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What you’ll learn in this episode:
Planning out your business is similar to mapping out your next vacation – you need to know where you’re going, how you’re going to get there, and who’s driving!
So often business owners set out with a vague idea of what they want to achieve in their business and an even more vague idea of how they’re going to get there.
With this lack of clarity and specificity, the excitement they initial held when they set out on their entrepreneurial journey begins to fade when they’re not making progress or hitting the goals they want. Kind of how we feel when we can’t get to our destination, and we find that we’ve been driving around in circles.
After listening to this episode, you will have a clear understanding of the key elements you need to chart your business course to success. This will not only get you to where you want to go faster and more reliably, but it will make the ride a whole lot more fun too.
Here’s a glance at this episode:
- Why do you need a well laid out course to be successful in your business?
- What are the key elements of your course that you need in order to get where you want to go?
- What types of things can derail you and pull you off course, and how do you avoid that?
- What is one the one essential thing you need to keep you and your business on track to hit the goals you set out to accomplish?
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[00:02] Well, hello, everyone. And welcome back to the practical mindset Podcast. I’m just Miller. And I’m so excited to be here this week to talk to you about the concept of charting the course, for your business. So I’ve been having a lot of conversations this week with my clients and other colleagues around what does it take to be successful in your business? And what is that path or course, that you need to chart in order to make that happen? Specifically, what are the pieces that are most essential for you to get where you want to go in your business and be successful doing that? What are those sorts of key elements that really needs to be present in order for you to thrive and succeed on your journey. And so we went back and forth about this, because there are so many different things that we are confronted with as business owners. It’s almost like the sea of shiny objects of things that we could be doing in our business.
[00:59] But in my world, or if you’ve listened to the practical mindset podcast at all, you know that I truly believe that less is more, that it is really about not doing all the things in your business, but actually doing the things that move the needle the most. In one of the episodes that we recently had, we talked about this idea of Pareto principle about the 8020 rule and about when we look at the things in our life in our business that actually have the biggest impact on our results, it’s really a small percentage of things. And by the 8020 rule, it is around 20% of the things in your business produce 80% of the results. And so when I think about charting a course in your business, the my brain immediately goes to what are those essential elements that you need to have in order to really chart a strong course towards success for you and your business.
[01:54] And so I want to offer that, if you want to be successful, if you want to get to the results that you want, or where you want to go. If you want to have a course that you follow in your business, it needs to contain an essential small group, or small group of elements that are going to get you to success. And today we’re going to talk about what are those things that I have found working with hundreds of clients, and also working in my own business, that have allowed me to create the results that I want, do that in a more potent and streamlined way as I have grown my business. And that has allowed me to also reproduce this for so many of my clients. So today we’re going to talk about those things, those things, you need to chart your course to success for your business. So let’s jump right in.
[02:46] So number one, one of the key elements that you need to have when you’re charting your course to success, is you need to know exactly where you want to go. I remember working in corporate America, and actually I had a boss who was probably one of the worst bosses I’ve ever had, there were so many things about this guy that I hated. But one of the things that he did really, really well was he was able to distill down into what were the most important pieces of a project or a plan that a team needed to know in order to create success. So when it came to execution, you know, how do we lay those things out in a very specific way? And what were those key elements that everybody needed to be on the same page about in order to create success? And one of the things that he taught us was this idea of essentially knowing where you want to go, what is that result that you want? Stephen Covey used to say this with starting with the end in mind.
[03:49] So one of the first key elements when you go to chart a course to anywhere, but especially in your business is what is that thing that you want to create? What is the result that you want, that you’re aiming for? What is the goal? And from that place? How do you then reverse engineer and create the plan or the path or the course in order to create that result and get to that place? And the more specific that you can get about that result? The more exacting the plan, and the path will be in order to get to that place. And so the number first step, the number one step is figure out in your business, what your goal is, what your result is that you want, what success looks like for you. And this could be any number of things. It could be a monetary goal, like you have a specific revenue number or sales target you’re trying to hit. It could be a number of clients that you want to impact. It could be another successful factor that you have identified like, I want to end up working 20 hours a week, whatever it is, you need to be crystal clear on what is that result that you want? What is that goal that you are trying to hit? So number one is, where do you want to go? What is that goal? What is that end place? What is that result that you want to have? That’s number one.
[05:24] Number two is you need to reverse engineer and have a plan in order to hit that goal. I know this sounds so ridiculous and basic, you’re like, really, I’m listening to this podcast. And this is what she’s telling me. But I can’t tell you how many people get an idea how many entrepreneurs I have talked to that get an idea. And they’re like, we’re just going for that thing. We’re just going for that money. And there’s no real concrete plan that has been engineered, and pressure tested to actually hit that goal. So for example, if you have a revenue goal, it is really important not just to have this number, like hanging on the wall or out there somewhere, you need to understand, if you want to hit that number, how many things do you need to sell in your business? How many clients do you need to have to buy those things? How many people do you need to interface with in order to convert that number of clients into buying those things? What marketing plan? Do you need to have to touch those people? What audience building plan do you have to build in order to drive that traffic? What lead magnet do you have to have in order to bring people into that specific offer? These are just examples of the things that make up a plan that will bring you from where you are today to the result that you want.
[06:53] And if you’re listening to this, and you are an entrepreneur, you know, sometimes it seems so simple, like oh, we’re just going to generate this money, or we’re just going to sell this thing. But when you actually get into it running a business is multipronged. And it can be in some ways complex, it doesn’t have to be complicated. And it doesn’t need to be hard. But oftentimes, there are many pieces. And so with this pie in the sky idea with no plan is really just sort of an empty wish, without any structure. And if you want to really make your results a reality, you have to have a concrete plan. And the more specific you get with your target or your goal and knowing where you want to go, and the more specific you can reverse engineer that and create the plan, the more probability there is that you’re not going to miss something or forget something on the way to actually creating that thing. And a concrete and specific plan is really the bedrock, it’s one of the pieces of the foundation that actually allows you to create the results. For many of you that have heard me talk about what makes a successful business.
[08:08] And I’ve talked about this a lot, especially recently, it is a combination of three things, it’s a combination of having a very solid foundation, which encompasses these things that we cannot hold in our hands like mindset and energy and your vibe and your intention, all those things that we call sort of intangible things, married with all the tangible things like the brass tacks of your business plan and the logistics and the tactics that make up the things that you can touch, like your spreadsheets and your systems and all of those things. And then underneath those things are your data. So you can measure? Am I showing up in the way that I want with these intangible things and doing the tactical execution? Everything’s over here? And are they actually working? Can I see it in the data. And so that bedrock foundation, married with your magnetic offer, which is the thing that you’re selling, the thing that you are saying is the solution to somebody’s problem. And then optimize within your business, that magnetic offer and that foundation within the ecosystem of your business, optimize in a way to actually move people through your business in a streamlined fashion to go from coming into your world and moving through to becoming a paying customer.
[09:40] Though that is the three elements of a business that are essential, in my opinion, to have a thriving business that consistently makes money. And so the more that you create this concrete plan of where you want to be going, the more you have that strong elements in that foundation. That’s very tactical in nature, right? It’s those specific pieces that Create the money impact client, whatever it is that you want is that result, it is that very practical roadmap that allows you to create that thing with clarity. And within that, the brass tacks of it, those tactics that I was talking about that are part of that foundation, really are the things that need to be baked into that plan. And because as I mentioned, it is complex, and there are a lot of different pieces, the better that you’re able to engineer that, and pressure test it and reproduce it, the more likely you are the higher probability you have to reach that goal. So if we think about this, like a car, like we’re driving our business is the car, we need to know where we’re going, like, what is that coordinate that we’re going to plug into the GPS system? And then what is the route that we’re going to take to get there, right, that’s that map. That’s that practical piece that we’re engineering to get us to the result, right? So that’s the map.
[11:00] But just like driving, you can’t just have a destination, and roadmap, right? Somebody needs to be driving this car. And the thing that is driving your business is your brain. It’s your attitude. It’s how you are showing up in your business. It is your mindset. And as one of my favorite people want to favorite authors, Jensen cero, always says, she says, Your attitude has the wheel. And it is true. How do you show up in your business with the intention and the mindset to create the business that you want to be the business owner that you want to be? The way that you do that is what is driving that car, it is what is driving that business, to execute on that plan, and to get to where it is that you want to go. So taking care of yourself, keeping your vibe high, coaching yourself Self coaching, getting coached managing your thoughts, and really understanding not only who you need to be to run the business you want and create the results that you want, and be able to be on that journey and make that map and that roadmap a reality. But it’s also who and how you need to think so part of that journey. And that attitude is who you are being from a mental space. Yes, it is what you do. Yes, it is the action you take. But most importantly, it’s who you’re being and how you think. And when you enter into I have found when you enter into your business, from a place of confidence and clarity and certainty, you take totally different action than when you’re not in that place. And some of that comes from the intention of creating those brass tacks and creating that roadmap and that GPS coordinate that you’re aiming for that result, some of this being comes from knowing that you have put in place those pieces to get where you want to go, I have to share with you when I first got a GPS, it was 100% Mine drummer, I could not understand how people could just put the coordinates into that GPS and just follow it. It blew my mind, I don’t know if I was like in a total control freak place. But I needed to see exactly where that GPS was going to take me before I pulled out of my driveway. I was in complete awe of the people who could just plug it in and just follow whatever it was that that little voice was telling them to do.
[14:00] I have found that in my experience with GPS as an business, when you can see the whole path, there is a way that you show up with confidence because you have the clarity of not only where you want to go, but how you’re going to get there. And when you can see that you take that roadmap and you marry it with your expertise. And it allows you to also infuse all your wisdom. So if you’ve ever had the experience of plugging that thing into the GPS, and then looking at the route that they tell you that you’re going to take and you’re like, I don’t think so I don’t think where is this taking me you know what I mean? And you have that chance to actually influence it from your expertise, what you’re seeing in that GPS and it’s the same thing with your business. I believe that when you know where you want to go and you can lay out all those pieces, all the pieces of what is your offer. Who is your audience? What is your marketing? What is your lead magnet? How are you building your traffic plan? All those things, you are able to then critique that from your own expertise and decide, is this what I want to be doing? Do I want to do it a little differently? Do I need some insights? What is it in order to step into that role where you’re owning and accountable for the outcome of that execution.
[15:20] And in that moment, when you have your head on board, and you’ve got the plan, plan, and you know where you’re going, you’re unstoppable. Because you’ve put all those pieces together, and you can see it. So charting the course for your business, is also about getting yourself in the driver’s seat mentally, in order to execute and get you to exactly where you want to go.
[15:45] So just to recap, if you want to chart a course, for your business, to success, you need to have key elements within that structure that allow you to do this with ease, to not only know where you’re going to not only create the plan, but to show up as the business owner that actually makes those things happen. I have found that the most critical elements of charting that course are the following one, know exactly where you want to go, be as specific as you possibly can understand what that coordinate is that you are plugging into that GPS, you cannot go anywhere and end up where you want to be if you don’t have clarity on where you’re going.
[16:24] So that’s number one. Number two, you need to have the plan, you need to reverse engineer from that point that you have plotted from that result and success that you want, you need to reverse engineer how it is you’re going to get there. Business is complex, it doesn’t need to be complicated, it doesn’t need to be overly dramatic. But there are a lot of different pieces to making a business successful. If just anyone could do it by throwing anything at the wall, then you and I wouldn’t even be here we’d all be millionaires and we would be doing all of our things. But there is an art form and a science to running a business. And it starts with a solid foundation, as I mentioned, a very solid foundation of both the intangible and tangible things in your business, a magnetic offer and an ecosystem that’s optimized to bring people in to that magnetic offer to create the results that you want.
[17:12] And in order to do that, and implement a business like that, that thrives and makes money consistently, you need to have a specific laid out plan that gets you to where you want to go, what that result is that you want. So result first, then you need the plan, it needs to be specific and the more specific you can get. And the more pressure tested that plan could get, the more probability is you’re going to create the result that you want. And then you need to have the attitude on board, as the person in the business owner that is going to drive that plan and drive that execution and persevere to get that result. And the same way that when you drive a car and you put that coordinate in and then it shows you the way to get to x destination that you want to drive to. You need to be in the driver’s seat and your attitude.
[17:59] And your mindset is what is driving this business boss. And without showing up in the energy of the person that you want to be. And really intentionally being that person thinking the way that person thinks, doing the things that that person does, you will veer off course. And we’ve all had this experience where our mindset gets hijacked. It is like yanking that wheel to the right as you’re driving down the road and like just veering off the highway, right? So your attitude has the wheel and how you show up. And the way that you intentionally move your business forward, both with your plan with your certainty with your energy will be the thing that actually is the momentum behind following this course charting this course to a business that’s successful, that thrives and that creates consistent money has the impact on the world that not only affects you and what you create, but will touch the lives of every person that your business touches and more.
