Lessons

Lesson Info

Accomplishing Your Goals

This next part I'm mentioning because this next part you're gonna have to define your goal and you're going to have to actually figure out what what it is that you want to do to be successful and you're gonna have to define it but you're going to do it with much more ease and much more speed if you have someone to help you so this is critical every artist who I coach I actually make them define a smarter goal this is the premise of our interaction they send a they send weekly updates to me that teo define where they're at in terms of meeting they're smarter goal burns got something to share later on about that that he thought was really interesting revelation last night who raise your hand if you've heard of a smarter goal okay all right so it's it's not entirely new to everybody so my last straight job I was a project management consultant does that sound like a snore or what it wass but I learned a really valuable skill I learned how to tackle big projects and break them down into bi...

te size pieces I learned how to define goals I learned how to identify resource is and a schedule I says that sound so corporate e in business see, I'll tell you what that's how I was able to actually generate over a hundred thousand dollars in sales without knowing anyone in san francisco or however every haven't up operate without ever having operated a business before it was really defining my specific, measurable actionable results or were oriented time bound goal and evaluating it and revising its let's go over that one more time specific your goal has to be very, very specific. I want more collectors that specific all right? I want more. I want to more collectors or patrons by the end of this month to that not only specific it's measurable either had to you had one you zero yet five we can measure it actionable this one's key get a lot of people who contact me, and they want to start working together and they'll say, my smarter goal is I want to make one hundred thousand dollars. Where did you hear that? From that's? Not a good goal for them necessarily may or may not be depending on where they are in the development of their creative enterprise. I can tell it's not a goal good goal if they can't take action on it right now, if they can't wrap their head around where, how they can take action on it. Like right now today, then it's, not it's, not smart goal is too big for that that's the problem there's two there's too many other things that have to be done in between so you want to break it down into bite size pieces that you can access and have some confidence around? I do believe that a goal should be to things to you should be so exciting you're just in love with the idea of actually attaining this goal otherwise, it's just to do a list item on your to do list so it really energizes you you're really excited you really love for that to happen, but it scares you a little bit because you really don't know how you going to do it that's a smarter goal that's my measure of a smarter goal anyway, in this context, okay? If I was in a corporate a situation that would necessarily be the criteria time bound so I mean I want to more collectors by when ten years from now where do you want them? By the end of the month you went from, you know, by the end of the quarter what? You know what is it what's your timeframe for accomplishing this goal and evaluate and revised so evaluate you look at it it's still smart it's still really what you want? Is it? You know is this have priority shifted? Are you still committed to it? That's another thing you have to ask yourself are you still committed to this and it's a way to commit results so the results so first okay glad you mentioned that so let's clarify that the results so it's only a smarter goal of it has a result, right? So if they so my goal was to generate over one hundred thousand dollars in my first year in business the result is I would have one hundred thousand dollars in in sales, you know, at the end of the year um there's a specific results you can point to and that's the result you're looking for so some people will say to me so it was coaching and um an artist and she said l issues an illustrator and she way were evaluating her smarter goal and she said my smarter goal is tio within this particular timeframe to finish a business plan I said is the result that you really want to finish the business plan or is the result that you really want to generate your first sale? What would you rather have? What result? What would you rather have? So yeah okay, so we focus on that now she's got to make a making money plan to help her get there or she might not maybe someone who maybe she'll just generate her first sale because she's so good at delivering her value proposition in conversation that she'll just get a client she wanted but she won't even have to do it doesn't mean that she shouldn't mitt create a plan like grammy, dan was saying, you know, committed to writing it's very, very smart thing to dio, but the result is just wants to get paige this was her first sale. She wants to prove her value proposition, so we revise revise for smarter goal and that's because we evaluate it, we've we have re evaluated it, and we then we revised it so that now you know what that stands for. So what I'd like to do now is I'd like to take an opportunity for you to define your smarter goal. He knew I was gonna do this to you, right? I surely don't know. All right, well, I'm gonna so think of something I'll leave you to last. Uh alright, we'll start with tara and go this way and we'll start marry and go this way. So what is your smarter goal on let's? See if it meets the criteria little, we'll test it. Okay, now that you've had this informative class which uncle tio create one art piece for one adopted person by, uh may fifteenth may fifteenth. Of what year at twenty, fourteen, twenty fourteen do you want it is the result that you want that you want to make the piece, would you like to get paid for it? You know I've never done this before okay so I actually want to make peace okay great. So you're going to create a prototype to prove it's going to be like proof of concept yes. So cool so the result that you're looking for is not to get paid it's approved your concept is that right? Yes. Okay. Does that sound like a smarter roll? Okay, good done. Are you committed to it? Yeah. Does it excite you? Yes does it scare you? Oh, good. All right, you're done next tio I michael is to book five more commissions by the end of the year in addition to the ones that I already have scheduled at the end of this year this year twenty fourteen? Yeah. Okay. All right. Is that specific can we measure it? Can you take action on it so the result you want is it time bound? Does it scare you a little? Maybe not. Maybe I need to think bigger or different. All right then do that. Okay. What was that other idea you had that was scary. Yeah. Yeah, the portrait way would you like to come back? Teo gonna hurt it? Uh uh three to five new paying private voice lesson clients by the end of uh april what year to this year two thousand fourteen it's specific specific isn't measurable yeah can you take action on it today? Oh yeah is that result you really want them scares me cario does it excite you to have that okay well and you're done I would like to gain three custom clients by july thirty first of this year okay and does that scare you a little yeah okay good it scares me a lot didn't excite you delight you please you to think about having that all of the above okay then it's worth pursuing yes okay so then it's a worthy goal right if it's something that really delights you and excited too but scares you a little bit then it's a worthy goal here's doesn't scary you're not scared all right back row mary will start go this way okay great I would like to know my unique value proposition by the end of next week by the end of next week okay all right it's measurable actionable scares me um do you have resources that are gonna help you do that? I do okay. All right. Okay, great. Can I copy? I wantto you can't copy geo what I say I don't have one sail by um april or we march march by the end of march in the online anybody saying that way we could just if that's your goal does do you have any commerce site is there something to purchase or you have a website of websites uh okay hold on so that means that for everyone listening well here's what website iss it's a store without a cash register please have any calmer site have something to sell something why? Well that's so that means to do part of the to sell by then I have to have that you know the little shopping buy button yeah okay so I haven't been to that point before because I felt like was in the mission are the unique selling proposition well yeah you might have the cart before the horse but you know what? This is your life this is your goal if you really just want to experience having your first sale I wouldn't go for it I'm not the boss of you you you don't have a sale one so get and I would encourage you to look att square space I have ok my side right and it's easy to convert the existing site to n e commerce site with that platform and then everyone with same of your sight the quote lab so someone out there would even have this done by of what are we? March march remarks eleven but you're going to university looking march c it's too what two weeks now? March march thirty we're gonna call it march thirtieth so march thirtieth go teo everybody go teo quote lab dot com because james I have something for sale and she you know help her get her first sale will be a surprise is okay, I could make it fine. Yeah. All right. Wonderful. Next by the end of march six studies soil studies, studies. Alright that's specific that's measure ball can you take action on it? Yes. And what's the result? Why six studies? Because that's going to force me to make a decision about a direction that I'm have been vast, creative direction. Yes. The result is you're going to make a decision about a creative direction which will help me with my usp. Okay and it's time bound. All right, good. All right, last but not least. Okay, so I'd like tio have a installation show of my botanical project I'm working on when I finish this by the end of the and I wanna have it at a science institution like to sell half of them and I want tio start and grow my email list and implement well, well, well, well marketing this year. Okay, so you're going to benefit from the next step, which is the action plan, but what's the one specific goal you want to accomplish um, well, I do want to do both the marketing you're going to have the marketing part of going to do that, but I do want toe finish having I want to finish my pieces and then get them shown in the fines institution my share them already want to sell them well I do want to tell them but I want to get the show secured so a lot of time with that goal to have the show and tell them to have the show by when end of year by the end of this this year okay, so that's time bound this specific all right um can you take action on this today or tomorrow? But yes. Okay and the result is what's the result your why're you striving towards completion of school what's the result you want to experience well, I want to have the show. Do you want to have a she want to show you? Where could he wanted? I asked this all the time you want to show you work? You want to tell you? Well so I said all three of them I want to show it and sell it and throw my cell if you have shown it I'm making a very deliberate point here. A lot of artists are looking for shows. I don't care if you show up show my work I want to sell my work and I believe you me this is a very different objective to show we are were oriented teo pursue showing our work but that's that's the end result of my project so I'd like to finish my project. It ends in a show which I'd like to have a show or a sale, you know? I don't think I'm making this to sell it, okay, the idea that I'm making stuff to sell, going to just leave and you wanna show and that's just pick a lane you want, teo, I would like to do both, okay? The show is important to finishing the project, so all right, so if you are, if your goal is to sell the actions, we're gonna take going to be very different if your goal is just to show and that's why I'm making this point they're showing requires these steps selling these steps, it's very different, very, very different to just sit with it. There's no right or wrong answer it's whatever you want to accomplish, but the point of this exercise is to get very clear and very specific about what you want, because I actually don't want to show my work. I want to sell my work, I don't care, I have plenty of opportunities to show my work care less want to sell it, but that may be different for you. I think it is and that's cool, really it is just is just good it's, just whatever it isthe. Okay, all right, we actually got some answers online as well from people marcie we can't get into too much detail the back and forth that zoey's ekgs and garden she's saying she wants to generate five hundred dollars, in sales from her prince by april fifteenth. Dorian is saying I would like to have one image in my new siri's completed by june thirty twenty fourteen donna t lantern says I want to make it least one sale of my work for at least fifty dollars at my own show by july fourth, two thousand fourteen. Awesome, awesome! So you're you're gonna lose steam on this, you're getting confused around it and how do you how do you get people? How do you how do you keep yourself focused on the goal? What you gonna dio? What you gonna do with studio? What do you guys going to dio evaluate is one bright provides revised. What else? Accountability, you know, do it by yourself. Yeah, everybody at home I love these goals. They meet the criteria and if they feel like they're doable but find yourself someone teo, hold you accountable so real quickly we're going to move on to the next step, but vernon, you shared something with me about so coach burning for a while and he had to send weekly e mail updates due sunday before midnight remember that cheryl and you had to actually tell me tio how you you know where you're doing with your where you're going with your smart goal and what did you review day? I actually looked at them again and I went back and looked at them and I and I remember how much resistance I had on I think that's the big thing about having someone dude with you is because you're gonna have the resistance and you have somebody to actually say, have them say it back to you? Well, you know, he said this this is what you wrote down and you didn't get it done or you or you did get it done, and I think for me, looking back at it was was really it was almost like a journal of my my path of like watching her progress oh, yeah, yeah, I think I think that having a weekly thing was a way to check in and really stay on course because when I didn't do it, I could see myself fall off and not really it's really all about the focused, right, you know? And I think that was the most powerful thing I saw reviewing all that's, right here's the thing if you actually you have a responsibility tio not make your accountability partner not work so hard right show up ready, show up on time do what you say you're going to dio don't give excuses and don't complain because you bring their energy down and they're looking to you to support them on their journey so because you know, these general the's relationships are not paid client relationship, so just make sure not to wear them down and really show up you have a commitment to them and yourself all right? So we're going to do a little many action planning session because it's one thing to have a goal and it's another thing to make a plan in order to accomplish that goal. So I'm just going to give you some basics about how you go about building a plan and if he's going to help because no one can read my handwriting on they can all read her handwriting and jake joo's handwriting just fine so let's see let's start with, um with a smarter goal of someone we actually we're going to revise yours but I'll get to you later. Um let's see, tara, how about we start with you? All right. So, um can you just restate your smarter goal so that you can write it down to complete one art piece for one person by may fifteenth by may fifteenth of what you earn? Fourteen gotta write two year down because it could mean years from now, all right now you can use grammy dance technique right if it's big and you can ask your the future version of your successful self but this is pretty small so you're goingto we're going to do the first thing we're going to d'oh we're going to take a look at the milestones that you're going to have to meet and then we're gonna look at some of the action items so let me give you an example so, um I'll start give jane as an example so in order for you to meet your smarter goal, some of the milestones that you're gonna have to meet our you're going to have tio determined payment how matured in charge you're gonna have to have decide what work charge right? This is all great to do in an excel spreadsheet can't move this stuff around when he's writing, so do it an excel or numbers you're going to have to change your platform, right? You're going to have that I would encourage you to have a business checking account so that you start and you started right place, right? Those air all milestones and action item is make an appointment with my banker, right? Um sift through my material right so it's just more granularity resource is I just named a resource of you read one resource is square space, right? So if you imagine it's like a column the milestone goes here the action item goes here way we might run out of room but that's how you would order it on a spreadsheet you could do this with yellow stickies and move things around that way if you're like cheryl and you liketo feel things and you like you know I've actually seen really elaborate project plans done with yellow sticky notes and hopefully you know, nothing happens to them because there's like all this stuff count you know, really hinging on the plan but that's another way to do it if you don't if excel or numbers makes you get you can do this manually all right, so what do you think one of the first one of the what are some of the milestones you're going to have to meet in order to accomplish this smarter goal? Um well right now I started to work on a piece for myself okay? So you want to finish one for yourself and then do one for somebody else yeah, I might have to push the time a little bit. Okay, well, that's where we evaluated revise we're not going to put the due dates on until the very end. Okay? All right. I'm gonna see how this lays out ok? And then you go back and then you so the processes you identify the milestones than the action items than the resource is then you prioritize and then you assigned the due dates based on what makes sense we're just going to just s so are you you're going teo complete one of these for yourself I don't have a name for these this yet so maybe you could maybe one of your milestones will also be naming this offering huh it's not the first thing you have to dio but I think if you do it for someone else it might be good if you gave this process the name right what are their milestone we have to meet uh need to find someone to work with a candidate yeah find a candidate for the building this prototype I will also need thio elucidate thie interview process how you know how am I gonna get this information you have brian right now so that that's like I don't know you might be able to use the resource ancestry dot com to least fill in the blanks that are available to fill in right and you can use that very left brain graphic template that comes from ancestry dot com and use that to create your creative right size police I'm already thinking who's a strategic partner potentially ancestry dot com that's right you put that down before good okay you see how this gets rolling all right what else what other milestones you're gonna have to meet um I'll have to well I don't need to do that to finish the school um on public I'm not going to charge for that first one because I can I give you a little tip though yeah why don't you why don't you just guess at a price and just tell the person that this is a prototype, huh? But if they would like to acquire it it's available for sale at this price so you know so that you because that might be a sales opportunity okay? You say I'm not listen I'm not charging you you're not going to give it to him I'm not gonna let you right ok no I always feel like I need to know what I'm doing and water tow you do know what you're doing okay right alright you're gonna s o u ule and this is an introductory price you can change it call it that to say this pieces you know I'm doing I'm doing a few of these prototypes because introductory price you have no obligation whatsoever which is the truth and if you'd like to buy it then visa mastercard, american express is there a milestone there for her in terms I think yeah that's great quite so milestone of identifying an introductory price control price okay, we pay you on paypal, I'll write you a check right now that's not going to over complicate your way don't we do not want the tail weighing the dog keep it as simple as possible just starting out here, so some of these are this, we're not going to flesh this out so much because you're going to do this later on you're going well, if I this naming process one action item might be, I'm going to gather people together to have a blue sky, a session to come up with the name, but actually, you're not going to do the name because I'm going to put things in order for you. If you go back to the eight part process, you just going to call, you know this, you don't really want to finalize the name because you have to have a business plan, and the name is actually part of a marketing overall marketing strategy, but this might be sort of a temporary name to help familiarize this person, you're going to be creating the prototype with, with what value your offering, because if they like it, even if they don't buy it, you want to put it that put it into that you went to explain what you're doing so that they could go brag about it to other people, right? You know, so this is important that you I would also say that you've identified your unique value proposition clearly and succinctly in writing remember that's also one of those things that you revise. Time and time again have you done? Have you done that? Cheryl? Have you revised it one hundred times? Yes, very fluid, right? It takes a long time to actually know that what the heck you're offering and who cares how you're going to say it? So don't get hung up on being perfect about were any value proposition, just practice that all right? So we've identified some resource is square spaces one? We're not going to fill this all in. I'm just trying tio introduced to you a structure and how you can basically great a a smarter goal that might be a little scary might be a little daunting and break it down into bite size pieces that you could make visible and you can see, you know, in your desk or wherever. All right, what else do we have here? Finding, um, candidate find a candidate? What else do you have any other milestones? Spring to mine? This is an ongoing moving document, by the way, it's never done it's like the making money plan or the fan plan there never done. I don't, I can't think of anything now how do you feel about your goal now that we've broken some of these elements down? How does it feel inside? Better, like I know what, what is going to take right yeah, I normally would say okay what's the first thing I do and then I do that and then it leads me to but this is like, a little more uh um thorough and you might be smarter about how that what the first thing is and the second thing was this right and have this in a place where you could move it around yeah oh yeah I got to do that really? It would be smarter to do this first, right? Or I really need to get this done so it's a higher priority and a priority is one, two three okay I don't big believer in it no more than three and then the due dates so after you get this fleshed out you're going to say the use of the due dates and then the status do not put half done no one cares walking on it it only matters if it's done and s so this is this might feel like overkill but for larger goals and larger projects you can see where this is actually really help you manage somethings in terms of priority would you just put a little number one? Yeah, I want to bury it there'll be another column that's his priority one, two, three there will be another column that says status done or not done and uh and then due dates all right, so this is all in the action plan book. But this gives you give me a sense of how you go about doing it, breaking it down. Aren't you glad I worked as a project management consultant. All right, well, thank you so much, even tio.