Hey friends! At the beginning of each month, I share in-depth look at my blogging and business goals for the month ahead. I find that crafting goals at the start of the month is a great way to align my work with the intentions that matter to me most. It’s also a way to keep me focused and dreaming big. Not to mention, sharing these goals for everyone to see makes me even more motivated to complete them. 😉 Today, I’m sharing how I did in October, as well as some big goals I’m striving toward this November.
Can.you.believe.it’s.almost.2016? As a business owner, I feel like the years FLY by because everything just happens and changes so quickly. It’s exciting to think about what I’ll be doing a year from now, since where I was a year earlier is vastly different than my current state or what I expected. It’s hard for me to even predict…at this point I just look forward to wherever life takes me and I follow my intuition. Of course, I make plans and have my own goals and visions for the future, but I think it’s best to be open to whatever ends up happening.
I’m a little sad that October is over because it’s usually one of my favorite months, but it always seems to pass incredibly quickly for some reason. I’m really excited about November and December though (who isn’t?!) because the cool weather and holiday vibes just make me (and pretty much the entire world) happy. 🙂
How I did on my October goals:
1. Launch my first paid, live workshop.
Yessirree! I taught a 3-hour live online workshop called BrandBoss. I’ve taught free webinars before, but this was my first time delving into a paid class. Honestly, I think it went really well and the feedback from the students has been terrific! I’d definitely like to do more paid, live workshops in the future. They’re awesome for teaching things that are too long or detailed for a free webinar, but not quite big enough for an entire, 8-module e-course.
The best part is that BrandBoss is now an evergreen course. All of the sessions were recorded and added to the course website, so even people who enroll now will get access to the content forever.
2. Host two free workshops.
I sure did! I hosted one smaller workshop on a weeknight where I reviewed a few people’s brands live on screen and I did another about growing an engaged audience on your blog. Both workshops went really well, but I think I prefer teaching them during weekend afternoons, since there seems to be a bigger turnout and I’m full of energy rather than tired from the day.
3. Launch my new website for courses and workshops!
Man, I can’t believe this happened only a month ago! I feel like I’ve been using my new course website for forever! So much happened in just one month. I DID launch my new course website and now have over 400 students, which is…insane to me. Before launching my new site, I had less than 200 and only one course — Pinfinite Growth. Now, I have three main courses up for sale, as well as a special $7 course that was only offered to anyone who opted in for this Pinterest e-book. If you subscribe to receive that e-book, you’ll be able to see the $7 course.
The platform I’m using for my courses is called Teachable and I honestly love it! It creates such a stellar user experience for my students and makes it incredibly easy for me to create new courses or update existing ones. Not to mention all of the other features it has. It’s definitely worth the price in my opinion.
4. Create and follow a schedule for Instagram and Periscope.
Ahh this is the goal that fell a bit by the wayside. I DID make an effort to use Periscope more, but still only ended up doing 5 total broadcasts — about one a week. As for Instagram, I posted 7 images, which is almost twice a week, but I still felt like I barely posted anything. Bah! My goal is to use Periscope 2-3 times per week and to post on Instagram 3-5 times per week. They both can become big time-sucks for me though, so I need to come up with a stronger purpose for each platform (like driving people to my email list or creating community-building challenges) to make them worth it.
5. Do 4 things that inspire me.
Let’s see…I went to RISE Festival (which was amazing…had to hold back tears), watched a bunch of TED Talks on Netflix, visited The Natural History Museum in LA (which has a “spider pavilion” right now where you can see some neat spiders in their natural habitats), and went to a reunion for the dorm that I was a Resident Advisor (RA) for in college. Those all felt pretty inspiring to me. 🙂
OH! And I also did The Whole 30 during October, which is a strict Paleo nutrition program that lasts for 30 days. Today is actually my LAST DAY, so I am kind of stoked. The program definitely inspired me because it forced me to consider what I eat, what’s in it, how it’s made, and how it affects me. I ended up making a lot of my own food, like homemade spaghetti sauce, almond milk, cashew cheese, and cauliflower rice, among other things. Getting creative in the kitchen felt really good and I was pleased to know EXACTLY what was going into my body. After today, I’m looking forward to reintroducing the “banned” foods, like dairy, legumes, natural sugars, and gluten, to see how they affect me.
My Goals for November 2015:
1. Host two free trainings.
Can’t wait! I’ve got two special trainings coming up soon, which are a little different than the online trainings I’ve done in the past. You guys are going to love them! Stay tuned for the full details, which I’ll be releasing to my email list soon. Woohoo!
2. Host a giveaway.
I barely ever do giveaways, so I thought it would be fun to do a huge one together. I’ve been asking around to a few friends to see what they think of the items I’m planning to give away and their reactions are always the same: “where do I sign up?” 😉 Ha! I have a feeling you all will really dig this giveaway. I’m pretty stoked about it! 🙂 Make sure you’re subscribed here so that you hear about the giveaway when it launches.
3. Create the content and launch plan for my new e-course.
AHHHHH! I’m planning to launch a new e-course in early December and I am crazy excited about it. I’m keeping the content of it under wraps for now, but you’ll be hearing more about it by the end of the month. Anyways, in November I want to buckle down and finish all of the content for the course, as well as create a solid launch plan.
For my last e-course launch, I didn’t have much a launch plan in place and mostly “winged it.” The results turned out well, but I know I can do better, so I’m looking forward to seeing how an organized launch feels.
4. Launch a free e-course.
I actually already completed this goal (I launched it yesterday!), but wanted to include it because it was at the top of my list for November. The 6-day course is called “The Blog Audience Blueprint” and it shares my step-by-step formula for growing your audience and traffic more effectively. The content is really high value and it includes things like video lessons and worksheets, so I have a feeling you guys will love it. You can sign up here.
5. Earn $500 per day on “autopilot.”
A lot of entrepreneurs talk about creating passive income on “autopilot” or making money in their sleep, making it sound like an easy feat that happens naturally. But really, if you want to earn money in this way, then you need to put in a lot of work up-front, like creating stellar e-courses and email sequences that convert subscribers into buyers. Comparatively, in October, about 50% of my income was made “on autopilot” and I made the equivalent of $300 per day. The other 50% came from the two webinars that I held. So, for November, I’d like to increase my passive income to $500 per day. Let’s see if I can do it!
6. Donate to a philanthropy.
Ever since starting my business, I knew I wanted to have a philanthropic component. Honestly, one of my biggest business goals is to one-day be able to start a foundation that helps the world, provides grants, and creates a sense of community. But in the name of starting small, I decided to give 10% of the profits from my last webinar to a philanthropic organization. Altogether, that turned out to be about $500-600. There’s a guilty part of me that feels scared about donating so much money, but an even bigger part of me says that there’s more than enough to go around. This month, I’m going to find an organization to donate the money to and make it happen!
