It is Labor Day weekend as I prepare this episode. I actually had a different topic in mind originally. But, I realized that this is the time of year where entrepreneurs are assessing how their year is going. For a business that could look like assessing sales, email list subscriber growth, accolades, did you set out to do what you planned on doing and more. For some people this assessment may take you down the rabbit’s hole of what ifs. What if I had done this that or the other differently? In this episode I’m going to share some tips on how to reenergize and get focused so that you can end the year meeting the goals that you’d originally set.
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Show Notes
- It’s important to assess if your goals have changed from what you initially set at the beginning of the year. Our circumstances change through the year and you may find that your original goals have already been met, might be too easy, too difficult or maybe you’re not excited about the original goals that you set.
- Spend time reviewing your data. Work your numbers. If you had the goal of diversifying your income what has worked and what hasn’t? In my case, I have my course “Make Money with Ebooks” and my coaching, as well as ebooks and affiliate income as part of my business. But, I stopped selling my course at the end of April 2020. I’ve started selling it again two weeks. So, if I had included course income projections in my Spring-Summer income for this year, those initial earnings projection would be wrong. If you haven’t created a data set, start now. Begin tracking your earnings, how many subscribers you have, etc. That will help you figure out what is and what isn’t working in your business.
- Rethink your strategy. Especially, if you’re a multi-passionate online entrepreneur. If you are running more than one project, what is the #1 goal for each project? Because having multiple areas of focus complicates things, it’s important to simplify your projects. For me this also meant the following:
- Figuring out my video strategy. I don’t have video content and this has become an issue. But, I’ve decided that I don’t need to personally produce video for all my platforms. For example:
- I will only use TikTok and Instagram Reels for my Colorado website and podcast. I actually think this will make it easier for me to hit the page views that I need to place ads on my website. Why is this important? Because I was spending a lot of time trying to decide how I should use TikTok and how it could connect me with the result that I wanted fastest. Why is this important? Because my #1 focus is growing my page views.
- For my romance platform I’m going to just focus on writing books. Seems pretty straightforward. But, I stopped writing for almost 2 years. I’ve just recently felt motivated to write again.
- For Michelle is Money Hungry I’m really focused on growing my podcast downloads. I love that podcast so much.
- Brand Building Lab-Creating 2 helpful pieces of content to be published each week.
- Figuring out my video strategy. I don’t have video content and this has become an issue. But, I’ve decided that I don’t need to personally produce video for all my platforms. For example:
- I should mention that I batch my work and focus on one platform a day until I’m done with the work for that day.
- Assess what HAS and HAS NOT worked in the past. You can make adjustments to your process but lead with what works.
- Simplify your sales strategy-Currently I’m onboarding clients for my Brand Building Lab Group Coaching program that begins on September 29, 2021. I have 15 spots for that program. In order to hit that 15 ideally I need to to pitch to 500 leads. If I were to look at my social media platforms and email list I can pretty comfortably assume that I should hit that goal.
- Share your goals and aspirations so that your friends and community can help you get in front of enough people to meet your goals.
- Pitch your ass off and don’t take it personally if your prospects say “No” do the numbers to figure out how many prospects you need to reach out to in order to get that “yes”
- Say “No” to what won’t serve you well and eliminate unnecessary distractions from your goals. It has been a pretty intense year so far. Going into Fall I’m attending a conference each month, working on my books, opening my Brand Building Lab group coaching program (reach out to me in my DMs if you’d like more information) I had to really be clear on what I can say “yes” to moving forward. What I’ve said “no” to so far
- Unnecessarily complicated speaker or panel obligations
- Being invited to sit on a board of directors for a new app
- A book group for romances. Now if it was a book group for Sci-fi or dystopian books I would almost say “yes” but a book group for romances? That’s a quick and easy “no”
- Pick your brains-No.
- No to meetings prior to 10:00 am unless it’s unavoidable. I’m not a morning person and so I don’t show up at my best first thing in the morning.
- “No” to always being available or on call
- What to say “Yes” to
- A clear schedule-spend some time really thinking about how you do your best work and when that work occurs
- A prescheduled time where I can show up and answer questions or talk about a topic or issue that I think my community needs support in. These are my Fireside chats or free webinars that are basically the same thing as “pick your brains”
- Having firm boundaries that your respect your energy
- Always talking about the products and services you have for sale. In evaluating my platform I found that to be an issue and part of the reason why I leaned into sharing those products and services on my podcasts. I’ve become very purposeful about talking about my products in every episode typically as a sponsor of the show or a resource.
- Push hard but be kind to yourself. Sometimes we don’t meet our goals but sometimes we do. Be kind to yourself either way. I have some VERY aggressive goals for the end of Q3 and Q4. These goals are simultaneously exciting and frightening. We’ll see how it goes!
- How are you doing with your business related goals so far this year?
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