Ben Lynch: G'day, good people. Welcome to the Grow Your Clinic podcast by Clinic Mastery. Here's what's coming up inside of this episode. What we're sharing on screen here, Dan, is a look at the 2026 trading days.

Bec Clare: In my experience with working with Clinic Mastery is the three question reflection, which is what should we start doing? What should we stop doing? What should we keep doing?

Daniel Gibbs: If you think about positioning yourself, it's now into the new year. What are the things to focus on? We have our seven degrees, personal, purpose, team, systems, finances, brand and experiences.

Bec Clare: During Christmas, typically a lot of the clinics around us close. We elected to stay open. And we actually did a marketing campaign, which was like, need a physio and everyone else is closed? Hey, we're open.

Daniel Gibbs: I think it's great to start the year with an email inbox clean out. Ben, I know your way of doing this. Select all, archive.

Ben Lynch: This episode will be right up your Allie if you're looking to start your new year with momentum. We're diving into your start of year checklist. And trust me, you want to hear Daniel's insights on how to manage your finances when everyone's on leave. Plus stick around for when Beck opens up about how she structures her diary to get more family time in. Before we dive in, today's episode is brought to you by AllieClinics.com. If you're the kind of clinic owner who loves to feel organised and stay ahead of the chaos, you'll love Allie. Think of it as your digital clone. It's the single source of truth for all your clinics, policies, systems, and training. Test it for free at AllieClinics.com. And, in other news, applications are now open to work with us one-on-one at Clinic Mastery. If you want support to grow your clinic and bring your vision to life, just email helloatclinicmastery.com with a subject line, podcast, and we'll line up a time to chat. All right, let's get into the episode. It is episode 329. My name is Ben Lynch. Welcome back to The Pod. Again, I'm joined by my co-host, Bec Clare, director, owner of Physio West, team of 27? 33.

Bec Clare: We added a few more since the last podcast, Ben.

Ben Lynch: Wowie. Oh my goodness. I cannot keep up.

Daniel Gibbs: And a brand new location that looks amazing. Well done.

Ben Lynch: How has the move been? You've moved from like a really great location here in Adelaide to a even better location here in Adelaide as well in a notable supermarket area. How's it been?

Bec Clare: Oh, we love it. It has been. So we are at the start of week three and we've already just surpassed the targets that we'd set ourselves for the six month mark. And we are on and up and literally our Archies are walking themselves out the door. It's been incredible. The vibe amongst the team. and the community. It's been three years in the making and it was worth holding out for this spot and seeing the vision come to life has just been incredible. So we are thrilled. I'm sitting in one of our brand new rooms and it's just beautiful.

Daniel Gibbs: I was thrilled to join you at the opening, Beck, and what I noticed was the attention to detail from an architectural point of view, making the spaces feel intimate while in a shopping center environment. And yeah, congratulations to the design team to make that happen. But I'd be interested in some of the considerations that you did put in place for that.

Bec Clare: Absolutely. so many and so many learnings since we'd done this five years previously, moving out one of our other clinics into a shopping center. That could be a whole podcast episode in itself, the consideration. So I'd be keen to chat about that one. And we've also had some Clinic Mastery members actually pop in and visit us here at the clinic. We've loved seeing everyone come in and visit and get around us. and collaborate really and look at what we've been able to do. And it's been with the support of Clinic Mastery, the community, but also the coaches here have really helped us to get to where we are. So very, very grateful.

Ben Lynch: We will definitely unpack that. I think that's a terrific episode is moving to a new location. I'm also joined by my business partner, co-host today, Daniel Gibbs, bestie guestie stepping in for Jack O'Brien while he's on leave. Co-founder of Clinic Mastery, previous clinic owner of Posture Podiatry, Telstra Business Award winner and judge, done all the things. Dan, the other day I asked Jack and Hannah, when does the Christmas tree go up in your household? Now you're about to move, so I don't know if that disrupts things, but In Adelaide, it's quite a thing after the pageant. Yeah. Put your tree up. I didn't grow up here. So, what do you do as an Adelaidean?

Daniel Gibbs: Well, apparently the pageant in Adelaide, the Christmas pageant is the largest pageant of its kind in the world. There you go.

Ben Lynch: Get out.

Daniel Gibbs: And it happens in November, early November. And it's sort of for people in Adelaide, it's like, okay, the pageants happen. We can now think about Christmas.

Ben Lynch: Yes.

Daniel Gibbs: And so the Christmas lights on the house go up after the pageant. And so that's when we start seeing the twinklies.

Ben Lynch: You are a big lights guy. You've invested a bit recently in some lights. Did not know this.

Daniel Gibbs: Shall we just say that somehow our street has now come up as a pin on the map of Christmas lights of Adelaide.

Ben Lynch: What an honour.

Daniel Gibbs: Yeah, what an honour. But, but yeah, so the pageant, but then the Christmas tree is 1st of December.

Ben Lynch: Ah, yes.

Daniel Gibbs: So, so Christmas tree 1st of December, but the lights on the house after the pageant.

Ben Lynch: Okay, Beck, what about you? Christmas tree?

Bec Clare: With a toddler in the house, we're going to put it up as late as possible because I actually went and visited our friends at PhysioFit the other day and they have their Christmas tree up already in their clinic and it looks beautiful. It's on brand. It's stunning. Um, and Audrey decided to pull all of the baubles off of the tree and handed them back to Sammy like, I am so sorry. Um, so the tree will go up as late as possible, uh, in our household, but then we do already have a Christmas bluey gnome sitting out the front courtesy of her auntie. So we're, we're a little bit festive.

Ben Lynch: Nice. I feel we're right in that zone with a two and a four-year-old. The older ones, they're all good, but the two and four-year-old just want to pull the ball balls off and throw them, and it's game on.

Bec Clare: Last year, Ben, we actually got one of those felt trees that go on the wall. They can actually pull the decorations off. So our Christmas tree got decorated probably four or five times a day last year. So Audrey had a great time. Highly recommend.

Ben Lynch: Well, while we're talking about Christmas in the end of the year, it can be such a chaotic time for folks. I feel like you get to the first week of December and then it's just chaos. It's like the year's baked in. You might as well visit me mid-January because that's when I'm going to be able to do stuff. And on a previous episode, we spoke about what's on the checklist to finish the year strong with a sense of calm and control so that you can launch into the new year. But so often we want to look at when we do start the new year, what are some of the things to get us off to the best possible start? One of the things that I loved from you, Dan, and we're going to share screen here in a moment, was at the start of this year, 2025, you and I did a podcast about the April revenue squeeze. We forecasted and foreshadowed this so that clinics could make key decisions about leave and activation of their client base to make that the best possible month, knowing that there were a lot less trading days in other months. And those that listened in, that paid attention on the pod, got good outcomes. But for those that dragged their feet, they were like, you told me so. Anyway, let's tee it up, because what we're sharing on screen here, Dan, is a look at the 2026 trading days. You want to talk through it, especially for folks that are listening in, perhaps on the commute, they don't have the visual in front of them, as to what we're looking at and why this matters in starting your new year with momentum.

Daniel Gibbs: Yeah. So in 2025, the way Easter fell was in the same week as Anzac Day. And so there was a week there where probably most of Australia went on holiday to be able to get three days from a week-long holiday. So what that meant. And then the school holidays fell just before Easter as well. So it meant that effectively for some clinics, there were only seven effective trading days in April 2025. So if you're going back through your memory banks and thinking about what were our good months this year, and you see a dip in April, it could be because that was the case. And It speaks to that point around macro effects on revenue. So not everyone is going to have their best month every month followed up by their best month every month continuing on in a linear fashion. There are external factors that can affect the revenue that comes into the clinic. So we all know December and January can be tight because a lot of people are on holidays or Christmas and the breaks and everything that happens. But what I've done here is just sort of outlined the number of trading days for each month. So in the first column here, we've got trading days each month, and it's pretty consistent. This is Monday to Friday, minus any significant public holidays. And this one is based on Victoria, but it's pretty consistent across the states. About 20 trading days each month. There are some months where there's 21, 23 trading days in July, and 22 trading days in October. That's great to have the trading days there, but then we've got to consider school holidays. So school holidays can affect some clinics because they'll be a lot lighter on in school holidays, or perhaps they can start thinking about group classes or other school holiday things they could do in the school holidays. These are especially clinics that work with kids. But the school holiday, weekday school holiday days are in this second column here. And when we combine the two of those, the number of trading days in a month minus the weekday school holiday days, it gives us a number that is our effective trading days for the month. Now some clinics thrive in school holidays that's okay it may be less relevant for you but those who are affected by school holidays or something to keep in mind people going on holidays etc the effective trading days follows a bit of a pattern January there's only really four effective trading days February and March we're back to normal and we often see this as well you know once February hits people are getting back into the rhythm of the year and starting

Ben Lynch: Most people often say, like, my year's started, right, in Feb? You've often said to me, it's like the first, second week of Feb, people are off and away.

Daniel Gibbs: And then March was sort of really settling into a rhythm and then April hits and that's when the school holidays, Easter and everything else that goes with that hits in April. So there's only 11 effective trading days for April. So what is the point here is when you get new practitioners started, maybe don't get them started on the 1st of January because It's going to be a squeeze on the month anyway, unless you want to use that time for training or onboarding, and that period of time can be helpful while there's a few more gaps in the diary. And then thinking further into the year, two good months, February and March, followed by a squeeze on April. two good months May and June followed by a squeeze on July even though there are more trading days in July the school holidays and the winter travel often leaves the effective trading days quite low on 15. Then we have a good month in August followed by a squeeze on September then we're October and November usually a strong end to the year and then we hit December again. So just be aware of those macro indicators that are actually affecting the revenue potential in the clinic, and that will help you to be able to schedule and plan for when things are gonna be good and when things are gonna be somewhat tight.

Ben Lynch: It's a really great point of thinking ahead and preparing, making decisions now about April. That was part of the message at the start of this year, foreshadowing the April revenue squeeze. It seems like, Dan, correct me if I'm wrong, that maybe in the effective trading day number, it's more on the conservative side of things, maybe a more worst case scenario, would you say, in the numbers? And of course, this needs to be nuanced to every clinic, the location, and the profession that you're in. But just add some context to, yeah, is that like, best case, worst case? How do you look at that?

Daniel Gibbs: It's rather conservative. I mean, it's assuming that no one's going to come in at all during the school holidays. But just, I mean, if you're in a clinic that sort of runs on a particular rhythm, whether it's around seasons or whether it's around annual events or whether it's around things like school holidays. It's just important to put these into your calendar and to think about this when you're projecting your months. And if you think about when is a great time for your team to take holidays or when is a great time for you know, having availability for clients. I would suggest that if you project forward month on month for the next year, and you go, actually, these are the months that we expect to be big. So let's make sure we've got enough practitioners available during those months. Or if we expect that we're, say some clinics are doing some funded work or grant-based work, maybe you want to be launching those programs in the quieter months so you can actually look at ways to build up those months. Or take note of your marketing schedule. When are we going to be pushing marketing or special offers or things like that and make sure that we're timing things to help level out those squeezes over the course of the year?

Bec Clare: What I really loved about last year's podcast was that notion of planning through those events. Because what we can often find is that we get to one of those months where it's a little bit tighter and perhaps we're checking our appointments reports or we're checking our revenue reports and we're looking at this number that is not hitting the target that we want or we perceive to be there. But to plan through that, knowing that there is sunshine on the other side, and just being able to forecast that rhythm into our diary is really helpful. And coming to that in our forecasting spreadsheet, it's a Clinic Mastery resource that we call our Rolling Breakeven. a number of clinics will actually factor in the fact that we're probably only going to generate revenue at full capacity for perhaps 46 weeks of the year. Take into consideration some team leave, take into consideration some sick leave and some public holidays so that we've got a more conservative number so we can actually celebrate being above that.

Daniel Gibbs: I like what you said there, because it reminds me of the freak out that people often have, maybe at the end of January. And you think, oh, no, you know, there's not enough money to be able to cover payroll at the moment. It's going to be like this forever. But then February comes and it comes around and it's like, oh, OK, things are OK after all. Or the freak out that happens after a month like April. Oh no, I didn't expect this month to be as tight as it was. So if you think forward projections, when are you gonna pay your bills? When are you going to, if you look at the months ahead, if you're on a fortnightly cycle for payroll, which are the months where you have three payroll cycles in that month and be ready for it? And something practical that you can do is set aside an account that you can just add a little bit into each week and especially during those better months to make sure that you've got some money set aside for those months where there's a little bit of a squeeze. At least one pay run available to you so that you can actually cover that payroll when the time comes.

Bec Clare: And Dan, with this sort of mindset shift of knowing when these months are, it also helped us as a clinic look at the opportunities. Okay, so if this is a lighter or more lean month or during Christmas, typically a lot of the clinics around us close based on where public holidays are. We elected to stay open. A lot of our team elected to take holidays at other times of the year. And we actually did a marketing campaign, which was like, need a physio and everyone else is closed. Hey, we're open. So we used it as a huge opportunity to reach out and create new connections where others were on holidays.

Ben Lynch: It's a great point. I think that point, Dan, if we sort of double click on it, I know Beck, you've worked very hard at this as well in your own clinic and Dan for so long have set the standard in the structure of managing cash. Can we just go a little bit deeper on that point that you made around the accounts? I know at various times we've brought it up on the pod, but it's just such a great way to decrease stress and uncertainty around finances for clinic owners when they're looking at the money rather than looking for it. Do you want to just tee us up here a little bit more around what you mean when you say you've got the account set up for this?

Daniel Gibbs: Yeah. So your bank, your business bank will allow you to open up multiple accounts. A lot of people just have their main transaction account and that's it. Uh, you could open up a, say a savings account, which attracts often a little bit higher interest for the money that's sitting in there, but you may be penalised for the number of transactions in and out of that, that account, depending on how it works. But the point here is if you can set up multiple accounts and allocate funds to those accounts so that you're ready for anticipated invoices or expenses. It can make things a whole lot easier. So a good way to begin is you've got your main transaction account, add a tax reserve account. So every time you pay your payroll, then you put the tax component of the payroll, which usually comes maybe monthly or quarterly, the ATO comes knocking on the door waiting for that money, put the tax component of the payroll into that separate account when you do the pays. And that way you've always got the tax available to be able to pay the tax office when the time comes. Another account could be your leave owing to team members on your team. So annual leave, you can look at your accounting system to find out how much annual leave is owing and just make sure that there's an account that matches the amount of leave owing on the books.

Ben Lynch: And that way, so like you would go into, we so often talk about zero here on the pod as the accounting platform, you go in and you can see there's X amount of dollars of leave that is owed to the team. And then we want to have an account within our bank that has the same amount of money in it. Is that what you're saying, Dan?

Daniel Gibbs: That's right. And then in every fortnight or every month, you can check the leave balance owing. It's just a report and you select annual leave owing, and it'll give you a number. And, uh, and you just make sure that that account has, uh, the same amount of money in there. Now, when people use their leave, you can use that money to be able to pay the leave. It will go down. So as, as that goes down, so the account goes down, but then when people accrue leave, you'll be able to make sure the account matches that. So we've got your main transaction account, a tax reserve, a leave reserve, and then something that everyone should have, that sort of a holdings reserve, the rainy day fund, the thing that gives you access to some extra money when you need it. And we would say, Ben, that it's important to build that up to at least six months of clinic expenses. to have in that account. Now that sounds like a lot but recent memory would dictate that you know, some people needed access to six months of expenses when the world fell apart in 2020 with COVID. So those that had prepared accordingly found they were able to ride out that period of time quite well. Now, not everyone's going to be able to build that six months straight away, but start with, as I suggested, one payroll or one pay run ready to go in that bank account. so that if ever you get to a point where there's a squeeze on your income, at least your team can be paid.

Ben Lynch: And speak with your accountant about this as well, the best way to do it in your specific structure. But I think intentionally, you're now looking at the money rather than looking for it. You're not waiting on just the cash flow in January when everyone's on leave to cover all of those expenses. You've already built it in the months of November, December, as an example. And this can just play out throughout your year. It's a really great structure to set up. So I think Part of the conversation today is looking at how you launch into your new year with some momentum. And what I'm hearing from you already is shoot through the goal. So it's not about, OK, how do we get to the end of January? But we're already starting to look at April and May. Like so often the question we pose is, if you had the best start to the new year, what would success look like, your definition, at the end of March or the end of April? What are some things that we would see, you know, maybe come up in some objective data, it's appointment numbers or new clients or revenue, or maybe it's some outcomes like you've been able to recruit or onboard a new team member. Beck, as you lean into the new year, what are some of the things that you're considering as success measures for the start of the new year for you or that you're hearing from clinic owners that you work with as to what they deem a successful start of the new year as?

Bec Clare: What I'm hearing and what in fact is going through my mind right now, we've got into a new space and that's been a huge task and now it's, okay, what next? And for me, it's looking at Stephen Covey's principle of the big rocks. So, what I'm wanting to do to set my year up for success and what I'm seeing the very best do is time block and set up their structure ready for 2026 with their big rocks and their non-negotiables in there. So, this principle of the big rocks is that if you were to have a jar, In life, there are certain size or priorities, right? And if you were to fill your jar firstly with the incidentals that happen every day, perhaps the pebbles and the sand, when you go to put those big rocks or those huge, the big tasks, the priorities into that jar, they're not going to fit. You're going to be trying to cram them in and without any space. Whereas if we place those big rocks in first, the pebbles and the sand and perhaps some water will flow in and around those other things. So, it's about setting up our priorities and our intentions and that's what I think leads to a successful year. If I was to look at December, November 2026, what did I achieve? I'd be wanting to see those big rocks or those big priorities in there completed and implemented. But that comes from being intentional with my diary. So whether it be colour coding and time blocking your diary, I'm now using emojis as well as colour coding in my diary so that it really highlights and makes my diary fun to look at and makes me really motivated, ensuring that they're in there, that they have a place.

Ben Lynch: I often find naturally over the course of the Christmas New Year period, I do some version of reflection on the year that's been and a version of what is this year coming going to bring, what I want it to bring. There's an element of starting to allow yourself to get out of the day to day and think about, OK, these are the things frustrating me or I'm challenged by. And I want that to change in in the new year, whether you set them those new year goals or just intentions. Dan, we've covered a number of like questions or reflection exercises that you can do. But what do you advise clinic owners if they are carving out space? for reflection and projection into the new year. What do you advise them to think about or questions to ask themselves?

Daniel Gibbs: Yeah, so two things. Firstly, I would say, ask yourself, what does your version of success look like when it comes to a great start to the year? And that's where planning through the goal can be helpful. Planning through the goal comes from the martial arts, sort of philosophy that if you're going to break a board you need to focus on a point beyond the board and that way you'll be able to have the momentum to be able to push through the board and break the board. So we're focusing on a point after December, January, maybe April, and think about what does your version of successful start to the year look like. Secondly, you would look at what worked last year and what didn't work last year. What would you like to do better? And if you think about reflection on the work that you did last year when it came to rolling into the new year, what worked for you back then and what didn't work, what would you do differently? So there can be some powerful reflection points as you approach the new year.

Bec Clare: And something that I really enjoyed in my experience with working with Clinic Mastery is the three question reflection, which is what should we start doing? What should we stop doing? What should we keep doing? Really simple and a really great way to distill what can be a chaotic end of the year to understand what needs to go in the diary or what needs to be our intention for the new year?

Daniel Gibbs: Yeah, well, this one at the moment is a really good time to think about what our ideal week looks like. How much time do we want to be dedicated to working on the business versus in the business? And if you think about your clinical hours or you think about the team hours or the time you spend in meetings, which meetings can be deleted, which meetings need to be added, which meetings can be trimmed. Perhaps they're an hour long and they can be half an hour long. And you can make those decisions now without too much effect on other people in the new year. So think about your ideal week. the amount of time you would like your diary to be open for clients, your meeting structure and your schedule, your annual leave as well. Book two holidays ahead to make sure that while you're on one holiday you're not trying to get everything out of it and miss the fun that could be available to you and have that second holiday booked in as well. your family time, you know, the key moments at the school, the things that you want to make sure are in the diary that you want to prioritise, make sure they're reflected in the diary. So if anyone came to you and said, what are your priorities? You better show them your diary and your diary would reflect those priorities.

Ben Lynch: It's great evidence, isn't it, of what you're really prioritising? There's a guy called Jesse Itzler, who's a very charismatic, great speaker, entrepreneur. His partner is Sarah Blakely, who created Spanx. He is also an entrepreneur as well, and he has the big ass calendar. And on this calendar, Beck, you literally put the big rocks. I think it's inspired by the Stephen Covey principle there. And go and follow some of his work for those listening and watching in, because he really does put an emphasis on creating the most amount of joy and meaning in your life, whatever that is, and prioritising it. Ultimately, we're in business because we love what we do. We love helping people. But also, you've got to have a life outside of that as well in whatever that looks like and whatever is meaningful to you. So prioritise it in your calendar. That's super key. I've found it really useful as well, Dan, you touched on a point around your week. You might not be able to make the changes come January 1, but we might be looking at the 1st of July. We've got six months to work towards some changes in your appointment diary if you're still consulting. You might be cutting out a day or consolidating two half days into one full day. That's something to look forward to. I think so much of the new year, I feel, is having something to look forward to. in achieving, in realising, in bringing to life. So the diary is a great one. The second one to your point around like the accounts, you might not have the abundance of funds right now to put the surplus there, but put the accounts there. Every time you open up your bank account, see, all right, okay, I'm working towards adding to those accounts. The other thing is doing an audit of your role. You touched on it, both of you. It's a version of like, what are the things that I'm doing in my week that form part of my position description, officially or unofficially, especially as a business owner? I enjoy doing, I find flow doing, I would like to do more of in the new year. And what are the things that, oh God, I wish I could just palm these off. I wish I could automate them, delegate them and move them on. Even if you can't move them on just yet, have a clear list and then we can work towards making those transitions over a couple of months and you'll make massive gains in just a few short months. So I love the role audit. and the diary audit as well and the financial audit. They're kind of the three big stresses that people have is finances and money and kind of the stress of doing everything in business. So kind of go to the heart of it there. I don't know if you would add anything to that, Dan, or nuance. You've seen some of the best in business make these transformations. What else would you add to that?

Daniel Gibbs: Well, I mean, if you have ever thought to yourself or been frustrated that you just don't have any time, then this is the opportunity to create time next year and to respect the diary. I think I see too many people put things in the diary that don't actually reflect where they need to be or what they need to do at that time. You know, you might see lots of reminders go in the diary or, or, or things like that, but yeah, it gets clogged.

Ben Lynch: Right. I think it's a,

Daniel Gibbs: I think it's David Allen getting things done. He talks about the principle that you've got to be able to trust your calendar. Whatever is in your diary, whatever is in your calendar is something you either need to be present at or you need to do at that time. And so whatever is in the diary is something that requires your attention. If it's not in the diary, it just belongs on a task list. So don't put it in the diary and clog it up with things that don't necessarily require your attention at that time. Now, I know you might have things that you need to do and you've got to do it Monday morning at some point, and there may be some things that move around in order for you to be able to do that. That's fine. But again, it comes as a task for that day, not something that's actually booked in the diary. So that can help give you a lot of confidence on your diary. And if you think about that original complaint, Oh, I've never got any time. I don't have time. Well, this is a really good moment to look at your desire statements and think, well, what do I want life to look like? And make sure that the diary reflects those desires.

Bec Clare: I think, Dan, to your point about desire statements, it can also be a point of frustration. So when we do our desire statement again, and we realise perhaps we haven't made the progress that we want, or our life that we do want feels really a long way away. We live in such an instantaneous world now, like we want something we can buy it on Amazon, it's here the next day, or this afternoon, or we want food, Uber Eats, it's right here right now. And I think what we we sometimes fail to recognise is that things take time. And the way that I've personally looked at that is to see my desire statement as a runway, or to see setting up these bank accounts as a runway, giving myself the opportunity to have a path in front of me where I can, in fact, get lift off and feel that lift. So it's really about the mindset shift around, how do we go from being an instantaneous culture to there's going to be progress versus perfection. I'm perhaps not going to have it right now, but I know that I'm on the right path. I've got the right people around me to support me on that journey. And so, whether it be, you know, setting up your bank account, you might not be able to put anything in there, but Ben, to your point, set it up, call it. I mean, we started as Barefoot Investors, right? We've all read the book. Label it mojo and every time you put a dollar in there, it's adding to just you standing a little bit taller and having a little bit more mojo. Create a runway for yourself.

Ben Lynch: Yeah, it's like the feeling of progress is, I think, reassuring. It helps you keep at it, right? It's a very great point that you make, Bec, around You know, it might seem so far away, so lofty. So what can we do like this week or this month to make progress and show that, yeah, we're moving in the right direction because it can take a while and there's a few things that are outside of our control, right? It's an interesting point. I often think about heading into the new year and starting the new year with simplification and like minimisation. I often find that as the year goes, so does the to-do list. It gets bigger, there's more ideas, there's more scope for things. You read a book, listen to a podcast, you're like, yes, I'm going to do these things. And then you realise, oh, I haven't really got around to a whole bunch of it. In a similar way, Beck, like, oh, I thought I'd get to these by now, but I haven't. So I often find heading into the new year, I'll kind of anchor back to, you know, cutting a lot of stuff, Dan, to your point of like what meetings can go. And we've done this plenty of times where it's like, what if we just got rid of this meeting and saw what happened like in a month or three months and go, huh. No one's really requesting that meeting, nothing detrimental, certainly not obvious changes to the negative are observable here, right? So I like that just being able to go, let's cut back, let's simplify the focus and just try and do like one thing really well. Easier said than done often, right, because you kind of feel like a lot of things matter. So I think that's really important is how can you find flow in your week as soon as possible in the early part of the new year? Because I think if you've got time right, you can get to the to-do list. Hopefully you're choosing the right things on the to-do list that then lead to the results and outcomes, especially the financial ones that decrease the stress and you get this nice sort of feedback loop. So it's like if you can control a lot of your time and therefore your focus in the week, I think there's a lot of early gains to be made. Dan, you're nodding.

Daniel Gibbs: Yes. I guess what we could do, if you think about positioning yourself, it's now into the new year. What are the things to focus on and in what categories? So we have our seven degrees, personal, purpose, team, systems, finances, brand and experiences. And there are a few things that you could focus on in each of those when it comes to launching into the new year. And I'll go through some of those. Let's do it. So on a personal front, I think it's great to start the year with an email inbox, clean out Ben. I know your way of doing this select all archive. And if it's important. They'll get back to you or you'll get another email.

Ben Lynch: Just for the listeners as well, because we do often say, hey, send us an email. Sometimes I do this, but a lot of the time I don't. So, please send your emails through and send them multiple times as well.

Bec Clare: Dan, I have written down, clean your inbox, inbox zero. Yeah. Clean the calendar.

Ben Lynch: The amount of times that I'll do a consulting session with a clinic owner will screen share on their end and they've got about five different windows, 12 tabs in each window and one of them is their inbox and it says 12,000 unread messages in their primary inbox. I get a little bit of anxiety on behalf of them. But maybe people function like that. I don't know. I like clean and minimal. So I love your point, Dan. Clean the inbox.

Daniel Gibbs: Clean the inbox out. In terms of purpose, this is a great time to refresh your three-year painted picture vision for the business and also refine your desire statement. And from a team front, this is a great time to look at refreshing your career pathways that you have available for your team, your new year recruitment strategy as well, and just preparing some of those, you know, policies, procedure changes, the things that you want to be different for the new year.

Ben Lynch: Jump on A11y and you get 122 done for you straight away installed into your system. So don't bother about doing that last point. Just join A11y.

Daniel Gibbs: Just join Allie, it'll be done for you. Which then leads into the next degree, which is systems. And so just reviewing some of those evergreen campaigns that are out there, the way you acknowledge your referrers and the engagement and reactivation or nurturing of your clients as well. And the other thing to do here is just review the. key processes that you want your clinic to do well every single time. We call these jump shots, you know, and for our clinic, it was when we welcome someone for their first visit, we wanted that experience to be done the right way, a similar way every single time. Another one was the handover for the client to reception after their appointment. a process that we just wanted to get right every single time. And so just review those five or six processes that are in your clinic that you want to make sure are right every single time and refine those, have them ready for the new year. Then we move into finances. So I think a great thing there is just to make sure you've got those accounts actually set up, ready to go and yeah, just review that you are allocating appropriate funds to it.

Ben Lynch: Can I jump in on the finance one as well? We did a couple of episodes back on budgeting, especially in Xero. If you're a little more advanced in your financial journey, then Do you have a budget that you use in Xero and report on monthly of your actual performance against your budgeted performance to see how you can improve on either budgeting or performance in what we call a monthly business review. If you want help with something like that to level up as a director, as a scaling clinic, please do send me an email, ben at clintmarshall.com and I'll help you out.

Daniel Gibbs: You will read it.

Ben Lynch: I will read it. Yes. Just say Ben, read this, put that in the subject line and I'll read it. People do email through it. It is fun and fantastic to get those come through from the podcast. Anyway, you're going to go to Brand, Dan.

Daniel Gibbs: Brand being the second last of the degrees here. I think it's just important for everyone to update their Google business profile. And I think if you can just make sure you've got all of your hours up there, you've got your links that are, that are up to date. You've got those photos on your Google business profile that you're present on Google. That is a key thing to do at the beginning of each year. And finally around client experiences, I think you maybe like to start thinking about what can be added to your welcome packs that you give new clients or look at reviewing or refining some of those key processes like the new client welcome process. Simple things that you can do to refine the experience that you'd like your clients to have in the new year.

Ben Lynch: There's so many great things you can do to transform client experiences, transform your team members' experience, and also grow a more sustainable, more profitable clinic. I know clinic owners that listen in and do give us feedback on the podcast like, oh, I'm so inspired. There's always great practical ideas. that I've implemented or I can't wait to implement. If you ever feel like you're a little bit overwhelmed with it all, that's a normal experience to have. There's just an abundance of different ways. We're constantly learning from clinics in the community of different ways to do things that are meaningful for the people that they work with and also create a sustainable business. Yeah, I think so much of approaching the new year is about being able to do more of those things sustainably rather than feel overwhelmed by the whole experience. So Beck, as we look to wrap this episode here, maybe give us a couple of insights into what are you going to do over the Christmas New Year break and how are you practically planning to start the new year? And I'd love to follow up in the new year and see how you've gone with it. But how are you thinking about that period of sort of four to six weeks over December and early January?

Bec Clare: Firstly, taking a short break. So we head overseas next week to have some rest and renewal time and planning those after perhaps some big items that you've completed. So we've moved the clinic and it's felt like we're still really running. We're still in that launch phase where we're super energised and excited. We just need to bring ourselves back down to a level playing field to relaunch into what we want to do next. So having some carved out rest and renewal time. Christmas Day, we're going to the zoo and we are so excited for that. So really just being purposeful with our time. My goals personally are to clean my calendar, clean my inbox and unsubscribe to everything that I have subscribed to over the course of the 12 months, and to clean my workstation. I really want to come back to just a really beautiful environment, both physically and electronically, so that I've got a really clear headspace. Our goal as a leadership group, or the two of us as directors between Grant and I, is that we've brought on an operations manager and a growth and development manager with the perspective of trying to make ourselves as redundant as possible. Not in the actual case, but to try and move to that so we can be really present with our team. As we mentioned, it's gone from 27 to 33, and it continues to grow. So we really just wanted to ensure that those team members have the best start to their roles. and really emphasising how much we can provide for them in terms of support for them to succeed. So we're really excited to launch into 2026 with that philosophy in mind.

Ben Lynch: Very nice. Dan, you like to take a good rest over January. What is important to you as you sort of start your year with that in your calendar, a good break?

Daniel Gibbs: Yeah, so right now I'm putting in school holidays, school weeks in the year, labeling the days or the weeks in my calendar for next year, so they're ready to go and we're putting in those moments where I'll be away or we've got events on or whatever's happening in the year, those big rocks, making sure they're in the diary, so that's important. In the past, what we've done is we've had a week when school finishes, the beginning of December, then we go back home for the Christmas festivities, and then Christmas evening we pack up and head down to our holiday house and spend a bit of time there over January. So that two-pronged sort of, you know, have a break to to de-stress and then do the Christmas stuff and then go away again has worked well for us in the past as well. And while I'm away, I love to always do a journal, which is a, it often takes a number of days. It's just a little bit that happens when the sun rises each morning. What's been good about the year that's gone? Some reflections and learnings of the year. And then what do I intend life to look like 12 months from now. So what would I like to be writing about next year? And so that can just be a great way that I find personally helps to round out the year and then launch into the new year.

Ben Lynch: Yeah, you are one of the more prolific journalists that I know. Certainly certainly taken some inspiration at times about journaling. I like to type rather than handwrite. I know you've got like notebooks on notebooks on notebooks, right? Yeah. As you share on screen, notepad within reach. It's such a great way to get things out of your head and create clarity through writing. Certainly something I've come to later on in the party over the last 18 months to two years is is that process of writing. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to the festivities. It's one of my favourite times of the year, especially with four kids, like, and they're all under 10. They just love the idea of Christmas. And so family, food and fun festivities take a good break over that sort of two to three week period. And we'll have some shutdown. But I will definitely go down the writing side of things. I love being able to pull my thoughts together in a couple of documents and reflect on the year and prepare for the new year as well. There's some great things happening here at CM. I'm so excited. We continue You know, this is our 10th year. We're about to be 10 years old. In fact, by the time this pod comes out, it'll be almost bang on sort of the date.

Daniel Gibbs: Happy birthday to you.

Ben Lynch: Yes, I know. We'll have to do a special episode on that, Dan. The 10 years, I still feel like we're almost in year one in the sense of there's a great level of How do we continue to level up? How do we change what we do? How do we bring new ideas in? And I still feel just so enthused by working amongst a great team like we have at CM. So I'm looking forward to consolidating thoughts on what's 2026 going to look like. Bigger and brighter, as Shane Davis would say. Well, thank you, Dan. Thank you, Beck. I look forward to catching you on a few more episodes before we put a wrap on 2025. For those folks listening in or watching, head over to clinicmastery.com forward slash podcast for the show notes, the links, all the things that we discussed here and previous episodes as well. And if you get a moment and you haven't already shared a review of the pod on Apple or Spotify, please do. We would really love to hear your feedback. All right, we'll see you on another episode very soon. Bye bye. Thank you guys.