How to Set AND HIT Your Goals | Have Your Best Year Ever!

Want to listen to the podcast version of this post? I’ve got you covered!

So I typically “hibernate” during the holiday season, but I just HAD to record this episode! Goal setting and actually hitting your goals is crucial when you’re running a business, not to mention in life. I’m sharing my four-step proven method on how to set and hit your goals in 2022. Plus, I’m breaking down some goals that I have for this year!

Step 1: Set SMART Goals

The first thing you need to do to set and hit your goals is to set SMART goals. I don’t mean the word “smart;” I mean the acronym!

The SMART in SMART goals stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Time-bound

Specific

Be specific! Don’t say, “I want more subscribers on YouTube.” Express exactly how many new subscribers you want so you can actually measure that goal. “I want to exercise more” might become “I want to work out three times per week.”

Measurable

Setting measurable goals go hand-in-hand with setting specific goals. You want to be able to measure the progress toward hitting your goal. Make sure you’re setting a goal that is tangible and specific! “More engagement on Instagram” is really hard to measure. A measurable and specific goal for Instagram might be “I want 30% of my audience to see my Instagram stories.”

Attainable

This is where I see SO MANY people go wrong! I want you to set big goals, but I also want you to set goals that you can meet. If you have 100 subscribers on Youtube right now, setting a goal to get to 100,000 subscribers by the end of the year isn’t the most attainable in that time frame.

You can figure out what goals might be attainable for you based on past behavior. If you don’t have any past behavior to base your goals on, look at other people who have hit a similar goal to see what might be attainable for you.

Realistic

If you want to learn how to set and hit your goals, you’ve got to make sure you’re setting realistic goals. Let’s say you want to lose weight, and you say you want to lose 100 lbs this year. It is safe to lose 2 lbs per week, but that means it would take you 50 perfect weeks to lose 100 lbs. That might be theoretically attainable, but not realistic when you account for life! Maybe you back that number down to 80 lbs in a year to make it more realistic.

Time-Bound

Give yourself a time limit! Deadlines are crucial in goal-setting. Give yourself a deadline of December 31 to hit 100,000 YouTube subscribers, for example. That way, the goal isn’t open-ended and you have motivation to hit it on a certain date.

Step 2: Add a Why to your SMART Goals

Instead of SMART goals, they’re “SMARTY” goals. Get it?

Why do you want to hit this goal? Your why is personal, special and more important than some frivolous number.

If you want to make $100,000 this year, that’s great! But why? It can’t just be “because I do.” Give yourself the reason!

Let’s say my goal is to make $1,000,000 this year. If all of my SMART goals check out but I don’t have a reason, I’m probably not going to try as hard and be as motivated to hit that goal. My why could be that I want to buy a second home somewhere, add new team members, or expand my business. When you hit the root of your “why,” you can make progress much more easily!

Let’s talk about weight loss. After I had my second son, I lost a LOT of weight – around 75 or 80 lbs in one year. It was a SMART goal, but the real reason I did it was because of my WHY. We were going to Hawaii, and I was absolutely going to wear a bikini and look great. And since then, I’ve yet to find another “why” that drives me to that level of passion.

Most people in the world need a reason behind their goals to hit them, even if they set a SMART goal. So set SMARTY goals instead!

Step 3: Reverse-Engineer your goals (this is the KEY to actually hitting your goals!)

So, you’ve set up a great SMARTY goal… Now what? We’re talking about how to set AND HIT your goals, and this is the KEY to actually hitting that goal.

Reverse-engineer your goals.

Let’s say you want to make $100,000. Setting a SMARTY goal is great, but if you carry on about your normal business, you aren’t going to hit it! You have to think through what steps you need to take to meet that goal.

Maybe you’re planning for a launch in June that you know will bring in $50,000. Now, you need to figure out how to make $50,000 for the rest of the year! I need to make more than $4,445 per month the rest of the year to meet that goal. Now, figure out HOW to do that. Does that mean bringing on more clients or launching a new digital product? Set the steps you need to take each quarter, month, week, and day to get there!

Step 4: Do Check-Ins with Yourself!

In reverse-engineering your goals, you’re breaking down the income you want to make, weight you want to lose, or whatever else into monthly increments. So do monthly check-ins with yourself to see your progress toward that goal!

How much money did I earn this month? What did I do to get there? What could I do better next month?

If you want to hit 5,000 new subscribers per month, check in at the end of each month and see where you’re at with that goal. Where did these subscribers come from? Which videos did best, and can I make more of those? Don’t just check in on progress – be strategic about reflecting and figuring out the best next steps.

Sharing some of my goals for 2022!

My income goal this year, which I won’t share specifically, is rooted in that SMARTY framework. I want to be able to sustain my lifestyle, pay my team, give myself and my team a raise. I also want to substantially contribute to paying off our debt and buying a second home that we can use as a short-term rental. 

Like every year, I have “lose weight” on my goal list. I want to lose about 40 lbs, so I have broken that down into smaller goals. By March, I want to lose a certain amount of weight because I'm going to speak at Social Media Marketing World and I want to look and feel my best!

I want to hit 300,000 YouTube subscribers this year! You may look at my channel and say “woah, but you only have 120,000 subscribers and haven’t grown much this past year.” Both of those things are true! That’s a super big goal, but it is based in realism. I just have to break it down into smaller goals. I’m going to produce more videos this year and listen to what my audience really wants. And if this goal doesn’t work out, I have the ability to adjust it.

This year, I want to read 15 books. Which might sound silly if you’re the kind of person who wants to read a book per week, but this is a goal for me! I listen to audiobooks, and I used to hit that goal easily because I’d listen to books while I was traveling. Since COVID hit, it’s been harder for me to do that. So that goal isn’t pushing myself a ton, but it is a goal that I have!

I want to be on 25 podcasts this year! I haven’t focused on being a guest on other podcasts, and I’m excited to push myself here. Being a guest on another podcast grows my audience, which will help grow my income – that’s my big WHY!

I hope that this was helpful in learning how to set and hit your goals! I encourage you to go back and look at the goals you’ve already set to see how they fit into this framework.

The post How to Set AND HIT Your Goals appeared first on Jessica Stansberry.

Pivoting Your Business

Want to listen to the podcast version of this post? I’ve got you covered!

Pivoting your business is NORMAL

First, let’s get the stigma out of the way – pivoting your business is NORMAL! Your business can change. Our needs change, our customer’s needs change, what we like changes – and our businesses can respond to those changes. If you are feeling afraid to pivot, this is your permission slip!

One caveat here: if you are CONSTANTLY pivoting your business 180 degrees, then you won’t be able to grow in the same way. Keep that in mind.

If you have an audience, it will be harder to pivot

An audience makes it more difficult to pivot. It’s especially difficult if the place you are now and the place you want to be are pretty far apart.

There are more people watching with an audience, and more people there for what you CURRENTLY do already. So a pivot with an audience can throw you off your axis.

If you have an audience, you should pivot your business MUCH slower. Still totally possible, but slower!

Without an audience, there’s no harm in a sharp pivot. Go from basket weaver to photographer super quickly.

Pivoting your business will likely cause a dip in income

Whenever you start pivoting your business, it will cause a dip in income (unless you aren’t currently making any money).

That is especially true if you’ve built an audience who expects and buys one thing from you, and you want to offer another. That is totally okay and you can make it work! But I want you to be prepared for it.

If all of the 1,000 people on your email list came to you because of your current business and you’re pivoting to a different customer, only a small percentage of those people will probably still fit that mold. So be prepared for that when pivoting your business.

Pivots that you might want to make

• Pivot from a SERVICE to an EDUCATION model (selling courses or products)
• Pivot from a PRODUCT-BASED business to a SUBSCRIPTION BOX model
• Pivot from one SERVICE to ANOTHER SERVICE (like basket weaving to photography)

How to know pivoting is right for you

1. You will feel the need to pivot – whether you’re burned out currently or really excited about something else
2. Your audience (if you have one) will tell you that they want you to pivot

How fast should I pivot?

If you’re feeling PULLED to pivot and either don’t have an audience or aren’t making a ton of money, pivoting your business will be pretty easy for you. You can totally go ahead and do it!

If you do have an audience and are making money from your business, you can still pivot! You just need to take baby steps.

For example, if you are a copywriter and have an audience who follows you for that, but you want to become a fashion influencer… that’s a massive pivot. If you just make that all in one go, you’re going to lose so much money and so many followers!

Think about the bigger picture here – you want to pivot from copywriting to more of an influencer position. Start producing more content that leans into the influencer side of things. Influencers share links to things they love, curating favorites lists, and doing sponsorships. Start leaning into that business model with your current business to slowly start that transition! That can be a really organic transition if you start with an 80/20 shift and then lower the gap between the business stuff and influencer stuff from there.

In my experience, when you start leaning into the influencer role, people respond to it and ask you for links and other things that they want. Slowly start moving your content that direction and you will retain SO MUCH MORE of your audience and income than you would have with a fast 180.

Remember that pivoting might be a challenge!

If you have been in your old business model for a while, remember that pivoting might be a challenge for you.

I’m speaking from personal experience here – I really want to incorporate more vlog-style videos on my YouTube channel, but vlogging is hard for me! I’ve done YouTube the same way for years, and changing up the style of content is learning a new trick. Give yourself time and grace to figure it out, because you totally will. That’s another reason to do it slowly.

So – pivoting your business is normal and it’s okay! As long as you aren’t doing is constantly and take your time with it if you have an audience, it’ll all work out for you.

The post Pivoting Your Business appeared first on Jessica Stansberry.

How to Manage Your Time Better

Want to listen to the podcast version of this post? I’ve got you covered!

Full disclosure – I’m NOT a naturally organized or productive person. But as I’ve come to understand myself better, I’ve figured out how to organize my daily schedule so that I can be more productive! And as I share these tips, you might see that you need to take the time to understand your natural inclinations better so that you can organize your schedule to work best for you. I still think that these tips will be helpful for you!

My time management journey

I have two kids, and up until 2015 I had no childcare and no set work hours. That usually meant I would work when the kids were asleep for naps or after bedtime. I didn’t have a lot of flexibility then to manage my time, and I still managed it horribly. If I was able to work from 8 PM until 12 AM one day, I would spend it doing things that didn’t really matter, like redesigning my website for the 17th time.

In 2015, it became super important that I manage my time well. My business was growing, and I started my first podcast with a co-host and guests. So I had to streamline my process even with a toddler at home. I am a fast worker and I make quick decisions, but I was implementing strategies that made it possible for me to get more done.

More time DOES NOT MEAN Getting more things done

This sounds obvious, but it’s actually an important aspect of productivity. If you have no idea what you’re going to work on, but have time to work from 12 PM to 2 PM, you probably won’t be very productive.

If you have to spend time every day figuring out what to work on, then you’re wasting time. So you need to know what you’re going to work on each time you have availability to work.

Working on the wrong things can leave you feeling unproductive

We only have a set number of hours to work each day. If you spend that time working on things that don’t actually move your business forward, it will leave you feeling unproductive.

If you ever finish up a work session and have no idea what you even did, then you have probably experienced this phenomenon before.

Understand what you SHOULD be working on

To learn how to manage your time better, you first need to understand what you should be working on. And to know what you should be working on, you need to understand your goals.

What are your goals for the next quarter or the next year? When you have decided those, how can you break them down into what needs to happen each month, each week, and each day to accomplish them?

Then, add any work that you have to do to that list. If you have client work or content creation that needs to happen, make sure that’s noted.

ANY work that is not pushing you toward your goals needs to go away. I see a lot of people messing up here, and I was this person, too. AKA, me rebuilding my website 17 times instead of actually making money.

Have a daily to-do list of 3-4 items

I preach something called “Core 4,” which I have a whole podcast episode about that you can check out here.

Your Core 4 is 4 things that you need to accomplish TODAY (you can also use it monthly or annually). It doesn’t have to include 4 business-related things. You could absolutely add a workout to that Core 4 because you aren’t feeling motivated. 

Don’t make a list of four things that you absolutely can’t get done in a day, or you’re going to set yourself up to be disappointed. But having that Core 4 will help you understand what you need to be working on each day.

I DON’T want you to determine your Core 4 at the beginning of each day, because then you’re wasting some productivity time. I like to sit down on Sunday evening and write out my Core 4 goals for each day that week. Then, I can sit down when I’m ready to work and get moving instead of planning.

Calendar Blocking

I use a more expanded version of this tactic that I call calendar blocking or time blocking. So every Sunday, I sit down, write down EVERYTHING that I need to get done that week, and then look at my calendar. I schedule out “work blocks” around the personal things that need to happen, and then figure out which tasks I’ll accomplish during which work block. I plan all of that out using ClickUp and my Google Calendar.

If you want to see a more detailed explanation of how that works, I have a video about it right here!

Now, you have every single task that you need to do this week scheduled out! So you can wake up, get going, and manage your time super well.

Learning how to manage your time better is really learning what needs to be done in what time period… Which is a skill that takes time, but that you can totally accomplish.

So – you need to know what you’re working on each day before the work comes, AND decide what you actually need to be working on to advance your goals! I hope this was super helpful!

The post How to Manage Your Time Better appeared first on Jessica Stansberry.

The REALLY powerful part of running your own business is that, if you have to make a certain amount of money right now… you can. I don’t think people understand or take advantage of that fact enough! That’s why I’m sharing some ideas on how to make $1,000 NOW.

How to Make $1,000 NOW

Want to listen to the podcast version of this post? I’ve got you covered!

I want to preface this by saying that if you can make $1,000 now with these strategies, you can make however much money you need to make!

We’ve all been in situations where we needed to find money. Maybe your dishwasher goes out and you need money to replace it, or something happens to your car and you’ve got to pay that mechanic bill. It could be frivolous or an emergency, but you need more money.

I have a personal goal right now to trade in my minivan for an SUV (because I’m NOT a minivan person at all), and my husband and I talked about setting aside money from one of my launches for a down payment on a car. That’s the beauty of owning a business – you can set and MEET financial goals for you personally or the business!

This is for you if you already have some sort of business.

How to Make $1,000 NOW

Revisit any open invoices you have (or ones you haven’t sent yet!)

I am the WORST about sending invoices because my brain just forgets, and I know other people are like this too.

So check up on your finances. Have you forgotten to send any invoices lately? Or is there an invoice you have sent that a client hasn’t paid yet?

It sounds crazy, but there is likely an invoice out there somewhere that can help you move toward this goal.

Circle back with someone who has been interested in working with you before

That person who always says “oh man, I’d love to hire you!” But hasn’t yet? Someone who has asked you a bunch of questions and was interested in hiring you but fell off the face of the earth? Send them an email or give them a call!

You totally don’t need to bug people, but just let them know that they were on your mind. Their circumstances may have changed and they might be ready to hire you!

Run a special or a sale

If you feel like these other ideas on how to make $1,000 now haven’t applied to you, this one will.

Can you run a special or a sale that will help you hit that $1,000 mark? Yes, you can!

A few years ago, I was going on a business trip and my next launch was a few weeks away. But my business funds were dwindling. I didn’t want to spend too much money on this trip, SO I decided to run a sale! I sent an email about the sale the morning I left for the trip about a low-priced offer, and by the time I got there I had made $2,000 or $3,000.

You could offer a service for a discounted rate, or sell your course for half-price.

Obviously you don’t want to do this often, because it will train your audience to only buy from you when you have a sale. But every once in a while is a great strategy to give you a cash influx!

Start something new that is easy to start right now!

Could you offer 30 minute, one-on-one calls that you’re only doing one day next week for $200 each? If you book 8 of those, you've made $1,000.

Maybe you could create a VIP Day! I don’t do these a ton (I’ll only offer them if someone asks specifically), and they are expensive. People will pay a lot to have access to you for a full day.

Learning how to make $1,000 now doesn’t have to be hard. Use the things that you already have in your pocket to reach that goal! There are a ton of ways to make $1,000 in a pinch, and I hope this gets you started.

The post How to Make $1,000 NOW appeared first on Jessica Stansberry.

An Interview with my husband | He quit his job!

Want to listen to the podcast version of this post? I’ve got you covered!

If you’re out there and want to quit your job, this might be helpful for you. Jonathan NEVER wanted to quit his job until the last few years, so I think he has a really interesting perspective.

(side note so things don’t get confusing: the italics will be when I’m talking, and the normal text will be a paraphrased version of Jonathan’s response! If you want to hear the whole thing, feel free to give the podcast a lesson.)

What was your corporate job?

Jonathan: I have been a building inspector for our county for 13 years. The last 2.5 years, I’ve also been a fire inspector.

First and foremost, it’s a wonderful place to work. I loved the people and the atmosphere. I wouldn’t trade my 13 years at the county for anything. And I have learned more than I ever thought I would! They invested a lot in me.

Jessica: Jonathan has a bachelor’s degree in construction and has a LOT of knowledge in that arena.

Jonathan: That job was, at times, intense. I started in 2008 so the housing market was booming and I was very overwhelmed. I had to take a lot of classes and tests – some of them I passed, some of them I had to take again. But I really learned a lot working there, and I’m grateful for it.

What made you decide to quit your job?

Jessica: Some backstory here – he is definitely the person in our relationship who craves security and never even thought about quitting his job. Until the last few years, that wasn’t even on the table. As someone who had a 401k, insurance, retirement… all the things, what made you decide to quit?

Jonathan: A lot of responsibility falls on you when you’re involved in every job in the county. I’m all for responsibility – everybody needs it, and everybody needs accountability, especially in a government job. Believe me, it’s there.

Anyway, I stopped enjoying my job. I guess I felt like I was trapped. I had to deal with a lot of complaints, and it started to weigh on me. You also have an overwhelming amount of people who want something for nothing – which isn’t possible. And those people want inspectors to always be on their side, which also isn't possible. I had to try to please everyone and I couldn’t, so I felt like I was between a rock and a hard place.

Jessica: I thought you were going to say, “I wanted to farm.”

Jonathan: Well, that’s part of it! But that’s not why I wanted to quit.

Jessica: In case you don’t know, we live on a farm. Jonathan has farmed his entire life. We farm animals, and in the last few years, he’s really been focused on farming cattle. It’s always had to be a part-time situation for Jonathan for various reasons, and he doesn’t have the time to focus on the farm. But the farm needed time to focus on it to grow.

It got to the point where “I want to farm full-time” was outweighing how much he liked his job. It’s been a conversation over the last few years (definitely pre-COVID), and he finally decided to take the leap.

That being said – he is not at a place right now where farming full-time is an option. We’re a few years off from matching his income from his previous job with income from farming. 

Jonathan: Absolutely. And I didn’t want to put us in a hard spot.

Jessica: I think this is the step a lot of people miss when they become entrepreneurs. They want to quit their job to do X, but X isn’t going to make them that much money from the get-go. You need time and capital to do X, so you just stay at the job you don’t like forever because you don’t have the time and capital. 

I like to call this idea BRIDGE INCOME. Bridge income is doing something to literally “bridge the gap” between working in corporate and starting your own business. That way, you have enough resources to stay secure while you start doing what you want to do. If what you want to do seems far off, quit your job and do something else that will get you the money and the freedom to do the thing you REALLY want to do.

What are you doing now for your bridge income between your job and full-time farming?

Jonathan: Let me say this: I don’t go and jump off the deep end without a plan. So don’t look at your situation exactly like ours, because it probably isn’t like ours.

As Jessica and I have grown over the years, we have become big believers in personal responsibility. So I know that if I want to do something, I have to find a way to do it.

Some folks might say that she talked me into quitting my job – and yeah, you’re probably right. 

Jessica: Well, I do talk about this on the Internet all the time. But I never came to you and said “you need to quit.”

Jonathan: No, never. In the early stages when I told you I thought I could quit, something would happen and I’d have a good week at work afterward. And then you’d tell me “oh, you should stay!”

Don’t discredit someone who chooses to go to work every day – especially to a job they don’t like – because that takes just as strong a person to do.

We talked about it and talked about it. And one day, I made the decision, walked in and put in my notice. I’m a pretty spiritual person. I had to have a lot of faith to make that decision.

Once I quit, I thought about doing all SORTS of things. Lots of random odd jobs – I even wanted to mow yards or make mugs at one point.

Jessica: I told him that he couldn’t just plan to do a bunch of little things. That can be a great way to make some money, but the riches are in the niches. So you need an ACTUAL business that makes sense. When you just do one thing, you can become known for doing that thing and grow your business much faster. You can specialize in it, charge premium prices, and all the things.

Jonathan: My experience in college and from my previous job has made me really familiar with how a house is put together. I don’t want to be a contractor, but I do like the project management side of it.

I’m going to be doing project management for construction! I’ll be subbing out to contractors and helping them through the building process, so I’ll take care of the things they would rather not do.

Jessica: You’re only four days out of corporate and you’ve already made money doing that, which is exciting! I took his picture with his first check.

We discount our experience when we’re thinking of becoming entrepreneurs, too. You had a LOT of building and construction knowledge. To discount that and not use it to build a business would be insane.

Jonathan: I do want to eventually farm full-time, but I love project management and I don’t want to quit doing it. I’d still pick up a job here or there even when I’m farming.

I haven’t exactly figured out what my days look like yet, but I have enjoyed them so far. I used to have to build up vacation or comp time and use that to farm, or always farm after 5:00. Now, my schedule is much  more flexible, which is great for farming. I’m excited not to have to put hay in the barn at midnight anymore.

I can already tell that my time will be spent differently. Yesterday, I got up and spent 3-4 hours on project management. Then, I took a couple of hours to do farm work. By 3:00 I was back to looking at some plans, and then by 5:00 I was DONE for the day. The freedom of it is great.

If somebody is listening to this and is at a job they don’t want to be at anymore and is looking to be self-employed, what advice would you give them?

Jonathan: I have 2 pieces of advice.

First: What can you take from what you’re doing now and specialize in for yourself?

Jessica: That’s SUCH a good one! One of my very first coaching clients had just been laid off from her job. I told her that she could absolutely do what she was doing in corporate for a small business or entrepreneurs. She kept saying “I don’t know if there’s a market for that…” But 6 years later, she is still massively successful doing it.

We discount what skills we use in corporate that we can take out into the world! You can’t forget what you know.

In my case, I knew I had skills from college. And I used those skills to build a business for myself.

Jonathan: My other piece of advice, more so than anything, is to be at a point in your life where you can honest-to-God consult the big man upstairs. 

Jessica: He’s a preacher too, by the way. 

Jonathan: We wouldn’t have anything we have in this life without Jesus Christ. A big part of me quitting was saying, “Okay, God, I’m doing this.”

Jessica: I was absolutely miserable in my job before I quit – but the things that happened to me had to happen so that it would push me to quit. I definitely see that as a God thing.

Jonathan: Be sure you’re ready to make the decision. Don’t put yourself or your family in a really difficult financial place where you aren’t prepared. If  you feel so scared that you’re doubting yourself every single day, you probably shouldn’t be making that call yet. I know I made the right call because I haven’t felt any remorse and I’m more excited than scared.

Jessica: Believe what you want religiously, but I always say that God would not give you a nagging dream that you are not meant to do. Find a way to do it.

Jonathan couldn’t just quit and farm because of money. But he found a way to make it work.

Jonathan: Timing is SO important. The timing was right for me, and the timing needs to be right for you. Consult with people who you trust, who will be honest with you, and consult with the big man upstairs.

Be able to take a leap and feel good about it.

The post An Interview with my husband | He quit his job! appeared first on Jessica Stansberry.

Struggling with ALL THE IDEAS?! Listen to this!

Want to listen to the podcast version of this post? I’ve got you covered!

If you’re feeling confused and struggling with all the ideas, we are the same person. I struggled with this when I started my business, and I continue to struggle with it now!

I don’t think having a bunch of exciting ideas ever goes away. Instead, we find ways to work with it (or against it) to actually accomplish our goals. Your goal is to grow a successful business, and if you’re focusing on too many things, you will NEVER have a successful business. So THAT’S what I want to talk to you about!

The theory of half-dug holes

I call this my “theory of half-dug holes.”

Imagine that someone comes up to your home and tells you that they’ve buried $1,000,000 in four different holes in your yard. They’re all buried 6 feet deep, and you have 2 hours to get as much of it as you possibly can. You know EXACTLY where they’ve buried that money. You just have 2 hours to get it all.

Let’s say you dig in one hole for 20 minutes. Then, you leave that hole and start digging in another hole. You switch again after 20 minutes and keep doing that for your 2 hour period.

You’re probably NEVER going to hit that $1,000,000 in any of the holes. 

Logically, that doesn’t make any sense! We would all stick to digging one hole to make sure we could get to that $1,000,000 at least once, right?

Maybe you have 5 friends over at your house, but they can’t help you dig unless you pay them. You can’t pay them until you hit that first $1,000,000.

So, you stick to ONE hole and dig all the way until you reach that $1,000,000. Then, you take some of that money to pay three people to dig on the other 3 holes. If it takes THEM the same amount of time it took you to reach the money, you’ve just hit all of the $1,000,000 in your 2 hour time frame because you got to the first one first.

THAT is what being a successful multi-passionate person looks like. If you have four ideas but don’t dedicate enough time and energy to one before you get distracted by the others, you won’t reach your goals. Instead, if you focus your energy and hit “gold” on one of the ideas, that will open UP your availability and resources to work on the others!

Full disclosure – I still struggle with this!

Even now, with a successful business, I still struggle with this. It usually isn’t a random business idea anymore. One, it’s making sure I’m staying on the right trajectory in my business. But two, it’s the idea that I want to have a lifestyle brand related to our farm life and make money that way. But I have the ability now to remind myself that those things aren’t my passions, so I don’t need to switch gears to do them.

My story about struggling with all the ideas

From 2010 to 2015, I BOUNCED through a billion different businesses. I knew what made me money, but it wasn’t my favorite thing… so I kept trying to branch out. I tried things that were SO not in my skill set (I had a craft blog… and I do not craft, period). I was a personal trainer, I had a mommy blog, I tried to sell digital scrapbooking supplies… the list seriously continues.

In 2015, I spent time and got clarity on exactly who I wanted to be. Once I was clear on that idea, I spent time figuring out how to get to that point.

So, I REALLY leaned into the web design aspect of my business. I increased my prices and built my brand. I started my first podcast, All Up In Your Lady Business, with Jaclyn Mellone.

Even as I focused in, I remember telling Jaclyn that I REALLY wanted to have that digital scrapbooking company. Y’all, I have only made 2 digital scrapbooks in my life. I couldn’t tell you why that was what was in my brain, but it was.

In this same time period, my husband and I were struggling financially. I wasn’t making a ton of money from my business, we both had new cars with payments, and we had built a house that had a massive mortgage payment. We had to scale back, big time. We ended up selling our cars and purchasing an old truck outright and using a loaner car from my parents when we had to. AND we ended up selling that house and moving into a much older house with a much smaller mortgage.

But that house was old and it wasn’t my dream home by any means. Our goal became to keep that house while we purchased land and built the house we wanted so that we could move again. And THAT lit a fire under my booty.

I stumbled across the Being Boss podcast. Then, I started to head into the world of online business. With a very concrete goal ahead of me, it was much easier to FOCUS my efforts onto one business.

How to FOCUS when you’re struggling with too many ideas

Whether you feel like you have a million ideas and can’t choose, want to change your entire business model because of a new idea, or you have a bunch of ideas for one business, this can help.

Set an income goal

I want you to set an income goal here. Pick a realistic number and light a fire under your booty to get your business going.

It could be that you have to go back to work if you don’t start making $2,000 per month at your business within 1 year.

Or maybe it’s that you won’t be able to send your child to college if you don’t make $3,000 per month.

You get the gist here. Set a goal that matters to you!

Back in 2015, my goal was to make $3,000 per month. If you do the math, that isn’t even $75,000 per year. But that was my initial goal.

Take a trip to Wal-Mart and start WRITING

Now that you’ve set your goal, I want you to go to Wal-Mart or Target and get yourself a journal-type notebook. And a new pen, if that helps.

Write down ALL of the ideas that you have. Literally all of them. Business ideas, course ideas, revenue stream ideas. 

Now, I want you to think all about the SERVICES that you could offer that would help you hit that income goal. I know I always tell you how amazing passive income can be (and it’s true!) but a service will always help you get to an income goal faster. If that service wasn’t on the list, write it down.

Rank them!

Now, you’re going to rank them in some different ways. All of your ideas are amazing and this isn’t discounting any of them! It’s just looking at them in a certain way.

Go through that list and RANK all of those ideas in terms of how quickly they will get you to your income goal. 1 being the fastest, 10 being the slowest. Those passive income ideas will be the slowest, and services will be the fastest.

Now go through that list again and rank them in order of how much you would ENJOY them. And I want you to really consider that! If you had to do this for the next five years, how much would you enjoy it? 1 being you would enjoy it the most, and 10 being the least.

Somewhere in that list, there’s going to be a cross-point. It may not be that the quickest way to income is also the number one thing you would enjoy doing. But if the number 3 quickest way to income is the number one thing you’d want to do, or if the number 2 quickest way to income is the third thing you’d enjoy doing, you’ve found your sweet spot.

The catch? If you aren’t REALLY honest with yourself here, it isn’t going to help you. Be genuine about how long it will take you to make money on each thing, and how much you’d actually enjoy them.

That sweet spot overlap is the thing you need to do. Circle it, write it down, that’s it.

I know better than to say you’re done now

Once you’e picked your thing, go out and BRAINSTORM YOUR HEART OUT about the thing you picked. Figure out exactly what you need to do, how to do it, and set goals there. Get yourself ready to move forward!

That’s it, you picked it! Struggling with all the ideas is done now!

I know better than to say that because I’ve been there.

What I want you to do now is go through and cross out any of the things that ranked really low on enjoyment. If you wouldn’t enjoy it for five years, why would you do it?

You’ll probably find a lot of the things you would LOVE to do will be on the slower path to income. Those things can stay because they’re important! You just can’t focus on them for now.

Instead, give yourself ONE PAGE in this notebook dedicated to each of those ideas. 

Want to be a mommy blogger but know that isn’t the fastest path to income? Set a timer for 10 minutes and brainstorm one page to get out your ideas. Repeat that for any ideas that make the cut once you examine them.

Then, I want you to CLOSE THE NOTEBOOK and GET YOUR BUTT TO WORK.

Your ideas are safe. They’re written down. You don’t have to think about them. If you do happen to think about them? Open the notebook, write it down, and close it again.

If you don’t do this, you will NOT hit that income goal per month. It’ll be half-dug holes all over the place.

Here comes part two: set yourself ANOTHER income goal

This time, I want your income goal to be a decently large number per month. It’s going to exceed your current “need to make” goal by a lot, and would probably let you hit another goal in your life. This is a reach goal.

When you hit this second income goal per month for a consistent few months, you can pull out your idea notebook and start on another one of those ideas!!

The post Struggling with ALL THE IDEAS?! appeared first on Jessica Stansberry.

Want to quit your job but don't have any money? DO THIS! 

Want to watch the video version of this post? I’ve got you covered!

Like I said, my husband is leaving his corporate job at the end of September. And there was definitely a time in his life where he expected to stay at that job for 30 years and then retire. But he started thinking about other things he wanted to do and realized that wasn’t the best plan for him.

This is happening to a lot of people right now! We’re in the middle of a pandemic that has made us all realize that life is short. And I think a lot of people are seeing that they aren’t respected and taken care of in their corporate positions.

If you’re in that boat too – either because you hate your job and want to quit, or because you have a passion you want to pursue full-time, THIS is the place for you!

It can feel scary to quit and not have a guaranteed income. That’s why I’ve compiled a list of do’s and don'ts for when you want to quit your job but don’t have any money. Because there’s bills you have to pay!

DON’T: Quit without a plan

When I quit my corporate job, I did it without a plan. And it put our family in a pretty crappy position. I was living in a two-income household, so I had someone to help with the bills. We re-arranged things and made it work.

But I do NOT recommend quitting your job without a plan. You need some savings and a plan in place to make sure you can quit without disrupting your lifestyle.

We have had a plan about my husband quitting his job for years at this point. We understand what has to happen for him to quit, and we’ve been putting the pieces in place for a while now so that we were able to make it happen.

If you’re in a dual-income household – have a conversation about it

Maybe your partner doesn’t want to quit their full-time job, but you do. Have a conversation with them about your finances. See what you can cut, remove, or rearrange in your budget to make it work until you start bringing in income again.

However, I totally understand that not everybody lives in a dual-income household. And even if you do, it’s very possible you still can’t afford to live off of one income. When I quit my job, we genuinely couldn’t afford it – and we ran up credit cards like crazy as a result. There were times I was putting groceries and health insurance payments on a credit card.

I don’t regret that, because it got me to where I am now. But I wouldn’t recommend it if you have another option.

DO: Start a Business

This is the number one thing that needs to happen if you want to quit your job but don’t have any money. You’ve got to start a business so that you can start making money!

Now, you may need to side hustle that business while you’re in corporate for a while until it makes enough money to sustain you. OR you may be in a position where you can quit and then quickly ramp up a business.

My husband, for example, is waiting until he quits to start his business. He has the authority, experience, and connections to make it happen,, but literally isn’t allowed to do it while he’s still working for his company. 

If you aren’t in that position, you may need to start your business as a side hustle for a year or two years to get to where you feel comfortable quitting.

DO: Set an income goal for your side hustle to know when to quit

If you do need to work your business in addition to your corporate job, then you should set an income goal to know when you’re going to quit. That way, you have a finite way to measure when you’re ready to leave your corporate job. And you’ll have the security of knowing that you have enough money to get by without it!

Maybe you currently make $4,000 per month. It might be that you can’t possibly make $4,000 per month from your side hustle while still working a full-time job because you don’t have enough time to commit to it. So you might pick $2,000 or $3,000 as your number when you would put in your notice at your job.

Grab my FREE 5 Day Podcast Series 5 Things to do THIS WEEK to Grow Your Small (or new) YouTube Channel!

DO: Explore your business options!

In 2021, there are SO MANY businesses that you can start. And you can start most of them for $0 (or very little money). Don’t limit yourself to one idea because you can start a business for no money with tons of ideas!

DON’T: Assume you don’t have any skills

People always assume that they don’t have any skills to bring to a business outside of their corporate job.

I can almost PROMISE you that you can use the skills you currently have from your corporate job to make a full-time (plus) income on your own.

When you’re starting a business because you want to quit your job but don’t have any money, focus on what skills and accolades you have from corporate. Trying to learn something new or invest in a new skill will take much longer to get off the ground.

My first coaching client back in 2016 had just left corporate and couldn’t figure out what business to start. She felt like she didn’t have any skills that would translate into a business. But she had a ton of experience in HR, and hadn’t realized that small businesses and entrepreneurs who don’t need an entire HR department still need help with HR! So she started marketing human resource packages to small businesses and did a fantastic job with it.

If you have experience in admin work and customer service, you can easily turn your skills into a Virtual Assistant business that you contract out.

You can also start out by learning a skill that isn’t too difficult to start out with. Investing in a camera to start out at photography or learning graphic design skills are doable in a shorter period of time! There are tons of classes and FREE posts on the Internet about how to learn those skills.

Business Ideas for different skill sets:

• Virtual Assistant
• Travel Agent
• Graphic Designer
• Video Editing
• Photography
• Copywriting
• Customer Service

DO: Try out a new work-from-home job

Maybe you aren’t sure that you want to quit corporate entirely, but you really want to work from home. Then try out a different job in a work-from home position! There are tons of entrepreneurs like myself who hire remote positions.

DO: Try out websites like UpWork and Fiverr to find jobs

If you’re thinking, “But how do I get people to hire me?!” Websites like Fiverr and Upwork are a great place to start. You can list your services there and people can find and hire you pretty easily!

DON’T: Write off passive income entirely (DO use it in conjunction!)

I know you’ve heard me say that passive income takes a while to build up. And it does, absolutely! But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start incorporating passive income into your business.

If you just use passive income as your business, it could take years to build up. But if you have a blog and start sharing affiliate links to Amazon or links to your favorite resources for your job, then you can start making additional money passively. And that’s never a bad thing!

But if you do this alone, then you need to be prepared to either give this a lot of time to build while you’re still at your corporate job and to not make any money in the interim.

As a pep talk from someone who HAS done this – YOU CAN DO IT! It is possible. You can build the life you love. I believe in you.

The post Want to quit your job but don’t have any money? DO THIS! appeared first on Jessica Stansberry.

Email Marketing for Beginners | What do you actually DO with an email list?

Want to watch the video version of this post? I’ve got you covered!

Get my FREE Email Marketing Nurture Sequence Template!

I’m sure someone is reading this and thinking, “well it doesn’t apply to me – I don’t need an email list.” And if that’s you, I promise that you actually do need to do some email marketing.

Why? Because you can’t put all your eggs in one basket.

If you focus ALL your efforts on YouTube and then the algorithm changes so your content isn’t shown often, or you get blocked from your channel… then you’ve lost access to your entire audience. If you had your audience on an email list that you own? Crisis averted, problem solved. Start an entirely new channel, alert your email list subscribers, and get your subscribers back.

You don’t OWN the access to people who follow you on Instagram or Facebook or YouTube. You DO own the access to people who are on your email list. And if you wanted to, you could print out your email list and carry it in your pocket (which is weird, but you could).

You’re at the mercy of the algorithm to show your content to your followers. With an email list, you can control exactly who sees what! Those numbers are more standard and regular than numbers that are controlled by the algorithm, which can fluctuate a lot.

Plus, people on your email list have taken the time to give you their email – meaning they’re more invested in you! That’s a way warmer relationship that means it will be easier to sell your products to them later.

There are tons of other reasons you need an email list. If you want to learn more about the why, you can check out this video.

Email marketing for beginners – what do you actually DO with an email list?

You have decided to build an email list. Then, you’ve created a way for people to get ON your email list. And people have signed up. What do you do next?

1. Treat your email list like any other form of content

Email marketing is very much like other social platforms. If you don’t nurture the relationship with that group of people, your email list is going to decline. People will forget who you are, stop caring, and your open rates will suck.

You can’t create an email list and let it die! SCHEDULE writing and sending emails on your content calendar just like you would Instagram posts or YouTube videos.

I’ll be honest – my email marketing is the ball that drops when I get busy or need to let something go. I’m also intentional about not overwhelming my audience with sales. So when I go through a period of emailing my list like crazy about a new awesome thing, I will take a break from the email content so that people don’t get sick of me.

I do NOT do this perfectly, but this is the biggest tip I can give about email marketing for beginners. Consistency is key, like it is with most other things.

2. NURTURE and maintain that relationship

People took the time to give you their email address. That’s a pretty serious relationship, and you HAVE to nurture it.

That means you aren’t selling to your email list on the regular. You’re TALKING to them. Don’t schedule a sales email into your content calendar.

The content creation is about nurturing your audience and building the relationship with them. The main premise of building a brand, selling, and marketing, is getting people through the KNOW, LIKE, AND TRUST factor.

People have to know who you are, like you, and trust you to want to buy from you. And nurturing that relationship via your email list is THE way to take your audience through that know, like, and trust sequence.

People on your email list need to feel like you are their friend and genuinely want to help them, or whatever your unique combo is. I want my email list to feel like I’m their internet BFF and someone who can help them grow their brand!

When you’re creating email list content, write emails that BUILD your relationship! Just like you would on other social platforms. If you don’t date the person before you ask them to marry you, they won’t want to marry you. See what I mean?

How I nurture my list

Anytime someone signs up to my email list in ANY way (a freebie, paid product, etc.), they are sent a nurture sequence via automation. I use ConvertKit for this, and they have a free account for up to 1,000 subscribers.

In ConvertKit, I can set up automations that will send a new subscriber a series of nurturing emails. Those go out over the next week or two telling that person who I am, how I can help them, and where else they can hang out with me. It gives them some advice and some backstory TOTALLY on autopilot!

I have a nurture sequence template that you can grab for free! It includes all the text from my nurture sequence emails and the purpose behind each one, and you can grab it right here.

3. Send an email at LEAST once per week

Email marketing for beginners pro tip: staying consistent means sending one email per week to your list.

That probably sounds like a lot, and I’m not perfect at that by any means. If you can’t do it weekly, do bimonthly or monthly.

You need to take into consideration WHO the people on your email list are, WHY they’re on your list, and WHAT you can give them to make them feel like your relationship is growing.

A lot of people on my email list are interested in passive income, becoming a creator, selling digital products, or whatever else. And a large percentage of my audience is women. So in my current content plan, I’m sharing more personal development tips via my email list than I am elsewhere.

You can get creative here. Maybe you have a Marketing Monday email, or a Tip Tuesday. People will look for those emails and want to read them because of their content.

Maybe you’re a family vlogger. People watch your content to see your family, so you could email out exclusive clips that regular viewers don’t see. If you’re a gaming channel, you could have a weekly email with tips and tricks for a specific game.

4. Include a round-up of your content in each email

I like to add a round-up of the content I’ve released recently and what’s been happening in my universe at the bottom of each email. People will be ready and excited to check out your content after you give give give!

This is the recipe for email marketing success!

If you’re giving people useful content on the regular, then people will be super used to opening and enjoying your emails. They’ll be excited to see them each week and eager to open the next one! When your next email is a sales email, it won’t run people off. You’ve done a LOT of giving, and you’re just now asking for something in return. See how that works?

Nurturing and giving are KEY on social media in general, but especially with your email list. Nurture, nurture, nurture, sell. And repeat.

Don’t forget to grab my FREE email nurture sequence right here!

The post Email Marketing for Beginners appeared first on Jessica Stansberry.

Normal and Safe aren’t the only options

Want to listen to the podcast version of this post? I’ve got you covered!

If doing something different scares you and you’re working through the fear of quitting your job or worrying about what people will say, THIS is the place for you. I promise, the normal and safe options that other people tell you about aren’t the only pathway you can take.

Here’s what I mean by normal and safe.

The “normal” path in life sounds a little something like this… Do good in school, go to college, get the job, work it for 30 years, retire and then go on about your day. That is what people think we’re supposed to do with our lives, generally speaking. Obviously, there are outliers, but you know what I mean.

That idea is VERY ingrained in our culture and family values most of the time. And I’m here to tell you it isn’t the only way. You can live a good life, be happy, and be stable financially in the normal path OR on a DIFFERENT path. If the normal path is for you, GREAT! But if that’s not the path for you, then you can ALSO do that!

Maybe your dream is to buy an RV and travel the country while you work your business. If you see someone doing that on YouTube, then you’re going to see them as successful because that’s something you aspire to do.

If you see financial security as successful, like being debt free or having certain physical things, then that is your version of success. And you can have that with or without the 30 year job post-college-degree.

I am sick and tired of the message that you cannot have your version of success unless you go the normal and safe route. Because that is just not true, and normal and safe aren't the only options.

Maybe you think going against normal and safe is fine, but your family doesn’t.

Sometimes, you can be fine with taking the risk and “bucking” against normality, but the people in your life are way less cool and supportive of that dream. That can totally get in our heads and make us worry about the thing we’re doing.

I saw a quote on Instagram the other day that speaks to this well. It said in some form, “don’t take constructive criticism from people who have never constructed anything.” 

WOW is that true here! If you are going against the norm, building your own business, or constructing your own pathway, then you can’t take “advice” from people who have never built their own thing. That doesn’t make sense.

Maybe you’re leaving that high paying job for one that doesn’t pay as much because you’ll be happier. Or you’re quitting your job, packing up and moving to a totally different part of the country. And someone comes to you who has NEVER done that thing to tell you it’s a bad idea.

Remember that they have never done it – so what do they know?

I’m NOT saying to never listen to anyone’s advice, because people can give great advice that comes from a really well-meaning place. But it’s something to keep in mind. You might realize that normal and safe aren't the only options, but someone else might not.

Most people operate from a place with fear.

Most people operate from within their safe zone because their fear stops them from doing anything else.

That normal path is appealing to most people because it’s consistent and easy. They go to work, get a paycheck, buy things they can afford, rinse and repeat. I’m probably miserable for most of that, but my dad was too so that’s normal.

Then you turn 60, retire, draw retirement and do your thing.

People are okay with that because they’ve seen it done, it feels safe, and it’s been taught to them that way.

We live in a culture set up to keep people in “normal and safe.” And as humans, we don’t innately want to put ourselves in risky situations. But you have to know that normal and safe aren't the only options.

I’m generally not a risk-taker… I hate roller coasters for that exact reason. But when it comes to my business, I’m absolutely a risk-taker. I will take the risk before I stay miserable. Anytime I truly WISH I could do something, I find a way to do it. And that isn’t typically understood by other people.

When you’re ready to take that risk and you voice that to your family or friends who are still operating from a place of fear, it can be VERY hard to get them to understand your motivation. And you may never get them to understand, truthfully.

It can also be really hard to stop others' fears from influencing you and impacting your choices.

Someone else’s comfort zone DOES NOT CONSTRAIN YOU.

I see this happen all the time. Someone wants to quit their job, switch jobs, start a business, move, or take some major jump. Aunt Suzy over here will start asking you a billion questions and totally doubting you.

You’ve probably figured out all the things she’s questioning you about (we’re adults – we’re not jumping into things blindly). But that doesn’t mean all of those questions and fear doesn’t impact you.

You have decided to live a life outside of THEIR comfort zone, so they reflect that fear onto you. But you are not required to fit inside their idea of “safe” or “normal.” Because normal and safe aren’t the only options.

Understand that those doubts are coming from their fears. And they are projecting their own fears onto you.

It was really scary for me to switch from web design to infopreneur/content creator

I’ve been talking about these major life changes, but smaller changes within your business can feel scary, too. It was terrifying for me to stop offering web design and lean into the infopreneur and content creator space.

After five years, the web design business and process felt safe to me. So it was very scary for me to then make that shift.

Sometimes, we’ll want to do things but the fear of getting out of our comfort zone holds us back. That’s what I want you to see could happen to you.

If you’re thinking about making a major change and you can’t get it out of your head, and you don’t do it because of the fear, I promise you that will be the thing you regret FOREVER.

I personally don’t want to get to 80 years old with a life of regrets.

I’m not encouraging you to go out here and make rash decisions, because I think you should think through things before you do them. But I want you to know that normal and safe aren’t the only options. If you want to take that risk, do it. Don’t let someone else’s fear condition you to stay there.

Here’s my big news: My husband, Jonathan, is quitting his job!

His final day at his job will be September 30. He has already put in his notice and he’s working with a very long notice because of the nature of his job.

As of October 1, he will officially be a self-employed person!

That was very scary at first, but it’s not anymore. Jonathan has wanted to quit for the past few years. He farms, pastors, and has a full time job (that was essentially two jobs). There aren’t full-time preachers where I live, so that isn’t a job for him. Farming isn’t providing an income that would allow him to quit at this current moment either.

The end-goal is for him to be farming full-time, but he isn’t there yet. So we started thinking about him becoming self-employed.

Financially, we’d be okay if he didn’t work – but he would NOT be okay with that, so that wasn’t ever part of the equation.

Honestly, I’m really excited to have him home more. He’ll be able to help more around the house and with the kids on days when one of the kids is sick and I have meetings that I would have to cancel.

My point is – he is starting a business! I’m not going to share exactly what the business is yet for a few different reasons.

Right now, he has a little bit of farm income. But this business that he is starting will be a VERY easy and natural business because of his past experience. I truly think he’ll make more money from what he’s about to be doing even if he doesn’t do it full-time.

“But what about insurance?”

You CAN have insurance, retirement, and all those other things as a self-employed person just like you can as a traditionally-employed person.

If you make more money when you’re self-employed, then you have the ability to have those things, too. And retirement can look different than a traditional retirement fund. In the next few years, I want to build out a portfolio of short-term rental income. Things we could sell off or change to long-term rentals as we get older. That will really protect us in our older years. I look at that as retirement rather than pulling a paycheck from a company.

So, my husband is quitting his job, starting a business, and will be focused on farming. When you listen to this, people knew he was quitting about one month ago.

When people in our lives heard about this, they had so many irrational fears. It was easy for me to say “woah” and dispute them because I’ve been in the entrepreneurial world for so long. Those fears haven’t crossed my mind for a long time!

His parents think we’re going to be homeless, basically.

To be honest, it’s been a bit offensive because people seem to assume we’d make these decisions that would harm our children and we would never! We made this decision with a lot of prayer and a lot of preparation. But it’s also funny to see how extreme the fear is.

My husband has a good job that pays well for our area – but it’s not like he’s rolling in the dough.

I think a lot of the fear stems from people not understanding my business or knowing how much money I make. Which I understand because it’s a weird business. But I’ve also heard the most comical fears come our way, and it’s almost sad to me.

Not everybody wants to be an entrepreneur, and I don’t mean that you need to be. But the thought that having a job at a certain company with certain benefits is more important than your happiness or freedom is BULL.

We have been saving up to buy a used tractor for Jonathan, because I refuse to have a tractor payment. He was asking his dad questions about tractors, and his dad said “but how will you have money to buy that if you quit your job?”

As if you can’t do for yourself or afford anything if you aren’t working a traditional job.

You have ONE LIFE. Don't waste it.

I got that tattooed on my wrist for this exact reason. You only have one life. Don’t live one full of regrets or unhappiness because you didn’t believe that normal and safe aren’t the only options.

Do the scary thing! Take the risk. Quit your job, move across the country, become a content creator – whatever it is that’s taking up space in your head.

Our generation wants freedom, and we’re willing to go out and do our own things to get that freedom! I LOVE that my kids won’t grow up feeling the pressure to do the normal or safe thing if they don’t want to do that.

My 10 year old invested in cattle this year, and we were having a conversation about what that could look like when he gets older. If he keeps investing all of his profit into cattle, then he might not have to get a traditional job when he turns 16. Or he could get a traditional job and that would be fine too! I just want to make sure that I provide them with options and don’t share the fear that I learned in school about taking the “road less traveled.”

If you are scared to do something because of fear that has been ingrained in you, know that normal and safe aren't the only options!

If you know that you’ll be okay and want to take a different path, you can do that. There will be people who won’t understand and will reflect their fears on you. Or make you adhere to your comfort zones. But those people aren’t living your life, and if your decision does not affect them, they don’t get a say.

If you’re looking for a sign to do that scary thing, this is your sign.

The post Normal and Safe aren’t the only options appeared first on Jessica Stansberry.

Focus on what makes you money!

Want to listen to the podcast version of this post? I’ve got you covered!

When you’re just starting out, it can be easy to jump ahead

If you’re a new entrepreneur who is looking to other entrepreneurs in a different stage of business than you, you might try to emulate them. But you really shouldn’t do everything that someone who is 10 steps ahead of you is doing!

For example, you see someone with a massive audience creating courses, and you want to create a course too. But you don’t have an audience and you haven’t established yourself as an expert in a field yet. Creating courses will probably not be a money maker for you right now in your business! That won’t be your quickest path to moolah.

If you’re just out of the gate in business, you can’t do the same techniques as someone who is way down the path of entrepreneurship. That’s not feasible for you.

I have been an entrepreneur for almost 11 years, and I have had this iteration of my business since 2016. Up until that point, I did a service for people – because THAT was the money maker. So for someone who is just starting out, looking at what I’m doing now just isn’t super realistic.

Where do I start in my business then!?!

I get it – you get told a million different paths by a million different people. And then, you don’t actually know what you should be doing!

I will say this until I am BLUE in the face.

When you’re just starting out, you HAVE to focus on what makes you money.

Money-making activities need to be your #1 priority until you get to the point where you’re making “enough,” or it’s automated that you make a certain amount.

Set goals in your business around your finances. And focus on money-making activities until you hit a certain goal that allows you to focus on other things that don’t have direct ties to money for you.

Maybe your goal is to book 3 clients per month, make $5,000 per month or 7 retainer clients for 6 months. Then you focus on money-making activities to hit those goals, and once you reach them you can have some flexibility in your focus. THAT’S when you spend time on activities that aren’t directly related to money.

If you are not yet making money in your business, you should NOT be growing on Instagram right now. You shouldn’t be trying out YouTube. You should be focusing on something that will MAKE YOU MONEY. That will give you the time and freedom to focus on other things.

 I’ll use my husband as an example

Jonathan would LOVE to farm full-time. That’s a dream for him. But currently, the income he makes from farming isn’t enough to sustain him full-time. So he could either continue working his 9-5 job and use that money to fund his farming, or start offering a service that could sustain his farming for now.

If you’re in a situation where you’re just starting out, growing on Instagram is not your primary goal at this point in time. Maybe you need money right now but also want to be a YouTuber. That’s fine – you can do that! But right now, that might not happen because you need to make money in the interim.

What are money-making activities? SERVICES.

Most people start by offering a service. You can charge a higher price point and do more of a one-on-one service, and it is a relatively quick return.

Instead of deciding to be an Instagram influencer where it might take 3 years for you to ever make money, you might start with a service. You can’t not make money for 3 years! A service could be anything from grocery shopping for people to creating blog designs. You want a quick turnaround on income – so one person finding out about your service means income for you.

If you know what the business is that you’re working toward but you still aren’t sure what you should be doing every day, it’s the same concept! Focus on what makes you money.

Want to be a web designer? You could be growing on Facebook, sure, but that’s not a quick money maker. What you should be doing is NETWORKING. Get in front of the people who need/want your service, and convince them to hire you!

Instagram and Facebook groups – not money-making activities.

Not sure what to focus on? FOCUS ON WHAT MAKES YOU MONEY.

Instagram and Facebook will still be there when you’re actually making money. Set and hit goals with your money-making activities.

People try and skip over this piece of the puzzle WAY too often. How are you focusing on what makes you money today?

The post Focus on what makes you money! appeared first on Jessica Stansberry.