Goal Setting and Goal Hitting

I listen to a lot of nonfiction audio these days, especially when it comes to business advice. Now, I can't recall where I heard this little tidbit, but it warrants sharing:

Write something about the impact of your business everyday. And if you don't have anything interesting to write about, get into another business. 

 It's a new year and I have (like most of us) great aspirations for 2015, so this blog is now officially taking a turn to capture the experience of me going from working for the man to working for this woman.

 Day 4: Today is Thursday, day 4 of work after a long 2 week Winter Break spent eating, sleeping and enjoying time with my family. One of the things that my husband and I have committed to is keeping a sleeping schedule (Up by 6:30am and bed by 11pm). The bed by 11 pm is the most important because the sleep is what gets you through all the other goals we have set for the day ahead.

Typical of a post vacation work week, Monday was great. Tuesday was good. Wednesday was rough and today I got up at 7:20. --We are starting to lose some steam here people. Now, the great thing about my business is that I am surrounded by people that want me to be successful. I work in the financial services business through a network marketing firm and so all of my mentors and coaches are personally financially invested in my success in order to fuel their own. This is great.  The other thing is my job is centered around building relationships working your network - a great way to test the strengths of current bonds

 Awesome thing #1: Weekly trainings and motivational sessions. Every Wednesday night I go to a training where local representatives get together and work on getting better. Yesterday we focused on building rapport with clients, doing what's right 100% of the time, and some principles that could best be descried as good ol' karma: Do for others and the rest takes care of itself. That is a great thing to have as a staple in your career and business life - steadfast morals and a foundation of integrity that is upheld throughout the organization.

 Awesome thing #2: I get to influence people I never would have met if not for this business. One of my goals for the year is to make 16 appointments for myself every week. Any person who has ever worked in sales knows that you don't set appointments without making calls. And every salesperson also knows that no one likes making calls. Hence, the need for concrete and specific goals. I set my goal for making 60 calls between Monday and Wednesday (20 calls/day). Now because I only have 2 hours a day scheduled to make my calls, I do have to make the most of that time. I use a homegrown lead management system to track my numbers and keep up with prospects as I go, and in December on average I could do 20 calls/hour and set 20% of those people for appointments. Yesterday, I started 30 minutes late and ended an hour early (for those of you not picking up on the math, I only made 30 minutes worth of calls).

The great news is Parkinson's law holds true:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for completion 

I was able to make 17 calls in those 30 minutes!! The truly significant thing was call  number 17. I was not expecting call number 17 to answer but he did. The gentleman is a member of my church and we spoke for an hour about the changes at the church, what it means to be a Christian and how we could support each other (I'm going to help him edit a book of inspirational writings).  As the conversation ended, he told me to go home and give my husband a big hug and kiss, because having someone in your corner is invaluable and you want to make sure they know that "while their eyes are open".  I heeded this very sound advice.

So Day 4's reason my business is awesome: You get more than one corner man. Even Eagles need a push.