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Wrapping Up 2016 With A Bang
In this final episode of the year, we chat about planning 2017 and how to do it the RIGHT way so you hit the ground running in 2017. Plus I go on a fun rant and get into stuff most people NEVER talk about or even think about!
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Transcript
Hey what is going on everyone. Jeremy here and welcome to the last podcast episode of the year.
I am actually going to take a couple of weeks off of podcasting. There is actually a chance that I may not even start it back up in 2017.
You know, we are starting to do our planning and you know, once I look at the stats and the effectiveness of everything. If the podcast is not cutting it then it is going to get cut, alright.
So if you want the podcast to continue, you basically have 2 weeks to show me you know, show me that it is worth you know, continuing right because you know, that is kind of the name of the game of marketing. You test a whole bunch of stuff and you, you know, you keep going with it and you look and you look at the results and see if you know, what you are doing is worth the time you put into it you know.
There are actually have been several marketing — you know, marketing strategies that we have cut this year and I am really starting to hone in on what is working you know and not really what is not working because most things work you know what I mean. It is really more of what is working the best you know, what is my best use of time.
So if you want the podcast to continue in 2017 make sure that you leave a review. I will be checking those towards the end of year probably the week between Christmas and New Year you know, shoot me an email. Tell me you are really loving it that kind of thing just so I you know, it is a good way of kind of seeing if it is a you know, good thing to continue or not right.
So with that said, I want to talk a little about planning right because it is you know, it is about 2 weeks from the end of the year. Here we have 2 weeks left of 2016 and a lot of people around this time start to get really lazy right and myself included honestly.
And it is a mistake sometimes right depends on why you are doing it right.
So I like to take the last 2 weeks of the year and move away from kind of the day-to-day stuff you know and think more about more strategically, more high level you know, to start thinking about what is going to move the needle for the next year and start getting those things in place right in December rather than waiting until January to you know, to get all those in place like we you know, we just launched a new Facebook campaign. You may or may not be seeing them based on your interest and things like that.
But we are kind of strategizing that and planning that out and we are — we launch that now so that by January it already has the momentum that we are looking for to bring in the results that we are looking for okay.
And another thing about you know making plans and kind of you know looking at your business and figuring out what you want to do with it and you know where you wanted to go. What is the purpose of the business. What is it doing for you in your life you know, and one of the big things that I come across is everyone just wants to look at revenue right. Everyone just — oh, you know, we did a million this year. So that means we should do 2 million next year or hey we did 250,000 next year why do not we shoot for a million next year.
But if you really look back and you think about it, what is revenue really mean?
Is that really the end goal and the answer for most people is no, okay.
So I — you know, my latest funnel that I did whatever that was like a week and a half ago or whatever.
You know, I would not go into the revenue levels, but they have really high revenue levels. They were you know, in the multi 7 figures, that kind of thing.
So on paper, it looks nice and at first when I was going over the goals because one of the first things I always do when I do funnel days is say, hey you know, what is the goal, like what do you want you know what I mean and really dig deep.
And usually, the first answer is oh I want to double revenue. That is typically the first answer and that was the case with this and then I said, alright, well what would that do like what is that mean you know. What is that do for you in your life and you know, we (inaudible 4:19.6) for probably good 15 to 20 minutes and he ended up saying, you know what, I do not really care what revenue is.
He said the biggest thing is I want to increase our net profit. He said, it does not really matter what the top line is for me. He is like, I want to focus more on higher margin products that we have right, because they sell a lot of physical products so they are lower margin right and he said the big thing for me is increasing our net profit. He is like, it does not really matter what the top line is if the bottom line sucks because you know, they were netting a really low percent and he said that is my main goal you know.
He said, actually, I do not even care about the you know, doubling the revenue. He is like you know, what I want is more bottom line revenue you know.
So that is what we based the whole day around because you do not — if you do not know where the end goal is right, that is the first thing that you have to do is you are planning on 2017 is figuring out what is the end goal. What do you want right.
And if you do not have that, how can you possibly make a plan. If you do not have what the end goal is, right.
So let us just say you are in a million and you are trying to get to 5 million right. You are trying the 5x in 1 year, okay. Let us just say that is the goal. Alright, well, you are going to make a plan to do that, okay, but what if your revenue right now is a million and you are netting $100,000 and your new goal is to net $300,000 or just say 5 times your net income rather than your top line revenue. Well that is going to look way different than if your main goal is top line revenue, okay.
So if you are looking at your goals, your revenue goals, I want you to separate top line from bottom line and if it is important to you it may or may not be important to you.
For example, if you are selling your business in the next couple of years, you may just want to maximize top line revenue to get a higher multiple, okay or if they — you know, if they are getting that multiple off of your bottom line revenue well, maybe, you want to look at that, okay.
So you have to look at all of the different you have to look at this as a comprehensive you know, kind of a roundabout way and look at it from all angles not just revenue okay, not just time freedom, not just how stressful it is, but all of them combined, alright.
And that is what I am going to be doing or the next 2 weeks or so. I am really you know, I am probably — you guys know I love my Bourbon and my scotch you know that kind of thing.
So I am going to sit down a night or two and yeah because I am you know, obviously not going to be jerking that during the day because that would be you know, a sign of a very bad thing, but you know, I am going to be sitting here and I am going to probably go out in the garage and have a cigar and kind of just sit and you know, go a little bit slower on work and take some long walks and you know meditate a lot more and things like that and really just let my mind rest you know, because that is when the breakthroughs come ins when you let your mind rest you know.
That is what I am going to be doing over the next 2 weeks because I want my plan in place. I want the strategy in place and you know and then that way when 2017 comes I am already running right.
It is not hit the ground running in January. By January, you should already be running, okay. You should already be in the full sprint, alright.
And that is what I want you to do is take like, do not plan on New Year’s Eve, right. Plan it like next week okay, and that way you can get some momentum going into January.
A lot of clients that I have want to do — they want to do their copy you know this week or this month rather because they want to (inaudible 8:11.3) to start running traffic to it right and start testing a couple of things and that way by the time January comes then they are not just launching it in January. They have already launched it. They have already done a test or two and they have some momentum to help achieve their goals that they want to hit in 2017, alright.
And that is you know, that is kind of my main message today is just you know, take a more proactive view of your goals and really think it through. Don’t just look at your revenue and say, okay, I am at 2 million this year, I am at 5 million. I want to double that or I want to triple that or whatever, because that does not matter. It does not freaking matter. What matters you know I mean again, based on your goals. This is not for everybody right, but what matters is what matters to you really.
If top line revenue is your main goal and you have a specific reason for that, that is fine, okay.
For most people, especially most people I talked to right, they are more interested in bottom line revenue, right, and why you would not be, because that is the actual take home profit that you can actually spend, okay.
I do not care if your top line revenue is 50 billion dollars. If your bottom line revenue is not impressive then who cares, right.
A lot of people are like, oh you know, I hit a million finally. I hit 5 million. I hit 10 million and my first question is, great. What is your profit margin? How much do you actually taking home? How much are you personally as the owner, right, like taking home is your paycheck. What is that, right.
And of course, there is, you know, there is certain times for example if you have a startup, maybe you are going to go broke the first you know, 5 years or so while you are ramping your company up and you are doing that in order to be able to sell it for 10, 20 million dollars and that is your big pay day.
If that is your goal, that is totally fine. For most of the people that I work with, it is more of a you know, a lifestyle business. It is a service business where the people are coming in and they are working with the clients and they are you know, like whatever you make after you pay your employees, after your marketing blah.. blah.. blah.. goes into your business and you are going to take a big chunk of that for your own you know, personal income, okay.
So if that is you, focus on the bottom line revenue. Look at what you are doing and think of the you know, kind of the mix of where your money is coming from. How easy each of those sources is to get that money, right and how much leverage you have in those you know, various marketing sources, okay, or those you know, in those various services or products or whatever it is that you are selling, okay, because this is all the same if you are selling information product too, alright.
So I do not know about you, but my goal next year is to increase my personal income, alright and yeah, so that is what I am going to be looking for and I am also going to be doing that. Do not always — by the way, before I hop off here. Do not look at this as (inaudible 11:10.7) revenue like I mentioned before you know.
How does your revenue — how are you going to increase your revenue but do that kind of in tandem with increasing your health, increasing you know, if you are spiritual, your spiritual life or you know like you know, if you are into like a meditation practice you know, with increasing you know, how long you meditate or how deep you meditate or whatever, right. How many times you are going to work out next year. How many times are you going to take your wife or your husband on a date night, right to keep your relationship intact with your spouse, okay.
That, by the way, is probably more important than any of these other — maybe not health because your own health is probably the most important thing right, but like if you look at this, if you are looking at your goals you know, spiritual and relationships and health and business and you know, free time and relaxing and like all that kind of stuff you know, friends all that stuff right, what are the most important things to you. Maybe you are single, maybe relationships do not matter and that is fine you know. Maybe you know, you are in really good shape already and you already have that part nailed down.
Alright, well you probably do not have to spend that much more on it, just keep doing what you are doing, okay.
Maybe you know, your business is doing really well, but all the other areas in your life are going shit. Maybe you know, your business is doing really well, but all the other areas in your life are going shit. Maybe you are 30 or 50 pounds overweight. Maybe you know, your doctors you know, has you on blood pressure medication. Maybe you know, you and your spouse have not you know, had intercourse in the long time. You do not have a good relationship with each other and you are not in love really anymore and you are kind of just going through the motions, right.
I can even begin to describe how many people are in that situation in relationships where you know, they are with the spouse, this is the person that is with them all day every day. They spent the most time (inaudible 13:00.1) any other person on earth and their relationship is not fantastic you know. Look at the relationship that you have with your spouse right now and if you cannot say our relationship is absolutely amazing, you need to focus on that. You do not just get a great relationship just by being there right. You do not get a great relationship just by like you know, waking up in the morning. That does not create a great relationship just like you do not get a great business without putting effort into it. You do not get a great body without putting effort into it. You do not get peace of mind and you know, peacefulness and like you know, all the things that go along with spiritual practices without putting work into it right.
So do not look at next year as how much money can I make it right. That is such a shallow way of looking at life. Obviously, that is a really important part of life, but it is not the only part, not even remotely close, okay.
So if that is kind of you know how you are looking at things right now I would urge you to stop it you know, stop doing that and look at relationship as one big cohesive unit because if any of those pillars breaks down, it brings you know, the average of everything down, okay. That is your weak point and you are only as strong as your weakest link, right.
So if your business is good, your health is good, your spiritual practice is good, you know, you are calm whatever all that kind of stuff, but your relationship with your spouse is horrible, well guess what, that relationship is bringing everything else down.
Conversely, if your relationship is good, your money is good, your spiritual is good, and your health sucks, well guess what, your health is bringing everything down and you know, you see where I am going with that.
The point is, what I want you to focus on for 2017 is having a really good kind of stable life, right. That is, I mean that is how you build everything up, okay.
Fix your weak points, alright and a lot of times that is really easy you know. Figure out what your strength is, and obviously, figure out how to maximize that right. So there is probably one area in those that is doing way better than the other one so maximize that right, but then also look at your weaknesses and say alright what can I do. What are some easy practices to make this better you know, and with each thing it does not have to be big giant steps okay like with your health.
You do not have to go from eating fast food 3 times a day to eating you know salads 3 times a day okay. Replace 1 meal okay. Start drinking a smoothie in the morning and that is it, everything else stays the same. Like just add little steps here and there. Just focus on going in a couple hundred calorie per day deficit.
So if you are — figure out your maintenance level you know, and you can go to the website by the way, it is called www.iifym.com right, and you basically plug in a bunch of information you know, man or woman, height, weight, blah.. blah.. and it tells you essentially what your baseline calories are right.
So just shoot for a couple hundred calories less than that. So if it is 2200, shoot for 1900 a day, okay. That is it. That is your only thing, alright.
If your relationship is bad, focus on being a better husband or being a better wife, right, and you should be doing this anyway by the way, I mean if you are not waking up in every single day of your life, you are trying to figure out ways to make your spouse happier that is not doing it the right way you know.
What if you woke up and you know, think about it this way, right, because most people do not do this. They just go through the relationships just you know, kind of willy-nilly, they do not really think about it, right.
So but think of it this way. How would your business do if you just woke up and kind of sat at your computer with no thought as to how you would grow that business, right. It would be awful, right. You would go nowhere.
How would your health be if you just woke — and this is also how a lot of people are. You just wake up and you have absolutely no plan for your health whatsoever. You wake up, you have no idea what you are eating that day. You kind of just do it off the fly, that is why people you know, if you do not have plan, you are going to have a bad plan right and no plan is a horrible plan.
So if you do not have a plan. If you do not already have it, kind of figure out what you are going to eat for that day, you are going to eat on unhealthy foods, okay. You are going to have no idea what your calories are and it is the same thing with your relationships, right.
If you are not looking every single day of your life for ways to make your spouse happier that is going to deteriorate, okay, if it has not already, alright.
So this is very, very simple stuff, but it is the stuff that a lot of people do not think about, alright and I just want you guys and girls to think about this, right. Think about your life as a holistic giant cohesive unit. If one area falls apart, everything else falls apart too. It drags it down into the pits along with it, right.
So think of rather than just saying hey, what is my revenue for next year and how do we do it. Think of kind of the 4 main pillars of your life and that is you know, wealth, it is health, it is your relationships, and your spiritual or religious kind of practices you know, basically how you feel inside. We will kind of keep it as that like your — your internal state you know, we will just call it that, right, because everybody you know, people that are religious usually a lot of times they will kind of go to their religion for that right, to feel peace and comfort inside and if you are not religious then you go towards more of like a lot of people kind of gravitate more towards like a spiritual thing you know, meditating or you know, that kind of thing or both or whatever.
But that you know, that is it for today. I hope you guys got a lot out of this. I hope that you have an amazing rest of the December and you know, Merry Christmas to everybody and Happy New Year and Happy Hanukkah and you know, anything else that you celebrate, happy that, right.
People get so caught up with you know, the name of what they are celebrating. Just freaking celebrate life. How about that you know, just celebrate being alive.
So anyway, I hope you all have an amazing rest of the month. I hope you take a little time to kind of chill in your business and let your mind rest and you know, think about some of the stuff. Let it — listen to this all over again. Let it ponder. Let it kind of consume your brain. Help you come up with good ideas for next year, right.
And again, remember, if you want me to keep doing the podcast, also let me know. Leave a review on iTunes, do that now and shoot me an email if you want me to keep this going. Remember I am going to be potentially mixing the podcast and really I am looking at everything, it is not just the podcast by the way. I am looking at every single thing that I do and I look at it at the end of the year and say okay is it worth continuing to do this and it is really just a very simple yes or no, alright.
So if you guys want the podcast to keep going then show me that you want it, alright. Show me the money, baby.
Anyway, I hope you have an amazing rest of the year and if I — you know, if I do cancel podcast then make sure you sign up on the email because that will you know, I will continue sending on emails there and yeah. Hopefully our paths will cross soon and I hope everything goes amazingly well for you. See you.
