How To Make 2026 Your Best Year featuring Tony Ferraro

Tony Ferraro: Really think about what's your system for this year? Do I have a system? What's the most important thing that if I do it this year, it'll be transformative? And if I don't, then there's gonna be consequences to that.

What is the most important thing? What's the one thing? And then once you have that creative system around that one thing, Kate Volman: how do you have your best year ever? That is what we are talking about in today's episode.

I am joined by Tony Ferraro. Tony, how are you, Tony Ferraro: Kate? Happy New Year. I am blessed.

It is a wonderful start to, it's gonna be an awesome 2026. Kate Volman: Yes. We are recording this just. A little over a week after we had our Best Year Ever event, live one day event with Matthew Kelly.

Kate Volman: It was phenomenal. It was so much fun. We thank all of our clients, all the people that attended and came. We so appreciated seeing you.

It was just. Packed full of energy, excitement. It's an event that Matthew hasn't done in about 15 years, and so to bring it back was really special. And it was, it was just an awesome day.

Kate Volman: If you're listening, you're like, cool. Why wasn't there so. Or if you were, we're so happy that you were, but Tony Ferraro: rub it in. Kate Volman: No, but what we wanted to do, we wanted to, even if you weren't able to attend, we wanted to share a little bit about some of the activities that we did that day and some things that you can implement.

Kate Volman: Whether you're listening to this in January of 2026 or 2027, or in July or whenever, it's always a good time to. Assess where you are, plan for the future and create that best year ever. Best rest of the year, whatever it looks like. And so, um, we wanted to share a couple of activities that were impactful that will help.

Kate Volman: You plan for a great year. We did wanna share, uh, we got some feedback from some of the attendees. And so first we wanted to start with, okay, why does this matter? Why go to an event like Best Year Ever?

Why do anything like start the new year with a plan? Why take the time to really sit down and map out your strategy of. Kate Volman: What you wanna see happen over the year, especially since so many of us, so many people, they, we create a plan and then after a couple months, it's so easy for that plan to be derailed. And so we don't always stick to it.

So it's always a great idea to, to come back to the plan. That's why we have a plan so we can stay. Kate Volman: So we can stay focused. So Tony, we do a lot of coaching, executive coaching.

Why does this matter for leaders? Why should we take some time out of our day or week to to do this planning? Tony Ferraro: I think there's an obvious answer that you mentioned too, like if you have no plan, you're guaranteed to follow it, right? Tony Ferraro: There's nothing there.

You're gonna be led by. Yeah, all kinds of things that aren't good. You're gonna be led by emotions, you're gonna be led by your feelings. You're gonna be led by your physical, the things that come up physically.

You know, even in a day you're gonna be led by whatever's urgent instead of what's important. Tony Ferraro: And I think just most of all, that taking the time to think about what is most important for this year, we don't do that very often. And then the second part to that is like, if this is my priority. What system am I putting in place to honor that priority?

When we're working with, with clients, oftentimes, you know, someone says this is a priority. Tony Ferraro: I say, well, it's not because you're not doing anything. You know, you're making decisions that are in contrast to what you say the priority are. So you may say it's your priority, but really our priorities are defined by our actions.

And you know, they speak so much louder than anything we can put in a book and, and say our priorities are, and actually I think that's. Tony Ferraro: Saying we have certain priorities and acting in a way that's perpendicular to that is probably more harmful than not having any to start with. That happens all the time when you know, we'll tell clients when they talk to us. We really wanna improve our culture.

We're gonna commit to, you know, improving the culture. Tony Ferraro: And we always say, look, don't make that announcement unless you're fully committed to it. Because there's nothing worse in a company than to say we're really committed about having a great culture and then acting in a way that doesn't promote a great culture. Then people lose confidence in you.

They lose trust. Tony Ferraro: And I think the same thing happens with us even internally. If I say this is my priority and I don't have a system and I go do other things, I lose trust in myself. And that's a real problem.

If we don't trust ourselves to follow through on things, who else is gonna trust us? Kate Volman: Yeah. And. Having that plan should be this sense of excitement and enthusiasm.

Kate Volman: When you have this plan, you have, this is what I'm gonna work towards, this is what I'm gonna be doing. We should feel energized when we look that plan. That's very telling too, because if you're looking at your plan and, and you don't feel energized, well you might wanna reset some of your priorities and really figure out what matters and rediscover the why behind. Kate Volman: These priorities and what you say you want to do.

There was this gentleman that came and he shared this really wonderful, he sent us an email after he got back home from attending the event, and this goes kind of similar to what we were sharing, he said. It has already had a significant impact on my approach to planning. Kate Volman: More importantly, my excitement and optimism are very high for 2026 and beyond. He said that he's been to a lot of different events where they do a lot of goal setting and planning, and he said, but last Monday was different.

I took more notes and had more significant key points presented than I ever remembered in the past. Kate Volman: He talked about how Matthew really shared some insights that made a huge impact, and of course, he valued. Simplicity, clarity and simplicity. Matthew is just the king of taking these complex ideas.

And simplifying them. And it was so exciting to be in the room 'cause people asked some really great questions. Kate Volman: And one of the things that I love so much about Matthew Kelly q and a is when someone asks a question, his answer is often so different than what. Anyone expected it to be, and it's exactly what they needed.

And so that happened a lot that day. We heard a lot of people really excited, energetic, enthusiastic, very, they're excited, they're passionate about their plan. Kate Volman: And it was something that we didn't figure all of it out that day, right? It was only a day.

We can only do so much in a day. But there was a lot of activities that we learned that were, Hey, take this home. Think about it, write about it, and figure out what you're gonna do to take these dreams and these ideas and put some, some of those simple steps to actually make those things happen. Kate Volman: And so Tony, we thought it would be fun to do, to do this episode, to share a couple of activities that no matter where you are in your life right now, no matter what year or month it is, you.

Can use these to help you have your best year ever. The first one. That is so fun, and I've been doing this for years with my friends, but we started the day with, what's your word of the year? Kate Volman: We were invited to pick a word of the year.

Maybe you are listening and thinking, oh yeah, I've been doing this forever. I sat with a woman at the event and she said, I've been doing this for 10 years with my friends, and so she's had her words every year, and so it's a fun one to think about, okay, what is the word that I really want? Kate Volman: What is that one thing that I really wanna cultivate this year? That's a fun one to just write down.

All of the different words that you were thinking that show up when you think of what you want your word to be, and then look through that list and then pick one, decide. And Tony, we're, we're bad at making decisions on stuff like this 'cause it seems so, so finite, right? Kate Volman: Like, so we're gonna pick the one, what's the one by one word of the year? And so I know some people get a little hesitant to actually pick the one, but that's a, that's a fun one to start with.

Tony Ferraro: Absolutely. Yeah. And it's interesting, so I have my, you know, I have the, the book here from the, that I was keeping some notes in, and I think the real challenge of that is really. Tony Ferraro: Finding the one word, obviously one, you know, you, you have to pick from probably, you know, several that you'd like to see, so you have to pick one.

But then I, I also, I looked in my book and, you know, I like four or fives crossed out. And I think what we should probably do is ask ourselves when we think of that word to ask or, or ask someone else, or, you know, ask ourselves, what's another word? Tony Ferraro: And I started to do that. And you realize, like if you say that's it, I'm, then you've got clarity around it.

But oftentimes we say something that comes to us right away and you go, is that really the word? I mean, that feels good, right? Is that really the word that encompasses this year? So getting to one and then really making sure you've got, uh, it, it makes sense.

Tony Ferraro: Um, that was a big thing for me. So like I said, I've got four or five crossed out and I think I finally got to the one that, that makes sense. Yeah. Kate Volman: Good, good, good try.

You wanna hear it? I'm like, do you wanna know what it is? I'm like, we need to hear it. 'cause now people are listening like, yes.

Ask it. What? Kate Volman: It's, I Tony Ferraro: need edge bird seed. Yeah, absolutely.

No, I'll tell you my word was fulfillment. And after I scratched out a few, I came to that word I, I realized, wow, there's two parts to this. So I didn't even know that when I, when I thought about it. One is there are several projects that we've been working on that have taken a little bit longer and in a good way at Floyd and, and, and a couple things personally too, that, that are more long term and it just seems like this is the year that some of these are gonna come to fulfillment.

Tony Ferraro: So that made sense. But the more I chewed on that word, then it's like, yeah. And there's a lot of things that I do that I need to, to really just be satisfied or fulfilled in doing them. It's not always something else.

It's not that some of the things I'm doing are exactly what I need to do and I need to have some real fulfillment around that. Tony Ferraro: So I got a double bonus on that, so I'm sure that was the best one of the whole conference. Kate Volman: I, that was, yes, hands down, you, you win, you won. I, Tony Ferraro: I, I do.

I Kate Volman: I, I love that, that you even. Thought through why, like the why behind that word, because as you were talking about that being fulfilled with the work that you're doing, what popped up for me is one of the phrases that I love so much is the reward is the work. Yeah. I think sometimes we are so focused on, I want the outcome.

Kate Volman: What's the outcome? Like the final result, and we can get lost in that and being so focused on that, that we forget. To enjoy the work, which is really important, and which leads actually really perfectly until I'll just kind of start one of my little takeaways. One of my biggest takeaways that Matthew shared was to find the fun.

Kate Volman: Find the fun in the challenges. Find the fun in the day-to-day life. We live in this world where it's so easy for us to have, we have access to so much, and we're online and we're on social media, and we're seeing all the highlight reels of everyone, and it can feel sometimes that everyone has this glamorous life when really our lives. Kate Volman: It's the day to day of life, right?

Like it's doing those simple things consistently that really build upon each other to create this really beautiful life. And we sometimes forget that because we're thinking it's supposed to look this other way. And so, especially when we have challenges or we're going through a season of challenges. Kate Volman: Figuring out how to have fun with it.

Like how to have fun in the messy middle, the frustrating parts, the moments of time when you're like, I want the outcome here already, but it's gonna take a little bit of time to find the fun. And I thought that was a really good reminder because life can be hard. Kate Volman: And unless we are intentional about finding the fun in those little small, little day-to-day things, it can really eat away at at us. And so I think we can find the fun in our own lives.

And then also what a blessing to help other people find the fun in some of their situations and challenges as well. Tony Ferraro: Yeah, and if you're a leader, people are looking at you and how do you respond when things go south? If you approach things with, you know, a sense of humor. I mean, there are serious things that obviously need to be serious, but in some of the things, just having that sense of humor, it, it takes the, takes the edge off everybody else so you can really communicate that to whether it's at work or, or to your family or those things that, you know, there's some real perspective that you can add to a situation by having a little bit of sense of humor.

Tony Ferraro: Find a little bit of fun in Kate Volman: it, find the fun. All right. What was one of your takeaways, Tony? Tony Ferraro: Well, I didn't hear your word.

If you're willing to share, Kate Volman: oh, I'm willing to share my word. Yeah. My word last year was breakthrough and to your point, we, we, at Floyd, we have some really cool things happening. I think that we had some little mini breakthroughs last year and some, some more to share for this year.

Kate Volman: But my word for this year is abundance. And the way that I thought through that was even at the event, Matthew said, you might switch words before you leave here today. And I had my word already. It was abundance, but then I was writing down a bunch of words and I almost changed it.

I almost changed my word. Kate Volman: To faith, but abundance actually is just all encompassing. Abundance of faith, abundance in our business, abundance of love and joy and just all of these like abundance in all different areas. And so it's funny how everything has an energy, like when you get your word, like you will know it like it.

That's what's so fun to me. Kate Volman: I think about this kind of activity is. Even if you can't really describe or explain the why, it just feels right. There's something about it that's like, you look at the list of words and you're like, I love all of these words.

It could be any of these, but this is the one, this is the one that kind of is really speaking to me this year. Kate Volman: So I think that's really, that's fun. So that's my word of the year. Tony Ferraro: Yeah.

That's awesome. It's funny, my, my, the, the takeaway, uh, we were talking about this earlier today actually, so. There's a phrase that we use, I don't know how many, hundreds of times during the year with clients, and it's just integral to everything we're doing. Tony Ferraro: But Matthew said it and he, and he said, systems drive behaviors, and you mentioned it.

And then when I looked in my book, I saw the same thing. I mean, there's no reason for us to write that down. I mean, it's so ingrained in our head, and yet I have it written down, uh, you know, in the book. And that's that you go back to simplicity.

Tony Ferraro: That's a, it was a great reminder. But the takeaway was he, he took that into. Uh, an area that, that I'm really interested in, spend a lot of time on, and that's energy, and I'm kind of working on this, this idea of what energy leaks are in our lives, you know, whether that's in a business process or our relationships or whatever that might be, those things that basically leak energy and he tied those together really well. Tony Ferraro: This idea that what systems do is they help, uh, help tighten up those conduits where there might be some energy leaks.

Even simple things like, uh, decisions. You know, can you automate the little things in your life if you do that, you have fewer decisions to make. Because every decision we make gets us closer to decision fatigue. Tony Ferraro: You know, it just happens.

And there's some, you know, famous folks who did different things. But even in our, in our lives in terms of, you know, can I eliminate these things that don't really require a decision, but we make decisions and we don't realize how many little decisions. We make in a day, in a week, in a month, year. Tony Ferraro: And every time we do that, we have to give energy to it.

So if we, if we have, you know, our purpose really outlined, and then we have a system that allows us to do that, and we automate those little things, it's like, you know, our kids growing up, all of them had a uniform in school. And I used to say, this is, you should be so grateful when you go to your closet in the morning. Tony Ferraro: There it is, right? But there would be an outta uniform day, and it was like a week of prep to figure out what they were gonna wear on the outta uniform dance.

Can you imagine this? Every night, having to go through this. So that really stuck with me, the idea that yes, systems drive behaviors, good or bad, and sometimes they're systems that we don't even know we have. Tony Ferraro: But they do drive our behaviors.

We've created the system and so, uh, good or bad, you create your systems, systems, drive those behaviors that we have, and along the way, where can you seal up those energy leaks? And one of those ways was just automating as many of the little things that we can. And, uh, so I was actually working on that today, so that was a big point. Tony Ferraro: That was probably the main, one of the main, or a bunch, that was a main takeaway for me.

Kate Volman: Awesome. Yeah, I love that. It's like how. Those entrepreneurs, like the Steve Jobs and the Zuckerbergs of the world, they wear the same thing every day.

It's one less thing to think about. They eat the same breakfast every day. Kate Volman: It's one less thing to think about. And sometimes we'll share in the office, we'll be like, oh my gosh, I just wanna wear this.

Like, can I just wear the same thing? Like what it's, I'm like, I used to way back early in my career, it was like, Ooh, fashion and fun and I, and dressing like for the, it was like a fun thing. Kate Volman: And the as the older that I get, the more I'm like, ugh. I just wanna be comfortable and obviously look professional, but just kind of Sure not, Tony Ferraro: you know, for a lot of people the physical piece is one of the things they're working on and, and, and it's the whole science beyond meal prepping.

If I go to the refrigerator and I've got a container and it's got what I'm supposed to eat. Tony Ferraro: I don't have to make any of those choices. And so it, it just can fall up really in any area. Kate Volman: Make it easy.

Make it easy, Tony Ferraro: easier. Kate Volman: Awesome. The other thing that I, and it is so funny, I mean, there are so many things I wrote down that I, again, no re no real reason to, but it just goes to show you, it really shows you how important it is to just, we're always digging into. Kate Volman: Similar content, but seeing it in a different way.

You've grown, you see things differently. It's, they are good reminders because obviously we're not perfect. We know systems drive behaviors, and yet there are systems in. Everyone's life.

That is, we know they are not good. In fact, that's what he says at the end. Kate Volman: He said, systems drive behavior good systems drive good behaviors. It's like, yes, we know, but also do we like, we know, but we don't necessarily do it.

So, but the thing that I wrote down, uh, the, the other thing that I really think a lot about and was happy that he shared was. The one thing, like this idea of the one thing, like what's the one thing that if you do, it makes everything else easier? Kate Volman: Like this is the thing. Like what is that one thing that you can start to implement?

And I, I think that so often when we think about change or we think about having our best year ever, we think we need to add more. We think it means we have to do more, be more all like all of this, like he talks about in slowing down to the speed of joy, busy busyness, we've gotta do all these things when really it's. Kate Volman: If we're doing more of the wrong things, we're just adding more complexity into our lives, and so what's the one thing that actually is gonna make everything else easier?

It's actually gonna make an impact in your life. So pick that one thing really wisely and focus on that in order for you to really make sure that you do the things that you say you're going to do. Kate Volman: That's the biggest thing, right? When we think about at the end of the year when people.

Look back and assess their year. The reason why we don't accomplish the things that we say we wanna accomplish is usually two things. It's one, we don't have the clarity of what exactly it is that we're trying to achieve, and then two, we aren't being held accountable to doing that. Kate Volman: And for most people, it's holding themselves accountable.

This is why coaching is so important, right? When you have a coach. You have to hold yourself accountable to somebody else, which, I mean, that's what so many of our clients will say, I literally did this thing because I didn't wanna come to my coaching session telling you I didn't do it. Tony Ferraro: You know?

And, and ultimately that, that matures that we've seen this in relationship, they just become more accountable to themselves. Kate Volman: Yes. Tony Ferraro: It's one of the things we say, you know, we don't have an agenda in our life. So the fact that you didn't do this.

I'm not gonna lose sleepover, but you are. And, and so when they have to say it out loud and Kate Volman: isn't that funny that they So people, we are fine. Kate Volman: Most people are fine with disappointing ourselves. If we are the only ones that say, we are gonna show up and do this thing, and if we don't do this thing, we'll feel disappointed, but we'll move on.

But if, if we have to tell someone else I didn't do the thing, oh, and they say they're disappointed. That's like the one word. Kate Volman: Remember when you're like a kid and your parents that you, they weren't yelling at you, and they say, I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.

Tony Ferraro: That's the worst. Oh. Kate Volman: It's like knife in the heart, like, no mad me. Tony Ferraro: Exactly.

You be mad at, please be mad at me. Exactly. Kate Volman: Yell at me, scream at me. Anything but being disappointed in me.

Tony Ferraro: Yeah, absolutely. And the one thing is so important, you know, the two expressions come to mind. You know, the one is that we're lost, but we're making great time. You know, so in, in businesses all the time with companies, they, they, they create systems around an end.

But when you ask like, will that end dramatically change? Tony Ferraro: What you're doing right now or get you closer to fulfilling your mission. And, and oftentimes it doesn't, but they feel great about all the steps that go into that. And so finding that one thing and then, and then personally and professionally, it's amazing how much, how we can focus our energy when we have to.

Tony Ferraro: On one thing. You know, in business, if you are really struggling financially, you're gonna take those leads and you're gonna ring them dry. And you're gonna find, if you need to know, you know, you've gotta meet this amount of money in this short period of time. It's amazing how creative you get, how intense you get.

Tony Ferraro: And again, and, and even, and in personally, this second expression came to mind when we're. When we're healthy, we want a million things, and when we're sick, we want one. Can we just get focused on what's the one thing? And there, there are many things that we could be focused on, but we can't be focused on many things at once.

Tony Ferraro: So what's the one thing right now, and I think most of us shy away from, I know I've done this shy away from the one thing because it's, it's binary at that point. Either I'm working towards this or I'm not. If I've got 10 things. Ah, I got four of 'em done.

Okay. That's pretty good. I guess I can tell myself or six of them done. Tony Ferraro: But the ninth one was the most important.

You've come up with that one most important thing, and then it's, I said it's a one or zero. Either you're focused on that or you're not. And I think that scares us sometimes. Kate Volman: Well, it's like we talked about with choosing the one word for some reason, we just, we don't always wanna, it's, it's feels so final, like we can't change it.

Kate Volman: This is what, and, and. And that feels, it feels like even in, I mean, even in business, we can't be everything to our clients, but we also, so often businesses will fail because they, they don't wanna pick. They don't wanna pick, this is what we do and this is what we don't do. All right, Tony.

So what's your, your last takeaway for the audience? Tony Ferraro: Oh boy. Um, number one, if you weren't at this event this year, be at the event when we hold 'em in the future. It's so worth it.

The people were shameless Kate Volman: plugged. Tony Ferraro: Yes, exactly. But I say that because people came up and said so many things afterwards that were, you know, beneficial. So, so that, that's one.

But I, I think is just really think about what's your system for this year. Tony Ferraro: Do I have a system? What's the most important thing that if I do it this year, it'll be transformative? Yeah.

And if I don't, then there's gonna be consequences to that. What's the one thing and, uh, what's most important and spend time. I know it's the first year you're supposed to have everything. I think spending time thinking about what's most important would be the best thing someone could do until they're, if it takes you until the end of January to come up with that, come up with it so that you're not spinning your wheels and you just pick something.

Tony Ferraro: What is the most important thing? What's the one thing? And then once you have that creative system around that one thing, so. Yeah, that's my takeaway.

Kate Volman: All right, good, good. Yeah, we gave everyone a Moleskine journal and walked through some of these exercises and it was meant to get messy scribble in it. Kate Volman: Use this throughout the year to kind of return to some of the activities. I mean, we just shared a couple of our favorite takeaways, but we.

Matthew shared a lot of different activities and exercises that not only you can use, he actually uses every year to have his best year ever. And so to, to be able to, to learn from someone who, geez, just he does so much every year, you know, writing books and has five kids and does all of the things. Kate Volman: And so to be able to, uh, to gain some of that insight is really valuable for everyone. And so it's kind of a fun.

Ever evolving. We're ever, we're always growing, ever evolving. And so it'll be fun to fill up our journals and then at the next one we get to start, start all over. So, alright, Tony, thank you so much, uh, for, for joining and sharing your thoughts.

Tony Ferraro: Always, always fun. Kate Volman: Best year ever. And thank you all so much for being here and for listening. We are excited.

We have some exciting things happening at Floyd that we're looking forward to sharing with you. We'll be doing some different things with the podcast and just giving you as many resources as we can to help you and your business grow and to help you become the best version of yourself. Kate Volman: So thank you for listening. We appreciate you, and until next time, Lead with Culture.