It’s the New Year and with that comes “GOALS”. Goals are a funny thing; most of us try making goals and I say try because we veer off the path. It’s totally normal to have good intentions - call it a New Year’s resolution, Goals for the New Year, New Year New Me… literally call it whatever you want - we all have some sort of declaration of who we will become and what we will do to achieve our “goals”.
Well, for me… this is the first New Year’s I can remember that I am not stressing over goals. I wrote a book a little over a year ago called “The Written Goal” because I used to be a goal-setting junkie.
The real reason why I wrote this book was because I read “Think & Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill when I was 23 years old launching my first business and I directly attribute my wins because of the lessons learned in that book. My book about goal-setting was more of a workbook and an actionable guide version of “Think & Grow Rich”. I think there was a part of me that knew at the time that I was going to slow down on my own goal-setting, so I wanted to document my process for my future self, family, friends and colleagues that might want an exact step-by-step process that is proven to work.
Why I Don’t Set Goals Anymore
I still set “goals”, I just don’t have as strict a plan to achieve my goals as I used to. Now, I just simply jot them down and read them as needed and keep them as a north star. I realized something in the Spring of 2019… I realized that I was a goal-setting junkie and the process took me in circles.
I’d set goals, then achieve said goals, I’d celebrate achieving my goals loosely, then re-align and make new goals. I ended up realizing that each time I reached a goal I felt more empty than I did before setting out to achieve my goals.
This took me on a path of self discovery and spirituality to question why I’d feel empty after accomplishments. I still don’t know the answer to this question but for 2020 I do now that I want to do the things that truly bring me joy and not do the things that I think I’m supposed to do.
What Brings Me Joy
I realized in the Summer/Fall of 2019 that my true passion is working with other Entrepreneurs. I love the mindset of an Entrepreneur and these people are truly my “tribe”. I decided that rather than focus on the work that I’m good at that leaves me feeling unfulfilled, I’m going to shift my business attention to a new audience… Entrepreneurs.
Now, don’t get me wrong - I’m still selling Swag to end-users like admins and event planners but at the end of the day I don’t get the satisfaction out of bringing branded merchandise to life like I once did. I used to have such passion for taking a piece of artwork and bringing it to life on cool products. The appreciation from my clients did bring fulfillment as well. But, as I grew in my career I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried new things which uncovered new passions.
I tried podcasting, I tried blogging, I tried creating videos on YouTube, I tried writing books… I tried everything that a content creator would do. In the process I realized two things…
One, creating content is a fast track to building your personal brand and will increase your sales by leveraging the perception as a thought leader (contact me directly and I’ll let you know the exact ROI after tracking it for more than a year and a half - it’s more than you would have thought!).
AND two, that I love creating content and in the process of juggling so many new and different activities I have a strong skill set in creating, building, scaling and organizing multiple projects.
I found a niche in teaching Entrepreneurs how to work less while making more and I’ve been sharing my step-by-step process through my new business “Clone Yourself” since the Fall of 2019.
Virtual Assistants are My Secret Weapon
While I do have some loose goals for Clone Yourself, I have more of a vision than anything. I will be coaching Entrepreneurs to transform their business in 2020 through building out systems, creating content and ultimately giving them their freedom back from being a slave to their business.
If you can relate to any of this at all, I urge you to take the “fast pass” to working less and making more by checking out the first 15 episodes of the Clone Yourself podcast.
If you want some FREE worksheets and resources check out this link on the website with a ton of freebies. One of my personal favorite freebies my VA team and I created for you is the “Brand Guidelines Template”.
This is perfect for anyone in our promotional products industry. Whether you need to hold yourself accountable and use this template to create (or tweak) your own brand guidelines or you use it to share with your audience - this is right up your alley!
Seriously, please don’t just take my exact template and send it out to your audience. Rather, use it for inspiration, then using this guide to build a lead magnet go ahead and create a lead magnet. You might find this is uncharted waters, so I’d recommend checking out this online calculator that will show you the ROI of a VA. Finding small crevices within your business to hire out some work to VA’s is a great start to freeing up your time in 2020.
I digress tho…
My Hope for You
Let this new year and this new decade be a time to focus on you. Rather than getting caught up in the day to day grind of “work”, live your life. For most of us (especially Entrepreneurs); there comes a time in our career when we question what we’ve built. Why have we built what we have? What purpose does this serve? Do I enjoy the work I’m doing? How has my business become so dependent on me?
Remember, the goal of a business is to build it as a well-oiled machine that runs itself without you needing to work within the business. Let’s get back to our why and re-align to what truly brings us joy in 2020.
To Following Your Passions,
Sam AKA SwagSam
Sam Kabert is the creative director of SwagWorx 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@SwagWorx.com.