Depth & Discernment: Q4 Planning with Autumn Wisdom - EP 056

Listen on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | iHeartRadio | Pandora | Amazon Music

Align your Q4 planning with the wisdom of autumn and step into the season with clarity and purpose. In this episode, I share a six-step process to help you reflect on the past year, set clear intentions, and create goals that honor your natural rhythms. Autumn invites us to harvest what we’ve planted, practice discernment, and choose where to focus our energy for the greatest impact. Rather than spreading yourself too thin, this approach encourages prioritizing fewer, more meaningful goals that support both your business and your life. By leaning into seasonal energy, you’ll see how setbacks can open the door to abundance and why pleasure is essential for sustainable growth. Join me in cultivating clarity, alignment, and discernment as we close out the year with intention.

Episode Takeaways:

• Every powerful planning session starts with clarity around why you're planning.
• Autumn is a time for harvesting what you’ve sown earlier in the year.
• Focus on fewer offerings with deeper impact rather than spreading yourself too thin.
• Your goals should honor what you’ve learned about yourself this year.
• Discernment is key in choosing what to focus on during Q4.
• Trust the process and the seasonal wisdom in your planning.
• Sometimes setbacks can lead to unexpected abundance.
  
  

Key Insights:

“Whether you see it coming or not, things will fall into place and what you've been working toward will come to fruition. That's the energy I want you to carry into your Q4 planning.”

“Autumn's greatest teaching for entrepreneurs - sometimes what looks like a failure is actually a redirection toward abundance that we didn't even know we possessed.”

Resources I Mention:

• Autumn Equinox: Harvesting the Wisdom of the Season with Krissy Shields - EP 055
• The Prosper Network
  
  

Connect With Me:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @RachelAnzalone
• Facebook: Rachel.Anzalone
• LinkedIn: RachelAnzalone
  

Question for Your Reflection:

Where are you being called to focus more deeply instead of spreading yourself too thin?

Did this episode resonate with you? Share it with another visionary leader who needs to hear this message, and don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. Your support helps other impact-driven entrepreneurs find their way to our community.

Remember: Your pleasure is your power. 💫

Ready to step into the pleasure revolution and transform how you do business? Let's explore how to maximize impact, profit, and pleasure in alignment with the new paradigm. Schedule a time to connect with me right here >>>

Episode Transcript

Ask yourself, how will I maintain discernment throughout the quarter when the hustle culture messaging gets loud? Because it will get loud. There will be plenty of voices telling you to push harder, to do more, to make up for lost time, to double down, to hit your goals before the year is up. Your job is to stay connected to your own inner knowing and trust the process that you've created.

Hello and welcome to Pleasure and Profits. I'm your host, Rachel Anzalone. As I'm recording this, we're just a few days away from the final eclipse of this season and the equinox that's coming up. By the time you're listening to this, we will be just on the other side of those two events and we're fast approaching the fourth quarter of 2025. A season that's focused on harvest, on discernment and wise planning for sustainable growth. 

In last week's episode, my dear friend, Krissy Shields and I had the most beautiful conversation about the Autumn Equinox and what this season teaches us about business and life. If you haven't listened to that episode yet, I highly recommend going back to hear Krissy's wisdom about this being a season of wise discernment and her insightful story about the calendula that didn't grow as expected, only for her to discover that she already had everything that she needed tucked away in her cabinet.

That conversation really got me thinking about how we approach Q4 planning, because here's what I've noticed, this time of year, there's so much pressure to push harder, to hustle through the final quarter of the year, to make up for whatever didn't happen earlier in the year.

What if instead of staying so attached to those goals that we set early on in the year, before we knew what this year would bring, before we knew what constraints might come up, and pressing forward on those goals from a place of scarcity, of feeling like we're behind or a sense of not enoughness. 

What if instead we focused on planning Q4 from the wisdom that autumn naturally provides for us?

Now I know that some people get really excited about planning. I am definitely one of those people. And I know others feel a lot of resistance or even dread when it comes to any kind of traditional business planning approaches.

I think this happens often because we have had experiences of making elaborate plans that then didn't materialize or ended up feeling overwhelmed by all the things that we think that we should be doing, instead of coming from a place of intention and thoughtfulness around what's really attainable for us in the next few months, this next time period, and what would we feel really satisfied if we were able to bring to life.

If you're one of those people that feels overwhelmed or resistant to doing any kind of planning, then please keep listening because there's some great insights here for you on how you can plan this quarter from a place that feels really aligned and supportive instead of one that stresses you out or overwhelms you.

We're gonna explore a Q4 planning process that honors both the seasonal energy around us and the seasons that you're personally experiencing in your business and life. This is not about forcing yourself into someone else's energy or timeline. This is about planning with the wisdom that you have gained and the natural rhythms that actually support a sustainable business, your sustainable business.

Before we dive into the practical planning process, let's talk about understanding the energy that we're working with here. When we talk about seasonal planning, it's important to recognize that there are multiple seasons at play simultaneously. First, there's the calendar season, which is what we've been talking about. Autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere. And this is a time that's naturally associated with harvest, with gathering the fruits of what we've sown, with developing discernment about what's worth keeping and what it's time to release.

It's a season of conservation where nature begins to pull energy inwards to prepare for the coming winter. The days are getting shorter, the air is getting crisper, and there's a natural invitation to slow down, go internal, and reflect.

But there's also your personal seasons and your business seasons, which may or may not align perfectly with the calendar. You might be in a spring season of your business just launching something new, or you might be in a deep winter season focused on rest and foundation building. You might be in a summer season in your personal life where you're feeling abundant and expanded, or you might be in an autumn season there too, ready to release what's no longer serving you.

The key is to honor where you actually are and not where you think you should be according to some external timeline. And so the invitation here is to reflect on what season your business is in, what season your personal life is in, and how that may or may not align with what's happening in nature around us.

And whether or not you're personally or in your business or in an autumn season, what can you learn from the lessons of nature about this season that could be applicable to different aspects of your life or business?

Now it makes autumn such a powerful time for planning. As what Krissy and I described in detail and talked a lot about, which is this wise season of discernment. This is the time to extract lessons from both our successes and our perceived failures.

In our conversation, Krissy shared how her calendula didn't grow as expected this year after having an abundant harvest the year before. And her initial reaction was, oh no, like what did I do wrong? What mistake did I make or how did I mess this up? But then she discovered that she had a jar of dried calendula in her cabinet, which was more than enough to last through the entire winter until next year.

Her takeaway she shared with us from this was profound. You didn't do anything wrong. You did exactly what you were meant to do, and you already have everything that you need.

Autumn's greatest teaching for entrepreneurs - sometimes what looks like a failure is actually a redirection toward abundance that we didn't even know we possessed.

Maybe you've had an experience like one that I had recently where I found myself sort of looking outside of myself at what some other people were doing and experiences they were having and feeling a little sad and regretful, maybe even a little angry that I didn't have the resource or I didn't have the opportunity that they were having. And pretty quickly I snapped myself out of it because I realized just for the moment of pausing and reflection that I do in fact have those resources and those opportunities. I just wasn't looking at them at that moment. But if I really look around me, if I really pay attention, then everything that I need is already here for me. And I bet the same is true for you.

This season invites us to move beyond perfectionism and binary thinking, where everything is either success or failure, into what could be called abundance thinking.

As Krissy shared, when the deer got into her garden and ate her raspberries and her lettuce, her friend's response was “Perfect, you've fed a baby deer.” Even our setbacks can feed something important in the ecosystem of our growth.

And here's what I love about Q4 planning with Autumn energy. It honors both the drive to finish strong and the natural pull towards conservation. Instead of forcing year-round growth, we get to plan with the understanding that sustainable success has seasons. There is a time to push forward and a time to pull back, a time to plant and a time to harvest, a time to expand and a time to consolidate.

We can consider this “both/and” planning instead of “either/or” planning.

All right, now let's get practical. I'm gonna walk you through a six-step planning process that's specifically designed to work with the energy of autumn rather than against it.

Step one is to set your planning intention. Every powerful planning session starts with clarity around why you're planning in the first place. What we don't want to do is jump straight into goals and tactics. We really want to get clear on what our deeper intentions are for the planning process. 

Ask yourself these questions. Why is now the time for me to make plans? What do I want to get out of this planning experience? What feels most important to focus my energy on for the next few months? For autumn specifically, your intention might relate to harvesting what you've sown earlier in the year, or practicing discernment about what deserves continued investment, or preparing foundations for what's to come in the new year. 

Here's an example of what this might sound like. My intention for this planning session is to create a focused Q4 strategy that honors what I've learned this year while setting up sustainable momentum for next year without burning myself out in the process.

Take a moment to write down your planning intention in a single clear statement. This intention will serve as your North Star throughout the entire planning process, helping you stay focused on what really matters most to you, especially when you get pulled into the “shoulds” and the comparison traps that are so common this time of year.

Step two is reflection, harvesting this year's data. Krissy and I talked a lot about this. This is the time of year where the data has come in and now we really have the opportunity to examine what's worked and what hasn't. So before looking forward, let's take some time to look backwards. This isn't about analyzing what worked or what didn't from a place of judgment. It's really just considering everything as data, as information for future decision-making.

This is about harvesting whatever wisdom came from those experiences, about acknowledging your journey and extracting the lessons that will inform your path forward. Here are the key questions I invite you to sit with. 

First, what am I grateful for this year? Consider both the obvious wins and the subtle blessings. Maybe it's a new client relationship that taught you something important or a boundary you held, even when it was difficult or simply making it through a challenging period with your wellbeing intact. Which frankly, isn't that what we're all doing right now? Just making it through a challenging period. And there's so much more effort required to maintain our wellbeing considering the circumstances happening around us. But sometimes just that is the achievement.

Second, what am I proud of accomplishing? This is about acknowledging your growth and your contribution, regardless of whether it showed up in your metrics or it was visible to other people. Sometimes our biggest accomplishments are internal shifts that create the foundation for everything else.

What do you want less of in Q4? This might be a certain type of project or ways of working that you've outgrown or it might be internal patterns that you've recognized no longer serve you. And fourth, what do you want more of? What energizes you? What lights you up? What feels particularly aligned that you want to amplify in the months ahead?

Here’s a bonus question that comes directly from Autumn wisdom. What calendula moments did you have this year? That story that Krissy told about feeling disappointed that the calendula didn't grow and thinking that somehow she had made a mistake and then discovering that she actually had all the calendula she needs for a whole another season until she's able to grow some next year.

What moments like that have you experienced where things did not go as planned, but you discovered maybe that you already had what you needed or something that felt like a setback actually fed something important in your own business ecosystem?

This process of reflection provides valuable context for your Q4 planning, ensuring that your path forward is informed by the wisdom of your lived experience, not just external benchmarks or what you think you should be doing.

Step three, introspection through the satisfaction strategy framework. Now we're gonna dive a little deeper into your desires for the fourth quarter. And we're gonna do this through the lens of the satisfaction strategy framework. That powerful integration of impact, profit and pleasure that creates the foundation for sole aligned and sustainable business growth.

Let's start with impact. Ask yourself, how do I want to impact others in Q4? Consider your clients, your team, your community, your family perhaps, the broader world. What transformations do you want to create? What difference do you want to make? What incremental impact can you make that moves you towards your bigger impact goals?

Autumn energy naturally supports deepening existing relationships and refining your message rather than constantly reaching for new audiences. This is a beautiful time to focus on harvesting the transformation you've been creating all year. Maybe your impact goal involves deepening the results your current clients are getting, or maybe it's about distilling the lessons you've learned into something that can serve others.

Maybe it's about collecting the wisdom from the clients that you have worked with this year so that you could create case studies, and being prepared to use those going into the new year to find even better, more perfectly aligned clients for yourself.

Now let's explore pleasure. What do you want to feel as you're creating this impact? What would make the final months of this year feel aligned and energizing rather than draining and overwhelming? What would help you finish the year strong without burning yourself out? Where can your efforts be focused and consolidated wher you can get the most bang for your buck? Where you can get the biggest results with the smallest amount of effort, you can really leverage what you're building?

Autumn energy invites us to honor the natural pull towards conservation while still pursuing our goals. Maybe this means building in more rest between intensive work periods. Maybe it means finally saying no to the types of projects that are draining your energy. Maybe it means creating more spaciousness in your schedule to allow for the kind of deep work that actually lights you up. Think about what seasonal rhythms you can incorporate into your work. How can you work with your natural energy patterns rather than against them?

And finally, let's consider profit. What financial goals would support your impact and pleasure objectives? What level of revenue and profit would feel both like a stretch and also sustainable? Autumn is perfect for focusing on fewer offerings with deeper impact rather than trying to do everything and spreading yourself too thin. It's about quality over quantity.

Consider your cashflow needs for Q4 and what foundations you want to set for next year. But don't let external pressure override your internal knowing about what's sustainable for you. Take some time to write down your specific desires in each of these areas. The key is ensuring that they're connected with each other, that your profit goals support your impact goals, and that both are designed to create the experience that you want to be having in your business and in your life.

Step four, declaration and goal setting. With this solid foundation of intention, reflection, and introspection, you're now ready to declare specific goals for Q4. And here's where autumn wisdom really comes in. I suggest identifying just one to three primary goals for the season.

If you have more than that, make a list and set it aside. You can come back to it later, but right now, focus on what deserves your concentrated attention. This is about discernment, choosing what's truly worth your energy rather than trying to do everything all at once.

Now, you know I have to say this, even though it might be a little bit cliche and it's a little bit of corporate speak, but make your goals smart. Your goals need to be specific enough that you know what success looks like. They need to be measurable so you can track progress. They need to be achievable given your current reality and resources. They need to be relevant to the bigger picture of what you're creating and they need to be connected to a timeline.

But here's the autumn twist. Your goal should honor what you've learned about yourself this year. If you know you work better in sprints followed by rest periods, build that in. If you know you get overwhelmed when you have too many priorities, choose fewer things to focus on for each goal to find a couple of key results that will indicate you've met it. 

For example, if your impact-focused goal is to deepen the transformation you're creating with existing clients, implementing a new support structure, achieving specific satisfaction scores, or seeing particular outcomes in their results. The power of this approach is that it connects your measurable targets to the meaningful impact you're wanting to create, all while honoring your natural rhythms and what you've learned works for you.

Step five is strategy development. And as I've shared before, this is where so much goal setting goes completely awry. And it's the piece that so many business coaches miss entirely. There's a critical element between goal setting and accountability, and that is strategy. That’s the actual game plan for how you're gonna get from point A to point B.

And this is why I call myself a growth strategist and a satisfaction strategist rather than a business coach. I don't just help people set goals and cheer them on along the way. I help them figure out exactly how they're going to achieve them. What are the practical tactical steps? What are the constraints? What are the parameters? What are the tools and the resources that are going to help them to get there? For each of your Q4 goals, you need to work backwards from the end result to identify all the steps, all the milestones, all the resources you'll need along the way.

But we're going to do this with autumn wisdom. First, build in the seasonal rhythms. Don't plan like it's a perpetual summer. Account for the fact that your energy and your availability will naturally shift as we move through the holidays and towards winter. Plan for both sprint periods and rest periods in that window.

Second, consider your support structures. What help do you need? What can you delegate? What partnerships or collaborations would make this easier for you? Third, identify potential obstacles and have a plan for them. What typically derails you this time of year? How can you prepare for those challenges? And fourth, build in regular check-ins with yourself. How will you maintain discernment throughout the quarter? How will you know when something isn't working and needs to be adjusted?

Remember that your strategy should feel aligned with your natural way of working, not like you're forcing yourself into someone else's blueprint. And this is key. If you don't know what the practical, tangible steps are, then your first priority should be to figure that out. Your first step might be to research, followed by a second step of creating a plan. It's so easy to get frozen in the energy of “but I don't know how.” If you feel that sensation happening, that paralyzing fear of, “I don't know what to do first,” then just know that your first step is to do the research to figure that out. 

That could mean asking friends or peers who have more experience in a particular area. It could mean hiring knowledgeable support. It could mean using good old Google or your new BFF ChatGPT to help you figure out a plan to get you where you want to go.

The important thing is that you don't stay stuck in the world of “I don't know.” Nobody knows everything. Everyone has to research something before they begin.

The final step is ensuring that your plans are integrated with the natural energy of the season and your life as a whole. This is what makes the difference between planning that feels forced and planning that feels aligned. Ask yourself, how will I honor autumn energy while pursuing these goals? What support structures do I need to have in place? How will I maintain discernment throughout the quarter when the hustle culture messaging gets loud? Because it will get loud. There will be plenty of voices telling you to push harder, to do more, to make up for lost time, to double down, to hit your goals before the year is up. Your job is to stay connected to your own inner knowing and trust the process that you've created.

Before we wrap up, I want to share four key principles that will help you stay aligned with autumn energy throughout your Q4 execution. Principle one, depth over distance. Choose fewer focuses with deeper investment rather than trying to do everything. Take a quality over quantity approach. Remember that energy management is strategy, especially during this season. 

Principle number two, discernment over addition. What you choose to stop doing is as important as what you choose to start. Release what no longer serves you before adding new things onto your plate. Trust your inner knowing over external pressure about what you should be doing.

Principle three, wisdom over theory. Plan based on what you've actually learned about yourself and your business, not what you think you should do based on somebody else's blueprint. Use real data from your experience, honor your natural rhythms and patterns instead of fighting against them. 

Principle four, both/and over either/or. You can be ambitious and sustainable. You can finish the year strong and honor your need for rest and reflection. You can plan strategically and trust the flow of how things unfold for you. These principles will serve you well, not just in Q4, but in how you approach business growth in general.

As we wrap up, I want to bring us back to a beautiful moment in my conversation with Krissy in episode 55. Before we started recording, Krissy and I pulled a card from an Oracle deck. And at the end of the episode, we shared the insights from that card. Whether you see it coming or not, things will fall into place and what you've been working toward will come to fruition. That's the energy I want you to carry into your Q4 planning.

Yes, we're creating strategies and setting goals and making concrete plans, but underneath all of that, there's a trust in the process, a trust in the seasonal wisdom, and a recognition that you already have so much of what you need. Sometimes the calendula doesn't grow as expected, but there is a jar of abundance waiting in the cabinet. Sometimes the path forward isn't what we thought it would be, but it leads us exactly where we need to go.

Your action step for this week is to choose one area where you can apply autumn discernment. Maybe it's a project you've been forcing that needs to be released. Maybe it's a goal you've been avoiding because you think you should want something else. Maybe it's simply giving yourself permission to plan for rest as strategically as you plan for action.

If you'd like support with this kind of seasonal strategic planning, I'd love to invite you to check out The Prosper Network. As the Director of Strategic Visioning, I lead quarterly planning sessions that are included at no cost for our members. These sessions are designed to help you create plans that honor both your ambition and your natural rhythms. You can learn more at rachelanzalone.com/prosper.

Thank you so much for being here today and for taking this planning journey with me. 

Until next time, remember that sustainable growth happens in seasons and always remember that your pleasure is your power. Take care.