Vision Board Workshop for 2026: Align Your SEO, Business & Life Goals (Without Burnout)

In this special workshop-style episode of The Simple and Smart SEO Show, Crystal Waddell guides you through creating a one-page vision board for 2026 that blends your business goals, SEO priorities, and personal life — without overwhelm.

Whether you’re a Shopify seller, creative entrepreneur, or service-based business owner, this episode gives you space to reflect, reset, and move into 2026 with clarity and confidence.

✨ Grab a pen, some paper, and about 45 minutes — and let’s map out where your energy is going next.

⏱️ Timestamps

0:37 – Blending SEO goals with personal and business goals
1:27 – You don’t have to choose between being a boss and having peace
2:06 – Meet Crystal + her teacher-era vision board story
3:36 – Why multiple vision boards didn’t work
4:20 – How to prepare for the workshop (and protect your focus)
4:56 – Choosing your Word of the Year
5:52 – Turning your word into emotions + actions
6:51 – Guided reflection: how you want to feel at the end of 2026
7:31 – What habit or mindset you’re releasing
8:14 – Skills and experiences you’re saying yes to
9:24 – Creating your vision board in Canva (one-slide rule!)
11:16 – Section 1: Casting your vision
12:24 – Section 2: Business visibility & SEO strategy
15:04 – Sections 3 & 4: Personal goals + business goal tracking
18:00 – Using your vision board as daily guidance
18:45 – How to share your vision board + what’s coming next

🧠 Key Takeaways

• One clear vision board is more powerful than multiple scattered ones
• Your Word of the Year should act as a filter for decisions
• SEO and visibility goals work best when aligned with how you want to feel
• Peace and ambition are not opposites

Hey, Shopify store owners! (Especially if you're selling on Etsy, too!)

Here's a quick question: Are people actually finding your products on Google?

If SEO feels confusing, overwhelming, or like something you'll "get to later", this is for you.

I'm hosting a free, seven day Shopify SEO challenge that breaks it down into simple, doable steps.

No tech headaches, no fluff. Join us at

 Hey, Shopify store owners! (Especially if you're selling on Etsy, too!)

Here's a quick question: Are people actually finding your products on Google?

If SEO feels confusing, overwhelming, or like something you'll "get to later", this is for you.

I'm hosting a free, seven day Shopify SEO challenge that breaks it down into simple, doable steps.

No tech headaches, no fluff. Join us at

Chapters

• 0:00 Crystal Waddell: I wanna help you celebrate the excitement
• 0:36 that is the first of the year.
• 0:37 Like anything is possible in 2026.
• 0:40 And I hope that your business exceeds far beyond anything that
• 0:43 you could ask, think, or imagine.
• 1:11 Introduction to the Vision Board Workshop
• 2:01 Setting the Tone for 2026
• 2:40 Meet Your Host, Crystal Waddell
• 4:10 Reflecting on Past Vision Board Mistakes
• 4:54 Preparing for the Workshop
• 5:30 Choosing Your Word of the Year
• 7:25 Guided Reflection Questions
• 8:05 Releasing Old Habits
• 9:18 Visualizing Your Ideal Year
• 9:58 Creating Your Vision Board in Canva
• 12:58 Business Visibility Strategy
• 15:34 Personal and Business Goal Setting
• 19:19 Conclusion and Next Steps

Transcript

[00:00:00] Crystal Waddell: I wanna help you celebrate the excitement that is the first of the year. Like anything is possible in 2026.

And I hope that your business exceeds far beyond anything that you could ask, think, or imagine.

So today we're not just making a vision board.

We're drawing a map of where you'd like your energy to go.

Welcome to the simple and smart SEO show podcast!

I'm your host, Crystal Waddell, here to bridge the gap between SEO strategy and real world business success. By bringing you insights, stories, and conversations from the SEO community and beyond.

So grab a coffee or your favorite tea. And let's dive into Smarter SEO for your business. 

[00:00:37] Introduction to the Vision Board Workshop

[00:00:37] Crystal Waddell: today I've got something a little bit different for you: a vision board workshop! So that you can have a moment to reflect on your upcoming year.

Our goal is to blend some of our SEO goals with your personal goals and other business goals.

So that you have a high level look at what you'd like to accomplish in 2026.

I know that not everybody has a business [00:01:00] bestie that they could go through something like this with.

So my goal is to help you feel not so alone in your business endeavors.

And if you'd like to share this with a friend that has a business, that's a great idea because then you can pause the recording as you are working through it together.

And then you have somebody to reflect with.

But if not, you've got me. And anytime you need to just stop, and reflect.

All you've gotta do is pause. And then pick back up when you're ready. 

[00:01:27] Setting the Tone for 2026

[00:01:27] Crystal Waddell: I wanna help you celebrate the excitement that is the first of the year. Like anything is possible in 2026.

And I hope that your business exceeds far beyond anything that you could ask, think, or imagine.

So today we're not just making a vision board.

We're drawing a map of where you'd like your energy to go.

The big takeaway here is that you don't have to choose between being a boss and having peace.

For me as a female business owner and a mom and a wife, a lot of times I feel pulled in a lot of different directions.

And that I can't be [00:02:00] successful in all areas of my life.

And I want to help you bust through those frustrations as well.

[00:02:06] Meet Your Host, Crystal Waddell

[00:02:06] Crystal Waddell: So let's go ahead and jump in.

If we've never met before. I'm Crystal. I'm the host of this podcast The Simple and smart, SEO show.

I'm a small business coach and a fellow Shopify seller, so I know a little bit about what it's like to run a business.

I have multiple shops online. I have my Shopify store, Etsy shop.

And also what used to be Amazon Handmade.

But I'm looking forward to what I think is gonna be the best year yet.

And I'm a huge fan of setting the tone for the year.

Back when I was a teacher, my favorite part of the year was the like first couple of weeks before this, the kids came back.

Because that was the time I could get my classroom ready.

And one of my favorite things to do was make bulletin boards. So you're gonna have to go with me in a time machine here.

Because a lot of people may not know about this.

But what I used to do is I would create my bulletin boards, say in PowerPoint or something like that. Then I would print it off.

I'd make a [00:03:00] copy, and I would copy it onto a transparency.

And a transparency was like a clear piece of paper that I could then put on a overhead projector.

And I would project it up onto the wall and trace out my design. So that was one of my favorite things to do.

It was a little bit stressful because I was always overshooting my ability to get it finished before the big what do you call it, open house.

That we'd have before the school year started. But I had so much fun with it.

And even though it was a little bit extra and some of the veteran teachers looked at me like, why are you doing this?

Why are you working so hard? My veteran teachers gave me a little bit of a hard time, but I really did enjoy it. 

[00:03:36] Reflecting on Past Vision Board Mistakes

[00:03:36] Crystal Waddell: I scaled it back over the years.

And even with this workshop, last year, I think one of the biggest mistakes I made with vision boarding was I tried to do a vision board for separate parts of my life.

Like I tried to do one for my Shopify store, collage and wood. I tried to do one for the podcast, simple and smart, SEO.

And then I tried to do a separate one for. Being at home, being a mother, [00:04:00] being a wife.

And what happened was the one that was in front of me the most, that's the one that I focused on.

But the other two, I almost completely forgot that I even made them.

So this year, rather than overload myself with three separate vision boards.

I'm creating one that I can focus on.

And that's what I'm gonna walk you through today as well.

[00:04:20] Preparing for the Workshop

[00:04:20] Crystal Waddell: So we'll do some thinking together first, and then we'll design it in Canva.

And I'll give you some ideas for how to do that. But for right now, all you need is a pen and paper.

Of course it wouldn't be a workshop if I didn't give you a gentle reminder to maybe turn off the notifications on your phone.

So did you have a little bit of time for yourself.

I would say set aside, like, 45 minutes where you can just focus on this, have a cup of coffee, relax.

Dream a little bit, give yourself like the space and energy to, to just dream about what you want 2026 to look like.

[00:04:56] Choosing Your Word of the Year

[00:04:56] Crystal Waddell: So we're gonna start first with a word of the [00:05:00] year. And you wanna think of this word as a filter. It's gonna be a filter that you use when someone asks you to do a project.

Or collaborate.

Or any kind of business task, it's does this really fit my vision for the year?

And to give you an example, last year, my word of the year was curiosity.

That was a fun one.

This year, my word of the year is strategy.

And so I really wanna be strategic about the different things that I take on or say yes to.

So I'll give you a couple minutes here to think of your word of the Year.

And if you're watching this with a friend, definitely pause and take some time to talk and share what that is.

But when you're ready, unpause, and keep moving.

 All right, so let's talk about your word in action. Now, when I ask these questions, I want you to think about it and write down any word that comes to mind, okay?

[00:05:52] Crystal Waddell: If your word was an emotion, how would it feel? And I think about my word strategy. 

It would feel like [00:06:00] intentional, like on purpose and accomplished and all sorts of different words.

So I want you to think about like the emotions that you would feel if you accomplished tasks based on that word, things. Proud, that type of thing. Whatever comes to mind. You wanna make a list of as many words as you can think of. Then think about if it was an action, what would you be doing? For me, when I think of strategy, I think of lists.

I think of checklists, I think of checking things off. And getting things done.

So I want you to take just a few moments here. And write down some words that describe like how you would feel emotionally if you accomplished that word.

And what it would look like in action if you were, putting that word into action.

So take a few minutes and write down, whatever words come to mind. And when you're ready, you can move on.

[00:06:51] Guided Reflection Questions

[00:06:51] Crystal Waddell: Okay, next up we have some guided reflection questions to solidify this word of the year approach.

So when you look back at the end of [00:07:00] the year, how do you wanna feel in your body and in your mind?

These are these types of words are like, accomplished, proud, healthy, whatever. 

Like whatever you wanna accomplish. Like how would you describe that to someone else at the end of the year when you said, you know what? I set some goals this year.

I accomplished those goals. This is how I feel. So take some time to find those words, write them down, and then move on when you're ready.

[00:07:31] Releasing Old Habits

[00:07:31] Crystal Waddell: All right, so the next question is the release question.

So the fact of the matter is if we're making room for new ideas and new goals, we have to let some other stuff go.

What is one habit or mindset that you're leaving behind to make room for your word of the year?

So right now you're gonna reflect and write down what is one habit or mindset that you're leaving behind to make room for your word of the year.

When you're ready, [00:08:00] you can go on to question number three.

 Now we're gonna think about growth. What is one skill or experience that you wanna say yes to this year? I think we all have things that we wanna do, that we wanna accomplish.

[00:08:14] Crystal Waddell: And this is time to just think about what those things are, personally, business, whatever.

And if you have more than one, that's fine. You can write down as many words as you would like.

For me personally, I wanna travel. I wanna say yes to more travel. So that is gonna be something that's gonna go on my vision board.

So answer the question, what is one skill or experience you wanna say yes to this year?

And then move on to the next question when you're ready.

[00:08:44] Visualizing Your Ideal Year

[00:08:44] Crystal Waddell: Okay, now comes the fun, creative part of our vision board.

This is what is considered the visual question. If your ideal year was a color palette or a landscape, what would it look like?

So it could be vibrant [00:09:00] and busy like a city or calm and muted like a beach.

And the reason why this is important is because we're gonna use these colors on our vision board.

And that kind of helps represent and symbolize some of these goals and ideas that we have for the upcoming year.

So think about what colors represent what you have in mind for yourself this year.

When you're ready, you can keep moving forward.

[00:09:24] Creating Your Vision Board in Canva

[00:09:24] Crystal Waddell: Okay, so let's build out your vision in Canva.

In Canva, you have the templates tab on the left side.

I want you to just search for vision board. And look at the templates and see which one kind of speaks to you, it doesn't really matter.

These are two that popped up for me right away. The one on the left I really like, because it's got a lot of pictures.

The one on the right I like because it also has pictures and words, and these are templates.

So they're already created and you can just kind of, fill yours in. So search vision board in [00:10:00] templates. .

Find something with images that you can replace.

If you feel comfortable creating something on your own, that's absolutely fine.

The only rule of this workshop is that we have to keep it to one slide. Okay? So we wanna keep it simple.

The only rule is one slide for your 2026 vision.

When you're ready, you can move forward to the next step.

 okay, so step two, this is the fun part. This is where we are going to look for images that represent the feelings from your reflection questions.

[00:10:30] Crystal Waddell: So again, when you go to elements on the left hand side, you can put in words.

And then Canva will give you picture ideas or graphic ideas that describe that word.

So here's an example of hopeful. I typed in hopeful into the elements search in Canva and it gave me a variety of pictures. But there's this one that has the little plant growing in the hand.

And so that represents [00:11:00] hope and hopeful.

So click on elements, type in your feeling or goals one at a time, and choose an image or icon to represent the word.

And I'll show you in the next slide, how to organize that. Or a couple of options for organizing it.

[00:11:16] Speaker 3: Okay, so what we're gonna do is we're gonna fill in four sections of our vision board section one is the cast your vision section.

And that's where you're gonna put your word of the year, your goal. When you accomplish the goal, you will feel...

all of those words that we have already written down on our notepad.

You are going to put those words on here and search for graphics or images that represent those words. So my goal in action looks like... and when I accomplish my goal, I will be known as...

to give you an example of what I created, this was my section one.

My vision. My word of the year is strategy.

Like I told you before, like if I accomplish my goals, I'm gonna feel proud, I'm gonna feel in control. [00:12:00] I wanna be known as a brave and smart business boss who's also very kind and calm.

You just wanna put in images word images, actual words, whatever, just things that represent.

All of those words that you put down on your notepad.

Go ahead and take a moment to do that and when you are ready to move on, unpause. And begin again.

[00:12:24] Business Visibility Strategy

[00:12:24] Speaker 3: So now we're gonna talk about section two.

And this is your business visibility strategy.

So now that we understand how the words and the images work from section one, what you're gonna do is wanna think about things you'll do to increase the visibility for your company.

Where are you gonna sell your products?

Who are you gonna sell your products to?

Who could you sell more of your product to?

What are your customer service goals? What about your logo? Putting your logo on here.

Things that you will. Become, things that you will be [00:13:00] doing.

What business activities can you complete?

What are some SEO targets and goals, and some specific SEO tasks that maybe you didn't do last year that you'd like to do this year.

And so let me give you some of my marketing answers and show you how that looks on a vision board.

Represented more by images than just words.

Okay, so a big thing that came up for me was just like, stop to stop being afraid.

What am I afraid of?

I think a lot of times, because I was a teacher and I didn't have this specific SEO background, a lot of times I get afraid of what I learned and what I know and sharing that, because it's what if it's not right?

But the fact of the matter is no one went to school for SEO, so you know.

Sharing what I'm learning is a great thing.

Because it's either gonna help me get better or I might actually show that I know some things that are new to other people.

I also put my logos on [00:14:00] here. I created a course called the e-commerce. Operating system.

And that is inside of my new group in the A-I-S-E-O school.

I have a dream of selling robot lawnmowers. And so that's on there.

And I want my business to be debt free.

So for me, I have a little line there in the middle because I have two businesses.

But I wanted to keep everything on one page. All of my goals. I wanted to keep it on one page.

And then for Simple and smart, SEO of course, I've got the podcast.

I have GPTs that I've created that I'll be sharing about.

I have a seven day challenge that's free and available if you're interested.

I'll tell you a little bit more about that at the very end.

And of course, just like embracing my big ideas. And just not being afraid of those things.

So those are some examples of what I put for my visibility strategy.

And why don't you go ahead and take a few minutes here to do yours. And then we'll move on to the final two sections.

 All right, [00:15:00] awesome. 

[00:15:00] Personal and Business Goal Setting

[00:15:04] Speaker 3: So now we are talking about section three and four, your personal goals. Setting and tracking those personal goals.

And your business goals, setting and tracking your business goals. So under your personal goals. These again, are things that you want to accomplish.

So if you have anything that you didn't put an image for, when you're casting your vision.

Or you wanna add something a little bit more in depth, you can put that over here.

Things that will make you feel good that will make you feel better. People in your life that you wanna prioritize.

Anything that you want to be important this year.

You want to put it in this section.

And then over on section four, this is your business goal, setting and tracking.

Maybe you wanna set a revenue goal.

If you are familiar with your numbers and you're like, Hey, look, last year I did 40,000 in sales.

This year I wanna do 50. That could be a great goal.

Maybe it's more of the number of products that you're going to sell versus the actual number of [00:16:00] monetary dollars you're gonna make from the sales.

It doesn't matter.

Whatever feels most comfortable to you.

But what do you wanna accomplish in your business and what tools do you need?

To help you accomplish those things.

So those are just a few different questions that you can ask to help you generate those ideas, those words.

And then of course pick out the images and I'll show you mine.

So remember, you could always go back and look at these previous slides to remind yourself of the questions.

But for mine, my personal goal, I think you could see there's an image behind the personal goal section. It just enjoying life.

That's the big why behind me.

Okay. I just wanna enjoy my life. I want peace in my life. I want to see the world. I wanna be with my family, but I just wanna have peace in my life.

And so again, leaving fear behind.

I've been on a weight loss journey. 

I work out at Orange Theory, I take a GLP one. I wanna continue that.

I wanna spend quality time with the people that I love.

I wanna [00:17:00] travel.

I wanna spend time with my husband and my son. I wanna eat better. 

So those are all different things that are on my. Personal goal side.

On my goal setting and tracking for my business. I want to, stay organized.

I wanna have the checklist. I wanna sell some robot mowers. I want my GPT store up and going. I want to speak publicly.

If you like this type of workshop and you hear me doing this and you're like, you know what, I'd like, my company to do something like this. I could totally tailor this to your workshop and help facilitate that for you, your business.

And I actually wrote a book. Last year.

And so my goal in 2026, oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm putting this out there. Is to get it published in 2026.

And so of course, also my seven day challenge.

Which I'll talk about in just a minute, so you can go back to the previous slides, look for the prompts to find your words.

But this is in general, it just a template for you to look at. Of what I created. Now [00:18:00] what I do next is I save this.

I save it, and I download it.

And I make it the desktop background of my computer, of my laptop, so that way every single time I turn on my laptop. This is in the background.

And you can take it a step further by downloading it as a png or a jpeg, sharing it with your phone or sending it to your phone, downloading it and making it your wallpaper or your screensaver. Or both.

But you just want to keep it front and center so you can see your goals. And that way in case you ever get off track, you can say, Hey.

Wait a second. I wanted to go this direction.

This particular decision isn't aligning with that.

And it's just a nice way to stay encouraged and inspired about what you want to accomplish.

[00:18:42] Crystal Waddell: When you're ready, you can keep moving forward. 

[00:18:45] Conclusion and Next Steps

[00:18:45] Speaker 3: All right. 

I would love to see what you create. You can find me on Instagram. I'm at simple and smart, SEO.

You find me at YouTube where you're watching this video. Or inside my group, the A-I-S-E-O skool. So you can go to aiseoskool.com.

And. Definitely [00:19:00] share your vision board if you created it or if you have any questions, you just wanna reach out.

You can also find me at LinkedIn.

And I'll have all of my contact information in the show notes. I would love to hear from you. And just support you as you, go after 2026 hard.

If you do, reach out to me, I am emailing people who've done this workshop once a month just to gently check in and say, Hey, how are you doing?

So if you want that kind of follow up, definitely reach out to me. I'll add you to that email list and would love to stay in touch.

Thank you so much for joining me today. This was so fun.

If you enjoy these type of things, I'd love for you to join my free Shopify traffic challenge.

You can sign up at aiSEOSkool.com.

There's more information about it there. And then you have, your free seven days if you decide you like the group and you wanna stay in, there's different levels of joining that you can do, in terms of a membership.

And, every two weeks, we will have a interactive session [00:20:00] like this where you'll be able to ask me questions about your website.

Anything Shopify related, and we'll try to troubleshoot those problems together.

I've got some exciting stuff coming up for you on the podcast.

Next week I'll be talking about GPTs to critique your website. And how well the computers can read it.

As well as how you can make it resonate more with your ideal buyers.

I will be heading to Pod Fest after that down in Orlando.

But I will hopefully have a conversation about AI L LM, safety and security for you.

So got some great stuff coming up in the next few weeks!

But. Overall, I hope you have a wonderful 2026.

And I'm so glad that you're here.

I hope you kill all the business goals that you've set for yourself! And I will talk to you next time.