Let's talk about an extremely common problem that people have - aligning goals with a target Audience. So many people start a business, but come to find that either they or their Audience aren’t getting what they want out of it. And if these two things are out of harmony, there’s little doubt that your business will fail. 

 To start, let me quote one of my favorite Visionaries of all time, Pablo Picasso: 

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan in which we must fervently believe and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” 

But to put it in simpler terms, you need to make a goal and work your ass off to achieve it.  

Why is it so important to set goals? 

Big Visions take a lot of work. And if you don’t break that work down into bite-sized mini goals, you’re going to become overwhelmed.  And if you become overwhelmed, you will eventually give up.  

In addition, you need to be excited about your clients.  Imagine being a business owner who doesn’t like their own clients—that must be a truly miserable way to work. This is why it is essential that you determine who you want your Audience and client base to be in the planning stages of your business.  

Finally - and this is very important - your Audience is not going to be excited unless you engage their Emotions. This is why it is so important to determine what your Audience’s goals are.  As soon as you don’t know the answer to this question you are headed down a dark path.  

How do you align your goals with those of your Audience? 

Step 1: Define your own goals 

Grab a pen and paper and define your goals—it’s really as simple as that. If you don’t know what they are it will be easy to wander off course, wasting both your time and money.  

Step 2: Define the goals of your target market 

Let’s start with an example. Imagine you are a dog trainer. Your Audience has the goal of having their dog trained. But that’s already obvious. If you want to succeed, you need to go so much deeper than that. You need to know what is driving them from an internal standpoint. This is called psychographics and we’ll talk about it more in an upcoming post.

It’s basically the idea of understanding your Audience’s dreams. What do they really want? What are their hopes, dreams, and aspirations?   Once you know both your goals and the goals of your Audience you can merge them together and making something amazing that you can call your Brand.  

How do you actually set your goals?  

Think about the specifics

Imagine your goal is “to make a million dollars”. That’s great, but it’s vague. Everyone wants to make a million dollars. But because this goal isn’t specific, they never accomplish it.

Ask yourself, why do you need a million dollars? Do you need it for your dream car? Your dream home? Add up everything that you desire and divide it by 12. Let’s say it all adds up to $88, 000 per month. That means you need $88, 000 per month to create your dream lifestyle.   $88,000 per month is a lot more specific and tangible than, “I want to make a million dollars”.  If you’re not specific, your brain isn’t going to grasp onto it.  

Make your goals measurable 

Your goals will only work if you quantify them. It’s not enough to say “I want to lose weight”. You need to say “I want to lose 12 pounds in 17 days”. And if possible, you then want to break it down even further. If you want to lose 12 pounds in 17 days, divide 12 by 17. That’s .7 pounds per day. Now you can say that in order to reach your goal you need to lose .7 pounds per day. That way you can actually measure your goal!   

Be realistic 

Let’s say you make a goal of losing 8 pounds per day. That’s unrealistic. And if you can’t achieve your goals, you will eventually give up. So always make sure your goals are very realistic. Otherwise, you’re just setting yourself up for failure.  

Create deadlines 

“I want to make a million dollars” is different than “I want to make a million dollars in 45 days”. 45 days is a much more specific deadline. And deadlines force your brain to take action.  

Here’s another quick tip: you really have to understand yourself. A body builder may be able to take on the goal of adding 20 pounds of muscle a month, but is that a realistic goal for you? You need to make sure your goals are realistic and achievable to you. Don’t bother comparing yourself to other people. Just think about what you are personally capable of accomplishing. Having said that, don’t limit yourself. Just because you have never made a million dollars doesn’t mean it isn’t possible.  

Questions you need to ask yourself 

We’re going to break down the different goals you might have into quadrants: wealth, health, spirituality, and social life. When I say spirituality, I mean being in touch with yourself—not necessarily any particular religion, but whatever’s important to you. Spirituality can include whichever religion you like, or just being in touch with your mind, your body, or nature—things outside of yourself.

Wealth 

What are your goals when it comes to wealth? Do you want to make a million dollars? If so, how much money do you need to make each day? Why do you need to make that money? Be extremely specific about why you need to make that money and how you are going to measure it.  

Health 

What are your health goals? Do you want to reach 152 pounds? Do you want to run a marathon?  Whatever your goals are, define what they look like for you. And again, how are you going to measure it? It’s not enough to say, “I want to feel great everyday” because you can’t measure that. See where we're going with this? 

Spiritual well-being 

What are your goals when it comes to spiritual well-being? Do you want to do yoga every morning? Meditate every night? Define your goal and how you will measure it. Create a big pin board where you will write which goals you want to achieve. Then look at your board every morning. It will help to keep you motivated.  

Social 

What are your goals when it comes to your social and family life? Do you want to spend more time with your parents, your siblings, your children or your friends? How are you going to measure your goals?  

By now, you should be seeing a pattern here.

Now let’s flip it and make it about your Audience.

• What are their wealth goals?
• How are they measured?
• What are their health goals?
• Their spiritual goals?
• Their social and family goals?

You may not have the answer to all of these things, because you simply are not your Audience—but that doesn’t mean you can’t make an educated guess.  

Here’s a fun fact: most Visionaries are just like their Audiences. So whatever your goals are, and whatever kind of person you are, is going to be reflected in your Audience.

They will look at you and see you living the ideal lifestyle that they want to live. By the way, if you didn’t know— all Brands promise a lifestyle.

You need to be the leader and show people that you have accomplished that lifestyle through the use of your products, services, or insights.  

Once you figure out what the goals are, you can again break them down into milestones.  

 Holding yourself accountable 

Setting goals is one thing, but holding yourself accountable for them is something completely different. The reality is that life gets in the way. So if we don’t have a mentor or coach holding us accountable, we’re not going to get through it.

Let’s use college for an example. If there weren’t teachers holding you accountable, would you have finished? Probably not. Why? Because there’s a lot more fun things to do in college than homework! 

P.S. If you need somewhere to develop accountability for your actions, check out the Visionary Planner Group.

Reward yourself 

So you have this big Vision. Let’s say you want to grow your business and it will take it about 2 years to do. But if you go along your path without any breaks, rewards, vacations, or praise, what are the odds you’re going to stick to it? Pretty much zero. That’s why it’s so important that you engineer little breaks. 

No Brown Days  

There is a really great system that we love to use. It’s called No Brown Days. The point is that each day of the week is classified by a colour.  So let’s say Mondays are “Blue Sky Mondays” and Tuesdays are “Red Tape Tuesdays”. Maybe Thursdays are “Green Machine Thursdays” - that will be the day where your actually doing money making activities. And Friday to Sunday might be Mellow Yellow where you have time to sit back and relax. This is extremely efficient.   But now let’s say you use multiple colours each day. For example, on Mondays have you have 2 hours of Red Tape, 1 hour of Mellow Yellow, 3 hours of Blue Sky, and 2 hours of Green Machine. When you mix all of the colours together, you get brown—and brown is the color of you-know-what. If you don’t give yourself rewards on your Mellow Yellow days, you’re going to lose your motivation.  

The moral of the story 

First you need to figure out what your goals are, and then you need to apply that to your Audience. So if you want to live in Hawaii and make a million dollars, than chances are your Audience also wants that. But you need to look into the hearts and minds of your Audience and say, is that really correct? If not, you need to adjust it. And this might mean that you need to find a completely different Audience or that you will need an entirely new business model.

Because I will tell you right now, if you are not getting what you need out of your Brand, you’re not going to stick to it, and you will never help your Audience. 

So—essentially—you have to find what you need first, and extrapolate what your Audience needs from that. It’s only then that you can bridge the gap and make sure both goals are being fulfilled.

And when you create a business that accomplishes both your goals and the goals of your Audience, you create a passive income, authority, and a legacy. 

If you want to do this right, and you follow the systems that we’re training you with in the Visionary Planner, I promise you will get all of these things and more.  

Did you know that 95% of businesses fail within the first 5 years because they don’t have a clear plan?  We don’t want this to be you. 

For our next blog, we’ll be talking all about Brand Emotions. This is where you instill your Brand with an emotion and seek to control how your Brand makes people feel. So be sure to check it out!