Lessons

Lesson Info

Set a Different Goal

So we're now on a lesson for and this is about setting a different goal in the first three lessons we talked about changing the way you think about your business the way you perceive but what it is that you've created and how you make money and part of that is setting a different goal largely if you've set revenue goals in the past, they've been mostly income goals, right? Like you want to hit that six figure mark you want to feel really comfortable with the amount of money that your business is bringing in? Maybe you just want your business to pay the bills or maybe just to pay the mortgage and those are great self employment goals but it's time to set a different kind of goal and switching from self employment to business ownership doesn't sara lee maine you know, making tons more money in your business you can have a business that you run on the side absolutely that maybe just makes you a couple thousand dollars a month or a thousand dollars a month, but you need to have a goal for ...

that business, not a goal for your income and so that's what we're going to look at today when it comes down to it again it's it's about being ready for more often when I talked to service providers when I talked to self employed people, they sometimes even get away a little nervous? A little, almost a little ashamed of wanting maur. You know, maybe you're making six figures in your business already. Maybe you're paying for all the bills. Maybe you've retired your husband. I know that's a goal that a lot of my fellow female business owners have. Maybe you've done all of those things and you get you get there and you still feel like you want more. Who are you to want? Mohr right? You've achieved all of this, you've hit all these goals that so many other people aren't hitting well, today we are honoring that today we're saying yes, toe wanting more, it is okay, it is good, it is productive, tow want mohr from your business, so to do that, we need to set a new goal for your new mindset. So I have three questions more of these kind of thought experiment questions that I'd like for you to think about in terms of setting a new goal. This is actually a big problem that I've had is goal setting past that well, I've accomplished everything I kind of set out to accomplish a goal level thiss has been huge huge problem for me, in fact, I'll tell you a little story I retired my now ex husband two years after I started my business. And eighteen months after I started my business, that was a huge accomplishment for me that was a big goal that I had a hit six figures pretty early on in terms of revenue on dh that allowed us to live a lifestyle that at least we had been living before but definitely a little bit better as well and he hated his job and so we we've retired him and moved on that didn't work for him didn't really work for me uh we got divorced I met another guy I yeah anyhow, this story might be a little bit more embarrassing than I I set out for originally anyhow, I've now done it twice I've retired second partner, but in the middle of in the middle of all of this I got lost and I wasn't just lost cause my relationship wasn't working got lost because I didn't have my sights set on a new goal and I actually stagnated in my business for a while because I didn't have a new goal have any of you guys dealt with kind of revenue stagnation? Yeah, you grow and grow and grow and grow until you hit this point that you had in mind and then you kind of stagnate out because you don't know where you're headed next. Five years ago I was at an event it was a q and a event with daniel important marie for leo that actually raised my hand my question wass I hit this goal all of retiring my husband of making six figures and I don't know what golda set next and you know they said some wonderful things it didn't it didn't work I didn't knowhow still how to find that new goal it was years until I set a new goal finally somebody laurie allen at pioneer nation last year which is an event that cresskill abo put on she got up to do her talk in the beginning of her talk wes how many of you out there made six figures in your business already and about a third of us raised our hand I was very happy to be in that group then she said okay put your hands down how many of you make six figures a month in your business and I thought well I've got men you call it's about damn time and that was a huge wake up call for me I mentioned earlier that thought experiments are a huge part of figuring out what you want from your business and so these three questions are going to be those kind of thought experiments well, once I had that new goal I was able to put a new plan a completely different plan into place create action on it and then in the thirteen months from when she sent that or when I when I set that plan in motion to now I have made six figures in my business three times I don't make six figures a month yet but I've done it three times out of thirteen months that was huge it was exactly what I needed to change the way I was approaching my business to revolutionize the way I thought about my business and we kind of keep using this word revolutionized but that's really what we're doing here the act of turning your service into a product is revolutionizing the way you make money and it also requires you to revolutionize the way you plan for your money and the way you set goals for your business all right so that's what we're about to do the first question I want you to ask is what would you create if time was no object what would you create if time was no object right now your time the only object you have you can't make money without spending more time on your business without spending more time delivering your service and so this question of time is always the biggest question you have I can't do that because it would take me too much time I can't take that much time away from my business so I can't do this other thing I can't set this plan in motion because I don't have time for it I want you to forget time for right now what would you create if time was no object what would you creative time was no object. You guys have any ideas yet? Cory? A bunch of things. Ok, but one is I want to travel like one to two months out of the year. Okay? I had a big taste of that last year. Yeah, awesome. He lived in france for a while. Six months. Yeah. That's awesome. See, you would create some lifestyle. Yeah, I would create some lifestyle changes and overall, like the what it all rolls up into is less me doing the work in the business and more time for me to do other things because I have service projects in our projects that that I want to work on you might create a team because time was no objects that's a good way to put it off for a team that's fantastic. Rebecca I saw you not in graciously. Yeah, I think I would shift to do more creative stuff, more writing, definitely lifestyle changes just to meet the needs of my family. I have less clients, consult with one or two, maybe at longer periods of time or organizations, which I've been a little bit and really enjoyed that too. But I still love what I do with the one on one I wouldn't eradicate that, but I would decrease it significantly and expand probably my brick and mortar business, too nice. Nice. So team would be a big part for you. Attorney is but, you know, mentioning writing. I thinkit's huge. I talked so many people I work with idea people there. If they're not writers there at least communicators by very by their very nature. And that tends to be the thing that they would want to do the most. Either they want to spend way more time writing so they'd create a book. If time was no object or oftentimes they want to go out on the speaking circuit. How many of you guys have time to speak right now? A little bit, but probably not too much that's. Something that has been huge for me. It is. I need to make the time to speak. I I love this. Maybe you haven't noticed. I love this and it's actually one of the best activities I can do for my business as well. Just aside from you know, the results of, you know, creating a course here and selling, of course. Here I get clients from this. I get new customers from this directly and that's. Huge. That happens every time I speak. It turns into tens of thousands of dollars, just naturally. So speaking, has been something I've really had to make time for it's hard to take three days away from your business to come to san francisco and and put this on, let alone all the content creation. Do you have time for that? So what would you create if time was no object? Now, the next question is what would creating that allow you to accomplish what we're creating that allow you to accomplish now? Korean rebecca already kind of got into this a little bit with lifestyle changes a lot of us would make like to make lifestyle changes. A lot of us would like to retire our husbands. A lot of us would like to travel more sometimes, though it's it's staying home with the kids more right, or it's going out with friends mohr or its service projects or its creative activities, but let's, think about it about it in terms of your businesses. Well, if you were to create that thing that you want to create, because time is no object, what would that thing allow you to accomplish in your business? Writing a book could put you on the media circuit writing a book could get you those speaking gigs that you're really craving, writing, writing a book changes your reputation in ways you cannot even imagine at this point. Writing a book could do all of that what are the things that you want to do and how could that change what you'd be able to accomplish? Bridget what do you want to accomplish because you've created this workshop yeah well you know what I want to build towards actually is doing like a conference or incubator for social enterprises so there's a lot of like startup incubators and saul but user acquisition but what if it's about when your marketing for impact how does that change what you're doing and so that's what I'm trying to build that's my like time is no object gotcha and for me like that just creates and the workshop is doing this already but like so much more impact like I am total like quintessential bleeding heart you know and I have so many causes that I care about and I can't ever pick wantto work with and so this is a way to be able to bring them to me and help more people and like have a much bigger impact in communities beautiful I'm sure lots of people can identify with that as well yeah that's huge right the third question then is what do you really want from your business? What do you really want from your business? Think about money think about team think about reputation think about exit strategy what do you really want from your business? Think about impact think about community think about the people that you want tohave around you think of the relationships that you want to build what do you really want from your business to go back to this difference between self employment and business ownership what I often see is a mismatch between a self employment mindset and business owner goals I think what a lot of you might be realizing is that the goals that you have for your business our business owner goals you want to speak on stage is you want to write the book you want to build the community you wanna have a giant impact in the world who want to be featured in magazines you wantto be a guest expert on cnn self employed people generally do not achieve those things it's not why they're doing what they're doing and please don't get me wrong I don't have a problem with self employment it's a realization that that's what's going on you're on in your business it's important and why you're having a hard time achieving the things that you really want if you want to do the work day in and day out if you want to immerse yourself in the passion that you have for that work by all means do it but get clear on what your goals are if your goal is to do the work day in and day out great that works for you but if you want these other things you have to switch into business ownership and into that mind set so that you can achieve those goals. Business owners achieve those goals that's who I see you guys as that's so your your goals your goals need to match your mindset um so I want to get a couple of the goals or what we really want from our businesses and then I want to put someone on the hot seat and kind of work through these questions together so that you can kind of see what this process looks because this is this is a lot of introspection that needs to happen this is a process of deep self inquiry on and these are the things that you have to think about as a business owner. So what do you really want from your business, natalie? Um I would say to feel like a master to feel not that expertise and the goto expert okay, go to expert that's huge. Yeah. So what do you think being the goto expert looks like? It looks fancy. Hey, I love that I don't know that's a really good question. I mean, I don't know in terms of like specifics, but it just seems very sparkly and fans see okay, I read for lack of a better word yeah, so I'm gonna challenge you to define what fancy looks like tio and what you think comes along with being the go to expert I can remember uh would have been like three, three and a half years ago now right when my travel schedule was really starting to pick up and I was splurging and buying economy plus seats on airplanes and I had I think I have been upgraded once two first class it was very excited about it it was like this is magical and fancy revealed on and I said I can remember saying to my mother um I will really like I cannot wait until the day when all I do is fly first class and this year through a combination of all sorts of things I have ninety percent of the time I flown first class and it's been wonderful some of its travel hacking some of its you know, that kind of travel being paid for by other people, some of it's no it's worth it for me to spend the extra money to make sure that I feel better when I get off the plane you know, because if you're traveling across country multiple times per month it really does make a huge difference on dh so that was one of the ways that I defined fancy I probably don't think of it this fancy at the time that was one of the things and so it dawned on me as I was boarding the plane to get here yesterday wow I've achieved one of those goals or mostly achieved one of those goals that I had for myself and what would my business would look like when it wass you know, operating at a certain point and when I was you know that desired of a speaker or when I was that desired oven instructor, whatever it might be that was a really big realization for me and it was also a goal that I just had my mind set on it was actually something I was working toward in my plan so I want you to go step by step what does fancy look like to you? All right, I know that might sound silly but it's hugely important you have to know exactly what these things look like rebecca what do you really want from your business? Well, I had some knots and then I had some things I don't want to stress me out and I don't want to hold me back great and so that's part of the mindset ship have been working on I wanted to feel my flexibility I I wanted teo improve the reputation of therapy my field has a good reputation and so that's something I'm really talking to my team about I want more freedom which is one of my core values and in part of the team to use the train more people who have the lens on that too and um and his into supplier inspire my kid's great so perfect thanks. All right, we're going to go to a hot seat love hot seating because you can really see how this process breaks down for somebody else and so hot seats are going to be something that we use a lot throughout the class so you can really have ah, really good look at what this process actually is because it is a process it's not just a set of ideas that I can teach you it's a process. So michelle, I'm gonna pick on you for our first hot seat. Is that okay? Great. I know you're going toe match my energy and help me. Uh yes, push on through. So I actually just want to tackle these three questions with you. Okay, but first tell us who you are, where we can find you online and what it is that you d'oh alright, I am dr michelle maser. I'm ceo of communication rebel and I'm trying to build an agency or I'm in the process of building an agency that helps speakers, entrepreneurs and consultants kraft presentations that position them as the go to experts in their field. Yes, and I have worked with michele myself and her process is fantastic and it's completely changed the way that I prepare presentations thie other person that has I've worked with that change the way I teach is brienne, dick and she's actually going to be joining us in lessons? I think twenty three twenty four for as a guest instructor, so we'll have her on later a little foreshadowing there. So when I forgot to mention you could find me a doctor michele maser dot com that I want to find me yeah, so what would you creative time was no objects and let's let's dive a little bit deeper than what you shared earlier? Yeah, so I've been re embracing my academic self, some mind, my background, what is academia? I was a college professor before I ran away as quickly as I possibly could from the politics and I'm starting think more about this idea of mentorship and how can I meant her, like other speaking coaches to help, does not help them design they're designed for their clients really amazing presentations because I've had to undo some damage on the list on I want to be able to take my expertise in communication and apply it tio to their experience into their clients so that I can reach more people. So I love this idea of mentoring, and it goes back to my academics where I got to you mentor graduate students all the time yeah, this is a great example because mentorship is not it's, not scaleable but that's still what you want to create with your business, sir? That's the relationship I want to create in your business if time is no object. And I think that might be true for a lot of people out there is that really what you want is to be able to spend unlimited amounts of time the clients. So then you have to ask yourself, what could that be look like on dh that's? The question that we're going to come back over and over again. I just asked natalie. Well, what does fancy look like, tio, right? What does that look like? So you said an agency more about that. So I have this agency idea it's akin to, like nancy dewar taste agency, where she has it's pretty full service, where she can help you with your branding in your positioning and messaging and building the presentation and then designing the power point that goes with it, and I'd love to take the methodology that I've created with speak for impact and make a bunch of mini mieze, so I have my minions that could come out and help people create presentations but also have some creatives who do the design. A portion of it so that we can really be full service and have people who know a lot about branding and messaging step in and how people figure out like okay how are you brandon yourself as a speaker how are you messaging this or even for your start up or whatever your business is helping them with that component and being very full service about it tonight I love the full service element I also really like that you mentioned minions obviously because I think that's an important thing to realize is if this business isn't just me and it's not just that my job anymore what else could it look like? And so you're you're kind of putting together these two things that don't normally go together mentorship on dh not it being not me right generally when we think of mentor shepherd we think of coaching or advising our consulting it's me I'm doing that I know how to do that and I will go do it and one of the important things that we can shift is if we say no no the constraint is now that it's not me but I still want to make this thing you could figure out a way to do that yeah so that's fantastic so what would creating a full service presentation agency allow you to accomplish? I would like to have something that I could sell at some point in time because I you know, I don't want to be doing this when I'm seventy really do not want to be doing this on and also I think part of that is like, lifestyle is retiring glen from his day job, so he doesn't have to do that anymore, but I do want to have an exit strategy is something that I can sell, but also that is very satisfying and being ableto work on projects that I am excited about because their innovative and they're cutting edge because those are the types of people I know I work best with, and they can be sometimes no idea people, I have a lot of ideas to call down, and they could be a little difficult to work with candy, but I love that creative process, so if I had this bigger business for so I could select the project that I wanted to be involved, move, be like, yes, president clinton, we love to design that I will walk you through the process you absolutely, but but also just having all the people under me, you know, being able to help is many people as we could with their presentation skills so they can get their message out great, so another thing that I want to point out is that this michelle's goal isn't necessarily about scale. There's an element of scale, and it she can take on more projects with an agency than she could buy herself. However that's, not the chief goal, the chief goal here is is really leverage it's, you know, it's creating a system that allows you to get mohr from less effort because, you know, systematize ing things just that's part of this part of the goal of systematize ing things is getting more and better results from les, you know, mental work, more less energy, all of that good stuff. So if any of you out there are thinking in terms of, you know, so scale isn't necessarily something I want, or I think what I want to do isn't necessarily even still scaleable. Does this still apply abs? Absolutely because leverages another really good option on dh that's exactly what you're talking about on dh, then the final question is, what do you really want from your business? I want it. I wanted to leave a lasting impact. I almost think about it as legacy it's, not necessarily just creating it, and then I'm out. Then I dine glenn goes, what do I do with this thing right but that there is like a legacy that goes on after I'm long out of the business or I'm dead this is horribly dark eye for me that's what I want to accomplish like I want to have a very nice lifestyle where we get to travel and have and live where we want to live but also it's having that lasting impact so that my work gets passed down to other people great so impact is huge legacy is huge you know how many self employed people leave a lasting legacy? The answer is not many mean there might be a few I'm sure there's a few but generally what we see is people who start and create and nurture businesses leave legacies and so his legacy is a part of your goal a cz as I think it probably should be I think that's that's really important and really big do you have a revenue goal in mind for this agency? Where would you like to get the agency in terms of sales? So I wrote down first thing that scared me, which was a million dollars a year which when you're doing an agency that seems totally doable when researching and studying but that was like the first thing is that scares the crap out of me to think about bringing in a million dollars yeah yeah, and I think I mean, for you, the thing toe to break that down into is then how many projects does that mean per year? And you're probably looking at fifty to one hundred thousand dollar projects, right? So that might be in bringing in ten to twenty projects a year. That's not that hard right now now? No. And so but you have to think then, okay, so what does a fifty thousand dollar project looked like? What does one hundred thousand dollar project look like? Um, who do I need on my team for that? You know, what are the air, the outcomes that we want to be able to promise people or at least be working toward who were the kinds of clients that are willing to pay for it the one hundred thousand dollars for this type of service? And so when you start with the big, hairy, scary goal, like a million dollars in revenue, which I agree is completely doable, you start to be able to break it down that's what I did when I finally had that six figure per month goal it's like, okay, what does that look like? How do I break that down? And now I know I know exactly how it breaks down, and they're going to be changes I'm making in my business so that next year that's achievable instead of three months out of thirteen it's thirteen out of thirteen that we're bringing in six figures yes oh yes oh that's fantastic uh anything else? No just it's funny because I've had this agency idea for a very long time and I've never known how it was going to like how is going to figure it out and I'm like okay I don't need to know and I think that's one of the things I'm learning is that I have a lot of things that I have already in my head and I'm like, oh, I'm able to start seeing this a little bit better and coming a little bit clearer as I sit in the audience and yeah and when you know I'm a big fan of knowing where you're headed on dh that knowing where you're headed helps you you know, come up with the navigational route between those two places on dso that's why this these questions of goal setting our hugely important you don't figure out how to build an agency first you figure out what the agency is gonna look like for you based on your personal values, your constraints, the things you want to be creating in the world and then create a plan to get there this is also why self employment tends to be something that we get stuck in because we know what it's like to have a job and so we know howto build and where we can figure out how to build a job for ourselves it's much more difficult to figure out how to build a business for ourselves many of us don't even know that that's really a possibility and so we got to get stuck in this rut but but you say no I'm gonna build an agency that brings in a million dollars a year in ten to twenty you know, ten to twenty projects at a time now you've got the foundation you need to say okay what does that organization like what are the clients that were serving what does one hundred thousand dollars project looked like and so now that now you're creating it you're not figuring out how to build it you are creating at peace by piece and you know, that's we talked about imposter complex earlier and I think that this is a big piece of it too you know imposter complex happens when you think you have tto have something figured out before you do it and that's what you know I can't start an agency I don't know how to do that no you decide you're going to create an agency and then you figure it out as you go that's what adult ing is figuring it out as you go I think I mean even through my twenties I would think well I don't know how to do that so I can't now adults just figure this stuff out as they go there is no magic formula of learning how to build an agency you just do it but to do it you gotta have an idea of what it looks like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah and I think that was my biggest struggle was like, I'm not sure what this thing is gonna look like, but I know I want to have this thing yeah, but you could be in that place for twenty years and so making the switch to decide I know I'm gonna figure out what this looks like now and then that just, you know, really increases your rate of actually getting there cool. Thanks, michelle sure think so. Tweet me what's your new goal what is your new goal you can use at terra gentilly at creative live hashtag is terror alive? I want to know what's your new goal and was here from some of you first actually, jen, I'm asked some of the panelists first to tell me if they've thought of a new goal while they're sitting here have one of the things I've been thinking about for a long time has been called what if weekends which would be a serious of simultaneous events that happened throughout north america potentially a world where it's like just one big what if weekend and of course I team building yeah I'd have to trust people to do that for me which is a challenge and so with that I realize that what I want from my from my business and this is interesting is I wrote down a legacy of impact um and to create a world where in people embrace their creativity is not only a um also it work product but a process that allows them to have a really successful business in life so rather than identify with what we do identify with who we are nice yeah nice that's the new goal other people jennifer all right um what I really want from my business at least what I've always told myself isn't really want financial security and retirement because my husband is actually fairly close toe actually retiring oh wow and so I'm concerned you know he will die eventually and then I need money to live on in my retirement it's the most depressing creative continue on with that but since he is retiring soon that means we'll have the flexibility to travel more and if I have a business at home I can do it from anywhere but I think the other part of that is what I also want us to be seen as an authority an expert in my field and I really need to own more of that and listen to things that bridget says so that I can be more visible in my industry and do the types of things that go along with that. Nice. So my new goal, he needs to be something more like a hundred fifty to two hundred thousand dollars a year per fitness. You are that is so doable for you. Not that she doesn't believe I really believe it's just about because my business is based on scale and valium. It needs to be I need more, more of that visibility to get the leaves into the business. Well, there you go. And so I think that shifting to a goal of visibility shifting to a goal as expert or, you know, thought leader known leader in your field is actually huge piece ofyou shifting into the revenue track that you need to be on it's not oh, I make this happen, and then I become an expert it's I become an expert or known as an expert so that I can make this habit and it's not just about making the math work out and having all the obvious place it has to have both together. Yes, absolutely. Lily, do we have some tweets that have come in yet in terms of new goals? Yes, we have some tweets and chat room respond awesome chris with the cases, the major lee long term accomplishment I want it's have a woman's publishing house called uproar there's a validation right there chris go do it inside of that publishing house I want to have a programme we're storytellers and story coaches travelled to a woman in the world without the power to share their voice and get their stories told teo everybody's yeah about teo on dh kelly out strategy says I would spend all my time talking with small medium groups of people teaching and mentoring them oh that's a great goal yeah so I think you know realizing these things that maybe you've told yourself wow it would be so great if I could do that make it ah goal don't just say it would be so great if if is not something you create a plan from when is something that you make a plan from when do you want this to happen? This could happen next year it could happen six months from now so now that you've got that new goal in mind I want you to put a frickin deadline on it this is not this is not something that happens in the far off future this is something you're creating now you put a deadline on it and you say this is something I'm making it happen now you start working in that direction and your story might be a lot like mine where you keep doing what you were doing before for two years before you start making that transition and that's okay but it puts purpose. It puts direction. It puts mo mentum behind what you're doing, and that can change everything.