Piece #2: Goal Setting
Plus, defining purpose, goals, and system for your content
When you think about your goals, do you feel like an octopus in muddy waters, stretching yourself in so many different directions without knowing what you could potentially reach?
Yes?
Here's a quick activity for clarifying your thoughts and clearing that muddy waters before tackling important projects before you.
Preparation:
Find a quiet place
Sit down
Bring a pen and paper with you
Close your eyes
Take a deep breath
Calm that tornado of thoughts in your head
Ready?
Now follow this simple Where+How exercise.
Ask yourself these questions*:
☆ Where am I now?
☆ How did I get here?
☆ Where do I want to be?
☆ How will I get there?
Write your answers down.
Do you see it clearer now?
Feeling more confident in accomplishing your goals?
Now go for it 💫
*Questions are inspired by The Strategy & Planning Scrapbook by Alex Morris, one of my favorite keep-coming-back-to resources.
(4×C) + (3×A) = G
What? Is this turning into math now?
Oh, no, not math. It's a goal-setting formula that works like a charm. Plus, it's great for reviewing your goals from time to time. And – by the way – how often do you revisit your goals? Monthly, quarterly, annually? What works best for me is setting quarterly goals, but doing monthly reality checks to see the progress and whether I'm on the right track.
And our little formula untangles into this:
Clarity×Certainty×Confidence×Courage
+ Action×Accountability×Accomplishment
= Growth
In other words…
Clarity leads to Certainty, which gives you the Confidence to gain Courage.
The Action you take and stay Accountable for leads to Accomplishment.
The result is Growth.
It can be personal growth, career growth, self-development growth, business growth, revenue growth, quality growth… Growth in every sense and every way.
How does this goal-setting game work?
It's a simple ready-set-go process, really.
Think about what you want
Set your goals
Go out there and accomplish them
It's simple, but not easy.
It's hard, but not that hard, once you wrap your mind around it.
Knowing what you want, having a clear vision, and finding out exactly how you are going to do it, is not an easy thing to do.
This 3-step process includes so much thinking, reflecting, predicting, habit-adjusting, changing, performing,
Think about your personal goals for a second.
Do you have a clear vision of what's your life going to look like in 25 years?
Do you know exactly what you want to achieve in the next 10 years? And how to do it?
Do you have a monthly plan? A 1-year plan? A 5-year plan? Are you working on those?
And the most important question: How do you feel about your goals?
Zooming in to content goals
After the exercises and formulas, let's get down to our thing - content creation.
Think about these questions.
What is the purpose of your content?
What is the goal you want to achieve?
What is the system behind the goal?
For example, let’s say that you want to start a blog on your company's website. What would be the purpose, and what might be the goal and the system?
First, let's see what is what.
The purpose is the reason for existence. It’s the foundation, the driving force.
The goal is the desired result, an aim, a target. It sets the direction for your efforts.
The system is a structured way to accomplish the goal. It's the navigation mechanism, all the hard work you put in, all the ways you go about it.
So, for your future blog, this might be the setting.
The purpose is to connect your target audience with your website, to educate, inform, inspire, activate readers, to drive existing customers and prospects in and let them learn more about your industry, your niche, your products or services to, eventually, buy from you, subscribe to your free trial, upgrade to a paid plan, join as a member...
The goal can be to gain 20% more customers than last year. Or, it can be to keep readers engaged and lower the bounce rate on your website. Or, to increase conversion rate through direct calls to action at the end of your blog posts.
The system is the content production workflow, including all necessary tasks for research, planning, modeling, producing, structuring, managing, and iterating.
James Clear, the author of the book Atomic Habits, writes about the importance of having a system in line in his scientific guide for setting and achieving goals.
James also likes to flip this game around, by asking what pains are we willing to accept to accomplish what we aim for.
Everybody wants a gold medal. Few people want to train like an Olympian. Goal setting is not only about choosing the rewards you want to enjoy, but also the costs you are willing to pay.
– James Clear
With that in mind, here is a set of questions to start from for your blog (you might wanna grab a pen and paper to write your answers down).
What are your business goals (e.g. to triple the revenue in the next 3 years)
What are your blogging goals (e.g. gaining 3x more qualified leads and increase conversion rate by 30%)
How do they align with each other (e.g. consistent quality blogging over 3 years can directly contribute to the increase of the revenue)
What are your audience's goals (e.g. they want to learn how to do something, they want to dive deeper into the topic of their interest, they want to learn from a trusted source, they want to gain insight in the latest industry trends, they want a solution to their problem)
How do those align with your business goals and your blogging goals (e.g. by answering your audience's questions, addressing their interests, providing solutions to their problems, and consistently publishing objective, accurate, research-backed, in-depth, and truly engaging articles on your blog, you will earn people's trust, become their go-to place for learning new, interesting, inspiring insights, and with a clear call to action you could bring in highly qualified leads happy to purchase from you, eventually leading to the increase of conversions)
What are the short-term goals, what are the long-term ones (e.g. short-term might be to raise conversions by 10% in 1 year, and longer-term to reach the 30% increase target in 3 years)
Do you have a master goal – one single goal that can house all your small, micro, and nano goals under one roof (e.g. master goal could be 30% increment in 3 years, small goals might be 10% conversion rate growth over 1 year, micro goals could be doubling the number of qualified leads in the next 6 months, and nano goals could range from improving the quality of your blog posts to including subject matter experts in every single post to hiring experienced writers specialized in your niche)
So, how to set a system for your blog then?
Based on the examples from above, you could have specific outcomes:
Number of new writers you want to bring in
Detailed job postings knowing exactly what kind of writers you want to attract, what will they do, and what are the salary budgets
Clear content style guides, voice and tone guides, and content management guides for a seamless onboarding experience for every new writer that joins your team
Specification for the quality of blog posts you want to publish - e.g. minimum 1500 words, minimum 1 expert to be interviewed for the piece and preferably 2-4, headline expectations, finding a unique angle to the story, storytelling guidelines…
Audience research conducted to decide upon topics for the blog
Topics tailored to suit your customers' needs, wants, struggles, intentions, problem awareness stages, and other phases on their journey to your products, services, programs, or events
An annual editorial plan, including specific topics, series of topics, writers and editors assigned to each post, and publishing timelines
Please don't get me wrong…
I'm not saying that you can create, manage, and produce high-quality content for your business or an organization only if you have an enormous team working on it. It sure makes it easier (even having 2 or 3 teammates is great), but what if you are a content team of one?
You could be the only content person in your org, a solopreneur who's taking content into your own hands, or a creative freelancer building up your personal brand relying on your own content muscle 💪
Well, hello there, and welcome to the club. It's a content soloist over here, too 🙋♀️
It's a heavy load on our chest, but there are good sides and bad sides.
The good side: you are responsible and accountable for everything (so you get to decide, write, produce, publish, and iterate on your terms knowing exactly what kind of quality you are after).
The bad side: you are responsible and accountable for everything (and seeing your name all over the place in that project management board can feel a bit intimidating, don't you think?)
That's why setting clear goals and creating a strategy upon them is the key. It makes the work (and life!) so much easier.
Read on
If you work in a big organization and you manage a large team of people with a lot of different expectations and targets on your plate, then the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) method might be the best choice for you. Learn all about it and see how Google does it.
Dig deeper into James Clear's writing about motivation vs. intention, implementation intentions, following through goals, and strategies in case your plans fall apart.
You'll find a comprehensive guide on goals in this article about goal setting theory on the Positive Psychology portal. Take a peek into Pablo Picasso's take on goal setting success, and go through key principles, interesting facts, research and studies, tips and strategies, goal reviews, and other tactics.
If you need help with setting and tracking your goals, look into some of the top 5 goal setting apps, according to Lifewire.
For more than 20 years people behind the Tank have gathered learnings on how meaningful brands are built, along with the insights about where they are going and why they want to get there. Those are all gathered together inside the free Insights Playbook. (Plus, the same team is behind the Fearless Conversations podcast, check out below for more info 👇)
Watch & Learn
Browse the TED's playlist about goals and learn about setting short-term and long-term goals, keeping goals to yourself, defining fears instead of goals, and more.
Enroll into Coursera's online course offered by the University of Virginia called Grow to Greatness: Smart Growth for Private Businesses, Part I to learn about the truth of growth, go through Feller's Gourmet workshop, and find out more about 4Ps of growing a business. Then, proceed to Part II to learn about cost-volume-profit analysis, distinguishing relevant costs and benefits, and more.
Listen & Thrive
To dive deeper into the topic of content systems and learn all about content ecosystem mapping, jump straight into the episode with Scott Kubie of The Content Strategy podcast hosted by Kristina Halvorson.
If you are a single content person in your team, head over to The Ground Up Show by Matt D'Avella, a podcast "for those bold enough to make small steps", and listen to the episode with Paul Jarvis, author of the book Company of One: Why Staying Small is the Next Big Thing for Business. Things don't always have to be bigger, bigger, bigger. Sometimes the goal is to just be better 😉
Finding clarity with your goals is of the utmost importance and it is one of the first steps to take. It’s also the topic of the episode of the Ready! Set! Goal! Podcast from Donna Campisi, where she talks about the Baby Steps Method and that 4xC part of the equation from above: Clarity, Certainty, Confidence, and Courage.
Did you know that the way we perceive our plans, progress, and potential could be what’s derailing us from meeting our goals? Social psychologist and New York University Associate Professor of Psychology Emily Balcetis explains that in her conversation with Jessica Miller-Merrell in episode 215 of the Workology podcast. Listen to learn how to turn those misperceptions into your advantage.
Tune in for the episode on Purpose from the Fearless Conversations podcast. Presented by Jim Antonopoulos and Damian Karaula, this podcast brings open and honest conversations about leadership, teams, and management for start-ups and purpose-driven organizations.
If you always wanted to have your personal Jiminy Cricket whispering in your ear, guiding you towards self-development so you can achieve both personal and business goals, don't miss the YOU WANNA DO WHAT?! podcast with Monica Rivera. Tune in for a weekly dose of inspiration, motivation, and storytelling to help you overcome obstacles, achieve greatness, and make big changes.
What's left for me to say here?
Happy goal setting, change-making, and greatness achieving y'all 🎯
Ready… Set… Go!
Feel free to share your thoughts, goals, and plans in comments below if you struggle with something or just need an accountability buddy 😊