June 16, 2024 • 41 mins
My dreams create goals which create milestones which create tasks.
In this solo episode, Sam teaches how breaking down tasks into manageable sprints reduces procrastination and helps maintain momentum, bringing you closer to your larger vision ✨
Key Takeaways:
- gain clarity on what your 90 day could be
- learn to set realistic goals that fit your lifestyle
- understand the difference between dreams and goals
- using the SMART framework to measure our success
- resources for planning and tracking daily, weekly, quarterly sprints
Resources:
- BOOK FREE COACHING CALL WITH SAM
- Your Next 90 Days mastermind program
- Intelligent Minds: Productivity Journal (code: SAML)
- Notion: Desktop & Mobile note taking app
About the show:
Sam Laliberte - entrepreneur, digital nomad and freedom seeker, hosts the Freedom Lifestyle Podcast to expose people to the many ways you can design your dream life and unlock your own version of the freedom lifestyle. Her guests have empowered themselves through flexible work as a way to “have it all” - financial, location AND schedule freedom.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello Freedom Seekers .
You are listening to a newepisode of the Freedom Lifestyle
Podcast, where we featurerelatable stories of everyday
freedom seekers who have ditchedconventional office life in
pursuit of a life that isflexible and on their own terms,
(00:23):
and today we're switchingthings up.
You have a solo episode todaywith just me.
So if you've been listening tothis show for a while, you know
that when I come on here with asolo episode just like this, I'm
here to serve.
I'm really here to give youactionable advice and valuable
takeaways, and this one is goingto be no different.
So grab a journal or, if you'reout for a walk, make sure you
(00:44):
have your note-taking app ready,because today we're going to
dive into how I set and achievegoals within a 90-day time frame
, and you can apply this to yourpersonal life.
You can apply this to yourprofessional life or, in my case
, I really hope you find a wayto blend both of those worlds
together.
Earlier this year, I launched anew mastermind slash coaching
(01:05):
program called your Next 90 Days, and this experience has really
forced me to perfect this styleof working, the concept of
working in quarters in 90-daysprints and really brush up on
what I see as roadblocks thatget in the way from achieving
this work style and beingsuccessful in these types of
(01:25):
sprints.
So I've been observing myclients now for the last three
months and I'm really excited toshare these insights.
What I have planned for you iswe're going to talk about why
you should set goals and work in90 day sprints how to actually
decide what your 90 day goalshould be.
I'm going to unpack,step-by-step, my own personal
process and I've included somelittle case studies here so we
(01:46):
can get very specific, withexamples of goals I had last
quarter and what I'm focusing onin the three months that are
upcoming.
I'll share with you resourcesthat I love to help implement
this and, of course, an offer tocome, get unlimited coaching
from me and work together for 90days, and I'll join you on the
(02:06):
ride towards making your dreamshappen.
Sound good, amazing.
So, first, why should we work in90 day spreads?
Why am I so passionate aboutthis?
When I really reflect on when Istarted to operate my business
in this way, it was when I wasworking back at Boss Babe and
they came out with their 90 dayplanner in 2019.
(02:28):
They don't actually offer thisanymore, sadly, but when they
came out with it, I bought ayear's supply right away and it
has really been a beacon for mewhen I think about an entire
year and I've since adaptedtheir process to what works for
me and what works for my ownclients.
But really breaking your yearinto four 90 day sprints, four
(02:48):
quarters, is beneficial for somany reasons, but really what I
want to highlight that resonatesthe most for me and for so many
of the entrepreneurs I coach isthat one.
It helps you set much morerealistic expectations for
yourself and your businessbecause you're often setting
smaller, more defined goals thatare project-based.
(03:09):
So when you think about a yearand a year's horizon, you might
be thinking about bigger dreams,bigger visions for the year,
big level-up moments that youwant to make happen, and it can
be hard to get a sense for whatyou can achieve in a 12 month
period.
There's so many unknowns,especially if you have a freedom
(03:29):
lifestyle and you have a lot offlexibility in your life and
you're moving around a lot andyour work is changing, often
because you're doing freelanceor contract work or who knows
what's around the corner in yourexciting life.
It's super hard to plan anentire year when you don't
really know what's coming.
When you look at a 90 dayhorizon, most of us have a
(03:51):
pretty good idea of what'scoming up over the next 90 days.
And now, when you set your goal, you set goals that you know
you can achieve based on whatyou have going on in your life.
So, for example, if I'm goingto be traveling a lot and I'm
going to be changing time zonesand moving around and living in
a suitcase, that is not going tobe the time for me to be
launching an offer that involvesa lot of calls.
(04:14):
The last thing I want to benavigating while I'm on the road
is figuring out strong internetand Wi Fi.
And okay, you're in this timezone, I'm in this time zone.
The next week, I'm in this timezone.
That's just not gonna work.
I'm not gonna be able to showup the way I wanna show up.
However, it's an amazing timefor me to do more asynchronous
work and projects and focus onrevenue streams where I don't
(04:36):
always have to be live with aperson.
So maybe that's gonna be a timewhere I am really focused on
launching a new season of mypodcast or doing a campaign
around one of my courses.
I know what's coming up, so Ican be much more realistic about
what that goal should be.
I also think it's a really goodway for you to pulse check.
Are you saying yes to the thingsthat matter?
(04:59):
When you have a big dream foryour life and then you go to
work towards it and you say, ohwell, I've said yes to all of
these other things, so I can'tpossibly work on my dream, it
really gets you to ask yourselfwell, wait a minute.
Am I spending my time on thethings that are going to get me
closer to my goal when I look atthe end of the year?
(05:20):
Am I working towards the thingsthat are going to make me feel
really satisfied at the end ofit?
Or did I accidentally just sayyes to a bunch of things that
are a little bit of adistraction and sometimes that
can happen and I think that thatprocess of being like, okay,
this is what I have in the next90 days, there's no way I can
work towards my dream on thatforces you to have a really
(05:42):
strong look in the mirror of amI okay with that?
Are you okay with that?
Are you okay with carrying overyour dreams and your goals and
your visions and all the thingsyou want to make happen in your
life and all the ways you wantto level up.
Are you willing to sacrificethat for whatever you've said?
Yes, you, and sometimes it is.
You know, last year was a reallybig travel year for me.
I'm so excited of the memoriesI made.
(06:03):
Travel year for me.
I'm so excited of the memoriesI made.
I went to Burning man.
I went on my honeymoon Okay,fabulous.
I was happy to make thattrade-off and stay stagnant in
some areas of my life and coasta little bit.
But when I was planning thisyear, I knew that when I started
the year, that wasn't going tobe the type of year I was going
to have.
I wanted to really make moveson some of these bigger dreams
(06:24):
of mine.
So it's in a tricky little way.
It really serves as anopportunity for you to make sure
that you are spending your timeon the right things, and three
months is a good enough horizonwhere you're like two months
from now.
I said yes to a bunch of thesethings.
Every single weekend already ofthe summer month is booked.
I don't like how that feels.
What can I get myself out of?
(06:46):
What can I change now to makespace for the thing that's going
to matter.
What's great about a 90 dayperiod as well, though, is that
it's a long enough time horizonthat you can adapt along the way
.
So, let's say, you encountersome type of setback or some
changes in your circumstances,you can kind of adjust your plan
and course correct withoutfeeling like you're starting
(07:07):
from scratch.
I'll give you a really goodexample for this.
So a dream I have for this year, so a big goal for the entire
year, is to make public speakingone of my main revenue streams,
and I'm more specific than that.
I have a dollar figureassociated with this, which I'll
talk to more, coming up aboutsetting smart goals and specific
(07:29):
goals and goals that we cantrack, but, for now, understand
this idea that I had a big goalof making public speaking a
meaningful revenue stream for me, and so, when I thought about
the first 90 days of this year,I really planned to have Q1 be
about outreach and buildingrelationships, and I was
thinking that maybe by monththree, by March, I would have
(07:52):
paid speaking opportunities,that I would be delivering my
workshops on a paid basis, andthat dollar figure I was trying
to achieve I'd be well on my waytowards that.
So I had a number of actionablegoals and needle moving tasks,
which we're going to talk about.
In order for me to get to that,I had to hire an outreach
manager to help me with this.
(08:13):
I hired somebody else to helpme build a bunch of lists so I
could see differentorganizations that might be a
good fit for me to speak to andpitch one of my workshops to.
I had to really refine what myworkshop topics are.
What are the key takeaways?
What are the titles?
I had to get clear on mypricing so that this was
something that could scale.
(08:33):
If I was really going to doubledown on this revenue stream,
well then I needed to create alot of systems, and so I did
that.
I really spent January focusedon that, and by the end of
January I was actually startingthe outreach process, actually
contacting organizations andpitching myself as a speaker,
and very early on I realizedthat there was a significant
(08:54):
amount of organizations who werereally excited for me to come
speak to their audiences andspeak to their communities.
However, they wanted me to doit for free.
They weren't hiring speakers,they were typically bringing in
experts that could come deliversome value, but then had
something to sell, somethingthat they could monetize by
converting the attendees in theaudience to then buy that
(09:16):
program for them.
And I didn't really haveanything to sell that was
related to the topics that I wasspeaking about, and it was
feeling like this was coming upmore and more and I then
realized, okay, these areorganizations I'm really excited
to speak to.
How can I make this work?
Well, I need to createsomething that I can sell from
(09:38):
stage and I need to createsomething that aligns with the
workshop topics that I'm excitedto speak about, that they want
me to come speak to theiraudience to.
Well, I need something to sell.
That way, I can say yes tothese free things and still have
a dollar value associated withpublic speaking, and that can be
towards my annual goal ofspeaking.
I felt okay with that.
(09:58):
That felt aligned for me.
But I now needed to go create anoffer.
I needed to spend the next twomonths basically designing what
a program could be a course, anoffer, a coaching program.
I didn't know what it was goingto look like, but something I
could sell from stage.
So, because I was working in a90 day timeframe, I still was
(10:20):
able to course correctthroughout that.
So, yes, it was all aboutoutreach and building
relationships and I wanted tostart booking speaking gigs, but
there was still enough time forme to say, okay, I need to
pause on the outreach now and Ineed to go create something and
go create a program.
So that's what I did and that'show I ended up creating the
your Next 90 Day Mastermindprogram.
It was all so.
(10:41):
I had something to sell fromstage and I did that, said yes
to those opportunities and thenby the end of month three, I was
now speaking on stages.
In this case these were virtualstages.
I was in Costa Rica at the timeand I was selling my program to
their audience at the end of it.
So really great example abouthow this 90 day approach can
encourage creativity, can giveyou a sense of freedom and
(11:03):
flexibility.
There's enough time toexperiment, to try new
approaches, but not so much timethat you feel overwhelmed by
the pressure of a much biggerlong-term commitment which, when
that comes, when you have, likethis big, big goal and a big
long-term project that's goingto take 12 plus months, things
can often get put off, thingscan often get delayed If there's
(11:25):
a timeframe that's so far out12 plus months things can often
get put off.
Things can often get delayed.
If there's a timeframe that'sso far out, we can tend to focus
on things that need to be doneright now, and unless you're
figuring out how to createthings to do right now that lead
to that bigger goal, you're notgoing to be able to do it.
You're not going to be able tomaintain a sustainable pace.
Which brings me to the secondthing that I love so much about
(11:45):
working in 90 day sprints isthat it reduces procrastination
and it reduces overwhelm.
I would say the most commonchallenge I've seen from
entrepreneurs that I've coachedand I know some people who are
listening to this might be likeokay, well, I don't even know
what my goal should be, anddon't worry, we're going to be
talking about how you canidentify what your 90 day goal
(12:08):
is and get clear on that andfeel really confident and feel
inspired by that.
But for the most part clientswho come to me, they have their
dream, they know what their goalis and they have tried to go
make that happen and try torealize that on their own, but
they haven't been successful.
The reality is that they'vetried and not necessarily failed
(12:31):
at pursuing their goals, butthey've spent a lot of time and
haven't necessarily had thetraction that they're hoping for
.
And so then they come to me tohave me help them on that
journey and figure out what'sgoing wrong, what's not working,
what are they doing that couldbe improved and how could they
have a different approach togoing after their dream.
(12:52):
And when I really unpack what'sgoing on for a lot of them,
it's almost always that they'vebeen quitting too early.
They are talented, they arecapable, they have set a
realistic goal and dream forthemselves, but sometimes they
get a bit distracted by otherthings that come up in their
life, things that are typicallyeasier, things that are less
(13:15):
uncomfortable to do, that theyknow they can do well.
So, even though they want tohave this big level up, they put
it off and another opportunitycomes that OK, well, that's easy
, I've done that before.
They do that.
They get distracted.
They continue to avoid themeaningful actions that will
actually help them unlock theirreal dreams.
(13:37):
And a perfect example of this isprobably one of my favorite
clients, shout out, april.
You're going to hear from herat the end of today's episode.
She had a dream of becoming avoice actress and building a new
revenue stream as a voice actordoing voiceover work.
And I can just imagine, right.
You know, when you've got agood voice, I bet people her
(13:58):
entire life have been tellingher hey, you should really
monetize that voice, you shouldbe a voice actor.
Have you ever thought aboutvoice acting?
And it's been on her mind for areally long time.
And you talk to April andwithin 30 seconds you're like,
oh yeah, she's got a killervoice and let's get that woman
on a mic.
But where do you even start Ifyou don't know anybody that has
(14:20):
done voice acting, if you don'tunderstand anything about the
industry?
You're not in these worlds, youhave no connections in this
space how do you even reallyknow where to start?
And that can feel overwhelming,that can feel uncertain and
that can lead you to doingnothing, that can lead you to
just stick in the lane that youknow really well.
(14:41):
And so when we worked together,we started by really figuring
out you know what is this big,large dream and make it
meaningful.
And we're going to come back tothat Like what is the emotion
behind this?
Yes, cool, you've got a greatvoice and you want to monetize
it, but there's always somethingmore at the root of that, and
we really need to uncover whatdifference achieving this would
(15:06):
make to somebody.
And so once we do that, well,let's break down all of the
tasks and all of the actions wethink that someone would need to
take in order to get closer andcloser to this goal, and let's
tick them off one by one, weekby week, day by day, and just
(15:27):
get closer and closer tosecuring that first paid
speaking gig as a voiceoveractor.
I often tell people you don'tneed to know the exact path
that's going to get you towardsyour dream or your goal.
You just have to continuouslyknow what your next best step is
.
You just have to continuouslybe like okay, this is the next
thing, I'm trying, this is thenext step.
(15:48):
I continuously have momentum.
I'm continuously makingprogress.
I don't necessarily know thenext 15 steps I need to take,
but I've got one or two that I'mworking on every single week,
and you can work at thatsustainable pace.
I want you to think about howthis could apply for a dream you
have and I'm getting veryspecific with her example,
(16:09):
because this is what we'retalking about If you have a big
dream of becoming a voiceoveractress.
Okay, well, let's break thatdown.
So it was.
You know, an example ofsomething that she had to do
Homework.
I gave her Research threewebsites that hire voiceover
actors.
Create a profile on thesewebsites.
Talk to five people on thesewebsites who are doing this.
Buy your first microphone.
(16:31):
Build a portfolio by findingsamples of voice recordings or
things that you've done whereyou've recorded your voice.
Create new voice recordings.
See if any friends need a voiceactor and do free work for them
.
Determine what your price isgoing to be.
These are all little tasks andlittle homework that, when she
(16:52):
looked at her list of okay,these are the things Sam wants
me to be working on today, thisweek, she knows how to do that.
You can do that.
You might not know how tobecome a voice actress, but when
you break down these smalltasks and often they're giving
you more information along theway when you complete one of
these tasks, when you take thataction, you start to create a
reaction.
(17:12):
Right, you get fed moreopportunity, more insights and
more ideas.
You're learning as you go and alot of the time, like she knows
what to do.
It's all within all of us.
It's just a matter of breakingit down so it feels less
overwhelming.
And when you have it in a 90day sprint and you break it down
from, okay, like these are thebig needle moving outcomes and
(17:34):
milestones that I want to havethis month and now in order to
hit those milestones.
Here are specific tasks that Ineed to do this week and then
broken down to today.
It's also just so satisfyingchecking things off your list
when you get so specific.
You just repeatedly have thatdopamine hit of accomplishment
(17:54):
and progress by check.
Did it again, check, I did that.
And of course, in the program Iuse some fun software.
You know you can literallydigitally check it off and I can
see when something's done andwe can really measure that
outcome and the progress towardsthe goal done.
And we can really measure thatoutcome and the progress towards
the goal.
And I know maybe Ioversimplified it for you, maybe
I made it sound so easy.
I understand it's not that easy.
(18:15):
Okay, we're going to break thatprocess down even further.
But what about somebody whodoesn't even know what their
goals should be?
I mentioned when I'm workingwith a new client we really try
to understand the emotion behindtheir dream, giving it meaning,
understanding how a goal theymight have fits into a bigger
vision for their life.
Rarely does someone who comesto me for podcast coaching just
(18:38):
want to launch a podcast for thesake of launching a podcast.
Okay, it's going to be part ofa bigger dream of either they
finally want to work forthemselves or they want to make
an impact in the world and theywant to get this information out
there that they think is justso valuable and they must share
it with the world and buildcommunity around this, or
they've always wanted to be aprofessional speaker and get
paid to have conversations andtalk to people.
(19:00):
You got to get to the root ofwhat your dreams are and have
them really be meaningful andthen create goals around that,
and I really do think those aredifferent.
A goal is something that I wouldreally consider much more
project-based, specific, right.
A smart goal, specific,measurable, attainable, relevant
(19:20):
, timely.
That's what a goal is, and thatis something you can work
towards in a 90-day period.
But a dream is something biggerthan that.
It's a bit more intangible.
It should be rooted in emotion.
It should be rooted in a visionthat you have for your life,
like something that, if it trulycame true, would be a full body
, yes, a full body excitement, afull body rush of emotions.
(19:44):
When you think about it, youcan't help but just smile and
get equally excited as you arescared.
It's a dream.
That you have A goal issomething that is clearly time
bound.
It's specific.
You can measure it.
Ideally it's pursued in a 90day period and it contributes to
your dream.
It contributes to making thatdream a reality.
(20:06):
But you have to start with thedream.
You have to start with theemotion.
You have to make it meaningfulto you, not only because that
makes the conversation so muchmore special and so much more
enriching from a coach-coacheerelationship, but it's also
really what needs to happen inorder for you to tap into deep
(20:27):
motivation and resilience ondays where either things aren't
going well or days where youjust don't feel like doing it.
If it's a goal with no emotion,if there's no meaning behind it
, it's not leading towards abigger dream of yours.
You're going to delay it.
You're going to do the easything.
You're going to put it off.
You're going to feed intostories that our brain tricks
(20:47):
you with to help us stay small,to help us stay safe.
You're not going to feed intostories that our brain tricks
you with to help us stay small,to help us stay safe, you're not
going to be able toconsistently make progress and
move towards it, because that'sjust not how life works.
When I get on the calls, I haveweekly coaching calls with my
clients, one-on-ones.
It's unlimited coaching.
I don't even know what I'mgoing to get.
(21:08):
Some days they're up, some daysthey're down, and same.
Honestly, it's unlimitedcoaching.
I don't even know what I'mgoing to get.
Some days they're up, some daysthey're down, and same.
Honestly, it's a roller coaster.
And yes, people always say, yes, it's such an entrepreneurial
ride and you're on this rollercoaster ride.
I mean, it's the ride of life.
People who are not entrepreneursalso deal with these peaks and
troughs, these unexpectedvalleys of their life of I'm so
(21:31):
high, I'm winning.
This is amazing to like.
I don't know.
This sucks, life sucks.
Why do I even try?
This is really hard.
Blah meh Happens to all of us,and so, by creating meaning
behind our dreams, it helps ustap into more resilience, and so
that's the first thing we do.
And then, because I have veryentrepreneurial clients, pretty
(21:53):
much everybody I work with is anentrepreneur, an aspiring
entrepreneur of some kind, aside hustler we need to write
down all of the things you wantto do, because what is an
entrepreneur really great at?
They're really great atgenerating new ideas.
They're really great at havinga lot of creative pursuits, a
lot of projects that they eitherwant to do or feel like they
(22:13):
should do campaigns they want torun, revenue streams they want
to launch.
Typically, you have too manygoals, and when you have too
many goals, it's really hard tomake meaningful progress on a
bunch of them, and so a lot ofit is about focusing.
But until you just give someonethe space to just write it all
down literally everything thatcomes to mind, we'll put a timer
(22:35):
on, we'll play some funky music.
Tell me all the things that youwant to do.
Okay, you want to create acourse.
You want to have a mastermindprogram.
Okay, you want to be a publicspeaker.
You want to have this coaching.
You want to get thiscertification.
Okay, you want to go to thisevent.
You want to get this training.
You want to write this book.
Okay, you want to get intovoiceover acting.
You want to do this.
And now we do personal goals.
Okay, well, I want to bemeditating every single day.
(22:56):
I want to be doing 10,000 steps.
I want to be traveling more.
I want to be working less.
I want to get more daylight.
I want to reduce my caffeine.
I want to increase my protein.
I want to start seeing anaturopath.
I want to go to the gym moreoften.
I want to take up a new hobby.
I want to get better at thisexisting hobby.
We are typically at least thepeople I attract, because we
tend to attract like people thatare similar to you, are
(23:19):
ambitious.
We have a lot of things that wewant to do.
Life is a gift.
We want to seize the moment.
We want to take advantage oflife as much as possible, and I
freaking love that.
Same Again, same.
However, we can't do it all atonce, or else we won't make
progress on anything.
So the next thing we do is wejust write down all of the
(23:42):
different things you want to do,because, unless you do it, you
feel like you need to keep it inyour mind so that you don't
forget.
You feel like you need to haveit in there in case like, oh
crap, this popped up in my mindagain.
I am not making progress onthat Shit.
I should be doing that.
Oh, like I'm not doing that.
Oh, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Until you write everything out,all of these ideas are just
(24:03):
living rent-free in your mind,pinging you as reminders
unexpectedly here and there, andyou're scared that you're going
to lose sight of these dreamsor these ideas.
So when they randomly pop up inyour mind, they just trigger
all of these immediate feelingsof oh crap, I'm not doing enough
.
There's this sense of urgency,this unnecessary urgency, and so
we've got to brain dump all ofthe ideas, whatever time horizon
(24:26):
works for you.
Some people it's very easy forthem to look into the future and
think of projects that theywant to do.
That could take five to 10years.
Some people are more short termand have ideas that they think
they want to accomplish thisyear or within the next five
years.
Whatever that time horizon is,we dump them all down and then
we get very ruthless through aprocess of eliminating which
(24:46):
ones cannot happen right now.
I believe that they can allhappen, but they just can't all
happen right now.
So what do we want to do first?
So, once you have all of yourideas and you're trying to
determine and get clear on whatyour 90-day goal should be,
there's usually two paths.
You can make it either superstrategic what is a low-hanging
fruit goal Like?
(25:07):
What is something that's easyto achieve, that's going to get
you closer to a dream based onwhat is timely and important for
you right now.
So an example of this could bea lot of clients want to create
a new revenue stream so thatthey can quit their job or so
that they have money andcashflow to invest in another,
bigger idea, and so sometimesit's about okay, of all these
(25:29):
ideas, what is the quickest onethat is going to make you money?
Out of all these ideas, what doyou think can start generating
revenue within 90 days, andmaybe we'll pick a goal based on
that so that in the nextquarter, we have revenue coming
in so that you can take the leapto quit your job, or so that
you have extra money to investin the thing that you want to do
(25:50):
that you can focus on nextquarter.
So it could be strategic, right, or it could just be like of
all these ideas, what feels themost exciting to start with
right now?
What is the thing?
Full body yes, I referencedthat before.
Feel it.
What excites?
You Pick, pick one, but wecan't pick them all, and that is
(26:11):
, I think, probably the biggestvalue I give to my clients is
helping them stay focused on it.
It's a great way for me tocontinually sell my services and
get them to join for another 90days, because it's just like
such an obvious sell.
It's like, okay, let's stayfocused on what we said we would
do this quarter and then overthe next 90 days.
(26:33):
This sounds like a perfectthing to focus on.
Absolutely, I can help you withthis, but for now we're going
to stay focused on what we saidwe were going to do.
There's room for adaptability,absolutely.
But something that I implementedin the program that I think is
quite clever is, if you hit yourgoal that you set within 90
days, I give you a $200incentive.
(26:53):
So I actually give you $200back what you paid to be in the
program.
I actually give it back to youat the end of 90 days only if
you hit your goal.
And I let you set your goal, aslong as it's specific,
measurable, attainable, relevantand timely, you get to pick it
and I'll give you your moneyback if you hit it.
So let's use that smart framein terms of setting a goal to
(27:15):
the goal I mentioned beforeabout monetizing my public
speaking revenue channels andhaving that be more meaningful,
so specific, I knew what countedright.
I have multiple revenue streams, but I wanted one particular
revenue stream to be the onethat was more meaningful, so,
(27:36):
speaking versus a freelanceoffer that I have, for example,
measurable I made itquantifiable, so I had a dollar
amount associated that I wantedto hit by the end of the year.
Attainable I basically lookedat what I made last year for my
public speaking business andadded 25%, so I wanted to grow
(27:57):
by 25%.
And then relevant yes, this isall part of a much bigger dream
for me.
I gave it relevance, I gave itmeaning.
I have a much bigger dream ofserving people with my own
stories and my own experienceand not just keeping it for
myself.
I've been doing this on thepodcast for years now, but I
(28:17):
really want to take this content, these stories, this
inspiration to bigger audiences,to different audiences, and
really empower people andinspire people with my own
journey and everything I'velearned from speaking with
hundreds of freedom seekers nowon the podcast.
So it's relevant to me.
And then timely I gave myselfuntil the end of 2024 to achieve
(28:40):
it.
So that is an example of what aSMART goal is Specific,
measurable, attainable, relevantand timely.
So your goal has got to be that, and then we break it down.
So then you have your 90 daygoal, but within that 90 day
goal, you want to have importantmetrics or milestones that'll
really matter on your pathtowards that.
(29:01):
And then, from those, you havespecific tasks that you take
every day towards that goal, orevery week towards that goal
okay, towards hitting thatmetric.
And ideally this is all tyingback to one big dream, one big
dream that is part of your bigdreams for the year.
It might not be fully realizedin the entire year, it might
(29:23):
take multiple years, butremember, it's rooted and it's
connected to a bigger dream ofyours.
And then it's broken down intoa 90-day sprint and from there,
in order to achieve that 90-daysprint, there are a couple key
milestones, wins that you'd wantto achieve on the path to
hitting that.
So an example for me lastquarter I launched my new brand
(29:47):
that Jared and I worked ontogether called Conscious
Giddies, and we knew that wewanted to, in Q2, in that three
month period, get ready tolaunch the brand.
Going into the quarter, nobodyknew about the brand but us.
We were in stealth mode.
We had spent Q1 getting clearon what the brand was going to
(30:07):
be and taking some actiontowards getting ready to make it
a reality.
I had to quit certain jobopportunities things that I
really loved doing to make spacefor the new brand.
We leveled up in many ways.
We had many jam co-creationweekends where we dreamt up
together and got super clear.
(30:27):
We spent Q1 really figuring outwhat the brand was going to be,
what the vision, what themission was and how we were
going to create space in ourlife for it.
And then Q2 was all aboutactually launching the brand.
And so when I think about, okay, what would I need to do to
launch a brand?
That's the 90 day goal.
(30:48):
I had specific metrics that Iknew counted towards okay, that
would be a launch.
So one of them was havingbranding for it visual look and
feel of the brand, things like alogo, fonts, colors, all of
that.
Another thing I wanted for thebrand was to have a website,
(31:10):
have a place where people couldgo, that they could learn about
it.
They could ideally sign up forsomething and join our email
list.
That was a big another metricthat matter.
So have a branding kit, have awebsite.
Example was have a physicallaunch event, an in-person
(31:32):
experience where people interactwith the brand, where they
learn about the brand and theyunderstand what it's all about.
Okay, and then a fourth one Ihad was very specific, related
to the brand, was get mybreathwork certification.
So this was kind of related tothe launch plan.
I knew that for the launchevent, we wanted to run a
workshop and in order for me torun that workshop, I needed to
(31:54):
get a new type of certification.
So I am now a certifiedbreathwork instructor, which is
super cool, and I'm recordingthis at the final few weeks of
Q2.
We just had our launch eventlast weekend at Squamish Vegan
Festival and I'm just like soproud.
We just had our launch eventlast weekend at Squamish Vegan
Festival and I'm just like soproud.
It all came about in the way itdid, but it didn't just happen.
(32:16):
We were very intentional aboutOK, we're launching this quarter
after spending Q1 dreaming itup, and this is all leading into
a bigger dream that Jared and Ihave, which is to create our
own nonprofit, to create a brandtogether that is improving the
world, making the world better,that is serving others.
That's part of our big dream,our mission, our legacy we want
(32:38):
to make.
So in Q1, we got clear on whatit was.
Q2, we launched the brand.
So those were examples of themilestones, the wins.
We wanted to have to launch it,the metrics that mattered, and
then you write down all of thetasks that we needed to do.
So in order for us to get abranding kit, we needed a
designer.
One week was about reaching outto our dream designer.
(32:59):
There's this amazing, talenteddesigner named Abril who we
loved her work.
We wanted to work with her.
We wanted to reach out to herfirst and she did say yes, we
knew she would just kill it withthe vibe.
We've seen her work that she'sdone.
That was similar to what wewanted to create with Conscious
Kitties, and she was our dreamdesigner for this particular
(33:20):
project.
And so a task was reach out toher.
A task was, you know, schedulea call with her to share our
vision.
A task was create a mood boardof different images and colors
we like so that we can send hersomething to see what we mean.
Another task was give herfeedback on the first round of
edits.
Right, these are things that welike, broke down on a week by
(33:44):
week and then day by day basisFor my breathwork certification.
Okay, well, find a school thatcan train you on breathwork,
enroll in the training.
Add a daily calendar invitewith a time block to work on the
material Schedule, my practiceassessment Schedule, a time to
practice with friends right?
(34:04):
These are all of the thingsthat we had to keep doing.
Okay, for the launch event.
Well, now we have the brand.
We got the brand down in monthone, month two.
Okay, what are we giving away?
How are people gonna interactwith the brand?
Get stickers, business cardsprinted?
Okay, let's break it downfurther.
Find a supplier, get the filesfrom the designer, approve the
(34:25):
designs, pick up the order.
Do you see how granular I'mgetting?
Every single week, on Sunday,when I made my weekly plan, I
basically came up with probablyfive to seven big things that I
wanted to happen that week.
And then every single day, thenight before actually, I always
create my task list the nightbefore I would look at the
(34:48):
weekly goal and I would maketasks that were relevant to what
I needed to achieve that week.
So every day when I woke up, Iknew what I was working on.
I knew I was doing things thatwere meaningful, that were
related to my 90 day goal, thatwere connected to a bigger dream
of mine.
I didn't question what I wasdoing and I was doing tasks that
(35:09):
were so granular I knew theywere achievable.
If I would have just said, like, launch a new brand, and I just
said that was my goal, there'sno way I would have done that
last quarter, because there'sjust so many things.
It was so uncertain.
I had no idea that when thedesigns came back we were going
to want to create stickers forthem, or I had no idea that it
(35:32):
was going to be even abreathwork workshop that I
wanted to run, like that camefrom stuff I was doing in Q1.
All of the tasks were buildingon each other and you just start
the first couple actions.
You have the reactions from theworld, from your inner world,
that make you confident in whatyour next steps are, and you
just keep going at a sustainableand meaningful pace.
(35:54):
Some resources I love to dothis.
So I talked about how I alwaysmake my tasks the night before.
I absolutely love theproductivity journal by
intelligent minds.
I'll include a link.
I do have a discount code forthem.
I'm affiliated with them.
I'm obsessed with them.
How could I not be?
They're the creators of the5-Minute Journal, which I love.
(36:15):
I used for years and I wouldstill use the Boss Babe Planner,
but they don't have it anymore.
So this is my next best thingand it's really, really good.
It has a section for you tocreate your weekly goals and
then, of course, your daily.
Always create my goals thenight before.
It also has like a calendar forthe hours in each day.
(36:38):
So every night before bed Istart by looking at what have I
committed to tomorrow, what arethe coaching calls I have, what
are the fitness classes I'mattending, what are the fun
things I'm doing, and I put themin and I see what the space is.
And then I make sure I setmyself up for success.
If it's a day like yesterday,where I literally did four
outdoor activities, it was sucha special day.
I went mountain biking, I wentslacklining, I played pickleball
, I went to F45, my favorite gym, my favorite workout class
(37:01):
that's not gonna be a day whereI'm really productive.
So I set goals based on that.
But today, where I knew I hadthe whole afternoon was open,
this was a perfect time for meto record a solo episode like
this.
So the night before, what do Ihave going?
And then I set goals that I canachieve tomorrow that are
related to the week, and if it'sgetting towards the end of the
(37:22):
week and the weekend's comingand I look back and I'm like
crap, I haven't done any of thethings that I said I would do
this week.
Yeah, I do have an honest lookat myself and I say what's got
to give?
Is there something you haveplanned this weekend that you
need to change, that you need todo something differently?
Do you need to sleep less?
Ideally not, but I guess that'salways an option.
(37:42):
Wake up earlier, go to bedlater.
I try not to do that.
I try to eliminate rather thanjust like tap into my personal
time or my health, but sometimesthat has to happen.
So the productivity journal isamazing.
I also love notion.
That is where I go digitally toput all my tasks in.
So I do like writing thingsdown in my journal, but I
(38:03):
actually duplicate that way.
Whenever I'm out for a walk andI have an idea, I can just put
it in the notion app and then itimmediately syncs with the
notion app on my computer so Ican just go back and forth
between those.
I think a lot of things thatpeople say is, oh, when I'm out
like I didn't have my journal orI didn't have this task list, I
didn't have access to this.
(38:24):
You need to set yourself up forsuccess by having different
tools that work with each other.
That's going to be so helpful,and it is science-backed that
writing things down and checkingthings off physically creates a
much stronger dopamine feedbackloop, where you feel much more
motivated to do more of that, towant to hit your goals even
more.
(38:44):
So I think it's important thatyou figure out a way to do both,
and then, yeah, you can gethelp from me.
So here's a blueprint for youto do this on your own.
A new quarter is coming.
Seriously, take this, followthis process, please.
I would love nothing more thanto see you do this and excel at
this, and for this episode to bea resource for you.
If you want some support, ifyou want unlimited coaching and
(39:08):
access to me, if you want me tocome on this ride with you, if
you want to work alongside acommunity of other dreamers who
are also working towards yourgoal, then come join the
mastermind.
I offer a free 20 minute callwith anybody who wants to just
chat with me about their goal,get some immediate feedback on
it, get some clarity on whatthings they should be working on
(39:28):
.
Is this reasonable?
Is this realistic?
Pick my brain for free.
I rarely offer this, but I dofor this program, so I'll
include a link in the show notesto book a 20 minute call with
me If you want to chat about it.
I would absolutely love to helpyou make this dream a reality.
Most people in the program arelaunching a brand new offer in
(39:50):
90 days, or they already havesomething and they want to grow
it, so come into the call withthat in mind.
Everyone in the program alsosets a personal goal.
So, yes, most of us areentrepreneurs wanting to grow in
some way, but we also set agoal that's related to what is
the type of person that I wantto be or that I need to be in
(40:11):
order to hit this goal, in orderto step into that next level,
and so when we're having ourconversations, I like to take a
holistic approach.
The group meets once a monthtogether and we have a group
call.
That's much more like mindsetcoaching and group
accountability and helpingunblock each other and support
each other.
So I'm so proud of it I thinkalmost everybody who joined the
first cohort is coming back forthe second cohort and I'm pumped
(40:35):
about that.
We're going to end with a notefrom April.
You can hear what she has tosay.
And until next time, freedomseekers, enjoy your freedom.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Hi, I'm April and I've been a client of Sam's for
just over two years.
She helped me create my podcastand I'm on my third season, yay
.
Recently I had been thinkingabout getting into voice acting
and I hadn't really talked toher about it and then she came
to me with this idea of athree-month program with access
(41:07):
to her at any time.
A three-month program withaccess to her at any time and
focusing on whether it was aproject or product that could
come to fruition within that90-day time frame and give real
support.
And so I was all in and she'snow offered to extend that
90-day program and I'm going tostay with it because it's been
(41:28):
so helpful to me.
I've pushed through a lot offears you never know how things
are going to work out but yougot to try them right.
Sam is extremely supportive,she's straightforward and honest
and she will work hard for you,so I highly, highly recommend
Sam.
Hello Freedom Seekers .
You are listening to a newepisode of the Freedom Lifestyle
Podcast, where we featurerelatable stories of everyday
freedom seekers who have ditchedconventional office life in
pursuit of a life that isflexible and on their own terms,
(00:23):
and today we're switchingthings up.
You have a solo episode todaywith just me.
So if you've been listening tothis show for a while, you know
that when I come on here with asolo episode just like this, I'm
here to serve.
I'm really here to give youactionable advice and valuable
takeaways, and this one is goingto be no different.
So grab a journal or, if you'reout for a walk, make sure you
(00:44):
have your note-taking app ready,because today we're going to
dive into how I set and achievegoals within a 90-day time frame
, and you can apply this to yourpersonal life.
You can apply this to yourprofessional life or, in my case
, I really hope you find a wayto blend both of those worlds
together.
Earlier this year, I launched anew mastermind slash coaching
(01:05):
program called your Next 90 Days, and this experience has really
forced me to perfect this styleof working, the concept of
working in quarters in 90-daysprints and really brush up on
what I see as roadblocks thatget in the way from achieving
this work style and beingsuccessful in these types of
(01:25):
sprints.
So I've been observing myclients now for the last three
months and I'm really excited toshare these insights.
What I have planned for you iswe're going to talk about why
you should set goals and work in90 day sprints how to actually
decide what your 90 day goalshould be.
I'm going to unpack,step-by-step, my own personal
process and I've included somelittle case studies here so we
(01:46):
can get very specific, withexamples of goals I had last
quarter and what I'm focusing onin the three months that are
upcoming.
I'll share with you resourcesthat I love to help implement
this and, of course, an offer tocome, get unlimited coaching
from me and work together for 90days, and I'll join you on the
(02:06):
ride towards making your dreamshappen.
Sound good, amazing.
So, first, why should we work in90 day spreads?
Why am I so passionate aboutthis?
When I really reflect on when Istarted to operate my business
in this way, it was when I wasworking back at Boss Babe and
they came out with their 90 dayplanner in 2019.
(02:28):
They don't actually offer thisanymore, sadly, but when they
came out with it, I bought ayear's supply right away and it
has really been a beacon for mewhen I think about an entire
year and I've since adaptedtheir process to what works for
me and what works for my ownclients.
But really breaking your yearinto four 90 day sprints, four
(02:48):
quarters, is beneficial for somany reasons, but really what I
want to highlight that resonatesthe most for me and for so many
of the entrepreneurs I coach isthat one.
It helps you set much morerealistic expectations for
yourself and your businessbecause you're often setting
smaller, more defined goals thatare project-based.
(03:09):
So when you think about a yearand a year's horizon, you might
be thinking about bigger dreams,bigger visions for the year,
big level-up moments that youwant to make happen, and it can
be hard to get a sense for whatyou can achieve in a 12 month
period.
There's so many unknowns,especially if you have a freedom
(03:29):
lifestyle and you have a lot offlexibility in your life and
you're moving around a lot andyour work is changing, often
because you're doing freelanceor contract work or who knows
what's around the corner in yourexciting life.
It's super hard to plan anentire year when you don't
really know what's coming.
When you look at a 90 dayhorizon, most of us have a
(03:51):
pretty good idea of what'scoming up over the next 90 days.
And now, when you set your goal, you set goals that you know
you can achieve based on whatyou have going on in your life.
So, for example, if I'm goingto be traveling a lot and I'm
going to be changing time zonesand moving around and living in
a suitcase, that is not going tobe the time for me to be
launching an offer that involvesa lot of calls.
(04:14):
The last thing I want to benavigating while I'm on the road
is figuring out strong internetand Wi Fi.
And okay, you're in this timezone, I'm in this time zone.
The next week, I'm in this timezone.
That's just not gonna work.
I'm not gonna be able to showup the way I wanna show up.
However, it's an amazing timefor me to do more asynchronous
work and projects and focus onrevenue streams where I don't
(04:36):
always have to be live with aperson.
So maybe that's gonna be a timewhere I am really focused on
launching a new season of mypodcast or doing a campaign
around one of my courses.
I know what's coming up, so Ican be much more realistic about
what that goal should be.
I also think it's a really goodway for you to pulse check.
Are you saying yes to the thingsthat matter?
(04:59):
When you have a big dream foryour life and then you go to
work towards it and you say, ohwell, I've said yes to all of
these other things, so I can'tpossibly work on my dream, it
really gets you to ask yourselfwell, wait a minute.
Am I spending my time on thethings that are going to get me
closer to my goal when I look atthe end of the year?
(05:20):
Am I working towards the thingsthat are going to make me feel
really satisfied at the end ofit?
Or did I accidentally just sayyes to a bunch of things that
are a little bit of adistraction and sometimes that
can happen and I think that thatprocess of being like, okay,
this is what I have in the next90 days, there's no way I can
work towards my dream on thatforces you to have a really
(05:42):
strong look in the mirror of amI okay with that?
Are you okay with that?
Are you okay with carrying overyour dreams and your goals and
your visions and all the thingsyou want to make happen in your
life and all the ways you wantto level up.
Are you willing to sacrificethat for whatever you've said?
Yes, you, and sometimes it is.
You know, last year was a reallybig travel year for me.
I'm so excited of the memoriesI made.
(06:03):
Travel year for me.
I'm so excited of the memoriesI made.
I went to Burning man.
I went on my honeymoon Okay,fabulous.
I was happy to make thattrade-off and stay stagnant in
some areas of my life and coasta little bit.
But when I was planning thisyear, I knew that when I started
the year, that wasn't going tobe the type of year I was going
to have.
I wanted to really make moveson some of these bigger dreams
(06:24):
of mine.
So it's in a tricky little way.
It really serves as anopportunity for you to make sure
that you are spending your timeon the right things, and three
months is a good enough horizonwhere you're like two months
from now.
I said yes to a bunch of thesethings.
Every single weekend already ofthe summer month is booked.
I don't like how that feels.
What can I get myself out of?
(06:46):
What can I change now to makespace for the thing that's going
to matter.
What's great about a 90 dayperiod as well, though, is that
it's a long enough time horizonthat you can adapt along the way
.
So, let's say, you encountersome type of setback or some
changes in your circumstances,you can kind of adjust your plan
and course correct withoutfeeling like you're starting
(07:07):
from scratch.
I'll give you a really goodexample for this.
So a dream I have for this year, so a big goal for the entire
year, is to make public speakingone of my main revenue streams,
and I'm more specific than that.
I have a dollar figureassociated with this, which I'll
talk to more, coming up aboutsetting smart goals and specific
(07:29):
goals and goals that we cantrack, but, for now, understand
this idea that I had a big goalof making public speaking a
meaningful revenue stream for me, and so, when I thought about
the first 90 days of this year,I really planned to have Q1 be
about outreach and buildingrelationships, and I was
thinking that maybe by monththree, by March, I would have
(07:52):
paid speaking opportunities,that I would be delivering my
workshops on a paid basis, andthat dollar figure I was trying
to achieve I'd be well on my waytowards that.
So I had a number of actionablegoals and needle moving tasks,
which we're going to talk about.
In order for me to get to that,I had to hire an outreach
manager to help me with this.
(08:13):
I hired somebody else to helpme build a bunch of lists so I
could see differentorganizations that might be a
good fit for me to speak to andpitch one of my workshops to.
I had to really refine what myworkshop topics are.
What are the key takeaways?
What are the titles?
I had to get clear on mypricing so that this was
something that could scale.
(08:33):
If I was really going to doubledown on this revenue stream,
well then I needed to create alot of systems, and so I did
that.
I really spent January focusedon that, and by the end of
January I was actually startingthe outreach process, actually
contacting organizations andpitching myself as a speaker,
and very early on I realizedthat there was a significant
(08:54):
amount of organizations who werereally excited for me to come
speak to their audiences andspeak to their communities.
However, they wanted me to doit for free.
They weren't hiring speakers,they were typically bringing in
experts that could come deliversome value, but then had
something to sell, somethingthat they could monetize by
converting the attendees in theaudience to then buy that
(09:16):
program for them.
And I didn't really haveanything to sell that was
related to the topics that I wasspeaking about, and it was
feeling like this was coming upmore and more and I then
realized, okay, these areorganizations I'm really excited
to speak to.
How can I make this work?
Well, I need to createsomething that I can sell from
(09:38):
stage and I need to createsomething that aligns with the
workshop topics that I'm excitedto speak about, that they want
me to come speak to theiraudience to.
Well, I need something to sell.
That way, I can say yes tothese free things and still have
a dollar value associated withpublic speaking, and that can be
towards my annual goal ofspeaking.
I felt okay with that.
(09:58):
That felt aligned for me.
But I now needed to go create anoffer.
I needed to spend the next twomonths basically designing what
a program could be a course, anoffer, a coaching program.
I didn't know what it was goingto look like, but something I
could sell from stage.
So, because I was working in a90 day timeframe, I still was
(10:20):
able to course correctthroughout that.
So, yes, it was all aboutoutreach and building
relationships and I wanted tostart booking speaking gigs, but
there was still enough time forme to say, okay, I need to
pause on the outreach now and Ineed to go create something and
go create a program.
So that's what I did and that'show I ended up creating the
your Next 90 Day Mastermindprogram.
It was all so.
(10:41):
I had something to sell fromstage and I did that, said yes
to those opportunities and thenby the end of month three, I was
now speaking on stages.
In this case these were virtualstages.
I was in Costa Rica at the timeand I was selling my program to
their audience at the end of it.
So really great example abouthow this 90 day approach can
encourage creativity, can giveyou a sense of freedom and
(11:03):
flexibility.
There's enough time toexperiment, to try new
approaches, but not so much timethat you feel overwhelmed by
the pressure of a much biggerlong-term commitment which, when
that comes, when you have, likethis big, big goal and a big
long-term project that's goingto take 12 plus months, things
can often get put off, thingscan often get delayed If there's
(11:25):
a timeframe that's so far out12 plus months things can often
get put off.
Things can often get delayed.
If there's a timeframe that'sso far out, we can tend to focus
on things that need to be doneright now, and unless you're
figuring out how to createthings to do right now that lead
to that bigger goal, you're notgoing to be able to do it.
You're not going to be able tomaintain a sustainable pace.
Which brings me to the secondthing that I love so much about
(11:45):
working in 90 day sprints isthat it reduces procrastination
and it reduces overwhelm.
I would say the most commonchallenge I've seen from
entrepreneurs that I've coachedand I know some people who are
listening to this might be likeokay, well, I don't even know
what my goal should be, anddon't worry, we're going to be
talking about how you canidentify what your 90 day goal
(12:08):
is and get clear on that andfeel really confident and feel
inspired by that.
But for the most part clientswho come to me, they have their
dream, they know what their goalis and they have tried to go
make that happen and try torealize that on their own, but
they haven't been successful.
The reality is that they'vetried and not necessarily failed
(12:31):
at pursuing their goals, butthey've spent a lot of time and
haven't necessarily had thetraction that they're hoping for
.
And so then they come to me tohave me help them on that
journey and figure out what'sgoing wrong, what's not working,
what are they doing that couldbe improved and how could they
have a different approach togoing after their dream.
(12:52):
And when I really unpack what'sgoing on for a lot of them,
it's almost always that they'vebeen quitting too early.
They are talented, they arecapable, they have set a
realistic goal and dream forthemselves, but sometimes they
get a bit distracted by otherthings that come up in their
life, things that are typicallyeasier, things that are less
(13:15):
uncomfortable to do, that theyknow they can do well.
So, even though they want tohave this big level up, they put
it off and another opportunitycomes that OK, well, that's easy
, I've done that before.
They do that.
They get distracted.
They continue to avoid themeaningful actions that will
actually help them unlock theirreal dreams.
(13:37):
And a perfect example of this isprobably one of my favorite
clients, shout out, april.
You're going to hear from herat the end of today's episode.
She had a dream of becoming avoice actress and building a new
revenue stream as a voice actordoing voiceover work.
And I can just imagine, right.
You know, when you've got agood voice, I bet people her
(13:58):
entire life have been tellingher hey, you should really
monetize that voice, you shouldbe a voice actor.
Have you ever thought aboutvoice acting?
And it's been on her mind for areally long time.
And you talk to April andwithin 30 seconds you're like,
oh yeah, she's got a killervoice and let's get that woman
on a mic.
But where do you even start Ifyou don't know anybody that has
(14:20):
done voice acting, if you don'tunderstand anything about the
industry?
You're not in these worlds, youhave no connections in this
space how do you even reallyknow where to start?
And that can feel overwhelming,that can feel uncertain and
that can lead you to doingnothing, that can lead you to
just stick in the lane that youknow really well.
(14:41):
And so when we worked together,we started by really figuring
out you know what is this big,large dream and make it
meaningful.
And we're going to come back tothat Like what is the emotion
behind this?
Yes, cool, you've got a greatvoice and you want to monetize
it, but there's always somethingmore at the root of that, and
we really need to uncover whatdifference achieving this would
(15:06):
make to somebody.
And so once we do that, well,let's break down all of the
tasks and all of the actions wethink that someone would need to
take in order to get closer andcloser to this goal, and let's
tick them off one by one, weekby week, day by day, and just
(15:27):
get closer and closer tosecuring that first paid
speaking gig as a voiceoveractor.
I often tell people you don'tneed to know the exact path
that's going to get you towardsyour dream or your goal.
You just have to continuouslyknow what your next best step is
.
You just have to continuouslybe like okay, this is the next
thing, I'm trying, this is thenext step.
(15:48):
I continuously have momentum.
I'm continuously makingprogress.
I don't necessarily know thenext 15 steps I need to take,
but I've got one or two that I'mworking on every single week,
and you can work at thatsustainable pace.
I want you to think about howthis could apply for a dream you
have and I'm getting veryspecific with her example,
(16:09):
because this is what we'retalking about If you have a big
dream of becoming a voiceoveractress.
Okay, well, let's break thatdown.
So it was.
You know, an example ofsomething that she had to do
Homework.
I gave her Research threewebsites that hire voiceover
actors.
Create a profile on thesewebsites.
Talk to five people on thesewebsites who are doing this.
Buy your first microphone.
(16:31):
Build a portfolio by findingsamples of voice recordings or
things that you've done whereyou've recorded your voice.
Create new voice recordings.
See if any friends need a voiceactor and do free work for them
.
Determine what your price isgoing to be.
These are all little tasks andlittle homework that, when she
(16:52):
looked at her list of okay,these are the things Sam wants
me to be working on today, thisweek, she knows how to do that.
You can do that.
You might not know how tobecome a voice actress, but when
you break down these smalltasks and often they're giving
you more information along theway when you complete one of
these tasks, when you take thataction, you start to create a
reaction.
(17:12):
Right, you get fed moreopportunity, more insights and
more ideas.
You're learning as you go and alot of the time, like she knows
what to do.
It's all within all of us.
It's just a matter of breakingit down so it feels less
overwhelming.
And when you have it in a 90day sprint and you break it down
from, okay, like these are thebig needle moving outcomes and
(17:34):
milestones that I want to havethis month and now in order to
hit those milestones.
Here are specific tasks that Ineed to do this week and then
broken down to today.
It's also just so satisfyingchecking things off your list
when you get so specific.
You just repeatedly have thatdopamine hit of accomplishment
(17:54):
and progress by check.
Did it again, check, I did that.
And of course, in the program Iuse some fun software.
You know you can literallydigitally check it off and I can
see when something's done andwe can really measure that
outcome and the progress towardsthe goal done.
And we can really measure thatoutcome and the progress towards
the goal.
And I know maybe Ioversimplified it for you, maybe
I made it sound so easy.
I understand it's not that easy.
(18:15):
Okay, we're going to break thatprocess down even further.
But what about somebody whodoesn't even know what their
goals should be?
I mentioned when I'm workingwith a new client we really try
to understand the emotion behindtheir dream, giving it meaning,
understanding how a goal theymight have fits into a bigger
vision for their life.
Rarely does someone who comesto me for podcast coaching just
(18:38):
want to launch a podcast for thesake of launching a podcast.
Okay, it's going to be part ofa bigger dream of either they
finally want to work forthemselves or they want to make
an impact in the world and theywant to get this information out
there that they think is justso valuable and they must share
it with the world and buildcommunity around this, or
they've always wanted to be aprofessional speaker and get
paid to have conversations andtalk to people.
(19:00):
You got to get to the root ofwhat your dreams are and have
them really be meaningful andthen create goals around that,
and I really do think those aredifferent.
A goal is something that I wouldreally consider much more
project-based, specific, right.
A smart goal, specific,measurable, attainable, relevant
(19:20):
, timely.
That's what a goal is, and thatis something you can work
towards in a 90-day period.
But a dream is something biggerthan that.
It's a bit more intangible.
It should be rooted in emotion.
It should be rooted in a visionthat you have for your life,
like something that, if it trulycame true, would be a full body
, yes, a full body excitement, afull body rush of emotions.
(19:44):
When you think about it, youcan't help but just smile and
get equally excited as you arescared.
It's a dream.
That you have A goal issomething that is clearly time
bound.
It's specific.
You can measure it.
Ideally it's pursued in a 90day period and it contributes to
your dream.
It contributes to making thatdream a reality.
(20:06):
But you have to start with thedream.
You have to start with theemotion.
You have to make it meaningfulto you, not only because that
makes the conversation so muchmore special and so much more
enriching from a coach-coacheerelationship, but it's also
really what needs to happen inorder for you to tap into deep
(20:27):
motivation and resilience ondays where either things aren't
going well or days where youjust don't feel like doing it.
If it's a goal with no emotion,if there's no meaning behind it
, it's not leading towards abigger dream of yours.
You're going to delay it.
You're going to do the easything.
You're going to put it off.
You're going to feed intostories that our brain tricks
(20:47):
you with to help us stay small,to help us stay safe.
You're not going to feed intostories that our brain tricks
you with to help us stay small,to help us stay safe, you're not
going to be able toconsistently make progress and
move towards it, because that'sjust not how life works.
When I get on the calls, I haveweekly coaching calls with my
clients, one-on-ones.
It's unlimited coaching.
I don't even know what I'mgoing to get.
(21:08):
Some days they're up, some daysthey're down, and same.
Honestly, it's unlimitedcoaching.
I don't even know what I'mgoing to get.
Some days they're up, some daysthey're down, and same.
Honestly, it's a roller coaster.
And yes, people always say, yes, it's such an entrepreneurial
ride and you're on this rollercoaster ride.
I mean, it's the ride of life.
People who are not entrepreneursalso deal with these peaks and
troughs, these unexpectedvalleys of their life of I'm so
(21:31):
high, I'm winning.
This is amazing to like.
I don't know.
This sucks, life sucks.
Why do I even try?
This is really hard.
Blah meh Happens to all of us,and so, by creating meaning
behind our dreams, it helps ustap into more resilience, and so
that's the first thing we do.
And then, because I have veryentrepreneurial clients, pretty
(21:53):
much everybody I work with is anentrepreneur, an aspiring
entrepreneur of some kind, aside hustler we need to write
down all of the things you wantto do, because what is an
entrepreneur really great at?
They're really great atgenerating new ideas.
They're really great at havinga lot of creative pursuits, a
lot of projects that they eitherwant to do or feel like they
(22:13):
should do campaigns they want torun, revenue streams they want
to launch.
Typically, you have too manygoals, and when you have too
many goals, it's really hard tomake meaningful progress on a
bunch of them, and so a lot ofit is about focusing.
But until you just give someonethe space to just write it all
down literally everything thatcomes to mind, we'll put a timer
(22:35):
on, we'll play some funky music.
Tell me all the things that youwant to do.
Okay, you want to create acourse.
You want to have a mastermindprogram.
Okay, you want to be a publicspeaker.
You want to have this coaching.
You want to get thiscertification.
Okay, you want to go to thisevent.
You want to get this training.
You want to write this book.
Okay, you want to get intovoiceover acting.
You want to do this.
And now we do personal goals.
Okay, well, I want to bemeditating every single day.
(22:56):
I want to be doing 10,000 steps.
I want to be traveling more.
I want to be working less.
I want to get more daylight.
I want to reduce my caffeine.
I want to increase my protein.
I want to start seeing anaturopath.
I want to go to the gym moreoften.
I want to take up a new hobby.
I want to get better at thisexisting hobby.
We are typically at least thepeople I attract, because we
tend to attract like people thatare similar to you, are
(23:19):
ambitious.
We have a lot of things that wewant to do.
Life is a gift.
We want to seize the moment.
We want to take advantage oflife as much as possible, and I
freaking love that.
Same Again, same.
However, we can't do it all atonce, or else we won't make
progress on anything.
So the next thing we do is wejust write down all of the
(23:42):
different things you want to do,because, unless you do it, you
feel like you need to keep it inyour mind so that you don't
forget.
You feel like you need to haveit in there in case like, oh
crap, this popped up in my mindagain.
I am not making progress onthat Shit.
I should be doing that.
Oh, like I'm not doing that.
Oh, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Until you write everything out,all of these ideas are just
(24:03):
living rent-free in your mind,pinging you as reminders
unexpectedly here and there, andyou're scared that you're going
to lose sight of these dreamsor these ideas.
So when they randomly pop up inyour mind, they just trigger
all of these immediate feelingsof oh crap, I'm not doing enough
.
There's this sense of urgency,this unnecessary urgency, and so
we've got to brain dump all ofthe ideas, whatever time horizon
(24:26):
works for you.
Some people it's very easy forthem to look into the future and
think of projects that theywant to do.
That could take five to 10years.
Some people are more short termand have ideas that they think
they want to accomplish thisyear or within the next five
years.
Whatever that time horizon is,we dump them all down and then
we get very ruthless through aprocess of eliminating which
(24:46):
ones cannot happen right now.
I believe that they can allhappen, but they just can't all
happen right now.
So what do we want to do first?
So, once you have all of yourideas and you're trying to
determine and get clear on whatyour 90-day goal should be,
there's usually two paths.
You can make it either superstrategic what is a low-hanging
fruit goal Like?
(25:07):
What is something that's easyto achieve, that's going to get
you closer to a dream based onwhat is timely and important for
you right now.
So an example of this could bea lot of clients want to create
a new revenue stream so thatthey can quit their job or so
that they have money andcashflow to invest in another,
bigger idea, and so sometimesit's about okay, of all these
(25:29):
ideas, what is the quickest onethat is going to make you money?
Out of all these ideas, what doyou think can start generating
revenue within 90 days, andmaybe we'll pick a goal based on
that so that in the nextquarter, we have revenue coming
in so that you can take the leapto quit your job, or so that
you have extra money to investin the thing that you want to do
(25:50):
that you can focus on nextquarter.
So it could be strategic, right, or it could just be like of
all these ideas, what feels themost exciting to start with
right now?
What is the thing?
Full body yes, I referencedthat before.
Feel it.
What excites?
You Pick, pick one, but wecan't pick them all, and that is
(26:11):
, I think, probably the biggestvalue I give to my clients is
helping them stay focused on it.
It's a great way for me tocontinually sell my services and
get them to join for another 90days, because it's just like
such an obvious sell.
It's like, okay, let's stayfocused on what we said we would
do this quarter and then overthe next 90 days.
(26:33):
This sounds like a perfectthing to focus on.
Absolutely, I can help you withthis, but for now we're going
to stay focused on what we saidwe were going to do.
There's room for adaptability,absolutely.
But something that I implementedin the program that I think is
quite clever is, if you hit yourgoal that you set within 90
days, I give you a $200incentive.
(26:53):
So I actually give you $200back what you paid to be in the
program.
I actually give it back to youat the end of 90 days only if
you hit your goal.
And I let you set your goal, aslong as it's specific,
measurable, attainable, relevantand timely, you get to pick it
and I'll give you your moneyback if you hit it.
So let's use that smart framein terms of setting a goal to
(27:15):
the goal I mentioned beforeabout monetizing my public
speaking revenue channels andhaving that be more meaningful,
so specific, I knew what countedright.
I have multiple revenue streams, but I wanted one particular
revenue stream to be the onethat was more meaningful, so,
(27:36):
speaking versus a freelanceoffer that I have, for example,
measurable I made itquantifiable, so I had a dollar
amount associated that I wantedto hit by the end of the year.
Attainable I basically lookedat what I made last year for my
public speaking business andadded 25%, so I wanted to grow
(27:57):
by 25%.
And then relevant yes, this isall part of a much bigger dream
for me.
I gave it relevance, I gave itmeaning.
I have a much bigger dream ofserving people with my own
stories and my own experienceand not just keeping it for
myself.
I've been doing this on thepodcast for years now, but I
(28:17):
really want to take this content, these stories, this
inspiration to bigger audiences,to different audiences, and
really empower people andinspire people with my own
journey and everything I'velearned from speaking with
hundreds of freedom seekers nowon the podcast.
So it's relevant to me.
And then timely I gave myselfuntil the end of 2024 to achieve
(28:40):
it.
So that is an example of what aSMART goal is Specific,
measurable, attainable, relevantand timely.
So your goal has got to be that, and then we break it down.
So then you have your 90 daygoal, but within that 90 day
goal, you want to have importantmetrics or milestones that'll
really matter on your pathtowards that.
(29:01):
And then, from those, you havespecific tasks that you take
every day towards that goal, orevery week towards that goal
okay, towards hitting thatmetric.
And ideally this is all tyingback to one big dream, one big
dream that is part of your bigdreams for the year.
It might not be fully realizedin the entire year, it might
(29:23):
take multiple years, butremember, it's rooted and it's
connected to a bigger dream ofyours.
And then it's broken down intoa 90-day sprint and from there,
in order to achieve that 90-daysprint, there are a couple key
milestones, wins that you'd wantto achieve on the path to
hitting that.
So an example for me lastquarter I launched my new brand
(29:47):
that Jared and I worked ontogether called Conscious
Giddies, and we knew that wewanted to, in Q2, in that three
month period, get ready tolaunch the brand.
Going into the quarter, nobodyknew about the brand but us.
We were in stealth mode.
We had spent Q1 getting clearon what the brand was going to
(30:07):
be and taking some actiontowards getting ready to make it
a reality.
I had to quit certain jobopportunities things that I
really loved doing to make spacefor the new brand.
We leveled up in many ways.
We had many jam co-creationweekends where we dreamt up
together and got super clear.
(30:27):
We spent Q1 really figuring outwhat the brand was going to be,
what the vision, what themission was and how we were
going to create space in ourlife for it.
And then Q2 was all aboutactually launching the brand.
And so when I think about, okay, what would I need to do to
launch a brand?
That's the 90 day goal.
(30:48):
I had specific metrics that Iknew counted towards okay, that
would be a launch.
So one of them was havingbranding for it visual look and
feel of the brand, things like alogo, fonts, colors, all of
that.
Another thing I wanted for thebrand was to have a website,
(31:10):
have a place where people couldgo, that they could learn about
it.
They could ideally sign up forsomething and join our email
list.
That was a big another metricthat matter.
So have a branding kit, have awebsite.
Example was have a physicallaunch event, an in-person
(31:32):
experience where people interactwith the brand, where they
learn about the brand and theyunderstand what it's all about.
Okay, and then a fourth one Ihad was very specific, related
to the brand, was get mybreathwork certification.
So this was kind of related tothe launch plan.
I knew that for the launchevent, we wanted to run a
workshop and in order for me torun that workshop, I needed to
(31:54):
get a new type of certification.
So I am now a certifiedbreathwork instructor, which is
super cool, and I'm recordingthis at the final few weeks of
Q2.
We just had our launch eventlast weekend at Squamish Vegan
Festival and I'm just like soproud.
We just had our launch eventlast weekend at Squamish Vegan
Festival and I'm just like soproud.
It all came about in the way itdid, but it didn't just happen.
(32:16):
We were very intentional aboutOK, we're launching this quarter
after spending Q1 dreaming itup, and this is all leading into
a bigger dream that Jared and Ihave, which is to create our
own nonprofit, to create a brandtogether that is improving the
world, making the world better,that is serving others.
That's part of our big dream,our mission, our legacy we want
(32:38):
to make.
So in Q1, we got clear on whatit was.
Q2, we launched the brand.
So those were examples of themilestones, the wins.
We wanted to have to launch it,the metrics that mattered, and
then you write down all of thetasks that we needed to do.
So in order for us to get abranding kit, we needed a
designer.
One week was about reaching outto our dream designer.
(32:59):
There's this amazing, talenteddesigner named Abril who we
loved her work.
We wanted to work with her.
We wanted to reach out to herfirst and she did say yes, we
knew she would just kill it withthe vibe.
We've seen her work that she'sdone.
That was similar to what wewanted to create with Conscious
Kitties, and she was our dreamdesigner for this particular
(33:20):
project.
And so a task was reach out toher.
A task was, you know, schedulea call with her to share our
vision.
A task was create a mood boardof different images and colors
we like so that we can send hersomething to see what we mean.
Another task was give herfeedback on the first round of
edits.
Right, these are things that welike, broke down on a week by
(33:44):
week and then day by day basisFor my breathwork certification.
Okay, well, find a school thatcan train you on breathwork,
enroll in the training.
Add a daily calendar invitewith a time block to work on the
material Schedule, my practiceassessment Schedule, a time to
practice with friends right?
(34:04):
These are all of the thingsthat we had to keep doing.
Okay, for the launch event.
Well, now we have the brand.
We got the brand down in monthone, month two.
Okay, what are we giving away?
How are people gonna interactwith the brand?
Get stickers, business cardsprinted?
Okay, let's break it downfurther.
Find a supplier, get the filesfrom the designer, approve the
(34:25):
designs, pick up the order.
Do you see how granular I'mgetting?
Every single week, on Sunday,when I made my weekly plan, I
basically came up with probablyfive to seven big things that I
wanted to happen that week.
And then every single day, thenight before actually, I always
create my task list the nightbefore I would look at the
(34:48):
weekly goal and I would maketasks that were relevant to what
I needed to achieve that week.
So every day when I woke up, Iknew what I was working on.
I knew I was doing things thatwere meaningful, that were
related to my 90 day goal, thatwere connected to a bigger dream
of mine.
I didn't question what I wasdoing and I was doing tasks that
(35:09):
were so granular I knew theywere achievable.
If I would have just said, like, launch a new brand, and I just
said that was my goal, there'sno way I would have done that
last quarter, because there'sjust so many things.
It was so uncertain.
I had no idea that when thedesigns came back we were going
to want to create stickers forthem, or I had no idea that it
(35:32):
was going to be even abreathwork workshop that I
wanted to run, like that camefrom stuff I was doing in Q1.
All of the tasks were buildingon each other and you just start
the first couple actions.
You have the reactions from theworld, from your inner world,
that make you confident in whatyour next steps are, and you
just keep going at a sustainableand meaningful pace.
(35:54):
Some resources I love to dothis.
So I talked about how I alwaysmake my tasks the night before.
I absolutely love theproductivity journal by
intelligent minds.
I'll include a link.
I do have a discount code forthem.
I'm affiliated with them.
I'm obsessed with them.
How could I not be?
They're the creators of the5-Minute Journal, which I love.
(36:15):
I used for years and I wouldstill use the Boss Babe Planner,
but they don't have it anymore.
So this is my next best thingand it's really, really good.
It has a section for you tocreate your weekly goals and
then, of course, your daily.
Always create my goals thenight before.
It also has like a calendar forthe hours in each day.
(36:38):
So every night before bed Istart by looking at what have I
committed to tomorrow, what arethe coaching calls I have, what
are the fitness classes I'mattending, what are the fun
things I'm doing, and I put themin and I see what the space is.
And then I make sure I setmyself up for success.
If it's a day like yesterday,where I literally did four
outdoor activities, it was sucha special day.
I went mountain biking, I wentslacklining, I played pickleball
, I went to F45, my favorite gym, my favorite workout class
(37:01):
that's not gonna be a day whereI'm really productive.
So I set goals based on that.
But today, where I knew I hadthe whole afternoon was open,
this was a perfect time for meto record a solo episode like
this.
So the night before, what do Ihave going?
And then I set goals that I canachieve tomorrow that are
related to the week, and if it'sgetting towards the end of the
(37:22):
week and the weekend's comingand I look back and I'm like
crap, I haven't done any of thethings that I said I would do
this week.
Yeah, I do have an honest lookat myself and I say what's got
to give?
Is there something you haveplanned this weekend that you
need to change, that you need todo something differently?
Do you need to sleep less?
Ideally not, but I guess that'salways an option.
(37:42):
Wake up earlier, go to bedlater.
I try not to do that.
I try to eliminate rather thanjust like tap into my personal
time or my health, but sometimesthat has to happen.
So the productivity journal isamazing.
I also love notion.
That is where I go digitally toput all my tasks in.
So I do like writing thingsdown in my journal, but I
(38:03):
actually duplicate that way.
Whenever I'm out for a walk andI have an idea, I can just put
it in the notion app and then itimmediately syncs with the
notion app on my computer so Ican just go back and forth
between those.
I think a lot of things thatpeople say is, oh, when I'm out
like I didn't have my journal orI didn't have this task list, I
didn't have access to this.
(38:24):
You need to set yourself up forsuccess by having different
tools that work with each other.
That's going to be so helpful,and it is science-backed that
writing things down and checkingthings off physically creates a
much stronger dopamine feedbackloop, where you feel much more
motivated to do more of that, towant to hit your goals even
more.
(38:44):
So I think it's important thatyou figure out a way to do both,
and then, yeah, you can gethelp from me.
So here's a blueprint for youto do this on your own.
A new quarter is coming.
Seriously, take this, followthis process, please.
I would love nothing more thanto see you do this and excel at
this, and for this episode to bea resource for you.
If you want some support, ifyou want unlimited coaching and
(39:08):
access to me, if you want me tocome on this ride with you, if
you want to work alongside acommunity of other dreamers who
are also working towards yourgoal, then come join the
mastermind.
I offer a free 20 minute callwith anybody who wants to just
chat with me about their goal,get some immediate feedback on
it, get some clarity on whatthings they should be working on
(39:28):
.
Is this reasonable?
Is this realistic?
Pick my brain for free.
I rarely offer this, but I dofor this program, so I'll
include a link in the show notesto book a 20 minute call with
me If you want to chat about it.
I would absolutely love to helpyou make this dream a reality.
Most people in the program arelaunching a brand new offer in
(39:50):
90 days, or they already havesomething and they want to grow
it, so come into the call withthat in mind.
Everyone in the program alsosets a personal goal.
So, yes, most of us areentrepreneurs wanting to grow in
some way, but we also set agoal that's related to what is
the type of person that I wantto be or that I need to be in
(40:11):
order to hit this goal, in orderto step into that next level,
and so when we're having ourconversations, I like to take a
holistic approach.
The group meets once a monthtogether and we have a group
call.
That's much more like mindsetcoaching and group
accountability and helpingunblock each other and support
each other.
So I'm so proud of it I thinkalmost everybody who joined the
first cohort is coming back forthe second cohort and I'm pumped
(40:35):
about that.
We're going to end with a notefrom April.
You can hear what she has tosay.
And until next time, freedomseekers, enjoy your freedom.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Hi, I'm April and I've been a client of Sam's for
just over two years.
She helped me create my podcastand I'm on my third season, yay
.
Recently I had been thinkingabout getting into voice acting
and I hadn't really talked toher about it and then she came
to me with this idea of athree-month program with access
(41:07):
to her at any time.
A three-month program withaccess to her at any time and
focusing on whether it was aproject or product that could
come to fruition within that90-day time frame and give real
support.
And so I was all in and she'snow offered to extend that
90-day program and I'm going tostay with it because it's been
(41:28):
so helpful to me.
I've pushed through a lot offears you never know how things
are going to work out but yougot to try them right.
Sam is extremely supportive,she's straightforward and honest
and she will work hard for you,so I highly, highly recommend
Sam.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.