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What you’ll learn in this episode:
Ready to end the year with clarity, confidence, and a whole lot of Hell Yes! energy? In this special year-end episode, we’re diving into a simple yet transformative ritual that can help you close out 2024 feeling empowered and step boldly into 2025.
As a business owner, you’ve poured your heart, soul, and countless hours into your work this year. But have you taken a moment to really reflect on how far you’ve come, what you’ve accomplished, and where you want to go next?
In this episode, I share my favorite practice: Debrief, Celebrate, and Dream. This three-part process will help you:
🔍 Debrief: Uncover the lessons, wins, and patterns of the past year.
🎉 Celebrate: Honor your growth, your courage, and the incredible impact you’ve made.
🌟 Dream: Design a vision for 2025 that’s filled with momentum, clarity, and joy.
I’ll walk you through powerful questions to ask yourself, like:
- What brought you the most joy this year?
- What did you stop doing that freed up your energy?
- If you could wave a magic wand, what work would you be doing next year?
Whether you’re new to business or already running a 7- or 8-figure empire, this practice will help you finish the year strong and set the stage for an even bigger, bolder, and more fulfilling 2025.
Grab a notebook, give yourself the gift of reflection, and let’s create a future that makes you say, “Hell Yes!”
Let’s go!
In this episode, you will learn to:
- Why this exercise is one of the most powerful to create peace at year end and momentum in the new year
- How powerful questions create insights that will catapult your business growth
- Why metaphorically waving a magic wand can be a powerful exercise in building your business
Mentioned in this episode:
Work/Connect with me:
00:01 – 00:39
Jessica Miller: Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s episode of the It’s Your Offer podcast. I’m so excited to be here with all of you for one of the last recordings of 2024, actually the first recording of 2025. But I’m going to call it both. I’m going to call it the last recording of 2024 and the first recording of 2025 because I think this episode really leans into both of those things. As 2024 comes to a close and as 2025 starts, it is a perfect time to reflect on how your year went. Whether you’re just starting out or
00:39 – 01:13
Jessica Miller: you’re a seasoned business owner, taking a moment to think about how far you’ve come and all that you’ve created and what’s ahead is one of the most empowering and grounding things that you can do. All your hard work, every communication you put out in the world, every program you’ve launched, client you’ve helped, and story you’ve shared has bought value to your community. And the impact of our work on others and the world as a whole is something to truly be celebrated. Also, everything that you do, you have done, and everything that you dream of becoming and
01:13 – 01:53
Jessica Miller: doing going forward sets the foundation for an even bigger, stronger you and an even stronger 2025. As part of my year-end ritual, I do this exercise of debriefing, celebrating and dreaming. And I affectionately call it that because I really think it encapsulates exactly what this episode does and what this exercise really gives to you. It allows you to look at how far you’ve come, look at where you’re gonna celebrate, and look at how dreaming and looking forward is going to catapult you into the future that you want. These 3 distinct parts, one where you look back
01:53 – 02:29
Jessica Miller: and reflect on your year, gain insights and recognize patterns that can help you see where you’re winning and what resonated. Another part where you can celebrate all that you’ve created, all that you’ve done, and all that you’ve become along the way, and all that you’re becoming. And then that final part of dreaming. It’s about looking forward to lay a foundation for what is a powerful path forward. one with momentum, clarity, and a whole lot of hell yes energy. These make up a powerful triad of what can make ending the year feel like a peaceful closing and
02:29 – 03:07
Jessica Miller: the catalyst of a bright future. In today’s episode, I want to walk you through each part of this process for me and share some of the questions that I asked myself in the hope of giving you a powerful tool to close out your year and springboard you into the headspace for a powerful and successful new year. So, let’s jump right in, here we go. So, part number one is the debrief. As many of you know, I love looking backwards. I love looking at what happened. I love looking for patterns, trends, anything that can inform me and
03:07 – 03:43
Jessica Miller: give me information about how to make a really good, strong, focused, succinct decision going forward. The decisions that we make are one of the most powerful tools in our business and frankly in our life. And the more that we can look at the pieces of data that we have to inform what those decisions look like and learn from them and capitalize off of them and really lean into the ones that we wanna keep, the ones that we wanna maybe not keep and just learn from them. At the end of the day, our life is made up
03:43 – 04:23
Jessica Miller: of moments and Those moments are data points. They really are. They are just facts. They’re just information. We as human beings give a lot of meaning to those things and we give a lot of emotion to those things and those things are part of what create our results. But if we can step back and just look at what has happened from a neutral space, from a space of curiosity, we can glean so much from that information that helps us go forward in a more powerful and a more productive way. Also, in a more empowered way. Because
04:23 – 04:59
Jessica Miller: when you look at the right things, when you debrief in the right way, when you find those things that are going to move you closer to the goals that you want, and then you marry those with meaning and emotion, guess what happens? You become unstoppable. So, every single thing that you’re doing, good quote unquote, bad quote unquote, neutral quote unquote, doesn’t really matter, these are powerful tools to get you to exactly where you want to go. So, in this debrief section, I ask myself the following questions. I am looking for little anecdotes of information that I
04:59 – 05:28
Jessica Miller: can pull forward into my future self, into my present moment and future self. Because as you know from listening to this podcast you’ve heard it a million times, you want to look for the things that are getting you closer to what you want and you want to double down on those things. We are doing a lot of things. There are things that we are going to choose to do that may not necessarily get us closer to our goals, but that’s okay as long as you choose them intentionally. But when we think about making progress, intentionally being
05:28 – 06:00
Jessica Miller: who we want to be, moving forward, we want to know what are those powerful levers? What are the things that if we really lean into it, it’s going to give us that biggest return on our time and energy. So debriefing is so powerful. So here are the questions that I often ask myself as it relates to specifically when I’m thinking about my business. Of course, some of these things also incorporate questions sort of about life, because let’s face it, you are one whole person. If only we could be like life Jessica Miller over here and business
06:00 – 06:31
Jessica Miller: Jessica Miller over here and parent Jessica Miller over here. Life would be just so simple, wouldn’t it? But that’s just not how it is. So, we are one holistic being. So, some of these questions will encompass a lot of those different things. So, the first question is, what things brought you the most joy over the last year? If you can reflect on your last year, what really made you happy? What did you love doing? What did you love feeling? Right? What are those things that bring you the most joy? Equally, What things robbed you of your
06:31 – 07:04
Jessica Miller: joy? What are those things where when you think about them, you’re like, oh, this is really like just taking it all out of me. I didn’t love it. It was painful. I just don’t find it enjoyable. Like what robbed you of your joy? And I want to just also just as a side note say it could be like a physical thing like I had to go and you know organize my files right that robbed me of my joy but it could also be something like all of the negative self-talk that you told yourself after every single
07:04 – 07:35
Jessica Miller: podcast you recorded. So, when I say the things, it could be in action, like I did this thing and it robbed me of my joy, like I physically did it, like organizing your files, or it could be like a behavior. But I want you to think about it in both of those ways. Like maybe what thing bought you the most joy was going for a walk every morning. Or the thing that bought you most joy was reading your gratitude list or telling yourself affirmations or intentionally reframing the way that you thought about a certain thing or
07:36 – 08:04
Jessica Miller: changing the way that you thought about your mother-in-law. It could be something like that or it could be a physical I did this thing like an action of doing something in a physical space. So, I just want to say that as a side note. So, what bought you the most joy? What robbed you of your joy? What is one thing that you created or did that have the biggest impact on your business and why? If you could look back, what is that thing that really moved the needle? What work stream or offer bought you the most
08:04 – 08:41
Jessica Miller: revenue? Who were the people you worked with that filled you up the most? So, your clients, collaborators, who are those people in your life that filled you up? Who were the people you surrounded yourself with that filled your soul and helped you grow your business the most? Who were those people? You know those people who are cheering you on and they’re opening doors for you and they’re telling other people your name when you’re not looking those people. Those people. Another question is, what’s one thing you’re going to keep doing in the year ahead? And the final
08:41 – 09:16
Jessica Miller: question, last but not least, what’s one thing you’re going to stop doing? Another way I like to ask this question is what’s one thing you are no longer going to be available for? Like it is no longer available in your life. one thing to also point out about these questions is you don’t have to ask them in this order. Those are the general questions that I ask when I am looking at my year that just passed. Okay, so ask yourself those questions, get out a piece of paper right now, Pour yourself a cup of coffee, tea,
09:16 – 09:52
Jessica Miller: warm beverage, whatever it is, and just journal this, like notebook it. And pause this and go back and rewind it if you have to do that. Okay, the next part of this exercise is the celebrate part. Let me just say out loud, I think, especially as adults, we are not celebrating enough. We are not getting excited enough. You know, as kids, everything’s a celebration, right? Everything. It could be like, you know, I don’t know, National paperclip day and kids will celebrate. They lean into the joy. They get excited over everything. I have to tell you as
09:52 – 10:19
Jessica Miller: a parent, this is one of the most awesome things about being a parent. I growing up was not someone who thought that I necessarily wanted to have kids when I got older, when I got married. And I am so glad I did. It is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. And I have to tell you, one of the most gratifying pieces of it, of course, is watching how amazing your children are and how they’re their own being in their own way. But it is the fact that you get to live through their eyes. You
10:19 – 10:49
Jessica Miller: get to see the world through that lens. And I’ll have to tell you that my husband is so good at that. He’s so good at leaning into all the fun and making fun out of just the randomest things. He will celebrate all the things. And it’s really, really, really powerful. As business owners, we need to do this too. It is so important for anchoring that thing in your brain. It is like, it brings it to the forefront, right? To that front part of your brain that is that executive functioning part that allows you to really see
10:49 – 11:21
Jessica Miller: it and process it with your adult brain. Like, oh, there is this thing I am intentionally pulling out and celebrating. You can see it. The amount of dopamine and endorphins and all the things that get released when you are in joy and excitement and celebration is just, right, there’s so much science to support that. And then the thing that I love the most is it just raises your vibe, right? It’s like that boat just goes up, that tide rises and you just go with it. And there is nothing better than being in that feeling of celebrating,
11:22 – 11:51
Jessica Miller: celebrating it and really leaning into your creation of it, your impact of it, your witnessing of it. And when you can do it for yourself, it is so important. Because the more you do it for you, the more you start to see it everywhere. And you start to see it for your clients, and you start to see it for your colleagues, and your family, it is so far reaching. This is a total side note, but one of the things that I do, and I didn’t even realize it was a form of celebration, is I will see
11:51 – 12:18
Jessica Miller: somebody walking down the street, maybe they have an awesome coat on, or there’s a great bag, or whatever it is. It could be anything. And I will tell people, oh my gosh, I love your sweater. That’s an awesome sweater. And I never realized I was doing it. I was celebrating them for this thing. But my husband was like, do you tell everybody that? You know, do you, like you just tell people that that’s what you think when you see them and you watch people’s faces light up. And I was like, I never really realized that it
12:18 – 12:44
Jessica Miller: was just an observation I felt compelled to tell people. But I started to realize I felt so good and they felt so good. I mean, and when was the last time somebody stopped you on the street to tell you you looked amazing, right? It’s just, it was one of those things. Anyway, I love it. And now I do it all the time because I, it brings me as much joy as it brings them. But anyway, back to this celebrating piece, you wanna know how to do it for you. And you have worked hard, you have created
12:44 – 13:16
Jessica Miller: so much, you’ve had a huge impact in the last year. You need to celebrate that. Okay, so here are the questions that I use to really lean in and find those things to celebrate. So, the first one is, what was your biggest win and why? Where did you not get out of the park? Where are you awesome? Where was it like, hell yes times 100? Like where is that? And why was that your biggest win? Why is that the thing that you’re picking out? Really lean into it. It could be you launched a great program. It
13:16 – 13:47
Jessica Miller: could be you went out on a limb for this reason or you got an opportunity that was so amazing that you’ve always wanted. It could be anything. It could be an amazing card that you wrote for your favorite client that you’ve been meaning to tell them. It could be anything. What is your biggest win and why is it your biggest 1? The next question is what is one thing you said you were going to do this last year and you actually did it? What is one thing that you said you were going to do and you
13:47 – 14:17
Jessica Miller: did it? You celebrated it. You stepped into and you became that person you wanted to be. You did the thing you said you were going to do. What is one thing? What is one thing that terrified you but you did it anyway? Where were you brave and courageous? Where did you step up? And sometimes this could be something amazing like, you know what, I was so terrified to put my hat in the ring for that keynote and I did and I didn’t get it but I did it anyway. Or it could be, you know what? I
14:17 – 14:48
Jessica Miller: had to have this conversation that was really, really hard because I’m the CEO of my company and that’s my responsibility, but I was terrified to do it. But it’s part of my role and what I’m grown into as a CEO. So, it could be any of these things, anything, right? You could have gone skydiving and that terrified you and you know, on a company trip. What was one thing that terrified you but you didn’t know anyway? This next question is one of my favorites but I think it’s so powerful. What’s one thing that you totally sucked
14:48 – 15:29
Jessica Miller: at, but taught you a really valuable lesson? So, what’s something you did that you sucked at, but you learned something so important that it actually is something to celebrate? What things did you do to celebrate yourself and your successes? Did you celebrate yourself in this last year? What were those things? Doesn’t have to be grand. It could be amazing. Like I took myself on vacation to Tahiti as a, you know, milestone trip for this huge goal that I hit. It could be, I spent an hour watching a Christmas Hallmark Netflix movie on a Tuesday afternoon because
15:29 – 16:12
Jessica Miller: I wanted to, because I deserve it, because I made time in my schedule. Another question is what’s one thing you’re going to do to celebrate yourself this year. And in the coming year, what is one thing you are committed to doing that you’re going to celebrate once you complete it? What feels like a hell yes for you? What is that goal that you really want? And what are you gonna do to celebrate it once you hit it? I love this question because it really sets the intention of this is happening and this is what I’m gonna
16:12 – 16:41
Jessica Miller: do once it does. And I think there’s something so powerful about putting your energy out in that way that makes it a done deal and let me tell you I cannot tell you how many things in my life and how many things for my clients I have seen that when they have done something like this when they have committed Energetically when they can see it it happens and you will be shocked at how fast it happens. So do not skip this 1. What’s one thing you’re committed to doing that you’re going to celebrate once you complete
16:41 – 17:14
Jessica Miller: it? And what are you gonna do to celebrate it? Okay, so celebrate more. Choose joy right now. Life is short, things are unpredictable. You are killing it. If you are in the game of entrepreneurship and owning your business and you especially, you are doing the things and you are creating the success, let me tell you, there is so much to celebrate. You could have a notebook full of stuff, of things that you have done that you should be really proud of. So don’t shortchange this piece. Make sure you celebrate. And the last piece is one of
17:14 – 17:51
Jessica Miller: the most powerful pieces, I think. Because you know I love to dream and scheme. It’s one of my favorite things. Before I really moved into business coaching and pulling some of these more tactical frameworks in, I spent a lot of time coaching people on mindset. one of my strengths is futuristic. I love to look to the future. And I love to inspire people. I love to rally people around things that have a lot of momentum because I think that that internal game, when you learn how to harness it and you can marry it with some of
17:51 – 18:26
Jessica Miller: these hard outputs in your life, those things that you can actually see physically in your hand, you are unstoppable. So dreaming is so important. And it is an integral part of thinking about your year going forward, but it’s also about channeling those energy, getting yourself excited. Who wants to work in a business that is not exciting? And we don’t give ourselves the space sometimes to really lean into that. So, you want to be able to see it. You want to be able to dream it. Because when you can, you can reverse engineer and how you’re going
18:26 – 18:57
Jessica Miller: to create it. I would also recommend if you can, put yourself in a space that is inspiring when you do this exercise, if you can. You can break these 3 pieces up if you want, you can do it in one full thing. But see if you can put yourself into a space that is very inspirational for you. A lot of times I will go to a beautiful space. I am really influenced by my external environment. So maybe that means I would go sit in a beautiful lobby at a hotel or a coffee shop that I love.
18:57 – 19:27
Jessica Miller: I used to pull my car up to the ocean, like the parking lot at the ocean and just point toward the ocean. And I would do this exercise in my car, like literally sitting in the driver’s seat, but I had this beautiful, expansive, you know, view in front of me. And a lot of times also where those beaches were, there were all the beautiful homes on the beach and there’s these beautiful, beautiful houses, which for me, I mean, I love beautiful houses. So just, you know, dreaming and scheming of being in one of these homes and
19:27 – 19:58
Jessica Miller: living in a place that’s beautiful and all the inspiration that comes from that, I really recommend trying to lean into whatever that is for you, because it just sets you on that vibe. And again, then you’re creating and dreaming from that space, which is really powerful. Okay, so question number 1, what do I want my days, weeks, and months to look like? So, as I mentioned, when you can see it and dream it, you can reverse engineer it. When we think about our business, a lot of times we just, we’re going through the motions, we’re going
19:58 – 20:33
Jessica Miller: through the framework of what we’ve always done or what we think needs to happen. I am encouraging you to break this mold, dream about what would my days and weeks and months look like if I could design anything that I wanted. I have to tell you, this changed everything for me in my business. It changed me thinking about I literally have to work 8 to 5 Monday through Friday every single week. It changed what I thought about my weekends. It changed what I thought about my time with my family. It changed what I thought about my
20:33 – 21:05
Jessica Miller: year end. There was a time when my company did not close down at all at the end of the year. That has changed. We close every year for 2 weeks. I give my team off. We prepare for it. It is a game changer. There are also things during the year that I love doing. Part of it is my work, like maybe VIP days or whatever, that I had to dream and scheme around like, what would my client calendar and what would my calendar in life look like if I could paint this picture anything that I wanted?
21:05 – 21:36
Jessica Miller: So, I ended up taking time out of the office. I ended up creating my VIP programs. I created my retreat that lasted several days. It was a game changer. So, what do you want your days, weeks, and months to look like? Okay, included in that is what days, weeks, or months will you be out of office? And what will you be doing? Like, let’s pretend you’re one of these people who decided, you know what, I’m going to follow Taylor Swift all around the world. Well, you need to look at your calendar and you need to figure
21:36 – 22:03
Jessica Miller: out, well, if she’s traveling to these places and I need to travel there or her concert is on this day and I need to be at that concert, what does that look like for my work days? Like, what does that look like for my weeks? What does that look like for my family? All of those things and really dreaming around that. So, what are those days, weeks and months look like and which one of those days do you wanna be out of office? You don’t need to work 24 7 And what will you be doing if
22:03 – 22:40
Jessica Miller: you’re out of the office? Right, what will your life look like? Dream and scheme. Another question is what worked last year that I wanna pull forward to next year? So, one of the things that I shared on the podcast was in the summer, I actually tried to maneuver my calendar so that I could batch all of my forward-facing, client-facing activities. And the reason I wanted to do that was because I wanted to be more efficient. I wanted to actually open up more time for my clients, but have the forward-facing pieces be very condensed. And I loved
22:40 – 23:07
Jessica Miller: it. It changed my whole life. It changed the way that I ran my days because I needed to run them in a very specific, streamlined, and efficient way. I needed to be very clear with my clients about what that looked like so that they can maneuver within it. And it set me free. It is something I absolutely am going to pull forward into summer of next year. And I thought, this is never gonna happen, but voila, I did it. It was on my calendar. I’m like, look, there it is. And what do you know? It’s gonna
23:07 – 23:36
Jessica Miller: go forward because it was great. So, what’s something that worked last year that you wanna pull forward? Next question is, what do I wish I had done more of? Right? Maybe you tried some things, maybe they were great, maybe they weren’t, maybe there were some things in there that were really awesome, but if you are human and I am definitely guilty of this, sometimes they just kind of fall off, like you forget about them. What’s something you wish you’d done more of? What do you want to do less of? What’s something that you did where you’re
23:36 – 24:03
Jessica Miller: like, I need to stop doing that. I want to do less of that and more of this other thing. Another question is what kind of people light me up that I want to work with? This could be existing people like I want to work with this type of person. It could be new people like I want to work with this new type of you know client over here or it could be totally different people like I’ve never worked with any of these people and I want to check that out. So, what kind of people light you
24:03 – 24:33
Jessica Miller: up that you want to work with? The beauty of having your own business is you get to decide who you want to work with and it’s a really powerful part of your day. So, what kind of people light you up and do you want to work with? This question I love, love, love so much and it is the last question because I think it’s one of the most powerful. This question is, if I could wave a magic wand and do any kind of work that I wanted, what would I be doing? So, if I could come
24:33 – 25:07
Jessica Miller: in and sprinkle fairy dust on you and said, you know what? You could run any kind of business you want. What would your heart desire? Like, what would you be doing? And then attached to that, the very last question is, what’s holding me back from doing that right now. So, these are the questions in the debrief, celebrate, and dream framework that I have. As I mentioned in the beginning, this is one of the most powerful ways to bring peace and closure to a year that you’ve worked really hard, added tons of value, huge impact on your
25:07 – 25:42
Jessica Miller: audience and on your colleagues and on other people in your life. Really wrap that up with a bow. Give it the time and attention that it needs to really glean what you can from it, learn from it, lean into it, celebrate it, and then really catapult yourself and springboard yourself into this next year. All that you need to be successful and have everything that you want in your business and your life is already inside of you. It exists. It exists inside of your heart, inside of your mind, in your network of people who are there to
25:42 – 26:16
Jessica Miller: celebrate you and lift you up and help you. It’s out there in the dreams that you think in the wants that you have and the desires Don’t be afraid of it lean into it be curious be like a little kid who is waking up Like they are in a full-blown miracle every day looking for the next joyous thing that they can latch onto to really bring them forward into all the things that they want. Because here’s the thing, you are a living miracle. You are a miraculous person and you have this amazing opportunity to really lean
26:16 – 26:43
Jessica Miller: into and create and get everything you want. And I really believe this exercise will help you tap into that and let it provide sort of that wind beneath your wings to bring you into a next year. I cannot wait to hear about all your successes. I am wishing you the most amazing year ever. Thank you for being on this journey here at the It’s Your Offer podcast with me. And I cannot wait to see what is ahead for all of us in this coming year. Until next week, everyone, have an awesome week.
