even with important dates for my business. Once I have the ideas, I make space on the calendar for them.

Some things I’m excited to include:

• May Momentum
• Artist Dates
• Clearing out stuff
• Ceremony with Sarah Jenks
• Time with friends
• A whole day focused on my body, mind and soul

Questions I ask:

• What needs completion?
• What needs or wants attention?
• What would it look like to celebrate me?

LINKS

May Momentum https://plansimple.com/may

Where I’m sharing about my plan and what I do

• https://www.instagram.com/plansimple.co/
• https://substack.com/@themiamoran

DOABLE CHANGES

At the end of every episode, we share three doable changes, so you can take what you've heard and put it into action. Action is where change happens.

Even though we want big change, it’s really little things done over and over that make the difference. So pick a doable thing. Put it in your calendar. Weave it through your days for a week and then move on to the next one. It will have a snowball effect.

Here are three Doable Changes from this conversation:

• ASK THE QUESTIONS. Ask yourself three questions a couple of weeks before your birthday month: What needs completion? What needs or wants attention? What would it look like to celebrate me? Braindump, journal, just put all the ideas down. Decide what things are important to you. If your birthday month is a ways away, your doable change now is to put a reminder in your calendar for two weeks before your birthday month with these questions and the link to this episode.
• IS THIS ME NOW? Sometimes we have ideas that fit on the surface, but they may feel a little flat or like a past you. Pause and question whether the idea really fits you now. Maybe it does with some changes, or maybe it’s not the right thing for now.
• COMPLETE ONE TASK. Sometimes we start tasks but don’t quite finish them. I sorted through a bunch of stuff and decided to get rid of things, but still have the bins of things. Completion looks like getting those out of my house by a tag sale of donation to Goodwill. Maybe you have something written but not published or gathered but not returned. What could you complete today.

“If it ain't joyful, I ain't doing that shit.”

–M. Shannon Hernandez

I’m talking to M. Shannon Hernandez, author of Practical Joy: Simple Tools to Cultivate More Joy Every Day and founder of Joyful Business Revolution. She opens with her mantra: If it ain’t joyful, I ain’t doing that shit,” and we dive in from there.

Shannon explains the difference between joy and happiness this way: Joy is an inside job, while happiness comes from things on the outside. Joy is living in alignment with our core values. And you can plan for joy.

Shannon shows us how to weave joy into our marketing — and the shift that happens when you stop thinking about marketing and start thinking about messaging.

We talk about:

• Planning your day based around your 3-4 top values and how your future self drives joy
• Cultivating joy every day, no matter what’s going on — with examples — and working through the non-joyful parts to get to joy
• The difference between marketing and messaging, and bringing joy to the messaging of your business
• Finding your messaging pillars
• Why making time to connect with people is essential
• Using AI — how to show up as you, how to use AI to streamline not make things busier

ABOUT SHANNON

When consultants, strategists, speakers, and trainers know their work has outgrown their message, and they need messaging that reflects its depth and converts without compromise, they call M. Shannon Hernandez. Shannon is the strategist behind the Profit-Driven Messaging Ecosystem™ and a fierce advocate for protecting voice and authority in an AI-driven world.

LINKS

• https://joyfulbusinessrevolution.com/profitmessaging/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/mshannonhernandez/
• https://www.facebook.com/maryshannon.hernandez

DOABLE CHANGES

At the end of every episode, we share three doable changes, so you can take what you've heard and put it into action. Change comes from action.

Doable changes are things that you can add into your life, one at a time to make micro shifts and really create a ripple effect that will create a big change over time. Choose one that really piques your interest and roll with it.

Here are three Doable Changes from this conversation:

• PLAN FROM YOUR VALUES. Identify your top 3–4 values. Each morning for a week, identify what you will do each day to live each value. Notice how it changes the way you approach your day. What things easily fit in? What things feel challenging? What things fit if you shift the way you think?
• IDENTIFY YOUR MESSAGING PILLARS. What are the three things you talk about in your messaging? Start by looking at what you are already talking about. Think about what your future self wants to be doing — what are three things important to that work? What things already bring joy or spark real connection with people? Work with these pillars or anchors to streamline your messaging on your website, in emails, in podcasts or blogs, in talks and workshops.
• REACH OUT TO OTHERS. Connecting with others is essential to your business success. Do it as a joyful thing. Do it as a real human looking to connect with someone else. If you are bringing networking energy or a checklist of numbers energy to it, try leading with a different gesture, with connection, with real curiosity or interest.

Why does follow-through sometimes feel impossible—even when you know what you want?

In this episode, I’m diving into one of the most overlooked (and powerful) parts of the FLOW planning process: vision. This step is something you can access in minutes, even seconds, to help you move forward when you feel stuck.

If you’ve been feeling frozen, overwhelmed, or like you “just can’t move,” this isn’t about discipline or doing more. It’s about reconnecting to where you’re going, and letting that pull you forward. This is the role of vision.

In this episode, I walk you through:

• The 5-step FLOW planning method (and where vision fits in)
• How to use vision at different scales—from 3 years to the next 90 minutes
• Simple ways to practice vision so it becomes natural (not another to-do)
• How to shift from past-based thinking to future-based action

You’ll leave with a practical way to reconnect to your vision, so you can take your next step with more clarity, ease, and momentum.

Because you already know what you want. Sometimes you just need to remember.