What you will Learn:
- How to discover your why
- How to write your goal(s)
- The importance of Calendaring
- Visualization & Mindset Tips
- Creating a Plan and Taking Action
Introduction
I never understood the art (and the importance) of goal-setting until I read the book “Think & Grow Rich”. Although I read this book in 2011, I didn’t fully dive into the teachings of the book until the fall of 2015 when I took my goal-setting approach to the next level. In this post, I’ll share with you a “How-to” approach to keeping yourself accountable so that you WILL ACHIEVE your #1 Goal in 2018.
If you’re more of an audio person, then you can check out my Podcast version of this guide here.
EXERCISE 1
Your Why
Story: You’ve heard it before, it all starts with your why… your purpose. What is your driving factor to be inspired to reach your number one goal or goals? Whether it’s family/personal, business or even health related… discover your why.
My goal for 2016 was to reach $1,000,000 in sales and I’ll tell you right now why I didn’t reach it: I didn’t know my why. At the time, my why was logic based and not passion based. I noticed that the previous three years I had nearly doubled in sales each year so a million dollar sales year seemed to be the next logical step. That’s not enough as you need to want it and you need to want it bad.
My WHY for 2018 is that I want to inspire and motivate others to do the things they never believed they could do. When I was triathlon training back in 2015 my favorite quote was “Successful people do the things unsuccessful people don’t like to do”. I know what it takes to challenge yourself and find the inner strength to overcome negative self talk to ultimately achieve your goals.
Action: Take out a piece of paper and write down the 3 things that matter most to you. Underneath that write down “Holding me back” and underline it. Jot down some things that are holding you back.
What do you see here?
Do you see an opportunity?
If it doesn’t come naturally, sleep on it and do this task again in the next 2 days. You’re going to start naturally questioning the things you do on a daily basis which is exactly what you want as it's the genesis of discovering your why.
EXERCISE 2
One Big Goal
Now that you have identified your “why”, It's time to write down your BIG GOAL.
In the past I’ve always had one big goal and it’s always been a sales goal. This year I have six main goals I’m focusing on, but I realized that I need one all encompassing “BIG GOAL” that supports all the goals. In addition to that, I’m breaking up my BIG GOAL to be quarterly versus yearly.
My goal for the first quarter of 2018 is by April 1st, I will have documented systems and processes in place to support my content marketing efforts which include the Mojo Mondays, Pod n Blog, Brand Hero Podcast, Hero Stories, and the WhatUp Silicon Valley Network.
Action: Whether you are working on one or multiple goals be sure to write out your goal as a S.M.A.R.T. goal (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results - Focused, Time Bound). Rather than stressing out about making sure each goal I list is “S.M.A.R.T.” I focus on the specific and time bound portions of the S.M.A.R.T. acronym.
Write down your BIG GOAL.
EXERCISE 3
Calendaring
I’ve had friends tell me that I should consider a career in business coaching. Well, honestly I’m just doing what my business coach taught me, what I hear thought leaders doing on podcasts, and mimicking the things other successful people do. I just do it in a way that works for me.
I’ve always been huge on using my digital calendar. However, I didn’t actually put all the tasks I was doing into my calendar until my business coach taught me the importance of doing so. I really didn’t like it at first. I mean what type of “numbers hater” like myself would like doing their finances just because your calendar says you have to. It’s something you need to do and honestly it was stressful.
I’d look at my calendar (whatever the task was) and if my workload didn’t allow time for it I wouldn’t do it. Well, good thing my coach gave me this simple tip…if you don’t actually have time to do the task that you have slotted in your calendar… well, then just push it back for when you do have time. In other words, if I’m going to be updating my expenses for the WhatUp podcast the first Monday of every month and if that day happens to be overloaded with client requests etc., then I’ll edit the calendar task from Monday to Tuesday or Wednesday of that week when I have an open spot. You get the idea.
Action: Do you have a written down list of your daily/weekly/monthly tasks? If you don’t, I have a “Time Audit” worksheet you can use that helps guide you to identify your most frequent tasks (just send me an email at sam@valuebp.com and I’ll get it to you). OR a much easier exercise would be to use my “Skills / Fun Matrix” worksheet. You can get more info on that here from my December PromoCorner blog post.
The point is we need to know your tasks and then categorize them. Some categories you may have are as follows:
- Sales
- Marketing
- Finance
- Admin
Ultimately I decided rather than putting each specific task on my calendar I like to just put in the categories. Let’s use SALES as an example. You surely need to be sending cold emails and also make time for prospecting / researching. Instead of putting into my calendar ‘cold emails” then another slot for “prospecting / researching” I just type in the category “SALES” into my calendar. I know what to do from there. You could even list out the exact tasks into the notes section of the calendar event. Go ahead and identify your main categories and slot them into your calendar. You can color coordinate it too if you want to get really fancy.
PRO TIP: Try batching and theming your days. In other words, have the same day be when you do sales and marketing so you can use that portion of your brain. I like to do that because I can easily switch from a marketing to a sales thought process whereas it’s much harder for me to switch from marketing to a finance mindset.
EXERCISE 4
Visualization
I write what I refer to as a Power Statement and read it twice daily. Below is my power statement:
Power Statement: Every morning I will read each of my goals. I know I will reach every single one of these goals by sticking to my deadlines. Every piece of content I put out is intentional and made to stick. 2018 will be the year of MAKING IT STICK.
Action:
There are several ways to remind yourself to read your power statements. Here are some ideas you can implement:
- Recurring calendar event. I like to have a link to my Google Doc with my power statement and goals IN the actual event so I can click on the link from my calendar app on my phone.
- Trello (or similar software). If you haven't checked out Trello, then I highly recommend looking into it as a process management tool. It also has a calendar component which you can use as task reminders.
- The Freedom Journal App. I'm a big fan of John Lee Dumas and his podcast. Recently, he came out with a great physical journal called the, "Freedom Journal" which is a tool to help with goal achievement. It features push notifications to remind you to review your goals daily.
And my favorite - the GOALS POSTER. Below is a preview image from my first goals poster in 2016. Here’s what you could do to make your goals poster:
- Theme: If you're like me, you like themes. My theme for 2016 was, "Million Dollar Baby" as I wanted to reach $1M in sales
- Stats: I'm a sports guy so I like seeing what I've achieved and calling it stats. Mentally, it reminds me that I can do it.
- Power Statement: Include your power statement so you can just read it from your goals poster
- Design: I found the actual image from a Salesforce.com resource. I put the content in a google doc and had one of my virtual assistants design it.
- Use: I printed this image out as a poster and put it by my bed. I even had as the wallpaper on my phone!
EXERCISE 5
Create a Plan and Monthly Review
You have a goal - that’s great! But honestly, that doesn’t mean a damn thing until you take ACTION! If you can’t tell already, I’m one of those friends you have that’s constantly talking about goals (annoying I know)... along with that I’m a believer in calendaring. I need to put time on my calendar to actually get the working on your business type stuff done (as discussed previously). Make sure that you put time on your calendar to revisit your goals at the end of the month to track your progress and make changes to your plan as needed.
Taking Action
Make an action item list. It doesn’t need to be too in depth, the point is you are writing it out and by doing so you will be keeping yourself accountable.
Quarter Goal (Example)
I know this goal is within my reach and to achieve this goal I will:
- Create a Trello board for all four marketing strategies that documents every task needed, identify areas I can outsource, and recruit and train a member for tasks like editing podcasts, scheduling blogs, and social media posts.
- In return for this money I will:
- Read my goal every day
- Create a Trello board for each strategy by 1/12/2018
- Start interviewing potential interns from San Jose State University to start 2/1/2018
To achieve this goal, I must give deadlines in the trello board and make sure to schedule time on my calendar to meet each deadline.
Trello
I’ve been using trello for less than a year and I still haven’t quite figured it out completely. In the past few weeks I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts and watched YouTube video’s about Trello and am learning a ton. In February’s post I’ll be sharing my process to loading your goals in trello, how to keep track of them, and the power of this tool in keeping yourself accountable.
Whether you have set your goals or not for 2018, it is never too late.
Swag On,
Sam AKA SwagSam
BONUS
More on HOW to WRITE your Goal(s) … and Starting Backwards
I’m a huge believer in starting backwards. Maybe it’s because our industry is so deadline driven that I’m always starting projects by asking clients “When is your In Hands date?” … regardless start with your goal and we’ll figure out how to achieve it as we move along.
Define your #1 goal for 2018
Write it out as a S.M.A.R.T goal (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused, and Time bound)
I know I’m going to be putting out a lot of content in 2018. I’ll be doing a blog and podcast every Monday called “Mojo Mondays”. On Tuesdays my new podcast called “Brand Hero” will be going live. I’m working on launching “Hero Stories” which is a fancy way to say case studies and I’ll be writing the case studies as a blog post along with an accompanying podcast with my client(s), and of course the write-up will have pictures of the products in action. AND finally my biggest piece of content… WhatUp Silicon Valley. I have a side hustle called WhatUp Silicon Valley that is a podcast network with a different young professional host every day of the week. It’s a lot of managing in terms of the team, the content, outsourcing, scheduling, and just leadership in general. I will not be able to achieve these lofty goals unless I clearly know what is expected of me. So, in the spirit of starting backwards… how will I achieve these goals.
Below are some questions I ask myself when preparing to write a new goal:
- When should the goal be accomplished?
- What needs to happen to achieve the goal?
- What am I willing to sacrifice to achieve the goal?
From there you should have some ideas floating in your head or jotted down on paper (or a google doc if you’re like me). NOW, just write out your goal and make sure it’s S.M.A.R.T. A good goal should always have a deadline. It’s okay if you don’t have every letter of the acronym in your goal but please don’t skimp on the “T” in SMART (time bound).
Below is an example of one of my fully expanded goals:
Goal #4: Launch NEW WEBSITE by 4/2
Statement: The re-branding of ValueBP to Brand Hero will officially be launched on April 2nd, 2018.
I know this goal is within my reach and to achieve this goal I will:
- Reach out to top 20 clients by 1/22 to go over new projects, new products, and the rebrand
- Complete logo by 2/1
- Teaser in signature updates as of 3/1 can call out to share the most recent blog to prepare clients, factories, and business partners of the rebrand
- Checkpoints
- Add "Brand Hero" blog category by 1/19
- Write "about" and "history" section and post as a blog on 1/20
- Write "our process" section and post by 1/22
- Write "team" section and post by 1/26
- Write "Brand Hero" section and post by 2/2
- Write "services" section and post by 2/9
- Write "best of SWAG" section and post by 2/16
- Write "WhatUp Silicon Valley" section and post by 2/23
- Write "hero stories (case studies)" section and post by 3/2
- Review and plan for future pages 3/9
- To make this happen I need to stick to my calendar and meet my deadlines.
Sam Kabert is the creative director of ValueBP Marketing Group and the creator and co-host of the podcast “WhatUp Silicon Valley!” A risk taker who embraces permanent beta, Sam is leading the transformation of his family-run office supplies business into a promotional products powerhouse. Sam can be reached at Sam@ValueBP.com.