Happy New Year to you!
December 31st was a day I thought was always far away and yet throughout the year I often said, “I can’t believe it’s already June….August…..October….December…”
I’m sure most of us feel the same. We get so wrapped in what it going on we sometimes lose focus of where we are.
Well 2013 has come and gone and as tradition stands my first post of 2014 will be a a review of all that was accomplished and those times where I fell short.
I feel it is important to recap and reassess where I went to give me the best possibility of going where I want to arrive. I don’t know about you but I always check a map more than once when I am driving to a new destination.
As I’m sure you can tell, I have great ambitions for myself. If you’re reading this post and visiting this site I have no doubt you feel the same way about yourself.
Even so, we all can get side tracked sometimes. It seems that something always comes up that takes precedence. Whether or not they are truly more important is not the question, but at the time it definitely feels more urgent.
This is why the first topic I want to cover is goal setting and tracking goals. As I’ve mentioned before the Sales Pro Blog is not my first website.
Prior to selling software, I was in the plastics manufacturing industry. I had created a blog called The Poly Bag Pro (sound familiar?). I had decided that in order to be successful as a manufacturing sales rep I needed to establish myself as an expert.
Need Help Establishing Your Self As An EXPERT? -> Click Here
I spent a lot of time building the site and even created a post very similar to my previous post detailing my 2013 goals. The only problem is that when I left the plastics industry there was no reason for me to maintain the site. So understandably I let the domain expire.
As I came to realize in early December as I was drafting my 2014 goals, there was not one single place, besides that site, that I had written down my goals for the year.
What was even more disheartening was that I only realized this in December because I had not once revisited my goals through the year.
That is horrible goal setting and tracking.
So that I don’t make the same mistake twice I’ve decided to write out every single goal in a place that I will see it every day. For me that is on the wall of my office in front of my desk. Right smack in front of me. Additionally I am looking for a small notebook to keep my goals on Page #1 where I can document my progress and keep for my ideas.
I highly recommend you hand write your goals out. You have a much better chance of remembering them and staying accountable to them.
And although I don’t recall all of the goals I set for myself back in December of 2012, I do remember a few that I can talk to.
Looking back now, 2013 was my most successful year ever. I am extremely grateful to be able to say that. There was a LOT that happened and it only feels me with excitement for what 2014 brings.
But before I dive into the good, I want to point out the bad. Where I failed and where I believe the greatest opportunity lies.
I hope you can take my missed adventures and learn something from them yourself. Failure is a great teacher but it can also be a distraction. As long as you recognized that you failed and why you failed, there is good that can still come from it.
Where I Failed
If I had to put my failures on one single thing in 2013 I would say: focus.
Along with ambition comes a lot of ideas. And for every idea I have, no matter how ambitious or great it is, I have to apply focus and attention to it.
The more ideas, the less focus for each. Have enough ideas and you can run out of focus.
Focusing on one too many ideas is enough to spell disaster. This is why voice guided directions are very popular, and in many states like California, required over looking or reading directions. 100% of your focus should be on the road. Any less is a major risk.
Sales Pro Blog Podcast
Back in August I talked about starting the Sales Pro Blog Podcast and I was super excited about it. I spent a lot of time developing the idea and then…nothing.
I came up with over 101 topics around sales tips and tricks. I even started working out the scripts for many of them. But as fast as my wheels were spinning I couldn’t gain traction.
I still feel that a Podcast will be a strong addition to the Sales Pro Blog. Not everyone is a reader. I think I sometimes forget that because I love reading.
And although I prefer reading most things, some people prefer listening or even watching their information. As some one is is interested in helping others I need to cater to those needs.
If I want to be a leader and a teacher, I need to make my information available in whatever format works best for you. Not try to make you try to fit the information.
Sales Pro Blog YouTube Channel
Along with the Podcast, videos was a medium that I wanted to get into in 2013. It didn’t happen.
I’m a bit surprised I didn’t gain traction on this goal since I had already done a few videos on my old site. I even felt I had done a good job editing, producing, and distributing them as a non-professional video editor.
But that work takes a lot of time when you don’t do it every day and don’t have high end equipment and software to use. Not that any of this is an excuse not to do it but I do understand the time commitment that it will take to get the videos to the level I want them to be.
Start A Sales Blog Page
This was another proclamation I made that I was going to do here.
I truly feel I have the knowledge and experience to help a novice person start a blog, and even had a site about creating niche sites for a while (see above about spreading yourself too thin).
So a lot of the written material is already done, the basics of starting and setting up a sales blog.
But besides that I wanted to add video walkthroughs and resources that would make it much easier for someone then when I first started.
There is a lot out there can help someone create their first site. What I want to offer is a fast track to what has worked for me and I believe anyone can use. I obviously would never recommend a product I don’t believe in so will be able to give real world experience as to why I use that product (many of which are free).
This is not one of my specific goals for 2014 but may still happen simply because I know it will be helpful to people and I have a good amount of work already done on it.
But if I am going to make it an ultimate resource for sales people, I want to give it a lot of attention when I can.
Sales Resume Guide
This was aspiration #3 from my August post. I was on a roll that month.
I am weird in that I love resumes. I love looking at other peoples to see how they format their experiences and steal any ideas I like.
I also enjoy helping friends and family with their resumes whenever they are in the market for a job. And of course I love working on resumes for hire.
As of today the guide is about 4,000 pages long and I would say half way done. I was surprised with myself when I began writing the content with how much I had to say.
And what I lack in professional experience (I have no resume writing certifications, have never been a recruiter, do not work for LinkedIn or TheLadders, etc) I make up for in passion. I have made myself a student of resumes.
But as much as passion will carry me I know it’s important to get my facts straight. If I want to help people with their livelihoods I need to be 100% sure I am not leading them astray.
Again, not one of my specified goals for 2014, I hope to complete this guide within the next year. And because of the content I have already created this is one of the topics considered for my first book.
Where I Succeeded
Successes are always the fun part to talk about and as I mentioned in the beginning of this post, I feel that 2013 was my best year yet. For the first time in a long time I feel I have a clear trajectory to what I want to accomplish. And because of that 2014 is on track to be even better.
Some of the below were directly specified in my goals from 2012 which I am happy to state and some of them are from even before them. This is one of the reasons I think it’s important to list goals achieved. Because we all have dreams. We all have dreams we talk about doing and even more we want to do. But we don’t always get to them because life gets in the way.
Created My First eBook
From the very beginning of the Sales Pro Blog I have offered my free LinkedIn profile optimization guide Top 9 Tips For Using LinkedIn Like A Sales Pro. In addition to weekly sales tips I offer it as an incentive to join my sales newsletter.
This was one of my goals from 2012 and an absolute necessity when I decided to start the Sales Pro Blog. If this site is meant to be a resource for sales professionals, it had to actually have resources available.
It is currently on version 2.0 but I am well into works on an updated version 3.0. These changes will take into account some of the new ways I’ve learned to use LinkedIn more efficiency as well as take into account changes to the site.
I’ll of course keep you updated through the newsletter when the final draft is complete.
Be Published On A Major Online News Source
I did that twice in 2013 which I was super excited about.
The site CareerAttraction.com is where I write a monthly article for them. If you haven’t already checked them out I highly recommend you take a look around. Lots of great tips for every professional.
This is one of my 2014 goals I want to expand on by getting at least 2 new online resources to write for. I’m currently in discussions with Business Insider after they picked one of my posted articles from Career Attractions.
Hopefully that will lead to another site I can write for.
Be 100% Debt Free
This is by far the goal I am most excited to have achieved. Before we were even engaged my wife brought it up that she would like to be a stay at home mom. As much as I would love to support that goal, I had no idea how we would financially.
We had a whole bunch of debt from credit cards, cars loans, student loans, etc and no relief in sight. But soon after we got engaged my soon-to-be sister in law introduced me to Dave Ramsey.
His steps are simple to understand but hard to implement because it’s your behavior that requires the change.
But we followed them almost to the tee and were lucky enough to have an income where we could support the change with little interruption to our normal lives.
This change was also coupled with the fact that we moved to Del Mar, CA and were a 2-3 hours drive away from all of our friends. So we weren’t going out as much as we use too.
But what really made me believe that we truly needed to be and were ready to get out of debt is when I found out what my last paycheck for 2013 was going to be. It was substantially larger than I thought it would be and was actually more than enough to pay our last remaining debt.
It was an amazing feeling complete this task. And don’t get me wrong it was really hard. But we were focused on our goal and did monthly (sometimes weekly) check ins to make sure we were still on budget.
Yesterday I got an email from Best Buy for a 32′ TV they had on sale. I called my wife to see if we should get it because she has been wanting one for the bedroom for quite a while. So I read some reviews, did a little more research and comparison shopping and decided to get it for her. We had the money in the budget for it and it was a great deal for the TV.
So I picked it up and got it all set up for her so she can watch her Netflix shows when she’s falling asleep.
One comment that stuck with me was when I was explaining all the other things I bought today that were in the budget to get and that we needed my wife said, “I like you with money”. And although that was meant as a quip to how I have been in the last year being more tight fisted with how we spend, my response was “It’s a lot easier to spend money when all the money is ours to do with as we please and not already owned to someone”.
Our next goal is to buy a house which is something I think we will get to much faster than we both realize.
Fitness Platinum Level
As part of my company benefits package I am enrolled in a fitness program called Vitality. It measures my activities by the classes I take, running competitions I compete in, and classes I take to learn how to live heathier.
You earn points every time you complete one of these activities. Well a goal I set out to do in January was to hit Platinum level which is the highest level possible.
Getting there was actually closer than I thought it would be but if I still to my goals for this year I should reach it a lot faster this year.
So this is it, 2014 is officially welcomed in by the Sales Pro Blog.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on your goals from last year. Where you succeeded adn were you maybe fell short.
Looking forward to the conversation.
~ Johnny Bravo
Image courtesy of adamr / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
{ 0 comments… add one now }