Lessons

Lesson Info

Define Your Big Goals: What Gets You Out of Bed?

So let's, dive right in tow. Lesson one define your big goals what gets you out of bed so here's the reality. Some day they're going to be really tough. You are going to want to quit it's gonna happen, it's okay, we've all been there. I've been there. There have been days. There have been weeks. I was like, I don't know. I just get a real job, right? Or maybe I should just, like, curl up in my bed and never, ever come out of the covers, right? It happens. So our goal for today is that we want to determine what motivates and guides you so that when things get tough, you know what you are working towards and why you're working towards it, right? Because it's gonna be hard. But if you know why you're doing it and you believe really strongly and why you're doing it, you can get through those rough patches, right? So if you were making a living, selling what you make, how would your life be different? And I want you guys online to chime in here as well. If you are making a living selling wh...

at you make, how would your life be different, monica, how'd you like the different eliminate a lot of stress? Right, because you're putting in a lot of work on the business right now in the business is breaking even, but you're not paying yourself right? Yeah michelle, how would your life be different? A lot less stress the money is good, yeah money and maybe it's a lot of that stress I think I'd always be excited about what I'm making I like know what I'm making today I get to do what I want that awesome joy, less stress and the people working full time could come home and work on the business off them. Yeah, because your family and you've got a couple people that need to be oh, there'll be a lot more people involved yes, so you have a business that actually supports other people and not just you. I love that I would be able to spend more time that kid's a regular day job? Yes, that's what I think a big goal for a lot of people is having that flexibility in your schedule so that you can write, spend time with the kids and do all those things and be they're right for the important moments yeah, I think I would be able to travel more and take my creative things and find new ideas for different things yes that's what makes me go is kind of like going on a walk about and then I think that would work and it nice, yes. So having more time having more time for that creative expression that creative freedom, that's really key, often a lot more personal satisfaction in my life. Offthe um, yeah, we're getting online from online and locke says I wouldn't be stressed out all the time. A lot of people seem to want to get away from the stress. Adrian says I quit my nine to five and start actually actually paying myself finally, ager loony studio says I would be able to work on my own schedule and not have it just be a side hustle artfully so says I'd be able to support my family financially and let's see that that new mommy says I'd be able to provide for my new son and I wouldn't have to be financially dependent on his dad. Yeah, great, great kind of goals to work towards. So I want to kind of give you guys just a little overview of what you can expect and this life that you've chosen let's, be honest, there's, there's some things to consider so it's a marathon, not a sprint, even though one of the major goals of this boot camp is for you to start generating revenue quickly, this is not going to one of those things where I mean. Like let's make a million dollars tomorrow and retire, right? Probably because none of you could make enough product between now and tomorrow. Maybe a million dollars. That's pretty impressive, right? So it's a marathon, not a sprint work in this for the long haul and it's really hilly marathon it goes up, it goes down, you have some highs and lows. Sometimes it feels like you're slogging uphill forever and ever. But sometimes it feels really good, right? So we want to learn howto kind of ride that out and as I mentioned it's not a get rich quick scheme, I'm not gonna sadly, I'm not going to stand up here and tell you right you're going to make a million dollars by tomorrow. That said, that doesn't mean it can't be a get rich scheme, right? He was probably the bad words were not scheming. We're doing awesome things here, right? So I'm not telling you that you're not gonna make a lot of money or that you can't make a lot of money could guess what you can, but I am telling you that you're not gonna make a million dollars tomorrow, so if you want, if you want to tune out, you can but trust me, we're going to work on making you some money so I would I would stay right here so I really love this quote from biz stone, which I actually heard lisa condon you guys know leased a condo and she teaches her and creative live she's awesome illustrator and artist and so she shared this quote that I think is really great timing, perseverance and ten years of really hard work will eventually make you look like an overnight success, right? And we do that we compare ourselves to everybody else we see otto person just jumped onto the scene, right? Like how they do it, they did it overnight, chances are they didn't uh, so I thought I would just really quickly give you a little bit of my backstory for those of you who aren't familiar to me to kind of show you how that ten years of really hard work thing actually looks like s oh, I have my undergraduate and my graduate degree in metal smith thing says that all my diploma, which I know it's pretty rare, but I came out of school and I really didn't quite know how it was going to make money, so I decided I was just going to try everything I did retail craft shows it is a lot of retail craft shows in the rain, you know, I put stuff on etsy I started wholesaling I tried all of these different things, but I was always getting myself out there and eventually I hit on the model that worked for me for me, it's been a lot about wholesale, but I'm still always looking for other options. You know, working on growing my online business there's always kind ofwork to dio, but I've been working on my business my first year doing retail craft shows was two thousand seven, right? So it's been a while now? Because I employed a lot of the strategies that I'm gonna teach you guys here, I did generate revenue quickly, and I did make money in my first year, and I paid myself in my first year, right? Really nice. It was the quick way to shut the husband up and say, no, look, this is a real job, right? I'm making money really helps right held a lot of stress there, so I want that for you guys as well. I want you to start making enough money right away that it feels like something and then build on that success, and more than that, I want you to develop a long term, sustainable business that's really my dream for all of you. If you want to still be doing this in ten or twenty or thirty years, and not this, the stressed not making any money, not paying yourself this, I mean that this of having that flourishing business that works for you and that you love I want that for you. I want you to be able to do that into the future if that's what you want, I want to talk about the b word as in business, right? So some of you watching this may not have fully acknowledged yet that that's what you're doing right? It started as a hobby. It started out as a passion project. It started out as something that you love. And you I kind of started making a little bit of money, right? If you want to make a living selling what you make, you are in business on the sooner that you acknowledge that the better off you will be, right. So throughout the rest of this boot camp, I'm going to talk about it as your business, right? So even if it's your hobby or your side hustle or whatever it is for the length of this boot camp, I want you to sit in that word business I want you to put on your business hat guess what? Business hats don't have to be boring, minus super fun, right? Would you put on your business hat I want you to commit to this idea that what you're doing is a business. Just for the length of this boot camp you may decide at the end of the day but that's not really what you want and that's okay hopefully by the end of this boot camp you make enough money you're like yeah I want to be in business forever right so put it up in this hat commit to that for the length of this boot camp because it's really going to change a lot of what you d'oh just by owning the fact that you are a business because you know the job of businesses to make money right that's your job for the suit camp all right, so our first exercising this lesson is I want you guys to assess your successes and your failures failures I want you to talk about and think about where you've been because where you've been is valid there is no right or wrong backstory right? So I have two degrees in medal's nothing and I used to be super jealous of those people who had that oh, you know, I went to school for science and then I came out and I like found my calling with jewelry it's like they have this amazing transformation story whatever it's my degree like that's not exciting at all right? So we all get jealous of other people's stories we're gonna let that go whatever your backstory is whatever struggles or successes you've had in your business it's all valid it's all brought you to right here, right? So it's all important. So and you guys can follow along in the workbook. All of these questions are there as well. So I want you to describe a time when you felt successful in your business. Who was it off the top of their head, something a time when they felt successful. My very first trunk show. I sold every single thing I brought. Awesome. I it was crazy. I was like, okay, I'm in, uh, anyone else have a time where you felt super cecil? We did an artist who or where? We opened up our studio for people to come and see what we dio environ jewellery and the first day we made a thousand dollars first over actually made money. Hey, awesome. Okay, well, um, I guess when I was, I do a lot of different trades, so I guess when I was moving to london to go work on, uh, frankenweenie so I was going to stop motion puppets, but I need to pull off one last job. So I did the head of disney's hr bathroom and made like a good five thousand dollars in, like, three days hey, that's off, who doesn't want to make five grand in three days, right, so what did you guys learn from those experiences? Because that's the other important thing is that everything that you're doing good or bad should become a learning opportunity for your business. So what did you learn in that trunk show where you sold out right away? Would you guys like that people loved our jewelry good that you could make five thousand dollars and a radio when I've gone back to see other jobs were seen pictures and then I go back it's like I forget that I didn't like wow, that was good yeah it's really easy to get stuck in the negative things the things that aren't working on your business that you sometimes forget to celebrate those small winds so that's something else that I want you guys to dio throughout this boot camp is I want you to celebrate the small ones whatever they are you sold something your online shop and you haven't said anything for celebrate, right? You made a hundred bucks that you weren't expecting to make celebrate whatever it is I want you to get excited about those things because that's really gonna help you make the business feel good for you when you could celebrate those were going anything online many successes they've had yeah here's a good one from amanda sue who says actu we feel successful right now because I just got to pre cells on a digital product that's launching tomorrow and I'm still waiting to try to get some of the same success with more physical products that's why they're here to learn from this course let's see random olive says I felt successful when I got my first custom brush letter and client and I learned that my skill really is desirable yeah, I know anytime you confined and celebrate those chances where you found someone who just perfectly matches with your product right celebrate those because there's a lot happening there, all right? So I want you to think about a time when you've failed or you flopped in your business and it happens to all of us happens to me happens to be a lot we'll launch a lot of products that were just like and some of them were actually really well received some of them decorate press some of you know, people were excited about them and they didn't sell right that happens he's like all that's great, you're gonna you're gonna make a million dollars like, oh, nobody bought it that is still sitting in my basement, right? It happens, happens may so what was the time where you failed or flapped or didn't have success in your business? You want to share your show at the last art fair? I was that I only sold one piece, so that was pretty sad yeah that it happens yeah, but I learned it on right and so what did you learn from that experience? Um I learned a lot about how to set up my booth. Um I learned a lot more about my ideal customer uhm I got to talk with other vendors I wrote a whole block post about it was I learned a lot it was a great experience actually being there talking to people yeah. Anyone else have a failure? They want to share in the same thing going to an event and not the thing all year there yeah, just I learned a lot about you know how to look at events, how to assess like if there's stuff around it can make your product totally different it matters who your company is absolutely does huge yeah and I think really is a big thing that I want everyone to take out of this is that any plop or failure or miscue or misstep that you've had in your business is always an opportunity to learn right sometimes it's just learning that's not the right market for me it's a really valuable lesson I just did a trade show that was a complete flop for me we don't trade chance for eight years, right? I know my stuff this one just was a miscue and I learned that now I know not my market it's a really key learning opportunity sometimes you learn my booth design is not quite right or people aren't engaging or the person I thought was my ideal customer is definitely not my ideal customer, right? So any time that you could look at that and learn that's really key, we're getting any stories from online? Yeah, you have some failures online here's one from becky m who says that she did a festival in seattle and didn't even make the booth feedback so that was discouraging, lika says. I went to a bizarre that was three days outside and after the three days I sold nothing so a few similar stories they're about selling one item or making five dollars, ten dollars not getting the feedback you know it happens to all of us, but the key is that you use it as a learning experience and then you make adjustments and keep going. But for the purposes of today lesson, what I actually want to ask is, what made you keep going after that flop? Right? Because everybody who's here is still trying to do it. So what motivated you to keep going even after that didn't work for shell? What motivated you? Um I'm just I feel like I'm in it to win it and every time I get bored doing the tedious stuff that I have to do, I just think about my last real job and how horrible it was like I could go back there if I wanted teo, they would hire me back, but I would just that would not that's not happening. I love that I have to admit that a huge part of my personal motivation is that I have fear getting a real job like, I have no idea, I don't know how to do that, I'm pretty sure I'm not employable, I don't know this the huge fear so that's, why I want you guys to start to think about now for this next exercise as I want you to identify your key motivators, the big wives behind your business, but when you have those frustrating days, you know what you're working towards. So I want to share this quote from eric schurenberg, who is the editor in chief of ink magazine, and he said, if you're not convinced you're doing something great, there are much easier pasto life than entrepreneurship and it's true, right? There are way easier ways to make a living on what we're doing. I personally find this's away more worthwhile way to make a living and you guys all to do to because that's, why you're here, but if you're not convinced you're doing something great, there's easier paths, right? If you don't believe that you're making something amazing there's an easier way to make money, right? If you don't believe that having this business will change life for the better. For you and your family, there are easier ways to change your life, right? So we want to focus on those motivators. So I want to talk about intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, and I want you guys to identify both of those intrinsic motivators are the ones that have the impact on you personally, right? They're the reasons I think that a lot of people are here, quit your day job, support your family, have a flexible schedule, spend more time in the studio in creative pursuits, even things that are kind of those things that feel like vanity, you know, make something that ends up in a museum one day like that's kind of a motivator for me. I would love that for now settle for selling to museum stores. That one works too, right? So, you know, thinking about those intrinsic motivators and then extrinsic ones are the impact that your business has in the world for your customers. I think those air really important as well. I know for me a huge struggle that I had in the early years of my business is I didn't feel like I was contributing anything valuable to the world like, well, you know I'm smart, I have good ideas like should I have become a doctor? Should I founded a nonprofit? I could never be a doctor. I can't deal with blood rite, but should I have done these other things like I'm just making jewelry right? That's really that's not that important. That's what I thought, right? So you also have to address that really understanding what it is that people do. And you know what? That what you do brings to the world, because that also helps you through those tough times, and it also is what makes people buy your product, right? So one of my all time favorite business books, if you haven't read it assignments the next start with why the audio book is lovely, you can listen to that as well, and he says people don't buy what you dio they buy why you do it, you know by what you do, they buy why you do it, so they're not buying my jewelry because I well steal, they're buying my jewelry because it helps them feel strong and confident, right? And so, for me, that's, a huge extrinsic motivator, I want the world to have more strong and confident women. Sorry chris and all the guys out there but I want women to rocket right? That is super important to me that is legal and everything that I d'oh right that's a pretty big motivator on the days when I'm feeling down right if I can help somebody else feel more confident I'm gonna make me feel better about my life about my business right so that's why I want you guys to focus on both those intrinsic and those extrinsic motivators they're going to help you push through those hard times so why do you make what you make wants to share why do you make what you make? I think I am actually lean more towards that exit exception and that's what that's funny to you yeah so what do you think since I was a little kid I think I always work for the u and awe factor like you did that and you did that for me like that's what makes me so you want to make people feel good? I do and then because I like to do that that's what makes it hard to put the price on uh all right. We're gonna work on that one e uh oh about us why you make me feel like you're speaking my language specifically of course, when I started I also felt the same way like I'm just making things it doesn't have an impact and there's that balance between having an impact. I want to empower people specifically, women, single moms, college students who can work at something and collaboration, get paid really well and still do other things too. Like awesome. Yeah, definitely. I actually was just talking to my friend chris about this and, um, my great big. Why is that? I want to move away from hyper consumerism and encourage people to purchase less quality products instead of quantity. Crab awesome that's. A super goal remains from online. We have a lot of great examples here. E. K c says I had a customer tell me that I bring beauty, enjoy tau women with my jewelry. And that meant a lot to me. Uh, may says I re use an up cycle products so it's, good for the earth and along similar lines. Pernille vision jewelry says I create ico friendly jewelry so women can feel good about what they were. Yeah, so that's fantastic. Those are all really great, really great wise. The other thing that I want you guys to think about is what was the initial spark that drew you to the products that you're making. So as you build your business, one of the things that happened, I would say, it's, sort of like hump that people have to get over is you start getting to a point where maybe you're doing way less making then you want right because you're doing all the other business stuff and by the end of the camp we wantto solve that problem right? If part of your goal is to be in your studio a lot making we want to solve that problem so you could be in your studio, right? But I want you to think about that initial spark because sometimes you're going to get burned out I know for me there are times where I just don't feel like designing jewelry sometimes I don't design jewelry because I just don't feel like it but then I come back to why I'm doing it right and so yes I can think about how it makes women feel strong confident but the initial spark for me is that I just I really love jewelry right it's fun it's fun to where it's fun to make like it's exciting you know, I took my first jury class and I was in high school it was like you go to college for this sign me up right? So I go back to all those things you know for me it's looking at all those examples of jewelry around the world they're like big, bold, amazing pieces and then you know, looking at people who are wearing crazy stuff like iris f l who's, my serious hero. If you don't know who she is, you should look her up. She's. Awesome. Uh, so thinking about what excites you about your product so that when you get in those slumps, you have those things to go back. Teo, you know whether it's, the pincher, sports that inspire you or the books or the movies of the museums or whatever it is thinking about those initial spark so you can come back to that and re invigorate yourself. And then what motivates you to make your business a success? We talked a couple examples. Spending more time with your kids, right? What else? What motivates you to make your business is a success, joy. I think the world just needs more beautiful things. And we would like to say that each piece is a work of art cousin roll artists, and so creating that and giving the world weren't right that they can just wear every day. And I think for you too. I remember you talked about this the importance of being able to your other creative suits too, right? So that's a big deal for you if you want the business to be successful so that you can pursue lots of other creative things as well, anything online yeah we have a couple of people here are talking about how they need for instance may says a good support team from family and friends really helped them kind of stay on track with their products ritualistic says offering free many sessions for people to try it out so they can promote themselves uh let's see and I think that's that's what we got right now yes I've been really thinking about right what is that impact that you wouldn't make it in the world the art that you want to put out the great gift all of those things making sure you're really clear on all of that so that you can move forward in your business all right so the last thing that I want to do in this lesson if I wanted to find your big goals what is it that you're working towards now in our next lesson we're going to put some numbers to your goals right were we had to do that we're in business we gotta talk numbers at least a little bit right but for now I just want you to picture what it is you're working towards right and I go back to that initial question how will making a living selling what you make impact your life so what are you working towards monica I'm just happy fulfilled life and I know that doesn't come solely from money but it offers you the ability to have balance off so what you working towards? I want my husband to be able to quit his horrible job. That's a big one. That's a really big one. Um, just have a study source of income that I, you know, from something I really enjoy. Awesome, you know, bring the family members home so they can work on the business and then keep doing the rest of my art. Liberty, liberty, creative fulfillment at the same time. Financial stability. Awesome. I love that creative fulfillment and financial stability. That's a that's. A great pairing. I absolutely want that for all of you did. Oh, yeah. You like john sold? Sign me up, right? Freedom from and so I want you guys to sit down with the workbook and take a little time to think about what your life would look like if you were making a living selling what you make right. This is this is something I want you to do with a little bit of space, right? Sit down, get comfy, mugger something hot or cold or wherever you are. Whatever makes sense for you at this time of day, right? And take a little bit of time to envision this because that's really going to help you as you move forward, we get anything from online audience about what they want to work towards yeah, I think a lot of people walking identified with our students here amanda sue says I'm with rachelle I desperately want to retire my husband he's a former military person and now he's going he's doing backbreaking mechanical jobs and I want him to be able to retire and fairy got mama says I want to be independent I want to teach my daughter that the life we have isn't all that there is that there's more out there kristen says I just want to make money doing what I love I want to be able to give my mom and my sister some income to help their family as well and to be part of a family business off love that yeah, we have a lot of different goals I think that a lot of them resonate from that same place right? So what I want you to do is you're kind of final step and I want you to identify the number one goal what is the most important thing that you want to get out of this boot camp and I'm not talking about make more money and learn to market also I'm talking about the goal for your life, right? What is the number one thing you want to change as a result of making a living selling what you make anyone have won that they're like yes, this is my number one goal to make it sustainable so we can keep doing it and survive right and when you're in your case it's bring all the family home to the business rights that's really the thing is bringing a family home to the best well the survivor survive thrive like it right? You can do it for you ever yeah and it's your choice not because not that always feel like like I can't do this anymore because right not possible right um again I think my number one goal would be liberty to do what I want to do when I want to do it yes and what I really want to encourage everybody to do is when you think about things like that do what I want to do when I want to do it what do you think about what that looks like? We're going to come back to that muchmore in session three when we're really setting the big vision but that's something I want to start to think about now is when I you know for me it's I want to be able to travel internationally at least once a year I want to have time in my studio to design new things and I want enough make make enough money to pay my employees and by cute shoes and spend time with my husband right? So really thinking about what that looks like so that you're super clear because that's going to help you put the numbers to it and that's actually what we're going to do in the next lesson and the next lesson we're going to find the exact amount that you need to make in order to make a living selling what you make we're gonna we're gonna put some numbers to those goals, right? But before we go I wanna leave you guys with our lesson one homework. So I want you to identify three to five of those intrinsic motivators for your business and I want you to share them in our private facebook group, so if you haven't yet our cp for this course in addition to that awesome workbook you see everybody in we also have a private facebook group, so when you are c p will send you that link you can dive in there, we want you to start sharing, then I want you to identify the number one goal you want to support with your business, that number one thing that's really important, and I want you to post it prominently in your studio or your workspace that you know what you're working towards. And after you've put it up there, I want you to post a picture on instagram and use our half shag make live cell so we can see what everybody is doing, and then I want you to identify your why we heard some really great ones here the extrinsic value or impact that you want your products to make on the world, and I want you to share it on your facebook page or on instagram, or whatever social media platform you want to connect with your customers, I want you to share that. Why there and use that hashtag make love cell all right, so that's your homework, and I will see you guys in the next lesson. So once again, my name is chris jennings, thank you so much for joining us on this special live check in with megan almond. We have been learning so much thank you all for tuning in and keep in touch. Keep watching this boot camp lots more to learn over twenty five lessons, but for right now, for this live session, that's a wrap.