216. My 2026 Business Planning Secret Strategy

Here's the SECRET process to build quick momentum for your holistic nutrition or health coaching business in 2026 before you jump straight into planning mode.

Do not start planning for next year until you listen to this episode.

In this episode you get:
 • The missing piece most entrepreneurs skip when planning their next year
 • How to create a "Results List" that builds confidence for you and your clients
 • Why celebrating client wins systematically sets you up for sustainable business growth

NEXT STEP:

👉 Join The Profitable Nutritionist Program Now: https://theprofitablenutritionist.com/join
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Hi, I’m Andrea Nordling – Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, business coach, entrepreneur, and host of The Profitable Nutritionist Podcast.

Since age 22, I’ve built 3 highly successful businesses from scratch, including my own online holistic nutrition practice. After deleting all of my social media accounts in early 2021, my business grew faster than ever — and now I teach other health professionals how to do the same.

On this pod, you’ll learn how to:

✅ Build a thriving online practice without relying on social media
✅ Consistently attract and convert clients
✅ Create simple systems that scale without overwhelm

💡 Subscribe or Follow so you never miss a new episode packed with practical strategies that actually work.

© 2021 - 2026 Andrea Nordling

DISCLAIMER: The podcasts available on this website have been produced for informational, educational and entertainment purposes only and do not make any representations as to the future income, sales, or potential profitability or loss of any kind that may be derived as a result of use of the content, including paid programs and all free resources. Listeners should take care to avoid program content which may not be suited to them. The contents of this podcast do not constitute medical or professional advice, No person listening to and/or viewing any podcast from this website should act or refrain from acting on the basis of the ...

Transcript

 00:00
Andrea Nordling
Welcome back to The Profitable Nutritionist podcast, my friend. We are talking about the awe that you should be in for 2025. What the heck do I mean by that? Well, here's what I mean. I want you to get your head into a space where you are absolutely awed by what you have created and what you have accomplished in the last year. And this is the missing piece, in my opinion, or from most planning and most year end and beginning of the year forecasting that we do as business owners. So if you are not in the habit of doing this yet, let's talk a little bit about what that looks like. If you are, maybe you already have started getting your plans in place for 2026, but like I said, if not, then we need to be doing this. 

 00:46
Andrea Nordling
So this is a key component of it. When you are looking towards next year and what the plans are for your business, you probably get excited, as I do, as most of us do, about jumping straight to the strategy and mapping it all out. And what are we doing in January and what are we doing in February and what are we doing in March and does it align with your schedule and with when your clients are most likely to need to start and seasons? And there's so many considerations that we have in business. And so we jump into the calendar and the planning and figuring out quarter one, quarter two, what are we doing quarter three, quarter four, what are the goals? Is it too stretchy of a goal? Is it, Is it a quote unquote realistic goal? Is it unrealistic? 

 01:27
Andrea Nordling
Is it, you know, all these games that we play in our minds and we try to get the right number and the Goldilocks exact goals for the year and the plan that's going to make it all come together. And sometimes that's really inspiring and sometimes that's really overwhelming. So what I'm going to teach you today and what I'm going to highly suggest that you do is to start by bringing your mind and your brain into a place of utmost gratitude and appreciation for what you already have accomplished. And then from that place, deciding what you want to do in the next year. 

 02:03
Andrea Nordling
And like I said, I think this is really the missing piece of a lot of planning processes, a lot of systems forecasting for the next year, because if we are go, go, go all the time, gotta get it done, gotta do the next thing. And I know that most people listening to this podcast will identify as being that type of a person. Typically, that's what an entrepreneur does, is grinds and does and hustles and wants more and wants the next level and wants to add a little bit more crammed into the nooks and crannies of the days and the weeks and the months and get to the next thing and the next thing. If we do that as we do, we often don't reflect on what has been working, we often don't reflect on how far we have already come. 

 02:45
Andrea Nordling
And we get into this constant rat race of I'm behind, I should be further ahead, I've got to get the next thing done. And it's just not good for our nervous system. It's usually not good for the profitability and revenue in our business and it's usually not great for our clients results. So I take this coaching for myself and for your results as much as I hope that you do for yourself and for your clients. Because this is what our brains do. We want to be hustley, we want to be so hyper focused on the next thing and doing the next shiny object, the next strategy, the next tactic, the next that we can go off track quickly. And I have done this in my business. 

 03:25
Andrea Nordling
I've seen a lot of people do it as well, which is why I want to end the year 2025 and start the year 2026 with a different way. And that's what we're talking about here with a very simple exercise for creating your Results List of 2025, your results created list for you and for your clients. Now, don't think for one second that this doesn't apply to you if you haven't worked with any clients in 2025. I'm going to talk a lot as we go through this short exercise about how it applies to your clients. But if you don't have any clients yet, you still have a lot that you have created this year. If you're even listening to this podcast, I know that is the case. 

 04:03
Andrea Nordling
So for all of us, we are going to take some reflection time and we are going to do it together because if we put this off, we won't do it because it, although this is very easy to do, this exercise I'm going to bring you through, it is very easy not to do and it is very easy to just cruise into January and February and March and basically the entire next year without stopping to look at what is getting results in your business and what is going really well and how far have you come and how incredible is it that we get to do the work that we get to do because it is never lost on me. And I hope it isn't on you either, that we have the best jobs. I mean, it's absolutely incredible. 

 04:44
Andrea Nordling
We get to help people transform their lives and be paid to do it. Isn't that just absolutely incredible? Incredible is just the word that keeps coming to mind. So I'll use it probably 50 times in this episode. You're welcome. Good thing this isn't a drinking game. I would never, ever say that it should be, but I mean, it could be an effective one with how much I'm going to use the word incredible. So let's jump in. We're going to make this list of all of the results that you've created in your business over the last 12 months. And when we do this, your brain will probably tell you that you have way too many other things to do right now. And we can come back to this later and there's much better use of your time. 

 05:24
Andrea Nordling
Or it might say, there isn't that much to put on the list. We actually didn't get that much done. And for both of those, it is wrong. It is absolutely wrong. We're going to do it right now, and I'm going to highly suggest that you actually do this with a pen and paper. Now, if you are driving, if you're out for a walk, or if you are at the gym or wherever, and you can't do that, do it mentally. But please, please come back to this with a piece of pa. Make an actual list. Actually, digital would be fine as well. But make this list and actually look at it, because I'm going to highly suggest that you revisit this list often, especially in January and February as you are starting to execute your 2026 plan. 

 05:59
Andrea Nordling
So you do want to have this in writing or you'll forget and then it will all be for not. So make sure you come back to it. If you are not taking a list right now or taking lists, taking notes and making a list right now. But if you have that capability, then get out to your little pen and paper and let's do this, okay? Because the lie that is, oh, there isn't much to put on this list. I haven't done that much the last year didn't go the way I thought it was going to. The. I thought it was going to get way more done. It was a flop. It wasn't that successful. Life got in the way. This and this thing came up. All of those things that your brain will offer are lies. Okay? It's just. 

 06:39
Andrea Nordling
This is just what our Brains do. Okay? It tells us everything is overwhelming, that we need to go faster, that we don't have time to slow down and evaluate. Our brains love to tell us that there are circumstances outside our control, that we're behind all of the things. And these same patterns and thought patterns are happening for your clients as well. So we have to be aware of it, we have to challenge it for ourselves. And then it is your job to lovingly challenge these same thoughts with your clients on their behalf. Okay? So I hope that you are going to also do a results created list with your clients at the end of this year, beginning of 2026, whenever this episode finds you. I hope that you also incorporate this into your client work. 

 07:21
Andrea Nordling
And if you don't have any clients right now, you soon will because you are going to be tackling a strategy for 2026 to make sure that happens. And shameless plug, if you don't have that strategy yet, that is exactly what we help you create in the profitable nutritionist program. So go to theprofitablenutritionist.com join to get in the program and to start because that's exactly what we do in there. But if you do have that strategy in place and you are going to be bringing in more clients in the next year, this has to be part of the process, okay? This has to be a just baked right in to your client delivery where you show them how far they have come and you do this together because our brains don't want to do this. 

 07:57
Andrea Nordling
And when we do, we can see, oh my goodness what is working here. I can so clearly see it when I take the time to evaluate. So a little evaluation today on 2025, let's do this. We're going to make a list, right? The step by step. Here's what we do. Get out that pen and paper or digital format, whatever it is for you and we are going to make a list of all of the results that you've created in your business over the last 12 months in 2025. Do not be feeling limited here. If your brain is like, oh, I, I didn't make that much money or I already know how much money I made and I read it, wrote it down and that's the only thing. No, no, no, no. These are not just monetary results, my friend. We are thinking broad here. 

 08:38
Andrea Nordling
Okay, you can start with monetary. But we are going to go big here. We are going to figure out every little crevasse of results is hiding and we're going to go down in between the Rocks and we're going to find them. So of course, total revenue that you collected in your business, that is a result. The amount of clients that you've worked with, that is a result. Assets that you've made for your business, maybe you created a website, maybe you updated your website, maybe you finally registered your business entity legally. Maybe you got all of your business finances in a row finally. Maybe you started a regular bookkeeping practice monthly. So you're getting really organized with the finances. Maybe you outsource that bookkeeping. Even better, maybe you started regularly marketing and promoting your business via email. 

 09:28
Andrea Nordling
This is a big result that a lot of my clients celebrate is sending regular emails or just sending the first email. Maybe it's just sending out that first announcement to your friends and family and sphere of influence and letting them know that you have a business that's a huge result created. If you're brand new in your business right now, that's a big one. Let's celebrate it. If you are further along and you are doing some big digital stuff like creating a podcast or creating a free training or creating a paid training or a workshop, or hosting a webinar or any of the above, any of these things. And by the way, I don't recommend starting with any of those if you are at the beginning of your business. 

 10:07
Andrea Nordling
But I know there's plenty of people listening here that did a lot of those big things and are more advanced in their business strategy. And if that is you, those are to be celebrated. All of these things need to be written down. They need to be documented. We need to roll around and marinate in the satisfaction of doing those things. All of them. The big, the small, the digital, the in person, the having the conversations that you wanted to maybe put off and not have to, initiating the conversations to getting referrals, to taking on a client that maybe or two or three or five that maybe you felt like were a little bit outside of your comfort zone of how you're going to help them and you figured that out. 

 10:48
Andrea Nordling
Setting up your client process, upgrading your client processes, maybe upgrading some of the systems in your business, your calendar, your time management, having a new schedule maybe and more processes for making it easier for you to work in your business. Especially for those who have come from a background of having an employer or a job, corporate job, where people were telling you what to do and when to do it. It's very different to have your own business and to make your own hours and to make your own schedule and to try to Figure out how to do that efficiently without burning yourself out, but with all wasting time as well. So these are, this is balance. Let's celebrate it. What did you do in that regard in 2025? 

 11:33
Andrea Nordling
And at any point, by the way, if your brain shuts down and says, okay, that's it, those are the results that we created in 2025, you just lovingly laugh at that brain of yours and you say, no, no, there's more. What else, what else? And keep asking, what else? Usually about the fifth or sixth time that I force my brain to tell me what else, I start getting into the good stuff and I start uncovering the things that maybe I forgot about or maybe I'm resistant to thinking about because it is a result that I created, but it didn't go perfectly, maybe that it's laced with something that I feel like is a failure and I don't really want touch that with a ten foot pole. But then if I, you know, if I ask what else, what else, I finally get there. 

 12:13
Andrea Nordling
And that is also golden. So celebrate the things that don't seem like they're worth celebrating because you did them, you lived through them, you learned from them. All of the results created, we want to write this down. If you created new relationships, professional relationships, where you are networking with other practitioners, maybe to get leads, to get client referrals, to get a platform for talking about your business, let's celebrate that. Okay, that's a huge result created. If you printed off flyers and hung them up and you did it, that's a huge result created. If you got clients from those flyers, which a lot of people do, by the way. I love using this example because I think in this digital age that we are in where it is. So I don't want to say easy where it is. So it is kind of easy. 

 13:00
Andrea Nordling
It's easy to think that the only way to reach people is online. We forget that we are real people moving about the actual earth, that things like hanging up flyers actually are effective. These old school, old people always tell me, like, the old school things, they still work. And like, we're kind of amazed by that. So I like to give examples here on the podcast of things that are the old school things that are working because they do still work. And so if you engaged in any old school marketing activities, by the way, congratulations, those do work. That's a result created. Write it down and remind your brain. What we are doing here is we're reminding your brain that things worked, you did things you made progress. You tested things. 

 13:42
Andrea Nordling
Some of them didn't get the results that you wanted, but the result is you did them. Okay, that's a huge result. You moved forward imperfectly and you took that action. That is a result in and of itself. But as we do this, we are proving to this brain of yours that you are in motion, that you are making progress, that your clients are making progress. We're going to get to that in a second, but we're going to write down the results that your clients got. That is a really fun results created this. But first, let's finish up with your business. You're doing the things. Okay, maybe you created content in emails in social media. Some of you listening to this are active on social media. Maybe you're really proud of content that you created there or consistently showing up there. 

 14:21
Andrea Nordling
If that was a goal for you. Maybe you are celebrating a presentation or a workshop that you created that you presented. Maybe you presented the same one more than once. If you're a student in tpn, I highly recommend that you teach the same workshop over and over again. You get better at marketing it and filling it and delivering it and selling from it. So if that was you, if you took that coaching and you did a workshop or presentation over and over again and kept very against the resistance of your brain where it wanted to, like, oh, go do something else, but instead you kept persevering and doing the same thing over and over again. That, my friend, is a result created. Ask me how I know this. 

 15:01
Andrea Nordling
I'm raising my hand over here, like, oh, I know how much it takes to just keep doing the same thing. Okay, I didn't get the result I wanted that time. I'm going to try it again. I'm going to tweak it a little bit and try it again. And try it again. Ooh, we got to celebrate that result created. What about a group program? I know a lot of people listening to this podcast probably launched a group in 2025. How did that go? You did it. It's a result created. Did you get the amount of enrollments you wanted? Who knows? 

 15:29
Andrea Nordling
Maybe that is a result that you're proud of that goes on this list, but maybe it's just actually doing it and getting it out there and selling it and going through the first time, the second time, the third time consistently showing up big result created anywhere where you are consistent and you overcame the resistance that your brain has to go do something new and different, which all of ours do. That's a result created. Put it on the list, for goodness sake. If you finished any certification programs or you got some new skills or you invested in your business or in learning in any way, let's celebrate that. That's a result that you created. So ask what else a few more times. Okay. Did you hire an accountant? Did you figure out your taxes? 

 16:14
Andrea Nordling
Did you set money aside for taxes and plan ahead for taxes? Did you set up your email list? Did you set up a website for the first time? Did you set up a client management software like Practice better and get some automations there? Did you upgrade your client process, make it more convenient for them? Did you make it simpler for them? Did you slow down and evaluate what was working really well for your clients so that you could simplify and quit doing the things that were overwhelming them? These are all things that we want to take note of in this list. This will be a long list. It's supposed to be a long list. And probably your brain will be like, okay, we're good. Let's get on to the planning part. Let's move on, let's move on. But resist that temptation. Okay? 

 16:54
Andrea Nordling
There's a method to the madness. We want to make a list of these results that were created so that you can see visually how much can change in a year, how much can upgrade and up level in a year, how much you've changed in a year. I bet that a year ago, I'm certainly hopeful that a year ago, the way that you thought about your business and the way you approached your business and the way you operated within your business, maybe the fact that you didn't even have a business a year ago, it was very different. But we get so in the day to day and in the week to week that we forget to reflect on how far we've come and to really celebrate that and give ourselves the credit where credit is due. 

 17:32
Andrea Nordling
So this is the time, my friend, this is the time. Now let's talk about the results that your clients created. Okay? If you worked with clients in 2025, we're going to write down their results too, okay? We are going to think about did they lose pounds? Did they discontinue medication? Did they gain hours of sleep? Did they have babies that they couldn't have before? Like what happened in your particular work with your clients? What are the results that were created in 2025? This is a really fun list, my friend. This is why you are in business, this is why you got into this in the first place, is because of the work that we get to do and how impactful it is. So let's never forget to celebrate the results that those clients get when they invest in themselves by investing with you. 

 18:21
Andrea Nordling
Because that's what's really happening. When somebody hires you, they're saying, I believe in myself, I believe that you can help me. I'm investing in myself. Let's go. That's a big deal. A really big deal. And because of that, they get results. So let's make a list of it and let's get your brain on board with how impactful and how really important this work is that you're doing by writing it down. So what did those clients of yours accomplish? What surprised them that they didn't think was possible, but it was just all of the ripple effect. What other people in your clients lives have been impacted by the work that they did with you? That is a really fun list to make. Get your brain thinking here. It doesn't have to all be super linear. It doesn't have to all be really predictable. 

 19:02
Andrea Nordling
You can just keep asking that genius brain of yours, what else? What else am I not thinking of? What other results came into my clients lives this year through the work that we did together that I'm not thinking of? Ask your brain good questions, you'll get some good answers, right? But the sky is the limit here. Go, go. Fill up a page, fill up two pages, three pages, five pages. What are the results that you created and that your clients created this year that you are proud of? And a lot of these results, by the way, will be that you consistently did something even though you weren't getting the results that you wanted to get. I hope that's where your brain goes. In fact, maybe it isn't, but let me just plant that seed. I hope that's where you go. 

 19:40
Andrea Nordling
I hope that's what happens on this list where you are creating a whole bunch of written evidence for how you showed up and did the things. Now, did you do all of the things? No, we never do. Did it all go perfectly? No, it never does. Is it exactly how you thought it would be in a year ago when you looked into your crystal ball for the future of 2025? No, it never is. It never is. That's not what our planning process is about. It's not to map it out perfectly and it's not to anticipate every single thing that's going to happen. It's to give us a North Star. It's to give us a starting point of, okay, this is the goal and here's how I think we could potentially get there, me and my brain. And here's what I think we could do. 

 20:22
Andrea Nordling
And then we have the flexibility and we have the continual evaluation quarterly, if not monthly, to look at. Okay, what is working here in this plan? Do I need to adjust something? Was I a little bit off on my expectations of how long I thought certain things were going to take? Are we actually further ahead? Okay, do I need to adjust this goal a little bit? We can do that throughout the year, but doing it from a place of, this is all malleable, this is all. Everything's very plastic here. We can just adjust as needed. That is where I want you to be in your planning for 2026. 

 20:58
Andrea Nordling
And to do that, like I said at the beginning of this episode, to do that, we want to get your brain into an excited place of looking back at, oh my gosh, look at what we did this year. This kind of surprised me when XYZ happened. I didn't anticipate that a year ago. Oh my gosh. But look at how this led to this. And then here we are. That's amazing. That gets your brain excited and anticipating what is going to surprise and delight you in 2026. And then when you are approaching your year that way and you're approaching things with like, oh, we're going to see how the magic happens. This is going to be fun. 

 21:30
Andrea Nordling
When that's your brain space, of course you bring that into your work with your clients, and of course that just overflows in you into how you plan for the next year with them and how you onboard new clients and how you talk about what's possible for them and how you evaluate with them along the. And how you just continually are making things plastic and malleable and very flexible for them in the process that you bring them through because you're doing it for yourself. So it's always starting with you. And then we teach this to your clients, we bring this into your work with your clients. But it's all connected, as we know it's all connected and it always will be. Those clients of yours will be a mirror for you and your beliefs, for better or for worse. 

 22:12
Andrea Nordling
So let's kind of look at what beliefs created, what results in 2025 for you and what you're excited about for 2026. Hopefully this very simple exercise will help you to do that. And I have no doubt that you are going to. If you actually slow down long enough to do it, you're Going to have a lot of insights about what you could do in 2026. That would be simpler, that would be more consistent, that would help your clients even more, that would make your time management even better. Look at this list and get excited about what those big needle movers were for you and what 2026 should look like. 

 22:47
Andrea Nordling
Okay, so to land this plane on what to do with this list, now that you have it created and you've written it out or you have it in digital form, what do you do with it? Well, this is what I suggest. Read this bad boy at least every single week, if not more than once a week. I want you to actually put this in your calendar. Want this to be a recurring calendar item or to do list item on whatever digital platform you use to manage your time and to make yourself efficient and so things don't fall through the cracks. If you don't have a system like that, I would love to teach you the one that I teach my students in tpn. Once again, this is exactly the kind of systems that we set up for your business inside the profitable nutritionist program. 

 23:30
Andrea Nordling
But in that make this a recurring task. Do it every single week. Okay? Revisit this list and feel the satisfaction and the awe and the pride of how you are hooking your future self up with what you're doing right now. Because that's what you did a year ago. That's what you did all throughout 2025, and no doubt have done every year before. But if you've never looked at it this way and you've never sat in the wonder of how much can change in a year, because that really is pretty incredible, then you probably aren't anticipating what's going to change in the next year. And we want you to be. I want this for me, I want this for you, and I certainly want this for your clients. So read this bad boy every week. 

 24:10
Andrea Nordling
This list is now your North Star for the next year. It's going to remind you of how proud you can and always should be of yourself. Right in the process. We don't wait until we get to our goals to be proud, by the way, just a little caveat here. We don't wait. You gotta be proud in the process. You gotta be proud of showing up and doing the things when they're not working and be really proud of that version of you, not just waiting to allocate the pride for yourself until you get to your goals. This is a high achiever dilemma, okay? Because it takes one to know one. By the way, I'm over here raising my hand again. What we want to do is we want to set these lofty goals. 

 24:46
Andrea Nordling
We want to achieve them at any cost and hustle and get there and oh, my gosh, I did it, I did it. And then for two seconds, we might allow ourselves to be proud of that before we move the goal line even further and we make an even loftier goal. And then we have to go achieve that one before we can have that two minutes of pride again. No, it is not the way. It is absolutely not the way. It's not good for your nervous system. It is not good for your clients either, to set up a process for them to only be proud and celebrating when they get to their big results and when they get to their big goals. So don't do that in your business. Don't do that with your clients. 

 25:18
Andrea Nordling
Instead, have this practice of being proud all along the way. Being proud of showing up in the process, being proud of the consistency, being proud of picking yourself up when you try something and it flops and miserably fails, as they do. We all have this all the time in business and in life. So be proud of yourself for continuing even when that happens, and then bring that into your work with your clients. Make sure that you are celebrating and doing process pride with them as well. We just really have to be so intentional about proving to our brains that we have gotten huge results and that it's working because our brains want to go to. This isn't working. It's not working fast enough. I did this thing and it was a failure. Gotta do a totally different thing now. 

 26:01
Andrea Nordling
Gotta change everything about my business. Start over. Oh, no, no, no. It is working. But you have to collect the evidence of what is working and what you're proud of. And from that place of gratitude and of excitement, you can then make a great plan for 2026. And like I said, you can do the same thing with your clients. Okay, we would love to support you in the profitable nutritionist program to do this. By the way, this is just one of the many little exercises and little parts of the process of building a profitable business. 

 26:32
Andrea Nordling
Obviously, this is heavily mindset focused, but a lot of what we do in the profitable nutritionist is heavily mindset focused because all the best strategy in the world means nothing if you don't execute it or if you are miserable in your business every step of the way as you execute it. Just like with your clients, by the way, you can give them the best protocol they can have the best meal plan, they can have the best everything. And if they don't actually do it, and if they aren't enjoying the process of doing it, they're not going to send the referrals your way. So. And they're probably not going to get the results. So mindset is a huge component of everything that I teach in the profitable nutritionist program. 

 27:06
Andrea Nordling
And the reason I do that is because it's going to get you better results and it's going to help you to deploy those same tools so your clients get better results. Yes, there is a healthy dose of strategy in the program. What to do, when to do it, how to do it, how to get clients, how to serve them, how to create a sales process and how to actually ensure that your clients get the results that they came for without completely overwhelming them or making a very unsustainable business that you can't keep up with and that you drown in clients. All of those are bad problems that we can absolutely avoid, which we teach you how to do in the program. So if you are brand new in your practice, this is the next best step for you. I have no doubt. 

 27:43
Andrea Nordling
TheProfitableNutritionist.com join is where you get all the details on the program. But if you are more established in your practice and you are working with clients, you have worked with clients, but you don't feel like it's sustainable, it's not consistent, and you are feeling really overwhelmed and bogged down with your business, this is also a great solution for you. So either way, we would love to support you in the program for creating consistent 10k plus months in your practice without overworking. And again, to do that, go to theprofitablenutritionist.com join and I will see you there, my friend.