Unbreakable Success Podcast: Episode 33

How to Be Smart(er) About Your Entrepreneurial Goals.

Full Transcript:

There you are. Welcome back to Unbreakable Success. This is episode number 33, and yes. We're rocking a solo episode today. It's been a while since I've had the chance to have just a one-on-one conversation with you. It actually feels really good to be doing it again. We've had some really great interviews over the past few weeks, and I'm thankful for all the guests that we've had on the show. If you haven't had a chance to listen to them all, please make sure you subscribe and check out all the previous episodes and the interviews we've had because they've been really helpful. There's been a ton of great information. Today we're going to talk about goals when it comes to being a mission-driven entrepreneur.

Here's the deal. I truly believe that SMART goals have their place. SMART goals meaning goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. In some places, they're applicable. They're satisfactory and they're actually needed. I've seen it many times, many occasions where having a goal that is very specific, you can measure it, it's something that can be attained. It's realistic and you set a time frame on it. We need that a lot of times for one-off projects. When it comes to your mission as an entrepreneur, I truly, totally believe that we need to be playing at much higher level in that.

I mean, we'd better be playing a bigger game than simply running a business based on some SMART goal because if you're being … You will literally wind up being throttled if you try to constrain yourself and constrain your business and constrain your mission to the confines of that SMART goal acronym. Instead, what we're going to learn today is the acronym of CLEAN goals for mission-driven entrepreneur.

That's C-L-E-A-N. Real simple, but this acronym represents what I truly believe to be the core of what must be in place as the goal for your mission, for your business, for the purpose of what you're looking to accomplish as an entrepreneur, whether you're a solopreneur, whether you're running with a big team. It doesn't matter. You need to have your CLEAN goals in place for your mission.

The “C” in CLEAN Goals…

Let's start with the letter C. Your goal as an entrepreneur must be congruent. It's got to be congruent, meaning it's aligned with what feels important to you right now in this season of your life. It's aligned with your values. It's aligned with the person you want to be, and more importantly, it's aligned with the person you want to become.

Let's face it, not to be melodramatic, but you're creating a legacy as an entrepreneur. You're creating the story of you, the story of your business, the story of the service or product you're providing for your industry and your clients and your customers. What happens is if you are running … If you're operating under the pretense of serving a function that doesn't even really feel like something that's important to you, it's not going to be sustainable. Yes, you can start a business that's solely based on the idea of, “Oh, maybe this will make me some money,” and that's fine. There's certainly no judgment with it. I've been there and done that, but it's not going to last.

You're either going to get burned out and you're going to become so disgusted that you're just going to be living in misery. I can tell you from experience. Years ago, I started a landscaping business many years ago, doing lawns, cutting lawns, doing landscaping. I did it for one reason and one reason only. A, I thought I had the skills to do it, and B, I thought it would make me a ton of money. Guess what? I was right on both of those things. Yeah, I was pretty darn good at it. I had a nice team I was running with. We had great equipment. I was getting a ton of business and making really good money, but there was just one problem. I couldn't stand it. I truly couldn't stand it. It meant, for me, it wasn't what I wanted to be doing with my time, and it was taking up almost all of my time. I spent so much time in this business. It meant nothing to me other than the money that was coming in, and I had to stop. It just wasn't sustainable. It wasn't something that was going to last.

We have to be willing to recognize that, for all of us, you may be in a position where you're just thinking, “Aaron, I get it. I'd love to be doing something that felt like it was aligned with what I want to be, who I want to be, and the values that I have and what I want to bring to the marketplace, but I just need money now.” You know what? Let me tell you something. That's fine. I think it was James Wedmore, I had listened to him a while ago. He was talking about how …If you don't know James, he's an excellent podcaster. He's got a great podcast called Mind Your Business Podcast. He has an online course called Business by Design. He does masterminds.

He became very well-known from a business perspective as the guy that teaches people how to grow their business using video. He was great at it, had a great course, still does. He was talking about how when he started as an entrepreneur, his parlay into business was creating a course on being a, I believe it was a bartending course. He admits openly and freely that it wasn't his purpose. He didn't feel like his purpose for the rest of his life was going to be teaching people how to make drinks and be a great bartender. It got his foot in a door, and it got him creating something. That led to other more successful, very successful ventures for him.

I don't want you to think that even though this letter C in this acronym about CLEAN goals is about doing something that's aligned with who you are, but there will come a point, whether it's now or later on, that when you're playing for the long game, for the long term, you need to have a business in place that's aligned with who you are and what's important to you. That'll make a huge difference because it'll keep from, number one, feeling kind of like a phony, which is what happened to me back when I was doing landscaping, and it keeps that drive alive. Because when you have a business that's aligned with who you feel like who you want to be as a person, there's no stopping you. You will power through anything when your business, your mission is identity-aligned. Make sure that your goals as an entrepreneur are congruent with the person that you want to be.

The “L” in CLEAN Goals…

Alright, the letter L: levels. L is for levels, meaning there needs to be progressive levels that you can see yourself climbing through the course of time. One of the things I teach in my course Unbreakable Success Academy is that we have three transcendent needs as human beings, meaning needs that make us feel like we're going above and beyond the average performance that most people do. One of those transcendent needs is the need for progress. If our business, if our mission makes us feel like we've hit a dead end, then what was the point in the first place? Look, one of the main reasons that people become entrepreneurs and they shy away from the nine to five punching a clock world is that they don't want to feel like they're boxed into this dead end job.

Why in the world, as an entrepreneur, would you ever do something that you didn't feel like gave you the opportunity to grow and to progress and keep rising to the next level? I can tell you for certain, there are so many more levels of achievement that I have on my horizon. I know there are so many more things that I want to do and they're coming. Looking over my shoulder, I can see the progress that I've made up until this point, and that's the point. When you recognize the levels that are available, the opportunity of leveling up and making a series of progressions in your business, you'll never be bored because there's always going to be that next step for you. Make sure that as you're setting goals that you can see the levels that are in place where you can just keep stepping your game up and growing the person that you are and the business that you're running and the impact that you're making.

The “E” in CLEAN Goals…

The letter E in CLEAR is ecological. How is your goal, how is your mission affecting the world beyond just you? Meaning how is what you're doing, how is it affecting your family? How is it affecting your friends and the people that you serve in your environment? It doesn't mean that you need to be pleasing everyone, but we have to remain aware of the world around us. I'll give you an example, if you're an author and you wind up getting a whole bunch of speaking opportunities because of the book you wrote and it's taking you … You got opportunities to speak all over the world.

How is your mission affecting the world beyond just YOU? Click To Tweet

Well, how does that fit in with your lifestyle with your family? I don't mean bringing this up in a point as if you're going to have to make an either/or decision. In other words, either I have to run my business the way I want to run it or I have to choose my family. No. My point is that … I had a great interview with Melanie Benson a while ago, who's a phenomenal business coach and revenue strategies. One of the things she brought up is that we need to be looking for the end. When we find ourselves thinking that we're in a position where we have to choose one or the other, we need to start looking for how we can choose both.

In other words, how could you accomplish the travel associated with being a successful author that's being booked at all these opportunities around the globe and keep your family involved, and keep your family connected to you and connected to what you're doing, and the mission that you have that really is there for the benefit of them and you and the people that you're serving? How can you accomplish both? Look for that. My point is really awareness. It's being aware of how what you're doing is affecting the world beyond just you because a lot of times we can get so caught up in what we're doing, caught up in our business, what we're trying to build, all the different pieces that we all know need to be in place to run a business successfully.

We got to remember to flick that chip off our shoulder every once in a while and remember that it ain't just about you. If you're a mission-driven entrepreneur, if you're being an entrepreneur with a sense of purpose, then you're already coming and operating from a place of service, of doing more than just taking care of yourself. We need to be making sure that we're taking care of and remembering the people closest to us.

The “A” in CLEAN Goals…

Alright, now letter A is articulate. I can't even say it. I'm saying articulate and I can't even articulate. The A is for articulate. In other words, you need to be able to explain why you're doing what it is you're doing, what it is, who are the stakeholders being affected by your mission? You need to be able to spell that out because if you're involved in a business and you're not even sure why you're doing it or who it's affecting or who's really being impacted, then it doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong, it just means you need to get some clarity behind you.

I'll give you an example. My goal, my mission right now is to help mission-driven entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs that have a sense of purpose, my goal is to help them recognize that they're 100% worthy and capable of enjoying massive levels of consistent, unbreakable success in their business and in their life, and to offer them some powerful but simple strategies to help them do it. That's why you see me on this podcast either teaching myself or bringing on people to interview people that can teach you some of the tools to help make your business and life better.

That's my mission. It's why I do one-on-one coaching. It's why I have an online course. It's why, like I said, I do this show. It's to serve mission-driven entrepreneurs and help them realize what they're capable of. It's to serve you.

So yes, as you're setting your goals, as you're setting and getting clear on your mission as an entrepreneur, really need to make sure you're able to articulate clearly what it is you're doing, why you're doing it, and who you're going to be impacting beyond just you.

The “N” in CLEAN Goals…

Finally, the N in the CLEAN goals for mission-driven entrepreneurs is needed. Is what you're doing needed? Remember like we said earlier when we were talking about the concept of making sure your goal's congruent. Is it needed? Because this is your legacy. Does your goal offer the opportunity to give something and fill what you believe to be a legitimate need in your industry? What need does it fill for you? I know it can really get tempting to just go out, for many people, and start a business because, again, it can get really easy to think, “Oh, I can just do this because I heard it can make some money, or I'm going to do this because I heard it can be lucrative,” and that's it.

There's really no other … You don't see the need that's there. You don't feel any sense of urgency for you. Like we said earlier, you don't have to have some sky-shattering sense of purpose emanating from the stars to begin an entrepreneurial journey, but as you mature, we really need to be looking at what need are we filling in the marketplace. What need are we filling for ourselves and our sense of contribution to the industry? Because that's when you know your mission is either maturing or is starting out from a good place of maturity.

When you see the need that's there and you feel it and you step into that space bravely, even when and if you don't feel like you're ready, because we all know we seldom feel ready when we start out. A lot of times, we don't feel completely ready when we're doing it. We need to recognize that there's a need that needs to be filled and that's the reason why we're accomplishing the goals that we're accomplishing. If we can work from that place, then we're really doing ourselves a service and we're doing our industry a really good service.

That's it in a nutshell. You mission-driven entrepreneurs, I love you all. Make sure you're setting some CLEAN goals. Yes, you can use your SMART goals when they're needed, like I said, for some one-off things, but when it comes to looking at your business from a 30,000-foot view, we really need to make sure that our big goals are clean, they're congruent, there's levels to them so we can grow, they're ecological for us and for the people around us that we're affecting, we can articulate them clearly, and we're fulfilling a real need in our space.

When you have that lined up, you have yourself a CLEAN goal and you've got a mission that you can be proud of and I can tell you right now that I'm proud of you for doing it. I love serving you all. I'm totally glad I had this opportunity to speak with you again. It's been a while since we got to chat one-on-one. I'm glad to share this time for you.

If you've got something really good from this episode, please make sure you share it with someone or several people. Make sure you're subscribed, you rate and review the show. I sincerely appreciate you and sending you lots of love for doing so. Until next time, as always, please make sure you take care of yourself. Take care of each other and keep on creating the best life of your life. Love you guys and I will talk to you next time.

Resources from Unbreakable Success Episode 33:

James Wedmore's website: http://www.jameswedmoretraining.com/

James' podcast site: http://www.mindyourbusinesspodcast.com/