The Key to Making Meaningful Progress in Your Business

Do you ever feel like you’re making progress…but not the meaningful kind?
Do you ever find yourself writing down business goals… but then having a hard time reaching them?

Do you ever feel like you’re just… not making the impact you thought you would? On yourself OR your business?

Does all of this just make you feel like you’re… not enough?!

Well here’s the thing, mi amiga — too many of us are basing our “enough-ness” on goals that sound good, but don’t really MEAN anything to us. And when we do that, we can’t create meaningful progress at all. 

This reminds me of last December, when I started a VIP Day by asking one of my clients what she most wanted to create, accomplish, and change in her business over the next 12 months. She told me that she wanted to earn $500K — and she was sure that that $500K number meant that she wouldn’t have to skip paying herself on low months to make payroll for her team; it would mean being able to have enough for a deposit on a house of her own and get to experience the freedom and mental health of getting out of her parent’s house, and it would mean health insurance and raises for her team.

Sooooo…. I made part of her pre-work for her VIP Day running the numbers on all these things she wants — paying herself well, the deposit for the house she wants, and health insurance and bonuses for her team. Turns out, she could have EVERYTHING SHE WANTED for $400k. That makes a huge difference. Right?

$100,000 of a difference.

She could’ve been hustling to double her annual revenue, slaving away, beating herself up or feeling anxious whenever she missed her monthly goals… all for a meaningless goal of $500k because it sounded nice.

So many of us do the same to ourselves.

So, here’s the question you’re probably wondering: “KB, this is all good and well, but how do I make MEANINGFUL PROGRESS IN MY BUSINESS?!”

It all starts here.

Step 0: What’s your decade-worthy vision? 

When I start working with any prospective or current client, I start, always, by helping them to clarify what they really want — and what this means for you is this: what is your big, juicy, meaningful, decade-worthy vision? 

What ambition would excite you and what dream would pull you enough to spend the next 10-20 years working towards it?

Need an example? Here’s mine: for me, my decade-worthy vision is to become the best business coach around for women leaders and female small business owners. For me, the best version of myself is making sure I support as many women as possible in realizing their dreams and visions of Wealth and Wellbeing — because when women have more money, everybody wins.

And that’s a fact.

So, hermosa, what’s yours?

Need help finding your decade-worthy vision? Try this visualization exercise:

Relax, find yourself in a seated position, feet flat on the floor, hands on top of your thighs. Close your eyes, begin to breathe deeply — in, and out. In, and out — and start counting down from 10 to 1, feeling your muscles relax, become loose and heavy, free of tension. Now, feel deeply in your heart and start breathing into your natural state of unconditional love. Expand it, outwards, beyond your body, filling every corner of the room you’re in. And surrender over any ideas of what you “SHOULD”  do or become to this loving, divine intelligence and trust you are being gently guided to a vision that is in your highest and best interest.

Now, ask your highest self --- that wiser, calmer, gentle part of you that knows all is working out for you:

“What is my highest vision for my life’s work?”

“What is seeking to emerge through my business and me in the next 10 years?”

“What must I become in order to manifest this? What qualities must I cultivate?”

Listen without censoring your thoughts, and without judging yourself. And then ask yourself this:

“What must I release in order to manifest this vision?”

“What talents, gifts, and skills do I already possess that will serve this vision?”

And, no matter how completely or incompletely this vision came through, say this:

“Yes. I surrender to this highest vision for my life and work. I know that I am fully guided, supported, and loved bringing it to life. I know that more clarity and help is on its way to me, right here. Right now. I celebrate my readiness for this.”

Step 1: Use that decade-worthy vision to craft meaningful goals.

See, if Step 0 is a meaningful vision, Step 1 is to make sure you have meaningful, clear goals BEFORE you start chasing after them.

Once you have that decade-worthy vision, and you feel it deep in your bones, start crafting a list of goals with THAT vision in mind.

Wondering how to know if your goals are meaningful enough?

👉 Are your goals specific? What’s the look of completed success / How will you know when you’ve “done it”? How can you measure your progress towards them?

👉 Do they get you meaningfully closer to realizing your Decade Worthy Vision? Are you sure?

👉 How do they align with AND compromise your core values? Usually it’s a mix…Is it a mix you’re okay accepting?

👉 How do they feel in your body? Exciting? Scary? Both?…or Forced? “Eh.”? Empty?

Once you have clear, meaningful goals, then you create lead metrics to pace and track your progress towards them.

Step 2: Determine your lead metrics.

I like to look at lead metrics as the repeat behaviors that lead you to your goal. For instance, say your goal is to pass your Real Estate Broker’s exam by April. A lead metric for that might be “study Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday for 2 hours,” and another might be to “take 1 practice exam every two weeks.”

So, I want you to determine yours. What are the habits you need to implement to get you to your decade-worthy vision and goals? How can you promise yourself to implement them?

Step 3: Track your progress.

After you’ve developed your vision, crafted your goals, and built your lead metrics, you can start to make progress — but then you have to reflect on it. I like to tell my clients calendar a date once per month to reflect on your progress towards your goals. This is so important, because life has a way of happening  — we go through sickness, lapses in childcare, mental health dips, losses, or just get distracted — and we all get off course. 

This monthly check-in on your goals is a way to reflect on your progress, assess what’s working, what’s not working, and small changes you want to make to your strategy to make next month better. This way you may spend 3 weeks with a sub-par strategy, but not 3 months.

Now, my friend, I want you to remember what I said at the beginning of this: too many of us are basing our “enough-ness” on goals that sound good, but don’t really MEAN anything to us. And when we do that, we can’t create meaningful progress at all. 

When you can strategize your goals the RIGHT way, by focusing on your passion and desires, you can create that meaning for yourself.

And you deserve it.