Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Vision Boards & Strategic Plans

Transcript

Vision Boards & Strategic Plans · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

• 0:00
  Thanks to today's podcast sponsor, Amazon.
• 0:02
  Amazon knows small businesses have many options when deciding how and where to sell their
• 0:07
  products.
• 0:08
  Amazon works hard to be the best partner to help drive their success, like investing over
• 0:13
  $30,000,000,000 in logistics tools, and programs to foster their growth.
• 0:18
  Because when small businesses thrive, customers benefit from the products and services they
• 0:23
  offer.
• 0:26
  Stop dealing in the macro.
• 0:27
  Let's deal in the micro.
• 0:29
  What are the many micro marketing acts that you have to do every week in your business in order
• 0:38
  to actualize that 2,700,000 goal.
• 0:42
  And once you start thinking like that, you can actually make it happen.
• 0:49
  Ending small business failure.
• 0:51
  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
• 0:58
  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
• 1:02
  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
• 1:06
  Now here's the small biz lady herself.
• 1:09
  Melinda Emerson.
• 1:12
  Hi, everybody.
• 1:13
  This is Melinda Emerson, and welcome to another episode of the small fish chat podcast.
• 1:19
  I'm so excited to be back in the chair.
• 1:22
  It's a new year, and it's a great time.
• 1:25
  To talk about vision boards and strategic plans.
• 1:29
  That's what we're talking about today in this solo podcast.
• 1:34
  Look.
• 1:35
  I am all, you know, all these people talk about New Year's resolutions and stuff.
• 1:39
  I am not about that life.
• 1:40
  I really believe that you need to have some resolve around some very specific things in
• 1:46
  your life.
• 1:46
  I think resolutions are those things.
• 1:49
  That's nothing more than a great way to break promises to yourself.
• 1:52
  But if you get some resolve around 2 or 3 specific things, those are things you can act
• 1:59
  realize in your business this year.
• 2:01
  And I know a lot of business owners out here, you guys start with, oh, we wanna generate
• 2:06
  2,700,000 in revenue.
• 2:09
  Listen.
• 2:10
  I don't care anything about that.
• 2:11
  I don't care about how much annual revenue you hope to have at the end of 2022.
• 2:17
  What I wanna know is how much money do you have to make every month in order to clear
• 2:23
  $2,700,000 in revenue?
• 2:26
  I wanna know how much money do you have to make each week in order to clear 2 $700,000 in
• 2:35
  revenue because that's really where the rubber hits the road.
• 2:38
  Honestly, you guys, it is not about what you make.
• 2:42
  It is about what you keep.
• 2:44
  And it's time as business owners that we get really, really clear about that.
• 2:48
  And, really, it's not even about what you make.
• 2:51
  It's about your profit margin.
• 2:53
  How much profit is in every deal?
• 2:56
  How much time did it take you to close that deal?
• 2:59
  What's your close ratio?
• 3:01
  How many calls?
• 3:02
  How many emails?
• 3:03
  How many LinkedIn notes do you have to send in order to generate the amount of money that you
• 3:10
  need to generate each week.
• 3:13
  That's what I want you to focus on Stop dealing in the macro.
• 3:18
  Let's deal in the micro.
• 3:20
  What are the many micro marketing actions that you have to do every week in your business in
• 3:29
  order to actualize that 2,700,000 goal.
• 3:33
  And once you start thinking like that, you can actually make it happen.
• 3:37
  I mean, people I think hide behind these big numbers.
• 3:41
  And I'm like, uh-uh, it ain't about that.
• 3:43
  It is about getting clear about your marketing actions each week.
• 3:49
  Because I think a lot of small business owners out here, you guys hate sales, it hates feeling
• 3:55
  slimy.
• 3:56
  Listen, I want you to think about sales in a completely different way.
• 4:00
  You are not selling something to your customer.
• 4:04
  You are actually helping your customer solve a problem.
• 4:07
  And if you think about what you do in terms of helping, then you won't feel so like, oh, I
• 4:13
  hate selling.
• 4:14
  Like, I just don't even want that energy on your business.
• 4:18
  You are helping.
• 4:20
  You are providing a service.
• 4:22
  And as a matter of fact, I hope you raised your rates this year because everybody that sells
• 4:27
  you anything has raised their rates on you from the grocery store to the gas station to your
• 4:32
  products and services that you buy wholesale for your business.
• 4:35
  So I do hope that you've taken the time to look at your rates and that you've raised them one
• 4:41
  of my wonderful mentors.
• 4:43
  Her name is Barbara Weaver Smith.
• 4:45
  She says that when you send it out a proposal, it should be scary plus 20%.
• 4:50
  So I give you all that little gem that she gave me years ago because you can't be afraid to ask
• 4:57
  for what you're worth.
• 4:59
  But it's really about your belief.
• 5:01
  Do you believe that you deserve what you're charging?
• 5:04
  Cause if you did, you would charge it.
• 5:06
  And you wouldn't even hesitate it.
• 5:08
  And companies that don't have the budget, they aren't your client.
• 5:12
  Are they aren't your client right now?
• 5:14
  Right?
• 5:15
  So don't get caught up in thinking about them not paying you what you asked for as them
• 5:21
  saying you're not worth it.
• 5:23
  All it means is they don't have the budget to work with you right now.
• 5:26
  And if you think about it that way, you can keep it moving.
• 5:30
  You don't wanna get emotional about your money at all.
• 5:33
  You wanna be factual.
• 5:34
  And so that's what I wanna encourage you as it relates to setting your business goals
• 5:40
  developing your marketing strategy so you can hit your sales numbers.
• 5:44
  That is really what it's about.
• 5:45
  But I also wanna switch gears a little bit because I do wanna talk about vision boards on
• 5:50
  this podcast because I do think that vision boards are great because they are a you know,
• 5:56
  you can see them every day, right, that I believe that visualization is just really such
• 6:01
  a powerful mind workout because It's those things.
• 6:05
  Like, we've been hearing since we were kids.
• 6:07
  Right?
• 6:07
  It's, if you see it, you can do it.
• 6:11
  Right?
• 6:11
  Your parents maybe said that to you.
• 6:12
  My parents certainly said that to me, But it's true, actually.
• 6:16
  If you plan out your dream life, it is far more likely to happen if you do that and the
• 6:26
  physical manifestation of you planning out your dream life is a vision board.
• 6:30
  Now there's all different types of vision boards that you can do.
• 6:34
  Right?
• 6:35
  You can have what we call the clear goal vision board.
• 6:39
  So that is like 1 or 2 specific things.
• 6:42
  I wanna go to Paris by the end of this year, or I wanna get married by the end of this year.
• 6:48
  Maybe you're dating someone seriously and you're like, praying he's gonna give you a
• 6:51
  ring, you know, anything like that.
• 6:54
  You can set up a specific clear goal vision board But sometimes you may not know exactly
• 7:00
  what you're trying to do.
• 7:01
  So in that case, I would create what we call an influx vision board, and that might be 10
• 7:07
  amount to a mood board.
• 7:09
  Right?
• 7:10
  So pool images that inspire you.
• 7:13
  Pool quotes that give you life or affirmations, that kind of stuff so that you can just
• 7:20
  remember to feel and experience.
• 7:24
  I think too often we go to a concert.
• 7:26
  And the first thing we do is pull out our phone to stream it live or take pictures or record
• 7:32
  it.
• 7:32
  How about we just sit there and enjoy the concert?
• 7:35
  Try that.
• 7:36
  That actually could work.
• 7:37
  You could get back in touch with what your true love is if you take more time to enjoy things.
• 7:45
  One of the things I've been doing is I really have cut out watching television.
• 7:49
  Like, I'm trying to do other things rather than sit and watch television so that I can
• 7:55
  actualize more of my goals.
• 7:57
  And that doesn't mean I'm not relaxing.
• 7:59
  It just means that that is something that I'd rather figure out something else to do.
• 8:04
  Like, read a book or listen to a book or something like that.
• 8:07
  So I want you to think about what are the things you can do to help you develop what you
• 8:13
  might want for your dream life.
• 8:15
  But then these other kind of vision boards, you can do a themed vision board where you just
• 8:18
  pick, like, one aspect of your life and you build a vision board just around that.
• 8:23
  So it might be your career goals or your business goals, or it could be your
• 8:27
  relationship goals.
• 8:28
  Maybe you really wanna partner.
• 8:30
  So I would start going through the magazines, putting on out all the handsome men you see,
• 8:35
  posting them on your boards, or or gorgeous women, whatever it is you're looking for.
• 8:39
  And you put it on that board and you put a wedding dress on there or whatever you got.
• 8:45
  And then you manifest this partner that you wanna have, but be real specific about the kind
• 8:52
  of partner you wanna have.
• 8:53
  But then you also wanna be specific about the kind of partner you're going to be.
• 9:00
  Because it's not just about what you want, it's about what you're gonna give too.
• 9:03
  And that's how you're gonna manifest that partner.
• 9:07
  Now the other type of vision board you can do is a category vision board.
• 9:11
  And those kind, like, talk about every aspect of your life.
• 9:14
  Right?
• 9:15
  What are your health goals?
• 9:16
  What are your relationship goals?
• 9:17
  What are your faith or spiritual goals?
• 9:19
  What are your financial goals?
• 9:21
  What are your business goals?
• 9:22
  And so you might have a vision board that has all kind of imagery and affirmations and things
• 9:28
  on it related to all of these things or each of these things.
• 9:31
  And I'm a big fan of having a physical picture of your vision board.
• 9:36
  So either you can do it on a poster board, or you can go into Canva.
• 9:40
  Actually, Canva has some really cool templates that you can build, a vision board.
• 9:44
  So you either way, I want you to print it out.
• 9:47
  I want you to put it on the wall in your office near your your desk where you work at.
• 9:54
  So on those days when it's really, really hard and you probably maybe don't feel like being a
• 9:59
  business owner, You can look at your dashboard, and you can see the Maserati, you always want
• 10:03
  it.
• 10:04
  Or you can see your dream house that you want.
• 10:07
  So those are the things you have to remember your why, and sometimes you need a physical
• 10:12
  manifestation of your why, so that you can get really, really clear.
• 10:16
  I mean, because there's all kinds of goals out here.
• 10:19
  Right?
• 10:19
  But you need pictures.
• 10:21
  You need images so that you can remember.
• 10:26
  Right?
• 10:26
  I'm a big fan of people even putting pictures of their kids or the kids they want someday.
• 10:32
  On a vision board, you just wanna be able to remind yourself about your why, why you work so
• 10:39
  hard, why you're not gonna stop, why that negative comment isn't gonna get you down.
• 10:45
  You really just wanna be able to stay laser focused on your goals, and that is why we
• 10:52
  create vision boards.
• 10:54
  But I just want you to know that motivation is hard to come by.
• 10:58
  So sometimes you gotta be your own motivator, and one of best way to do that is to put
• 11:03
  together a vision board so that you can design your dream life, and then you can go live your
• 11:09
  dream life as an entrepreneur I'm Linda Emerson, the small visit you have been
• 11:13
  listening to the small fish tap podcast.
• 11:16
  And I wish you well.
• 11:21
  Thank you for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
• 11:26
  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
• 11:32
  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts us and join us next Wednesday.