How to Set Purposeful Ambitious Goals

Here’s how I do yearly planning for our business. We grew 88% last year, 35% the year before, 182% three years ago… So this strategy has proven to work for us: 1) Define your Goal. I loosely use the S.M.A.R.T. framework to define my goal — especially focusing on a clear numeric goal. Clarity and objectivity in your goal setting gives you ALIGNMENT with your team. If your goal is just “growth”, everyone thinks of growth subjectively and your team will be confused on what actions to take to get there. Define what success actually means. 2) Pick secondary Metrics. What levers impact your goal? If you have a lagging indicator as your goal (like revenue or customers), it’s especially useful to track leading indicators as your secondary Metrics. For example, with our goal of new customers, a leading top of funnel (ToFU) metric I track is signups. A middle of funnel metric I track are key product usage levers like how many people take certain actions. I track 1-6 leading Metrics that help me identify strong and weak levers towards our goal. 3) List Outcomes towards the goal. Start simple by focusing on a handful of outcomes for January or Q1. I like the saying “it’s not magic, it’s math”. Don’t hope for your goal to happen magically. Back into your number using math. For our team in 2024, the goal is number of customers. We define Outcomes as strategies or actions that help us accomplish the number of new customers. For example, in January we’re planning a Product Hunt launch, some targeted emails, affiliate opportunities, and a lot of continuation of successful 2023 actions. Many early-stage businesses I know in the $100,000 to $2 million range get overwhelmed because there are so many things they can do. Instead, focus on SIMPLICITY and the right actions by defining your goal, metric, and outcomes. It makes things a lot easier.

I paid a business coach $5,000 to teach me how to set goals properly. Here’s the framework I was taught: This is one of the simplest AND most effective ways I’ve ever seen goal-setting be done. A. You start by setting a 10 year goal This should be audacious, lifestyle oriented, and somewhat vague. Examples of a 10 year goal: - “married, 2-3 kids, big house” - “Traveling the world full time” - “$100M+ net worth” The way you mess up here is by under-shooting/underestimating yourself. People always overestimate what they can do in one year, and underestimate what they can do in 10 years. B. Set a 3 year goal to hit the 10 year goal: Answer this question: “What needs to be done by year 3 for me to be on track to hit the 10 year goal?” When you set your year 3 goal, it should still be vague, but have some general lifestyle outcomes… Examples of 3 year goals: - “Married to my SO” - “taking 8 weeks of vacations per year” - “$500K+ in cash flow” C. Set a 1 year goal to hit the 3 year goal: Answer this question: “What needs to be done by the end of year 1 for me to be on track to hit the 3 year goal?” These should be SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Time-bound) Examples of 1 year goals: - Able to spend 2-3 evenings per week not working, doing a hobby with my SO - Hire a GM who can allow me to take 2-4 weeks of vacation per year - $200k in cash flow after paying a GM D. Set a goal for this quarter to hit the 1 year goal: Answer this question: “What needs to be done this quarter for me to be on track to hit the 1 year goal?” Thes should have very specific results with very specific numbers to reach for (again, SMART goals) Examples of quarterly goals: - Spending 1 evening per weekday, doing an activity with my SO - hire 2 new technicians who each produce $8K in MRR - grow marketing spend to $10,000 to generate demand for technicians Now, all you have to do is measure yourself against your quarterly goals and you’ll start inching towards your ambitious 10-year plan. E. Set weekly KPIs to ensure you’re on track for your quarterly goals. Lastly, tie it all together. Track the MAIN small actions you need to do on a weekly basis in a spreadsheet. You don’t need to think anymore. Just do that action daily, record it, and the results will flow all the way up to your main Vision. This is the $5,000 framework (simplified) Thanks for the read. My goal is to get more active on LinkedIn, so will be posting more content. If this was helpful, shoot me a follow! #goals #entrepreneurship 

I love the vibes of a new year, but a lot of goal-setting systems are either too hustle-y or too woo-woo. I've discovered a more balanced philosophy… ✨ Calm Ambition ✨ After dealing with a couple of burnout cycles, a few years ago I realized that even though I liked my work, I rarely felt good while doing it. I was either in a super ambitious state and feeling behind, or I was in a slower, calmer period where I very quickly got bored and restless. It was a pendulum that spent almost no time at or close to equilibrium. It caused me to set the wrong goals, and learn the wrong lessons when they failed. Purely ambitious goals might be big, but feel empty and ego-driven: 🧨 Make $100 million. 🧨 Be on a fancy Forbes list. 🧨 Grow the team to 100 employees. Ambition is great but it needs a buffer. Calm, but not ambitious goals, ultimately don’t get you closer to doing what you want to do in the long term. They can look like: 💤 Taking time off without a plan. 💤 Passively waiting to see what happens. 💤 Neglecting the uncomfortable stuff like sales. Calm and rest are great, but they lack a sense of growth and purpose. In my experience, neither the purely ambitious nor purely calm approach lasts very long. The calm and not ambitious approach feels great in the short term, but if you have ideas and dreams, it ultimately becomes boring and small. The ambitious but not calm approach is exciting and bold, but it leads to burnout and life meltdowns. The answer is striving for a balance between the two. Here’s how you can integrate this calm ambitious approach to setting goals: 1. Increase your goal horizon to move towards a more patient, larger vision. ❌ Instead of: Make $1K per day. ✅ Try: Increase revenue every quarter this year. 2. Make a goal around strengthening your networks of friends, mentors and allies who motivate and inspire you. ❌ Instead of: Seeing others in your industry as your competition. ✅ Try: Every week, I’ll block 1 hour to stay in touch with industry friends. 3. Prioritize profitability over growth rate. ❌ Instead of: Grow LinkedIn followers 20% month over month. ✅ Try: Increase profit per team member year over year. 4. Make specific plans to rest and recharge. ❌ Instead of: Take off every other Friday. ✅ Try: Go on a hike/to the spa/make art, etc 2 times a month, starting on Jan 19th. 5. In addition to strictly outcome goals (e.g. revenue), also set goals around actions you can control. ❌ Instead of: 100 sign ups for our new program. ✅ Try: Every week, I’ll reach out to 20 prospects. When you look at your current or potential goals for 2024, are they calm and ambitious? 📆 If you want to further explore goal setting and business growth through a calm and ambitious lens, I’m hosting a free annual planning workshop on January 9th and you’re invited! You’ll leave with a clear plan for growing your business in 2024 and meet other calm and ambitious founders to conspire with. 🔗 Link in the comments.