2021 is here and what a better way to start the new year is to set your goals.
Sure it does sound easy but what else should you do in order to follow through?
Listen to this week’s episode as Megan shares how she sets her goal in 2021.
2:40 why New Year’s resolutions do not work
7:45 why not thinking forward is good when planning your quarterly goals
16:14 what’s coming up this month on the podcast
Transcript:
So do you think all of the horrors of 2020 are officially over? I’m hoping, um, let’s just say that I’m really not sure how 2021 is going to go. But if you’re listening to this, that means that we have all officially made it out of 2020. And our on our ways, our ways are on our way to newer, funner, better things. And I’m glad you’re here. So if you’re like me, which you probably are since you’re listening to this, you are a goal nerd, and you are constantly thinking about new goals you want to accomplish, or thinking about ways that you want to improve your goals or you’re just always thinking about goals and always thinking about ways to improve it. Improve yourself, improve your business, and it can actually be to your detriment if you’re anything like me, because you just become obsessed with it. And so I wanted to talk today, share a couple of tips that I have found for what is mm, my process for creating goals, how in creating them for 2021 how they’re different from the way that I have been creating goals before. So first let me say I don’t think about resolutions To me, they are I don’t know how I wanna put it. I guess I feel like New Year’s resolutions are, too. They have too much gravitas or they’re just too big. And the pressure that we can put on ourselves to achieve sometimes ludicrous levels of results in 365 days, it as someone who has anxiety and you know, can just go all in really hard. It just e just have to avoid them because there’s too much pressure behind them. So the way that I set goals for a year, uh is I start with the nice tohave and what I mean by that is I’ll think about a couple of big goals that I would would be just amazing to have. So, you know, multiple six figure income dropping £50 you know, whatever. It is just these huge, enormous goals that if I achieved them by December 31st 2021 I would be like, Holy shit, I There’s nothing else I need in life, So I’ve done it all, so I think about that. And then I think about the critical pace, I guess, or I guess, the flipside of nice to have the things that critically must be done. So, you know, what is the minimum income I need this year to survive? You know what? Arthuis, Um minimum variables I need for any kind of health issues or, you know, like so it just basically create this spectrum of ways that I have to keep living this year in ways that I would love to be living by the end of the year. From there I start toe look at quarters, and the only reason I really looked at quarters is because to me, there’s like the right amount of time to see data and to start seeing things, either that air, working or not working. And I give myself another quarter from there to either adjust or go hardcore.
So when I start looking a quarters, I give myself a lot of birth, I guess, for Q1. Q1 is what I usually consider the base line of the year. So when I’m picking a goal and I have the spectrum of critical nice tohave in between I go more towards the critical with just a just a little bit of umph to what I need so that I can say, Okay, I have proven myself within this quarter. These 12 weeks, I’ve proven myself capable of handling ah, little bit higher than what it is I need to survive. And the momentum that that creates this so much better than just trying to go all in on, I don’t know, 500,000 year. Or, you know, just like if I can start with 2000 week, then I know that I’m able to go a little bit higher than the things that I need to survive 2000 weeks, about 100,000 year, and it just sets me up for a good pace. What I used to do before is just se que one means fresh start, go towards that goal, go hard. And it was just a really unfair pressure to put on myself because I’m starting a goal from scratch to think that I can just ramp up in 12 weeks from 0 to 60. It doesn’t work, and it makes me hate myself. Hate the job, hate my work. It makes me feel a lot of pressure and it makes me spiral. And so I found that the most frustrating thing for me to do is actually the most beneficial, and that is to go slow. So when I’m looking at Q one and for the record, I don’t think about Q2 through Q4 until later on. All I do is a focus right on cue one. I don’t let myself think further because I want to see the data from Q1 before I start Dodge Duck dip, diving and dodging. You know, like I start need to have some sort of baseline as a marketer and a big, big nerd. If I don’t have a set of metrics to go by then, I can’t figure out if things air working, and I can’t figure out what is working and what needs to be adjusted. So that’s why this time all I’m doing is looking at Q one. I don’t have any goal set for Q2 through Q for I don’t know. I don’t know what they’re going to be like. I need to know what Q one looks like. So from there. What I start doing is, and I learned this from a coach that I used to work with. Her name is Liz Wolf, and I will when you are picking these goals. So let’s go to 2000 week. Great. So 2000 week is 8000 month, give or take a week. So if I’m breaking it down to 2000 week, how am I going to make 2000 week? So it’s no longer just I would love to make $2000 a week. What it is instead is I have a goal of $2000 a week. $2000 a week is about 400 bucks a work day. What do I have in my cash of tools? Um, clients, whatever, like the ways that my income streams, what income streams do I have available to me that will make that happen? And it doesn’t have to happen January 8th, right? Like the first week. That doesn’t have to happen. But I do have to set these tangible, actionable ways to create the result that I want. It can’t just be I wanna make $2000 a week, and I’m just gonna go for it and see what happens now instead, it is I wanna make $2000 a week. The income streams that I have available to me are sponsorships, marketing clients, coaching clients, my digital downloads and, um, writing that I’ll do for clients on the side. The hourly rate that I set for my marketing strategy is this theme hourly rate that I set for my clients. My writing clients is this. How many hours am I going to need for that bucket to accomplish? Let’s say 60% because my most reliable sources of income right now are those hourly rates. From there, I have another 40% of that 2000 to accommodate. And I’m not gonna do the math just because I know I’ll just mess it up. So let’s just say that from there there’s 40%. So I need to figure out the 40% from the remaining income goal income streams that I can utilize Thio easily. Achieve that and again, these are all of these things that I’m setting up for. Q. One are low hanging fruit because I need that momentum. I guess mentally and tangibly to get me going into further quarters, so at least 40%. Okay, well, my remaining buckets are eBay with the vintage line. That’s usually pretty reliable for me. Um, digital downloads, which I’ve had available, and I haven’t really promoted very much my courses. What affiliates? Um, ads. All of those things Are there remaining buckets of income, interest, investments, things like that. But I don’t actually count those because I don’t really try and touch my interest or savings or investments. So from those buckets streams, how do I come up with this other 40% and then I just start going down the list in terms of what is the easiest way for me to accomplish that? Well, I can usually get, um, you about I did the math already on this, and so I’m just going off the top of my head. I took, um, the average amount of sales I did every month on eBay. Value that by 12. And then that was my of course fluctuates. So that was my goal, or that was my my baseline, I guess. And so I said, I’m sorry. I don’t remember what it is. I’m not trying to be up to, so I just honestly never prepare for these things, and I just go with it. So let’s say it was 2000 month. I think that’s about ah, good goal of what I make on eBay with the vintage line. So 2000 month is 500 a week.
So if I need to make 2000 and I’m saying that 40% I’ve lost my train of thought what it is, eBay can take out the majority of that. So, based on my goal of 2000, a week. I know that I can reliably safely say that 60% of that can come from hourly client work. The rest of that can come from eBay, and I can start really focusing on 1 to 2 products to promote through the quarter to start getting me through to a stretch goal. So my baseline of 2000 week is covered. Now I want to start focusing on promoting a digital download or a course instead of what I used to dio, which was just throw shit on the wall, see what sticks and just keep going and keep promoting new stuff. And I think that one of the things that I had a lot of difficulty with was selling digital downloads because there are so many of them because I’m stupidly creative person that can’t stop making stuff. And I would promote this thing and then this download and this download. And I think that based on the algorithms of, you know, instagram podcasts, Pinterest, YouTube, whatever you want, you know you don’t see all of the content that I create. And so for me to keep promoting different things all the time, it just it it was too overwhelming for myself and for my followers. And so what I’m going to do instead is just really loop a promotion for whichever download. I think I’m doing my 2021 list of holidays. I think that’s the one I’m doing for Q one and just really focus on that. Because if I want to start getting people into knowing the value that I offer and this boy crazy collection of digital downloads that I have for entrepreneurs, I need to start with one. And I can’t let myself do what I used to dio of just being insecure that I was picking the wrong one. Instead, throw all of them and see what happens. Like that overwhelmed me. I know that overwhelmed my followers, and it didn’t result in sales. So trying this new part of something that I always this is definitely a do as I say, not as I do, because past I have told my clients to do the same thing and I have not, and I suck it that. So I’m trying very hard this quarter. Just focus on one thing, and so that’s my recommendation for you. Coming into 2021 this month, I’m going to be bringing on a number of stupidly talented women who just know how to create goals, whether their financial or life or whatever and just how little. Learn the ways to forgive yourself for past mistakes with goals and how to set better goals coming up this year. Now, the reason that I picked I know a lot of you are doing goal setting right now and probably are sick of hearing about different ways to set goals. So I thank you for listening to me set my own goals. But also, I want you to realize that you’re hearing a lot about goal setting from myself from my guests coming up. And I’m just, you know, newsletters, podcasts, whatever your social media is and just understand that there is no one size fits all strategy when it comes to goal setting. The way you can figure out the best goal setting method for you is to hear a bunch of, um, I know that’s like, Well, Meghan first dot and second, I’m sick of hearing about it, I understand. But if what you’re doing isn’t working, you have to find a solution because the goals air, the things that keep you going when it’s sucky when you’re losing sleep. When you’re stressed out when you’re frustrated, the goal is thes the light at the end of the shitty shitty tunnel, and what you need is to have that to hold on to. So what I recommend for you this year is to find a solution that fits your lifestyle. Don’t force yourself into a way that doesn’t feel right for you. It burns you out and speak from experience. It burns you out. It makes you hate your work. It just doesn’t provide the experience that you need as an entrepreneur to move forward. And so look a couple of different gold strategies. This is the one that I’m trying this year. I’m trying to just keep it. Keep the spectrum of need vs Nice toe have find room in the middle of that start towards the need side of the spectrum for Q one. Go slowly, utilize my low hanging fruit to get me the quick winds and then build from there. But what build from there means is unknown right now, because I’m not going to overwhelm myself with Q2 through Q4. I’m just going to focus on Q1. That’s the way I’m doing it this year. Oh, and one other thing.
Speaking of keeping it simple, I am officially not pressuring myself to do it all on social media. What I’ve said before in masterminds that I’ve been in, or maybe have you been said here is that while I know a lot about algorithms and I know a lot about Instagram and how to succeed in it, I don’t do that. I don’t do a lot on Instagram because it’s not where I want to be. It’s not where I want to promote my brand. Where I wanna be instead is YouTube podcast and Pinterest. Those air my three that I find are most effective for helping people and reaching my target clients. And so instead of trying to beat my head against a wall by still doing ah lot on Instagram, I’m not going to focus a lot of time on Instagram. It’s not like I said, it’s not where I wanna be. I do realize the value of having a presence there, so I will still do stuff in the feed. Occasional stories but it’s not going to be a lot of my time. Instead. Ah, lot of my time for marketing and promotion is going to be focused on the podcast for Q one Q to Q three. Maybe we’ll talk about YouTube and Pinterest, but right now my goal is promoting the podcast because that’s where I wanna be. That’s where I want to talk to you. And that’s how I feel. I can be most helpful and effective so and that’s something I recommend for you to think about. Don’t feel like you have to be everywhere. Feel feel, be where your customers are if they are on instagram on, be on instagram. But if they’re on instagram and you hate Instagram, you don’t have to be there. There are other avenues and other channels for you. If you hate Twitter or you hate Facebook or you have no idea how YouTube works and you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to do it. Find places. Find the happy medium of where your customers are and where you want to be most effective and go for that. But just do one. Don’t feel like you have to do all of them. Now, if you’re in my members library, I’m going to give you a free download off weight of a what? I want to call it a customer. Audit a customer marketing audit. I should say so if you go to your members library and it’s at meganbrame.com/memberslibrary, log in. If you’re not a member, feel free to join. It’s totally free. You can download this spreadsheet, and this will help you keep track. It’s the same thing I’m using. That will help you keep track of your marketing efforts. What you think is going well, what you need to improve and how you can do it. It has spots for actionable steps that you are going to take every quarter for one or two things, and the list is extensive, so don’t feel like you need to do it all. Just pick one or two things and keep track of it. It’s so helpful, and it is one of my favorite tools. So I had to meganbrame.com/memberslibrary to download it totally free for you to help you set your goals for this year. But if you need them a little bit more. Help stick around because the next couple of weeks you’re going to be hearing from some amazing women about how to set goals for finances, for life, how to incorporate human design, which is something that I just keep hearing a lot about. So I think that’s the universe telling me I need to start looking into it, too, and I will talk to you later. Have a fantastic week.
