This blog post contains the transcription of a free virtual Lunch & Learn we hosted in January 2024 titled, “Setting 2024 Goals for Your Business.” You can view all of our upcoming webinars here.
Top Goal Setting Tips
Who are the Top Experts to Know?
Christina Spinazola is someone who has become pretty un-concerned with titles. Why? Because language doesn’t touch what I really help people with. I help people find and access new feelings of possibility and deepen their understanding of love as a way to transform their lives and businesses. When I have to share a title, I play with calling myself a Certified Professional Risk Taker Coach. For the last 5 years, I’ve been powerfully coaching entrepreneurs and leaders through their perceived challenges by helping them better understand their minds and can’t wait to do the same for this group. When I’m not coaching I can be found chasing the sunrise on top of a mountain or reading a good book under a fuzzy blanket.
Jessica Miller is a Sales and Growth Strategist that helps established entrepreneurs optimize their offers for profit so they can stop chasing clients and money, and instead generate consistent income while doing less. After working with dozens of business owners she has seen that the difference between burnout and thriving is having a Hell Yes Offer at the center of the business. Jessica has spoken at The StoryBrand Made Simple Summit, The Maine Women’s Conference, and several others, and is a favorite guest expert in private high-level masterminds and has been a guest on much-loved podcasts like Susan Hyatt’s Rich Coach Club, and The Next On Scene podcast. Jess is also the host of the It’s Your Offer Podcast.
Dr. Sarah Reiff-Hekking is the founder of True Focus Coaching Inc. She is a speaker, coach, and Productivity and Time Matters Expert with over 20 years of experience empowering entrepreneurs, small business owners, professionals and executives to get a grip on time so that they can get to the next level in their lives and businesses. She teaches her clients how to achieve their highest priorities, professional goals, and have the whole life they want.
How Do Business Owners Know What They Should Even Set for Goals?
When thinking about goals, think about what lights you up. Although you want the formula for growing your business, thriving, and doing that in a way that is the most impactful, it needs to start with what you’re really excited about. What is a “hell yes” for you? What do you want to sell that really lights you up that your clients also love that you can then reverse engineer this plan to actually make it work?
Additionally, think about your whole life, not just the business. Think about the whole life that you want to create, because if you’re only setting business goals, then you’re going to miss out on the opportunities and actually figuring out what is the “yes” and conversation you need to be having with yourself. How do your business goals work with the whole life that you want? Because if you don’t ask that question, you’re going to get an amazing business, hopefully, if you get the right guidance there, but you’re not going to have the life you want.
How Do You Know If Your Goals Are Realistic?
It doesn’t matter! “Realistic” looks so different for so many people. Instead of asking yourself if it’s realistic, ask yourself if it’s inspiring and empowering. You can take a huge goal that maybe isn’t feasible to do in a year, but it’s empowering, it’s inspiring, and it gives you energy thinking about it. And that’s awesome.
We all need to set goals that work for our brain, our life, our body, and our business. Some people are incredibly inspired by that big hairy goal that feels like maybe they’re never going to reach it, but it keeps them in action, it keeps them moving, and it keeps them focused. And that inspires them. Some people are completely demoralized by that. So if you’re somebody that gets demoralized by that big hairy goal, then you still want to say to yourself, “What’s the direction I want to go in? What is the end target? And what feels like the right step to go to that target?” What happens sometimes is that if we don’t ask ourselves the end target, which is that goal, then we end up targeting something else, just because it seems easier or it seems like the right thing.
People often feel like they should be targeting something specific. You need to ask yourself if it is a meaningful and important goal for you. Because lots of times we’re chasing things that we don’t need, that we don’t actually want, but we feel like we should want. You need to get really, really clear about what motivates you.
Goal setting is this beautiful combination of energy and practicality. Think about what lights you up because your business and your goals are a vehicle to create the life that you want and the more of those things that you do shape your reality. Additionally, be very selective in where you choose to put your energy and time. This is really important when setting goals because more goals do not get you better results, and the wrong goals actually slow you down.
On the Opposite End, How Do You Ensure Goals Aren’t Too Easy?
Get out of your own head in some way. Say it out loud, write it down, and talk with people that you can trust to brainstorm with you and not knock you down. Trust yourself and learn how to plan further out in time and reach those goals. Stay in relationship with goals, start with small ones, trust that you can create bigger ones, and have that board of directors in your life.
If you’ve done something once, you can do it again. Create repeatable assets and continue to leverage those because success really is that combination of repeatable actions.
There are a lot of limiting beliefs around how to do something. In reality, you can do anything that you want. It’s just a matter of deciding whether or not that’s what you really want and if you are willing to put in the time and the effort to do that. Literally anything is possible. Most people have the skills that they need right now to do it. They’re just not seeing those building blocks.
Easy goals are just to-do lists. Goals aren’t really about a place to get to. They’re really about a place to come from. Envision yourself in that goal, having already achieved it, and work backwards from there to see what it is you need to do to get there.
What Are the Best Ways for Staying On Track?
People fall down during the execution. They can visualize, but it’s the structure and the system that falters people. Any way that you can set up a structure that works for you and that’s going to keep you accountable and moving forward is crucial. Additionally, automate it as much as possible. It needs to work for your brain, your life, your body, and your business.
Acknowledge that you have set these goals and keep them in front of you, too. Have a relationship with that goal.
Think about the difference between an intention and a commitment. Pick something that works for you and find a way to check in. If it’s a commitment, it gets done. It’s really clear.
The data is so important. There’s something so powerful about data because it gives you concrete information.
Have a plan as well, especially for derailment. How do you set up those guardrails? Life is going to happen. When you start to go off the rails, how do you put in those stop gaps to keep you on track?
How Do Business Owners Avoid Getting Caught Up in the Comparison Game?
Goals are really personal. Why do you care about it? What lights you up? What is that conversation internally?
Comparison can only be helpful if it’s going to highlight something that maybe you could do that would be helpful for you getting where you want to go, but if you’re running your business because you want to do the same thing that that other person does, it’s not going to work for you.
Don’t do it. Stop comparing yourself. It’s not useful and it’s ruining your experience.
Compare where it makes sense. That means doing it on a data level with similarities between you and the other business. If you want to learn from someone, that creates positive tension and is inspiring.
How much and why do you want this? And are you willing to become the person who takes the actions that actually lead to that reality? Comparing in a messy way is never going to be the thing to get you there. It’s just going to slow you down.
Can You Change Your Goals During the Year?
A lot of people only will pivot when they find themselves in total distress. Finding ways to pivot before then can be really powerful. The more you can start really tuning into those really early intuitive nudges, the bigger change you can make.
People are afraid to fail, so they hold onto things. Go for it, fail all over the place, and keep moving. Making mistakes is really good information. If you’re doing something that’s not working, it’s good information. It doesn’t mean that you’re doing anything wrong. It might just be the wrong thing for you or your business, so make a shift and find that right thing. Do it sooner than later.
What is Some Additional Advice for Someone Getting Started with Goal Setting?
Find the one thing that’s going to have the biggest impact in your business to get you closer to where you want to go in your life and in your business and do that thing.
Lean into giving yourself some time to think about the goal.
Direction is more important than pace. If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will do. Pick a goal, move towards it, see what comes from it, and evaluate as you go.
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