Goal-Setting on Steroids: Why Your Business Needs More Than Just a Number

Carey shares powerful insights on how a clear business vision leads to entrepreneurial success and personal fulfillment. She draws from her journey of transforming from a corporate employee to a successful entrepreneur who helps others clarify their vision and achieve their goals.

• Turning a written vision into reality through clarity and purpose
• Why many entrepreneurs are running "expensive hobbies" rather than profitable businesses
• Using vision to distinguish between opportunities that align with your goals and those that don't
• The importance of setting real revenue targets tied to specific outcomes rather than arbitrary numbers
• How vision encompasses seven life areas: faith, family, friends, fitness, fun, finances, and field
• Finding your purpose hidden within your vision writing
• Looking three years ahead when creating your vision to make it more tangible and achievable
• Maintaining resilience through challenges when your vision is compelling enough

Download Carrie's free "Vision is Victory" guide to help clarify your entrepreneurial vision and set yourself up for success.

Chapters

• 0:00 Meeting Carrie & The New Studio
• 2:00 How Vision Casting Started for Carrie
• 5:13 Vision Helps You Choose Your Path
• 8:12 Setting Real Revenue Goals
• 12:20 Purpose Hidden in Your Vision
• 18:30 When Vision Meets Faith
• 21:40 Vision Bigger Than Your Hurdles
• 24:50 Closing Thoughts & Resources

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Elevate Media Podcast with your host, chris Anderson. In this show, chris and his guests will share their knowledge and experience on how to go from zero to successful entrepreneur. They have built their businesses from scratch and are now ready to give back to those who are just starting. Let's get ready to learn, grow and elevate our businesses. And now your host, chris Anderson.

Speaker 2: 0:25

Welcome back to another recording of the Elevate Media Podcast. I'm Chris Anderson, your host, and exciting day today. If you're used to the show, watching it, you're going to see the setup's a little bit different, a little bit more bare. Right now we are actually recording our first episode in our new office that we've had constructed and been building for the team and us used so exciting steps, finally had enough to for the team and us to use so exciting steps, finally had enough to get in here and just started waiting. So that's why you'll see the different background in this, but super excited for our conversation today.

Speaker 2: 0:54

You know, when we start entrepreneurship, we kind of have an idea, we have an understanding of where we want to go, possibly why we want to get there, and sort of have that vision. But along the way we might have kind of veered off from that or forgotten it or not really focused on that. And today we're going to be discussing, you know, vision is victory and we're bringing in an expert to talk just about that. So, carrie, welcome to the Elevate Media Podcast today.

Speaker 3: 1:21

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Speaker 2: 1:24

Absolutely, and everyone, you're in for a treat today and at the end, I'm going to let Carrie share where you can connect with her, because she has just so much wisdom, so much insight, so much success that she's done through multiple endeavors, events, books, her businesses, things like that and so I'm really excited for this one, carrie, today, to dive right in though. What made you want to really hone in on entrepreneurs' visions to help them have victory.

Speaker 3: 1:59

So it's kind of a story. So I was in my late 20s this was a very long time ago. I was doing what we were all told to do was, you know, get the nine to five job and work your way up, and everybody in my tribe was doing really well with that and I was not. I was changing jobs about every two years because I just couldn't fit the mold Right.

Speaker 2: 2:19

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 2:19

And so I had a mentor come into my life that told me you know, you can create your life to look however you want. You just need to get really clear on what that is Right. And so, with her encouragement, I took a day off of work and, with a legal pad of paper because again, this was the late eighties right, I wrote out everything I wanted, what kind of relationship I wanted to have with my husband, where we were living the kind of lifestyle that I wanted. I knew eventually, especially when we started having kids, that I wanted to be able to work from home and be an entrepreneur. I didn't know what it was, so I noodled a lot of ideas and out of my head that day I wrote for the very first time ever that someday I thought I wanted to teach this vision writing and goal setting to other people.

Speaker 3: 3:04

And so fast forward a little bit. I had my son and I was five months pregnant and I got an introduce to the industry of network marketing with a company called Arbonne, which most people are familiar with, and jumped all in so that I could quit my job to get my son out of daycare and stay home and raise my babies. That's awesome, and the one thing I had to do with all of the people that I brought onto my team was have them write out a great big vision for why they wanted to work Because I knew if they didn't have it, Chris, they were going to quit on me in about three days.

Speaker 2: 3:35

Yeah, right.

Speaker 3: 3:36

Right, Because being an entrepreneur is tough and there are a lot of days you just want to wave your white flag and say right. So I taught that to them, and so about 12 years ago, I created some curriculum around it and started teaching it publicly, and most of the people that I ended up speaking in front of that came into coaching with me were were entrepreneurs that were trying to figure it out. Yeah, because most of them were running pretty expensive hobbies, because they were thinking of a vision. Right, exactly so.

Speaker 2: 4:04

Because most of them were running pretty expensive hobbies because they were. They didn't have a vision Right, exactly. So you know how's, how's that come. You know, you know fast forward. That was late 80s. You said did that vision come true for you?

Speaker 3: 4:14

Well, uh, when I got introduced to Arbonne now remember when I wrote out things I wrote specifically that I wanted to be, I wanted to work from home.

Speaker 2: 4:21

Yep.

Speaker 3: 4:22

I wanted to make a residual income, passive income, I wanted to take fabulous trips and I wanted to be in a company where there was a lot of growth for leadership.

Speaker 2: 4:31

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 4:33

And so not knowing about Arbonne at that time. When Arbonne showed up it was like bam, because it checked all the boxes.

Speaker 2: 4:41

Right.

Speaker 3: 4:42

So one of the things I tell people about having this written vision is you get super clear what you want so that when the opportunities arise, you'll know exactly which path to follow. And that's what happened.

Speaker 2: 4:54

I like that goals down, these dreams, what you want from life, and being specific gives you or helps you delineate between things that come up that you can say yes or no to. Basically, does this align with what I truly want? Yeah, um, to help you get to those goals, because otherwise, right, we're just going to be kind of throwing it on the wall and see if it sticks, kind of thing, because we'll say yes to everything. Is that kind of right?

Speaker 3: 5:24

yes, and and that's very common for entrepreneurs, especially in the beginning, is to do a lot of things all at once.

Speaker 2: 5:31

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 5:32

And then they can't figure out why the they're not monetizing.

Speaker 2: 5:36

Right.

Speaker 3: 5:37

And so a lot of the clients that I've worked with have come to me to kind of figure out which path should I stick with for right now, and so when they write out a vision for me, I get them to write it out as if it's three years out, chris, so I get a little timeline. Let's imagine you're writing your journal, like I did, and it's three years from today. How old will you be? How old will your family members be? Because time and aging kind of gives us a vision.

Speaker 2: 6:02

Yeah, okay.

Speaker 3: 6:03

Especially if you have kids. Yeah, you can kind of see changes coming. Yeah, so when we get really clear on that target, it does help with getting very clear on what aligns with what you want and what doesn't, so that every day, when I get presented a lot of opportunities because I'm clear on my vision, who I serve and where I'm going, it's very easy for me to say no to the things that I should not be doing.

Speaker 2: 6:32

And so we in the beginning of the coaching.

Speaker 3: 6:33

We do a lot of clearing of the path, okay yeah, taking things off your plate that don't need to be there maybe not forever, but just right now. I see a lot of entrepreneurs do all the right things, but they're doing them in the wrong timeframe, the wrong order. I've seen a lot of entrepreneurs do all the right things, but they're doing them in the wrong time frame. Okay, yep, so it gets. It relieves a lot of stress.

Speaker 2: 6:49

Yeah, but being able to have that, that plan, that kind of path laid out. So you know like, okay, this seems great but it doesn't serve me right goals, or, when they're trying to clear this path, some things that they're doing that are not going to be as beneficial to that growth, with that vision casting.

Speaker 3: 7:12

Yeah, so I'll use this example, because this happens a lot. I end up coaching a lot of speakers and coaches just because that's my industry.

Speaker 2: 7:24

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 7:25

And a lot of people who want to be speakers figure okay, I got to get a book out. If I write the book, then I'll start getting asked to speak, and so they put a lot of time and effort into getting a book out. Where, really, what they don't understand is that the book's not really going to drive speeches for them. It's just going to be a calling card. Right? Is that? The book's not really going to drive speeches for them? It's just going to be a calling card, right, it's going to be a. It adds to your credibility, but it's not a moneymaker. So I have to get them to understand. Okay, yes, we will get to the book, but the first thing we have to work on is who do you?

Speaker 2: 8:00

serve and how do you serve them, so we can start?

Speaker 3: 8:01

making money right. They don't get upside down, which is very common for new entrepreneurs. Financially, they push a lot of money out and they're not bringing anything in.

Speaker 2: 8:10

Right.

Speaker 3: 8:10

Yeah, so the book is just one. You know one example, but it's pretty common.

Speaker 2: 8:16

Yeah, so with this vision casting you know a lot of people that I've seen is you know I want to make X amount of money per month. Is that a positive way to vision cast or is that kind of do you? Do you still go with a monetary amount or do you focus on other things to be more successful with it?

Speaker 3: 8:35

So when I get them to write out their vision, I get them to think of the seven areas of life, and they're all seven F's their faith, life, community, whatever that looks like for them family, friends, fitness and health. Uh fun, which entrepreneurs forget about? A? Lot Uh finances right Uh, their field, their career.

Speaker 2: 8:59

Okay.

Speaker 3: 9:00

Okay, so we look at the finances, because usually that's a big problem for a new entrepreneur that they don't have a target number. So when they write out the vision of their life for me, now we can start looking at okay, how are we financing that and how much is it going to take? Yeah, and it doesn't matter what the number is, chris, they could say to me you know what? We're happy just going camping all summer and cost nothing.

Speaker 2: 9:22

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 9:24

Or we want to take our family of 12 to an Airbnb for a month, yep. So I don't care what the number is, we just have to have a real number.

Speaker 3: 9:33

OK so a lot of times when I ask entrepreneurs and it's ninety, nine, point, nine percent of the time when I ask them what's your revenue goal for the year, they go well, I guess, right, it'd be nice to make six figures. I'm like, ok, well, that's nice, but that's not giving me a real number. I need to know what real number is that you need to make in this business. That's not getting funded from anything else, right? So, going back, I'll use I like to use my story a lot. So when I, when I started Arbonne, I was five months pregnant and I was still working full time. I wanted to quit my job and get my son out of daycare by the time that my daughter was born three months later.

Speaker 2: 10:16

Okay.

Speaker 3: 10:17

So I knew the number. Let's say it was $1,000 a month. It was all I knew, then, right?

Speaker 2: 10:21

Uh-huh.

Speaker 3: 10:21

Cover the bills I was paying for in the household, plus get money back from getting my son out of daycare. Right, right, so that was my target, chris. I had 90 days to get to the place where I was sustaining a thousand dollars a month. That was a very real number for me because it was attached to things I was paying for.

Speaker 1: 10:39

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 10:40

So when I have a new entrepreneur that I'm coaching, we we that, after we get the vision, we hone in on. All right, what's the one year revenue goal? And let's make it a real number.

Speaker 2: 10:49

Yeah, and I like that. So cause I remember when I first started and I think I still kind of get into this like big dream kind of which is nothing wrong, I have big dreams but I was like, yeah, I'm going to make a million a year, you know something. But like not breaking it down to like why? Like what is that a million dollars a year for? Or whatever your number is a thousand dollars a month, like your story starting out. That, I think, is. Is that the kind of the important piece? Instead of just throwing out a number, it's breaking it down and saying what, why, why that number? Yeah for sure Okay.

Speaker 3: 11:27

You know, I think we all get, social media has so much.

Speaker 2: 11:32

I know.

Speaker 3: 11:33

I can't scroll through Instagram and not see a post at least every five posts on make it seven figures. That's a big hobby, big achievement in our country, and it's a good thing. To ask is why is that so important to you? It's just because you feel like everybody else apparently is doing it. Is it something that you need to do? You want to fund a big charity with that, right? Do you want to make sure that you're you're building a nest egg for your kids or whatever? Or you just want to prove to yourself that you can? Right, whatever it is, it's got to be so big and so important to you, yeah, that it becomes like it's going to push you through all the days that you're going to want to quit. So the numbers is your number, right, but it's got to be a real number, so that then what you can do is take that number and now break it down into okay, what are my services, what am I charging for, what I do and how many people? This is all math. Business is all math.

Speaker 2: 12:32

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 12:33

How many of the ideal customers do I need to get in front of every month to convert to that number? Yeah, but it all starts with the vision first.

Speaker 2: 12:42

Yeah, and it's so simple. Right, it sounds so simple and I would say it is simple, but it's not easy to stick to it and because you see shiny objects, right, or you not easy to stick to it and because you see shiny objects right or you see you know other people on social media and you're like, okay, why am I not at that level yet?

Speaker 2: 13:00

there, they seem to be way ahead, but you don't really know the true story, right? Yeah, um, and and and so like. With that like thinking of like how often do we need to come back to this vision statement we've written, or these goals or dreams that we've written out?

Speaker 3: 13:11

sure, Sure. Well, I wish that I could say that life doesn't change, but it does, and things happen. I will tell you two things about vision One I'll share again. My story is. You know, the part of my vision that I wrote, let's say 15 years ago, as we started to see that our kids were going to go off to college and start their lives, was, you know, my husband and I were going to settle into our forever home. I wanted to retire him so that he could work alongside me, go out, travel with me while I speak, have him be a big part of that and have my son involved.

Speaker 2: 13:42

Right.

Speaker 3: 13:44

But I've lost both my husband and my son in the past 10 years, so that part of my vision of my lifestyle is shifted, but what I do has not, because a big part of my vision is my purpose and my legacy that I want to leave.

Speaker 2: 14:00

For sure.

Speaker 3: 14:00

So one of the things that I tell people, one of the things you're going to find when you write out your vision, is you're going to find that little hidden nugget that you've been looking for. Is what is your purpose?

Speaker 3: 14:10

that you've been looking for is what is your purpose and when you have these life adversities happen. You now understand. Now I know why I got set on this path. It's because now I have a bigger mission to fill Kristen just coaching entrepreneurs. Now what I'm working on is launching a community for young adults, because they're struggling. That's my biggest legacy right now.

Speaker 2: 14:34

Yeah, and thank you for sharing that and being being open. And it's not easy and I'm sorry to hear about that. For sure, you know people are trying to create this vision for their life but they don't know their purpose. Is it still? Is it still a good thing to write out some visions, even though you don't necessarily know your specific purpose?

Speaker 3: 14:57

Yeah, because it's going to be hidden in there.

Speaker 2: 14:59

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 15:00

Yeah, a lot of people when I asked them to write their vision and I've done this with thousands of people now um, at workshops, events, I actually get them to write, as if it's three years out, and all the things that they want to create.

Speaker 2: 15:14

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 15:15

A lot of them have a hard time with it because they don't know the how.

Speaker 2: 15:18

Sure.

Speaker 3: 15:19

So a lot of times and I will joke with them how many of you in here need somebody to hand you the blueprint before you think you need to write the vision? And of course, a lot of people raise their hand. Yeah, it's the opposite. You write the vision, the house shows up.

Speaker 2: 15:31

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 15:32

Like it did with me and Arbonne.

Speaker 2: 15:34

Yep.

Speaker 3: 15:35

Yeah, so it is important to keep revisiting it, and you will find your purpose hidden in there, because what you're going to be writing is all your heart's desires.

Speaker 2: 15:45

Okay, yeah, yeah, because I hear people talk about you need to write down your goals every day, maybe twice a day. Do you think you need to do it that much, or it's just kind of whatever cadence fits you best?

Speaker 3: 15:57

Yeah, I think there's two thoughts on that. The people who are manifestors will tell you, put it out there and then put it away, right?

Speaker 2: 16:10

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 16:10

You don't need to Do you? You know who gabby bernstein is, chris uh, yeah, yeah, yeah sounds like her and in the world she, she has a thing she calls manic manifesting. Okay, you just get to where, oh my god, I've got to get control now yeah, and I gotta write it again uh- huh she's saying is you know what? If it's real for you and it's written, you should be able to write it and let it go, and let God do the rest.

Speaker 2: 16:36

Right.

Speaker 3: 16:37

Right. I'm not a believer that if you just put a vision board up there and just stare at it all day long, it's going to happen. Right, but I am a big goal setter. Every day I look at okay, we all have the very long to-do list. I've picked three things that are the most important, things that align with my vision. That's going to keep the needle moving.

Speaker 2: 16:56

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 16:57

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:57

Yeah, I think that's, and it's kind of I'm kind of that way too, like as I've built LLA. It's like different levels, like the ultimate goals there that I have in life, but like the smaller ones of like, okay, this, this office, for example, um, that we just moved into, was a vision, like we need a space. How can we, how can we make this work where we're kind of expanding now? We need to have better internet, we need to come together as a team like how can we make that work? Right? And you know, I was looking at commercial space like renting, I was looking at, you know, building a brand new new building, like all this stuff, and it just kind of like things happen and led to this, this new office that we're in now, that I would have never necessarily thought of.

Speaker 2: 17:45

But again, kind of like you're saying, like I was like hey, you know I prayed about, like you know, god, god, like just how are we supposed to do this if this is what we're supposed to do, this at this next step, like you know, just let me not miss the miss, what I'm supposed to do, kind of thing, and uh, you know just little things that opened up along the way and it's kind of like that, like just working towards that goal, uh, knowing you'll figure it out, and just being open to those opportunities that could be that maybe weren't aren't what you're thinking of in the moment. Um, that would, that would show up and you can, could use for sure, like that's been a for this whole journey that I've been on is kind of how things have played out. Just I don't believe in coincidences at all, but like just crazy happenstances that you know have, just it's, it's just been crazy. Like I tell people I need to write a book about it just to show what God has done Cause that's a big part of me is faith and, um, just the doors he's open at the right time.

Speaker 2: 18:41

Like on the goals, like last year we were able to travel across the country and do video productions. And you know, one thing I started back into or prayed about in 2020, when I first quit my job at the beginning of 2020 was, you know, lord, I'd love to travel, like that'd be awesome to see different places. And, like last year, I kind of sat back for a second I said, wow, like that prayer was answered, like that was, that goal was accomplished. Like we're traveling now across the country. So now it's going to be international. That's the next, next kind of goal. But it's just crazy, you know, you just kind of throw it out there like that and then just work, take the action, right. Yeah, try to to try to make it happen and things will.

Speaker 2: 19:19

I think, things will happen for you.

Speaker 3: 19:21

Yeah, I'm glad we're talking about God, because I do read a devotional every morning and every morning, in one way or another's god going. Look, I've got the plan. I know what you want, because I know the desires of your heart. I need you to work with me, but I also need you to just rest a little bit and just be patient yeah, yeah my plan is better than your plan yes, I always get the visualization when we, when things like this are discussed.

Speaker 2: 19:50

It's a picture someone painted and it's this little girl who is standing there kind of crying in front of Jesus.

Speaker 2: 19:57

He's kneeling, so he took away this little teddy bear and he's got this really huge one behind her.

Speaker 2: 20:03

Just trust me, just trust me, something better is coming, kind of thing, and I just always picture that of like you know, he's got the best for us and, if we can, instead of just forcing and saying this is what I think or what I want, like just trusting in that and um and knowing, though, and we need to be taught lessons too, right, like as I'm a parent, um, as well, and it's like we want to teach our kids, and sometimes you have to have some discipline and, you know, kind of have that of teaching moment of like hey, you did that wrong.

Speaker 2: 20:33

That's not the right thing, but still coming back with you know, but I'd really love you and you know I want to do good things for you and give you things, even though you don't ask, or things that are gonna be good for you that you don't know, kind of like a bowl of ice cream, like as like just out of the blue that I didn't have to do anything for it. Just give them a little bit of ice cream or a little bit of you know a bite of chocolate or something that they can, that they're going to enjoy, just because I know, you know that they would. And so it's like stuff like that. I kind of like correlate, like God wants to do those good things for us, but we still have to also go through the lessons and learn to become better individuals.

Speaker 3: 21:06

Absolutely, it's just. Every day is a learning curve.

Speaker 2: 21:10

Yeah, yeah, I heard it New levels, new devils. Like new level, there's always something you got to overcome or go through or learn from.

Speaker 3: 21:20

So this again is why you need to have a really powerful vision, because I've said this many, many times, as an entrepreneur now, having built two businesses Right, people have repeatedly asked me, especially after losing my husband and my son to suicide, how do you keep going Like there were so many days, like I've said a couple of times, that I wanted to quit Arbonne. So bad Chris, I mean entire teams quitting on me in a month. You know all the personal growth I went through, all the rejection, my husband not being a fan. You know all of it and what kept me going every day was that my, my vision was bigger than whatever hurdle I was facing Right.

Speaker 3: 22:01

So, it's worth it.

Speaker 2: 22:03

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 22:04

And that's the thing is when I tell people, especially entrepreneurs, if you're drifting and you're not consistent, your vision's not big enough because you're allowing your emotions to get in the way. Yeah, and you can't. I mean I had to get in my office and just work. Yeah, they said I didn't want to because what I wanted for my family was bigger yeah, absolutely yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:27

so you know, if we were to wrap up this conversation there's been so much good insight, good, good direction what would you kind of leave people with, maybe like the top thing from this conversation that you would want them to hear out of everything else?

Speaker 3: 22:39

Yeah, I think the biggest thing is that so many people are afraid to write their vision because they can't see it with where they're at right now.

Speaker 2: 22:47

Okay, yeah.

Speaker 3: 22:47

They might be going through some really hard times or they might feel like they're not educated enough, they don't have enough resources. You know, it's all the, it's all the things. Yeah, people get in the way because of where they're at right now and I promise you that if you write this vision out and you dedicate yourself to working on it a little bit every day, the how will show up, it'll keep going and you will get there probably faster than you think.

Speaker 2: 23:14

Yeah, yeah. I love that. And and something that stuck out with to me during this conversation that I thought is really good for people to hear, especially if they're just starting writing out the vision look three years ahead.

Speaker 3: 23:25

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:26

You know, cause I hear all the time like five, 10, you know, look, and that's like so far. I think that's that's hard for a lot of people to fathom, like you said, because they're just where they are right now.

Speaker 2: 23:34

So I love the three year time frame because it's I feel like it's a little bit more it's right here yeah, it's a little bit more easy to take in and say, okay, yeah, that's, that is, that is doable, like I can kind of see the light on that one right, and you just keep doing that. I like that a lot. That stuck out to me. So you know, carrie, really appreciate you being on today sharing all this and and your story and things you've been through and things you've done. If you want to connect with you, learn from you, get your help, even where's the best way for them to do that, Well, I'm going to give you a link that you're going to post here, and it's a link to download.

Speaker 3: 24:11

My vision is victory.

Speaker 2: 24:12

What she's up to, you know, take a part of her or get a part of her courses, get all she's putting out there to learn how to you know vision cast, to have that victory through your vision. Uh, and just continue to succeed, because as we get better, as we improve, as we succeed, we're going to help more people. And so, carrie, this has again been a great conversation. Thanks so much for being on the Elevate Media Podcast.

Speaker 3: 24:57

Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2: 24:59

Absolutely, and if you're listening to this and you know someone who is just starting out or you're yourself trying to just cast that vision for your life, share it with that person. Make sure you go like and follow this show. It helps us get this to more ears and more eyes as we do that, because we can help so many more people together through sharing and liking the show. So we appreciate everyone out there doing that. But until next time, go out there, continue to elevate your life, elevate your brand, and we'll talk to you again soon.

Speaker 3: 25:28

Thank you.

Speaker 1: 25:30

Thank you for listening to the Elevate Media podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. See you in the next episode.