How much money do you need to make each month to live your ideal lifestyle?IF VISION IS THE DESTINATION, then path is the vehicle that will get you there. Now that you’ve got clarity of your vision and you’ve identified your reason why, it’s time to move on and get clarity on your path.
Clarity of path is just as important as clarity of vision. Michael, a friend of mine who wrote a self-development book that became a national bestseller, came to me with an interesting challenge. He was a national bestselling author, and as a result of all his sales, he was given lots of speaking opportunities, and from time to time, he’d get a consulting client from those speaking engagements. Now, you would think that his consulting business would be thriving, but like many bestselling authors, he was struggling to get consistent growth and traction in his business. In fact, Michael had been trying to build his consulting gig for some time so that he could cut back on his travels and speaking engagements, but he couldn’t figure out a successful way.
I asked him if he knew what he wanted his business to look like twelve months from now, and to my surprise, he was pretty darn clear on his vision. He said he only wanted to work with people and businesses that were committed to a cause and making an impact, and he wanted to have plenty of time to continue writing. But he also wanted a business that generated between one-and-a-half and two million dollars a year. He figured at that level he could have all the money he wanted and still have the freedom to write his future books, travel for leisure, and pick and choose the clients whom he wanted to work with the most.
When I asked Michael how he was going to get there, he gave me a blank stare and said, “I don’t know; that’s why I’m coming to you about it.” His hope had been that his bestselling book would serve as a marketing piece and that it would get him more consulting clients.
Sadly, the reality about self-development books is that many of the people who purchase them don’t go past the first chapter. Few of Michael’s readers ever get far enough to be sold on Michael, his systems, or the idea of working with him. What’s worse is that Michael couldn’t market to the tens of thousands of people who purchased his book because he couldn’t get access to their names and contact information. After all, his readers didn’t purchase his book directly from him, but from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers, which don’t provide him with a customer list.
What he did have going for him was the fact that he had a strong fan following on his social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. He also had a few thousand people on his email list who had subscribed simply by finding his website. I was pretty sure that we could use his Facebook fan page, Instagram followers, and his email list to drum up a half-a-million dollars’ worth of coaching and consulting business. Based on his clear vision for his business, I figured it would be most beneficial to help him launch a mastermind group of his own rather than to offer individual coaching and consulting, which would be a lot more time-consuming for him.
I asked Michael if he would be interested in starting a mastermind coaching group, and he said, “Absolutely!” He liked the idea of working with a group of clients three times a year. This would be both effective for his clients and efficient for the lifestyle and business design that he wanted. So we set out to build a clear path to generating an additional $600,000 of new business over the next twelve months.
Here’s how Michael’s plan went: For thirty days Michael put out a weekly video on social media that delivered content and great value to his fans and followers. Twice a week he sent out an email to his list. The first email of the week included a link to his fan page where people could watch the most recent video that he posted. A couple days later, he sent the second email of the week. This second email had thought-provoking written content that his list devoured. In that second email of the week, he hinted that he was starting an exclusive mastermind coaching program for people who wanted to work with him, in person, on a higher level to achieve their life goals. In that email, he asked the people who were interested in working with him to reply to his email to let him know so he could put them on an interest list.
Over the next thirty days, Michael put out educational videos on social media and consistently delivered content-rich, value-added emails to his list. For the second email of the week, he teased the idea of his mastermind and continued to build an interest list. By the third and fourth week, he had created quite the buzz about his mastermind program, which is exactly what I wanted to happen.
In that same amount of time, we had a new sales page made up with sales copy about his new mastermind, the dates for the upcoming mastermind meetings, and an application at the bottom of the page for those who were interested in joining the program.
I also worked with him on phone-closing skills during those thirty days so he could easily convert qualified leads into mastermind clients. The plan was to launch the mastermind at the end of the thirty days, move all the interested people to the new webpage, and have them fill out an application so they could end up on the phone with either Michael or his manager or assistant. Michael used these phone conversations to determine who was qualified for the mastermind. If a person was qualified, then Michael would go through the process to close the prospect at $2,500 a month for twelve months. All we needed was twenty clients paying him $2,500 a month for twelve months to add another $600,000 to his annual income.
It was a simple plan. For many it may seem too simple, but simple works best. I explained to Michael that this was as clear as a path as he could have toward his vision. Over time, as he got comfortable running his mastermind, he could launch a second group by rinsing and repeating the process that I taught him. There’s a big lesson here: Simple works. Far too often business owners complicate the process and path to success, sales, and scale. Overcomplication leads to overwhelm, and that’s when shit will usually fall apart.
This process of overcomplication happens for two reasons. First, I think most people would rather avoid the real work by overplanning and overcomplicating the path and process to success. Second, I’ve noticed that most entrepreneurs believe that the path to success should be difficult and complex or it just won’t work. This is far from the truth.
Clarity of vision and clarity of path are all you need. I know it sounds simple, but this is what’s been missing in your business, which is why you’ve been stuck and spinning your wheels for so long. Be clear on your path. Write out the questions below and answer them in detail. Once you have your answers, then you can create the path that will get you to your destination. These might, in some cases, seem like basic questions—but again basic works. Go through them and write down specific answers. If I had to guess, I would say this exercise is going to be harder than you think, but that’s the point.
The Six Pillars of Effective Entrepreneurial Leadership
PILLAR #5: CLARITY OF VISION AND PATH
The beautiful thing about being an entrepreneur is that we are blessed with creativity and the ability to come up with solutions to many different problems. But the reality is that you’d need at least eight lifetimes to put all your business ideas into action! You’re better off finding the one business idea that you are madly in love with and focusing all your efforts on it. Without clarity of vision and path, you’re going to become distracted by your many different ideas and never bring a single one to its fullest potential.
Clarity of vision means asking yourself where you want to take your business, when you want to get it there, and clearing the path to get it there.
For example, with my franchise Fit Body Boot Camp, I am very clear on my vision and path. My vision is to take us to 2,500 locations by the year 2022. The path to getting there is to have current FBBC owners open multiple locations, and for us at headquarters to use targeted online marketing to find more of the right prospective franchisee leads.
How Clarity of Vision and Path Serves You
If you have clarity of vision and path, you’ll get your business where you want it to be much more effectively than if you approach it haphazardly. Clarity of vision is knowing the outcome that you want and putting a deadline in place; clarity of path is staying focused on what you need to get there. This focused effort reduces distractions, gives clarity to your team, and eliminates the bottlenecks and distractions that threaten to slow down growth.
EXERCISE
Ask yourself the following questions and answer them in great detail:
How much money do you need to make each month to live your ideal lifestyle?
How much money do you want your business to make?
What are the profit margins you want to generate?
How does this fit into your desire for meaning, significance, or impact?
How many employees will you have when you reach your vision?
Do you want a business that gives you a lifestyle or one that keeps you ultrabusy and on the go?
What are the two or three critical things that need to happen for you to get enough clients or customers?
What are the nonessential tasks that you’re doing that can be delegated to an employee?
Who’s going to make the sales?
To whom, and how, is a product or service going to be delivered?
What are your daily, weekly, and monthly traffic and sales goals?
For most entrepreneurs, big or small, these questions have never been considered or defined. If you don’t address these issues, you’ll neuter your ability to reach your fullest potential. This is your path. Define it and do it!