Raising the Bar with our 2021 Goals

/ Podcast Episodes / July 1, 2022

Episode 57

In this episode, we are going to talk about the goals that Ken and I set for 2021. From 15,000 to 30,000 emails? Why not 50,000? Buying an existing company or starting from scratch? We have set goals this year based on the lessons we have learned and the experiences we have gone through last year. We are sharing all these goals with you to remind us that 2021 is the year of Firing the Man. 

Let’s jump into the episode and raise the bar with our 2021 goals!

[00:01 – 03:44] Opening Segment

  • Why we’re raising the bar with our goals this 2021

[03:45 – 09:03] Swallow the Frog 

  • Ken’s first 2021 goal is to join a 7- or 8-figure Mastermind class
  • David aims to schedule time for his long-term initiatives 
    • 8 hours monthly to “swallow the frog”
  • Ken wants to attend 3 live conferences to learn more about these topics
  • What’s a “slam-dunk” product for David and why does he want to launch it?

[09:04 – 17:20] Buy then Build

  • Ken’s next goal is on transforming from a solopreneur into an entrepreneur
  • David’s next goal is building his audience and email list and growing his website traffic 
  • How many hours will David allocate for diversification off Amazon this 2021? 
  • Why it’s advisable to buy an existing company for David
  • Want some Amazon refunds? Check out Getida
    • Promo code: FTM400

[17:21 – 24:16] Fire the Man in 2021

  • 100% top-line growth across e-commerce brands
    • How will Ken achieve this goal?
  • David shares his financial goals you’d want to check out!
  • Ken wants to double the size of his email list
    • David nudges Ken to aim for more
  • David announces an important decision

[24:17 – 29:05] Be Comfortable with the Uncomfortable 

  • Ken will be going Shopping Mode! 
  • We talk about being comfortable with the uncomfortable 

[29:06 – 33:53] Closing Segment 

  • The importance of planning your activities ahead of time
  • The impact of the words, “Do not disturb”
  • Final words

Tweetable Quotes:

“What’s probably made the single most impact for me in 2020, along with my planning sheet, is putting my phone on ‘Do Not Disturb.’” – Ken Wilson 

“I think sharing your goals with somebody, at least one person, is incredibly valuable.” – David Schomer

Resources Mentioned:

Do you want to share your goals with us? Go to https://firingtheman.com/contact-us/ 

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David 0:00
And I think the reason that I have 1000 things to do is because I haven’t planned and I’m just constantly bouncing around going from one thing to the other. So, you know, we hear it all the time in masterminds and, and in our meetup is, I don’t feel like I have enough time. And you know, everyone has 24 hours in a day. And so, you know, that’s something that I’m going to be implementing as well.

Ken 0:22
Putting my phone on, do not disturb. And I, if you do that, you can add in your, in your favorites. So I have an iPhone, and I have a list of like seven or eight people that’s in my favorites, that the calls will go through that phone. So if there’s anybody you need to take calls from, put them in your favorites, otherwise, my phone stays on DND Do Not Disturb and my office on the desk on the charger. And

David 0:46
I think that one thing that’s held me back is discomfort. I’ve been waiting for discomfort to pass, there’s always something that is, you know, like, what about insurance? What about you know, my wife and I are talking about having another kid? Like, what if we want to move what, there’s always something. And what I’ve been doing is I’ve been saying all right, keep focusing on e commerce in your free time. And when that discomfort passes, then it’s time

Intro 1:15
Welcome, everyone, to the Firing The Man podcast, a show for anyone who wants to be their own boss. If you sit in a cubicle every day and know you were capable of more than join us, this show will help you build a business and grow your passive income streams in just a few short hours per day. And now your host serial entrepreneurs David Schomer and Ken Wilson.

David 1:40
Welcome everyone to the firing the man podcast on today’s episode, we set our 2021 goals. Now, if you’ve been following the podcast, you know that Ken and I set our goals in 2020. And this was the first time we had both set goals, documented them checked in mid year and then had an end of the year wrap up and I would say last year was one of my most successful years in business. Ken, what about you?

Ken 2:02
Yeah, same thing. You know, it was kind of, like we talked about it was the first year that I had set goals and put them put a pen to paper and shared them with you and the world, right? Or listeners, and that was that had a huge impact. You know, for sure, I

David 2:18
would say if the concept of goals was a stock, I would buy that stock. I mean, I’m a big fan of it. And so be sure to stay tuned for strategies that we’re using to not only set goals, but how to implement them and how to achieve them. So, Ken, what’s going on, man?

Ken 2:35
Hey, I am excited to be in the studio today. And, you know, it was it’s kind of huge, we’re setting our goal for 2021 we’re gonna we’re gonna put it out there. And we want the audience to hold us accountable. I’m going to hold you accountable, David, and I hope you’ll hold me accountable. And we’re gonna do the same thing we did last year, where on a quarterly basis, or, you know, semi annual, whatever we’re gonna come in, and we’re gonna say, Hey, this is where we’re at our progress on goals. And do we need to turn up the heat? Do we? Are we there yet? Or, you know, and just just share our progress. And that’s, that’s, I think it’s crucial to set them share the progress, hold yourself accountable. And we’ll see what the at the end of 2021 if we accomplish them all?

David 3:18
Yeah, I would say before we dive in these goals, we’re raising the bar significantly higher than where it was last year. And that’s exciting. It’s nerve wracking. It’s, you know, there’s a lot of emotions going into this. But Ken what, uh, what is your first goal for 2021?

Ken 3:35
Yeah, absolutely. So to add on what you said, these goals, I’ve set them to make me uncomfortable. Because if I’m, if I’m uncomfortable, I’m growing. So my first goal is to join a new seven and eight figure mastermind group. And one of the reasons I had this as a goal is I’ve been involved in few masterminds over the last couple of years. And they were really helpful to where I was in the journey. And they helped propel me forward. And they were they were huge. But, you know, a mastermind, the kind of, you know, didn’t last for a super long time, right? Because everybody in the mastermind, some people might drop out, some people might pivot going to something different, they just kind of fizzle out. So my last one, you know, we’ve kind of disbanded and everything and so this year, I’m going to commit to joining a new seven slash eight figure mastermind group that will help propel me into that direction of surrounding myself with with like minded people in the same space in the same direction where I’m going.

David 4:37
Definitely I really like that. I really like that. So my first goal is scheduled time on my calendar for certain long term initiatives. And when I was prepping this goal sheet, I went back and looked at my notebook, I carry a notebook around with me almost everywhere, and it’s kind of a working to do list. I have a tab for ideas, all kinds of stuff in there and last year in January I wrote, hire a full service social media manager that can run Facebook ads, Instagram ads, and create awesome content. And anytime I fill up a page, I cross things off. And then, you know, at some point I run out of room. So I start a new page, and I carry over anything that I didn’t do to the next page. And I carried that forward, four or five times. And as I sit here today, I have not hired that full service Social Media Manager. And so what I’m going to do on this one is an actually did it this morning, just out of disgust that I haven’t tackled this one is the first and third Thursday of every month, I’ve blocked off four hours in the morning, and I titled it swallow the frog. And Mark Twain has his quote, If you swallow the frog, or swallow a frog, the first thing in the morning, everything in your day after that is going to be better. And so I’m going to schedule in eight hours a month to swallowing the frog. And that just means tackling the stuff that I am putting off, and everyone has that stuff. But the reason that you’re putting it off is because you’re not dedicating time to it. And so that is what I’m going to do with this one.

Ken 6:09
Nice. I like the frog. My next one on the list is going to attend at least three live conferences. And and my goal last year was to do this, which I didn’t accomplish it because the pandemic but I was this year, I want to swap it up a little bit. And I want to go to one e commerce conference. I want to go to one advertising conference. And I want to go to one SEO conference to kind of just kind of round out what Um, well, all of the knowledge that I’m absorbing is not just like single threaded, I want to kind of learn and I really enjoy SEO. And I think SEO is, you know, something that I something that I really like and want to spend more time on advertising. It’s always good to learn how to market and advertise. So yeah, just kind of have three conferences on different topics, live conferences, where I can actually say hi to people and have dinner with them and, you know, meet new people. And yeah, I’m ready for that in 2021.

David 7:09
Very nice, very nice. Now my next goal for 2021 is to launch one slam dunk product. And what does that mean? I’m talking about that product that you order. And from the moment that you place that order, you might check the tracking information on it two or three times, and you are excited for to show up on your doorstep. And I’m going to give an example of a slam dunk product. There’s a company called Sitka, and they make hunting gear, and I ordered this jacket. It’s just a beautiful product. They thought of everything. And you think how can you be innovative on a jacket, we’ll check out a Sitka jacket. And that’s it. They’ve got an excellent example of it. But you know, they it had hand warmers it had a hood, it had a neck Gator. And I was so excited when I got it, I just put it on. Now sitting in my office is 70 degrees outside this winter coat on, I was so excited for it. And so that’s what I mean by slam dunk product in you know, that means beautiful manufacturing, really nice packaging, a seamless design and integration into your life. And something that people really get excited about, you know, I would say one, if I were to characterize my business, I would say I have a series of base hits. And that is that works well for me and it’s profitable. But I don’t think that when someone you know, no one ever like when they receive my products, it doesn’t make their week, they’re not checking the UPS tracking number multiple times a day to see if when they get home from work, if it’s gonna be there, if they’re going to enjoy that product. And, you know, I think everybody has that, you know, if you think of like, you know, the last 50 things that you ordered online, like, I don’t know, Ken, what was the last like product that you were just totally jazzed? About about getting?

Ken 8:45
You know, is probably massage chair. Oh, yeah, exactly. You know, yeah. Just that like just that Prime product that you order. And you’re just kind of waiting for it. Yeah,

David 8:55
yeah. So that’s, that’s my goal, I still need to think of what that slam dunk product is going to be. But that is definitely a goal for 2021.

Ken 9:03
Nice.

David 9:03
What about you can what’s your next one?

Ken 9:05
Yeah, so I like that goal. And just to kind of, I’m actually going to talk to the audience a little bit on this one. So as you were describing that, I may be the audience agrees with me, but I would like to see a picture of David and his Sitka jacket and and his office done on social media channels. Okay, my next goal. So I want to build my team, with a with a focus on removing tasks from my plate with an emphasis on who’s going to do this not how am I going to do this. So last year, my goal was to double the size of my team. And as the year went on, I realized like that’s just not needed. I need to start like kind of sharpening that a little bit. And so this year is going to be I will expand my team, but only with a focus on removing tasks from my plate, or expansion that’s profitable. And with an emphasis on who’s going to do that, not How am I going to do that?

David 10:01
Definitely. I really liked that. And I think that that is, you know, that is a pivot that you’re making in terms of going from a solopreneur to an entrepreneur. And I can say personally, that has been something that has been tough for me is to get things off my plate in, in finding the right people. You know, I just commented at the beginning of the episode, I’ve been, I shouldn’t say I’ve been in search, because if I would have searched for a year, I would have found them but a Social Media Manager like I need to spend more time finding the right people. And as Robert Kiyosaki says that leveraging op t, which stands for other people’s time, your time is not scalable. So I think that’s a really good goal for next year.

Ken 10:40
Yeah, David. So what’s your next goal?

David 10:42
So it is a focus on building an audience. You know, this year, we did a book review of Ryan, Daniel Moran 12 months to a million. And he talks about building an audience first, before launching a product. And not only have I not done that I am four years into it. And I would say that I don’t necessarily have that robust of an audience. You know, there are certain people that like my products, and they come back for more, but I’m talking about like raving fans, people that really like it that talk to their friends about it. You know, one brand that comes to mind is bird dog shorts, I’ve talked to you know, I’ve probably told three or four people, they’re the most comfortable shorts I’ve ever owned. And no, we’re not sponsored by them. bird dogs, if you’re listening, reach out to me, because I would, I love to be sponsored by you, you guys have an awesome product, but you know, raving fans. And so that’s like, piece number one of building an audience, also an email list, can I watched you go from virtually zero to 15,000 last year on your email list, and have seen how that’s paid dividends in your business. And that is something that I want to step up my game on this year. And it’s not going to happen overnight. But I need to make a concerted effort to start growing that email list. And you know, the third piece of this building an audience is website traffic. And you know, the number that I have on my sheet is 5000 visitors per month. Right now, it’s about 20. I am 99.8% of my sales come from Amazon, I think it’s just mostly my family that comes to my website. And so I you know, I want you know, in terms of building an audience, I want that audience to come to my website.

Ken 12:17
Excellent. You know, I really liked that that goal of yours, David. And it’s definitely possible. And it’s, you know, you mentioned earlier a pivot, I think this is kind of a pivot on, you know, getting more sales through through your own channel that you own. So I really liked that goal, I’m rooting for you on that one. My next goal is a similar to what I had last year, I’m just, I’m leveling it up. So last year, I had to allocate two hours per week on diversification off of Amazon. And this year, His goal is I’m going to allocate five hours per week on diversification off of Amazon. Now, just to kind of rewind a little bit, my So David, your, your business is my business. We’re with the Amazon native, unbelievable, is how you call it right, all of our sales come off of Amazon. And since the you know, in the last 24 months or so it’s okay, we’re starting to diversify. And lots of reasons why to diversify, mitigate risk you, you know, you get new customers from new sales channels, lots of benefits. So I want to ramp that up, I finished last year, at just at 10% of sales off of Amazon. So my popma the piece of the pie now is 90%, Amazon, and 10% of the revenues coming from other sales channels, my website, Etsy, you know, other sales channels. So I want to continue to grow that and, and scale the, you know, non Amazon sales. And the only way to do that is to focus more time on that. So I’m gonna focus five hours per week on that diversification off of Amazon.

David 13:52
Definitely. And, you know, one thing that you said is this is, you know, kind of rolling forward goal from last year. And one thing that I would say about that is, you know, in 2020, this was your goal, and it worked. And so why not continue on with this initiative? I think, you know, when I was coming up with my list, I thought to myself, I want all new goals. Right. But I don’t think that that’s really the best approach. I think you should look back at, hey, what have been some previous goals? Did they work? And if they worked, you should do more of that. Right. And so, you know, you’ve mentioned like, you know, six figures on Etsy, that was part of your 2020 goals. And now you’re crushing it on Etsy. And so that’s awesome. That’s awesome. And I would say that that’s been a positive ROI activity for you up until now, and should be in 2021.

Ken 14:41
Yeah, absolutely. David, what’s your next goal?

David 14:43
So it is make one acquisition or do a deep dive on 20 companies in the shopping phase. So we did a book review on Walker dipoles by then build and when you know, if you haven’t listened to that episode, definitely check it out. That book changed the way that I think about starting a company versus buying an existing company, then we had the honor and privilege of having Walker on our show as a guest. And he has just an absolute wealth of information. And, and he talks about that, you know, 90% of startups fail. And so when you buy an existing company with an existing track record, you are already in that top 10%. Right, there have already been if 10 companies start your buying the one that survived, and has a good chance of, you know, maintaining that longevity. And so the reason that I say, make one acquisition, or do a deep dive is in, you know, can I think you may think I’m a robot, but say I have got to make a decision to invest $50,000 into, you know, a down payment on a new company, or taking that $50,000 and investing it into new products into my own company, my guiding decision is going to be return on investment. And if I have a, you know, 20% ROI in my own business, and I’m in the shopping phase, and I can only find companies where I think, you know, ROI, maybe 10 to 15%. I’m a moron if I don’t reinvest in my own company. So I don’t want to make this a clear, like, I want to make an acquisition just for the sake of making an acquisition. But if I don’t, I want to have a good reason why. And I think you know, taking a deep dive on 20 companies in the shopping phase is going to be, you know, a good alternative here. Sorry to interrupt the episode, you may have heard Ken and I talking recently about a new tool that we’re using for Amazon refunds. Now I have used other refund tools like this. However, I can tell you in the first seven days, they scrubbed it, the back end of my Amazon account going back 18 months, and found $5,000 of refunds. And the nice thing about this is, it’s my money, Amazon made a mistake, and they are just auditing my account. The other thing I really like about this tool is there is no monthly fee, they only charge a commission if they are successful in getting you your money. Go to www.getida.com and enter promo code FTM for firing the man FTM 400. This is an awesome tool. I can’t say enough good things about it. Now back to the episode. Ken, what’s your next one?

Ken 14:43
Yeah, so David, I like that goal of yours. And betting on e commerce is probably a good investment, I might have a similar goal down my list. But my next one is I want to it’s it’s similar to what I had last year. And I think it’s gonna get harder and harder as the years go on. But but my goal is to grow top line revenue across both e commerce brands by 100%. With a caveat of a huge focus on on driving gross profits and decreasing expenses. So kind of all three of those. So I want to double the top line revenue, focus a lot on gross profits, and decreasing expenses. So all three of those kind of go hand in hand. And I didn’t put any, any percentages on gross profits or expenses, because I think there’s a lot of room, you know, my my companies are, you know, in that three year old period, and I think there’s a lot of room for a lot of stuff. But yeah, 100% top line growth across e commerce brands with a huge focus on driving gross profits and decreasing expenses.

David 18:28
Definitely, definitely. So going along with that some of my financial goals. So obviously, we talked a lot about top line growth, but within like a subcategory of financial goals is a trim the fat on unprofitable products. And this has been a mental hurdle that I’ve just started to get over, in that I will launch a product, I’m very optimistic about it. And then things just don’t pan out. It just doesn’t take off like I think, and but I hold on to it. And the reason for that is generally I’ll have 500 bucks wrapped up in product photography of another 300 bucks wrapped up in a video all at 300 bucks wrapped up into listing optimization. And so it’s like, Alright, I’ve invested in this. And I just want to, you know, I just want it to work. And you know, we’ve talked about the 8020 rule, and that 20% of your products are generally going to provide 80% of your profits. And so what I’m doing is I’m looking at all of my skews on a profitability basis. And anything that has been unprofitable, or right at breakeven for two years or longer. I’m getting rid of it. I’m going to sell out, and I’m going to move on. And yes, I’m going to take a loss on those product photos. But I want to focus on what’s profitable. And you know, I’m not, I’m not running this e commerce business for my health. And so if something’s been at breakeven for two years, unless there’s a dramatic change, it’s probably going to be, you know, breakeven for the next two years, the next four years. And so it’s hard for me to just Mentally say, hey, you thought the market was gonna like this, you’re wrong, and it’s time to move on. And but I’m doing it this year. And so that’s going to be to the tune of about about 40 products. And that is going to be challenging for me mentally. But I know it’s the right thing to do. And, you know, the first step forward is knowing how profitable each each product line is. And, you know, using that as my guiding light.

Ken 20:26
Yeah, I like that goal a lot. And it’s not something that that I look at deep enough, you know, David, you know, your CPA, and you have a deep understanding of analytics and debt and diving really deep into that kind of stuff. And I’m excited that you have that goal, I’m going to follow it and, and hopefully learn from you on that. My next goal is ties into one from last year as well. So right now I have an email list of 15,000 for one of my brands, and I want to grow that email list to 30,000. It’s not a number game. So the 15,000 people that I have on my email list are curated, like they’ve, they’ve been through probably 20 emails at this point, a sequence and, and they want to, they have not unsubscribed and they want my products. So these are not just just random emails, these are curated emails, and I want to double that to 30,000 curated emails, people that are responding opening emails, and then my other brands that I want to start an email list and grow it to 5000.

David 21:28
So Can Can I, you know, I feel like we have the type of relationship where we can gently nudge each other. And I this is your goal. But But here’s what I’m going to say is I watched you go from zero to 15,000. Last year. And I would really like to push you to go to 50,000. And that’s a stretch goal. That’s a stretch goal. But I would say I feel like you’re capable of it. What do you think?

Ken 21:53
You know what? I don’t know about the audience. But I hear that as a challenge. So if you’re watching on YouTube, I just changed that goal on my list of 50,000. And you’re on David, I’m gonna take it to 50,000

David 22:06
Cool, cool. Hey, that’s, uh, that’s what we’re here. We’re here to push each other. And I know you can do it, I watched you go from zero to 15,000. And I think you can go 50,000 next year. So Alright, so my last goal for the year. And if you tuned in two weeks ago, we recapped our 2020 goals. And, you know, I shared on that episode that one of my 2020 goals was to fire the man was to quit my full time job and do e commerce full time. And I was too nervous to say that, you know, on our goals episode, and so I just kind of skipped over it. And at the end of 2020, I was still employed at my job and my full time job. And this year is different. I am putting this out to the firing demand nation. I am putting this out to the universe, that I want to fire the man in 2021. And I want Ken, I want you to hold me accountable to this. Fans, I want you to hold me accountable to this. I think that one thing that’s held me back is discomfort. I’ve been waiting for discomfort to pass. There’s always something that is you know, like, what about insurance? What about you know, my wife and I are talking about having another kid? Like, what if we want to move what, there’s always something. And what I’ve been doing is I’ve been saying Alright, keep focusing on e commerce in your free time. And when that discomfort passes, then it’s time and I don’t think I’m ever going to reach that goal, I think there’s always going to be a level of risk in leaving your full time job. And that’s something that I’m going to need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable here. And so I’ve got a plan in place. And I think I can do it. I think I can do it in 2021. And stay tuned for that, you know, I felt a little bit like a hypocrite being on a podcast called firing the man. But I’m bringing everyone along on the journey. And Ken, it was awesome to see you crush this goal last year in six months. And it’s taken me a longer time to get there. But I do want people to know that this is a goal for me. And I’m uncomfortable, but I don’t think that’s going to pass. But I want you all to hold me accountable to it.

Ken 24:17
Yeah, David, I’m super excited for that’s probably my favorite goal on on all of this. You know, cuz that’s kind of why we’re, we’re doing what we’re doing. And sharing our journeys with with the audience. I think that’s huge. You know, we we’ve learned from other people, and we’re sharing this and and for you to be vulnerable and share that. Yeah, that that goes awesome. And the timeline, you know, is different for everyone. Everybody, you know, nobody has a cookie cutter. You know, your life is different than my life and it’s different than the audience’s life. So everybody has their own path. And I’m rooting for you. And I believe your path to firing the man is in 2021 and I’m really excited for that. So that’s my that’s my favorite goal. So I have one last goal in here. And it is, I have two. Okay, one of them is similar to the one you had earlier, David, it’s make an acquisition of another, I wouldn’t say just, I wouldn’t say e commerce company, I would say, online company in that space, could be SAS company, could be a niche website could be an e commerce company, but make an acquisition of another company or be on the cusp of that in a shopping mode in 2021. That’s a goal. And stay tuned. Could be more on that later. But, uh, you know, just stay tuned for that one. So, my final goal is, and it really aligns with my fourth goal of 100%, top line growth across e commerce brands, I want to add two new marketplaces in addition to ones the ones I have, and now this could be Walmart, this could be other Amazon international marketplaces, Canada, UK, Australia, lots of things floating around, I want to add two of them to the business.

David 26:01
I want to dive into your goal about making an acquisition and was and I’m just gonna take a wild guess here. Was it Walker Diebel that planted that seed?

Ken 26:11
Yeah, absolutely.

David 26:12
I mean, he planted that seed deep. I just like, once you read by them build or you listen to that podcast, it almost seems irrational, to like, or, like, statistically improbable, to start from scratch. And like, in you know, that’s been a lot of our journey. But, but mean, audience, at the very least, check out those episodes, because it just the way Walker talks about making an acquisition and how everyone thinks to themselves, I don’t have enough money to make an acquisition, when he talks about the ways that you can do it, it seems to put things into reach. And so he absolutely planted that seed for me. I was wondering if that was Same thing for you.

Ken 26:53
Yeah, absolutely. There’s something that I, you know, I follow a couple of other podcasts. And, you know, I’ll give a shout out to quiet light. You know, and, and it’s been on my radar for a while. But yeah, after reading by them build, I was like, I need to it’s another one of those things where we challenge ourselves to be uncomfortable. You know, that’s something where right now, today, I don’t know where I’m going to get the cash to buy another company. I don’t know how I’m going to get the free time. I don’t know any of those things. But I’m going to challenge myself. I’m uncomfortable. I’m gonna force myself to do that. Because I know that that is what needs to happen next for me, you know,

David 27:31
so yeah, definitely, definitely. So to wrap up the episode, you know, when I look back at 2020, in terms of like, checking off our goals, and actually accomplishing them, I think we did a really good job. And not only did we set those goals, but we put a plan in place to achieve them. So what were some things that helped you in achieving those goals?

Ken 27:52
Yeah, one thing I added, I added in 2020. And my my business coach kind of kind of helped out and shared some of this. But every week, I create a plan. And I kind of have it segmented on the projects that I’m working on. And there’s lots of ways to dice it up, I do it I segment mine by the projects that I’m working. And then I list all of the tasks or projects within that project that I’m working priority, and then I assign time to it, how long is that going to take, and then who’s going to do it, whether it’s me or someone on my team. And so every project that I’m working, has that sheet, and I update that every week. And then I I, you know, I as I go through as I’m, you know, through the week, as I’m working on stuff, I cross it off and, and then at the end of the week, you know what I didn’t get finished on there, because it gets translated to the next week. And it’s just kind of this living document that I have in front of me that it it’s a way for me to get all this stuff out of my head onto paper. And when I have a block of time, then I go to that and I work or you know, it’s like, Hey, I’m done doing this. Let me let me let me go to this list. What’s next in the priority? Boom, it’s there. It’s just this, this kind of this, this guiding light for me?

David 29:05
Yeah, definitely, you know, it’s from what I’m hearing from you, you are, you’re being proactive about managing your time as opposed to reactive. And that’s something that I think I need to do a little bit better job of is, you know, I can go into my office and work nine hours a day. And sometimes I just am putting out fires and bouncing from one thing to the other. But you know, blocking off time for stuff that you know you need to do, and you know is going to make a difference in your business or your life. And then holding yourself accountable to that. Like there’s always going to be emails to reply to there’s always going to be you know, there’s a lot of small tasks, but you know, that’s one thing that I like what you’re doing and going to emulate is that you’re being very proactive about which tasks are going to get attention. When are they going to get done, who is going to do them. And you know, that is something that I think oftentimes when I go into my office and sit down to work I think I’ve got 1000 things to do. I don’t have time to plan. And I think the reason that I have 1000 things to do is because I haven’t planned and I’m just constantly bouncing around going from one thing to the other. So, you know, we hear it all the time in masterminds and in our meetup is, I don’t feel like I have enough time. And you know, everyone has 24 hours in a day. And so, you know, that’s something that I’m going to be implementing as well. And I think there’s a common theme here is like, have a schedule and use it.

Ken 30:29
Yeah, one other thing too, that, on this front of things that were helpful for me to accomplish those goals, I got a, I installed a ring doorbell, I think it was like around April or May. And that ring doorbell anytime the UPS guy, or anytime somebody would drive down the road, my phone would like vibrates, it would go off off. And, and it and it took me until then to realize how much my concentration was being lost to text messages, phone calls, ring, doorbell notifications, whatever, right, I have all of these things. So what’s probably made the single most impact for me and 2020 is along with my planning sheet is putting my phone on, do not disturb. And I if you do that, you can add in your in your favorites. So I have an iPhone, and I have a list of like seven or eight people that’s in my favorites, that the calls will go through that phone. So if there’s anybody you need to take calls from put them in your favorites, otherwise, my phone stays on DND Do Not Disturb and my office on the desk on the charger. And I it’s it seems like it’s like deep that deep thought that concentration that you need to really drill in on an on a project and focus on it. Like if you have a device that’s bouncing off the table every seven seconds, you’re never going to have that deep thought. So that’s been that’s been crucial for me. Definitely, definitely,

David 31:57
I would say if anyone heard d&d, and thought Dungeons and Dragons, and you probably need to use Do Not Disturb more on your on your phone. So So I’d say to wrap up this episode, as I mentioned, I think sharing your goals with somebody, at least one person is incredibly valuable. And maybe you the audience, don’t feel comfortable telling a spouse or a parent, but tell somebody and if I can or I can be that resource, go to firing domain.com slash contact and click on the microphone and tell us your goals for 2021. And there is just something about saying it out loud to somebody else. That is very helpful. And if you leave us that voice message, we’ll check in with you at the end of the year and hold you accountable to your goals. So thanks everyone for tuning in. And this time of year, start setting your 2021 goals. And don’t be one of those people that flakes out. You know come February 1, you can do it. We believe in you.

Thank you everyone for tuning in to today’s Firing The Man Podcast. If you like this episode, head on over to www.firingtheman.com And check out our resource library for exclusive firing demand discounts on popular e commerce subscription services that is www.firingtheman.com/resource. You can also find a comprehensive library of over 50 books books that Ken and I have read in the last few years that have made a meaningful impact on our business, or that head on over to www.firingtheman.com/library. Lastly, check us out on social media at Firing The Man on YouTube at Firing The Man for exclusive content. This is David Schomer and Ken Wilson. We’re out

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