In this solo episode of Burning the Ships, I open up about the power of goal setting—what it looks like when you miss big, and what it feels like when you blow past goals you once thought were impossible.
I share the story of how our company went from raising just a few hundred thousand dollars in capital to surpassing $20 million in loans made—all in less than three years. From planting seeds with investors and nurturing those relationships, to shifting goals when reality hit, to celebrating milestones like hitting $10 million in a single quarter, this episode is a transparent look at the messy, exciting, and often humbling process of setting and achieving goals.
Whether you’re in real estate, business, or just trying to level up personally, this conversation will give you a roadmap to set goals that scare you, hold yourself accountable, and build momentum that compounds over time.
Key Talking Points of the Episode
00:00 Introduction
01:47 JJ’s Joke of the Week
02:28 Surpassing Q3 goals: $10M in loans and crossing the original $20M annual goal
03:13 Setting a scary $20M loan goal for 2025 and hitting it early
05:31 Early days of raising capital: first $300K investor, frustration, and impatience
08:05 Shifting from “sell today” insurance mindset to long-term seed planting
10:20 Selling a vision instead of a commodity: trust and relationships over transactions
12:42 The farming analogy: planting, watering, nurturing, and waiting for harvest
15:06 Ending 2024 with $5M under management vs. the $10M goal—lessons from failure
18:14 Setting realistic KPIs for 2025—$20M in loans as the new North Star
21:20 Why failing at one goal set the stage for bigger wins later
24:20 The difference between scary goals and unrealistic ones
27:17 Pushing for $10M in Q3 instead of $8M and hitting it
28:07 Tactical goal-setting tips: dissecting goals, setting micro-goals, and building accountability
29:50 The power of going public with goals—creating accountability and credibility
31:36 Building fans of your business like the Savannah Bananas build fans of baseball
Quotables
“I wasn’t selling insurance anymore. I was selling a vision. And that takes time.”
“The hardest part of goals isn’t setting them—it’s backing into the micro-goals that make them possible.”
“When you put your goals out there publicly, you create accountability and build credibility at the same time.”
Links
608B Capital
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