Stay on Track: Why Business Goals & Check-ins Matter for Neurodivergent Entrepreneurs

Welcome to the Overgivers Anonymous podcast. My name is Angela Mondor, also known as the Geeky Girl. In this podcast, we’re going to be talking about some amazing things to help you get over overgiving.

Hi and welcome to this episode of the Overgiver’s Anonymous podcast. My name is Angela Mondor and I’m also known as the Geeky Girl. Today, I want to talk to you about something that just stick with me for a little bit here, but I want to talk about business goals and review progress with you and why this is so critical to your success.

Now, you’re going to say that it’s boring or that you’ve tried it and it didn’t work or whatever. Just stick with me because maybe I got some other ideas you hadn’t heard before. Look, I know that goal setting certainly I remember it being something that was quite daunting and tasking in the beginning.

And I learned the hard way, not going to be, I’m not going to lie here. I learned the hard way as to why. It was so important for me to do these things. I kept thinking, ah, you know, it’s fine. I know, I know where I’m going. I know what I want, but it wasn’t true. I really didn’t know what I wanted. And I’m sure you’ve heard the quote before.

It goes something like this, that if you fail to plan you plan to fail. Which is fine, but there’s also another piece to that concept. Whereas if you don’t make any choices, somebody else is going to make those choices for you. And that’s exactly what happened in my business. I was puttering along, working in my business, doing the things I loved, building what I wanted.

And then I thought, you know, it’s time for me to get some more help. I need some more help in the business. And I was looking for a mentor, a coach. That was what I was looking for. And I really didn’t know what I was looking for. I just knew I was looking for some guidance. And I found this person who promised me that they knew exactly what I needed and that they had exactly the recipe of what I required and I just needed to trust them 100 percent and do what they told me.

As a neurodivergent person we don’t like to do it. We’re told that’s okay. I thought you know what this person knows what they’re talking about So I will follow them and as I move through the program, I got this feeling there was these feelings They came up and I’m like this doesn’t feel right. I I’m not going in the direction I thought I was gonna go in but they told me all the way along the program every time I brought up this Conversation with them they’d say well if you don’t do it my way you’re gonna fail.

You don’t do it my way You’re gonna fail was the constant the constant mantra that they kept shoving it and pushing back on me. Every time I kept saying, okay, this isn’t what I was trying to accomplish, or this isn’t where I thought I was going to go. And they’re like, just trust the process. Just trust me.

Obviously, long story short, not only did I lose the money that I spent on the course, but it also tanked my business in the process because it just wasn’t in line with what I needed in my business, the way my business was currently running. If I had a clear plan, if I had clear goals set out before I went looking for that person to help me, I would have been able to align better and say, here’s the things I’m looking to accomplish.

Here’s how I learn. Here’s the things that I need to do. How does your program stack up to those things? How is your program gonna help me with these items? We probably would have had a different outcome. However, I learned to make a huge lesson, right? It’s not about shitting all over myself. Instead, it’s about looking back and saying, okay, what did I learn from this situation?

How can I now look at these situations differently and how can I make a change? Now, I plan my years before the year’s over. I’m planning, I plan 2025 before 2025 hit. We did lots of planning in through, probably, we started doing some planning in October. Not a whole plan, but did some of the planning in October, I think, was when we started.

I’m not saying you have to start in October. I’m not saying your business is anything like mine. But I do know that it’s important for every single business owner to know what direction you’re headed. Because when you clearly define your goals and you clearly have a system in place where you can check in regularly.

I mean, our Rockstar planners in the Rockstar Success Circle are brilliant for this. We write out our plans, we check them every quarter, we check into them every month. And we’re always rolling up to the big goals. Are we moving in the right direction? Are the actions we’re choosing, are they going in the right direction?

Are we getting the results we’re looking for? Are we able to take the result, take the actions that we set out? Or is there something keeping us from taking those actions? We’re able to look back and see where we’re going, which is the review portion. It’s just as important to set your goals. It’s probably more important to review if I’m really going to be honest, but you can’t review unless you set goals, so We can’t have one without the other but Reviewing is really important because I know that some of us will create vision boards and they put the vision boards Maybe sometimes you’ll put the vision board up so that you can see it Sometimes we write the visions and we stuck them way into a drawer.

Those are still worth while doing they’re still powerful, but Coming back and reviewing them is so much more powerful. It makes them way more successful. Now, there are things that stop us in being successful. And some of those things is the overwhelm. And maybe you have an overwhelm with goals because you think, I can’t think a whole year ahead.

I’m not asking you to talk three, five, ten year goals, right? Even if you can just think ahead that whole year, it can be very overwhelming. But when you take that overwhelming year and break it down into, here’s what I want to accomplish in these portions of the year, the quarters, and here out of this quarter, here’s what I’m going to focus on for these months, that becomes a lot less overwhelming than, Oh, I said I’d create this much money this year.

It’s still important to say, I want to create this much money, but then you can break it down and say, well, how and where and break it down into smaller and smaller and smaller pieces until it’s no longer overwhelming for you. My small piece might be too small for you. It might be too big for you. You might need to break that task down even smaller.

But that’s what’s really important is understanding you and breaking these down so that they are small enough that you’re not overwhelmed by them. They give you clear direction and that you can take Action. Okay. When we are hyper focused on a pinpoint, we can lose focus on the big picture, but it’s okay to do that if you have a plan that works like this, the one that I teach, because if you’re focused on this one thing, it’s okay because that one thing is connected to this bigger thing, which is connected to this also bigger thing.

Which might be over and connected to that much bigger thing. Okay, so The hyper focus if you’re hyper focusing on the tasks that matter It’s okay because you even if you lose sight of the big picture You’re gonna re come back in to look at that new picture every quarter every month You’re gonna have a touch point where you can come back and go.

Okay. Hold on a second. What was the big picture? W w w what am I actually trying to accomplish? I do it the same as you. I will be workin workin workin and then all of a sudden I get to the end of the month and go, Okay, this is awesome. Now I get to go check in. What was I actually trying to accomplish?

Did I do what I went to do? I can roll it up and look, okay? Time blindness is a massive thing for some of us. And without the ability to review or without having a system in place where you’re reviewing things on a regular basis, you could lose a lot of time before you realize you’re off base, or you could lose a lot of time before you realize that those actions you’re taking aren’t getting the results you want.

So being able to have the system in review process gives it so that you’re not going to be in a time blindness problem in terms of your actions versus your results for your goals. Okay. Yes, we struggle with consistency and we struggle with consistency in many different ways. One of them can be with our tasks and our goals and getting things done regularly.

The check in process is helpful for that, is to be able to stay consistent, because instead of waiting until 11 months later, I can continue to check in and go, Oh, hold on a second. I got to pull back, back over here to the middle. I know I went a little off track, but I’ve got to come back to the middle.

Or I can say, Hey, I’ve been doing a really good job being consistent. I’m taking these actions, but I’m not getting the results I wanted. Then it’s okay. Well, obviously these actions aren’t the actions that are going to get me the results I want. So what other actions can I take? Okay. So you’re able to really be able to not worry about, don’t worry about the big goal.

You’ve set the big goal. You, you, you can, you, you can actually let go and focus on the day-to-day, which is what we’re good at. You don’t have to worry that you’re not working towards the goal because we are working towards the goal because everything we do is rolling up to it. That is the thing that’s gonna help you with.

Your goals and to be able to define them that is on you. Where do you want to take this business? It is nobody else’s business where you want to take your business. It is solely up to you, your skills, your time versus your money, the ability to either you have a team or you don’t have a team. What resources do you have available for yourself?

And what are you trying to accomplish? Who are you trying to help? What is that? end in mind that you’re trying to get to with your business. Now you can start to put that together inside your goals and say, okay, so I want to help these people. And here’s how I best see serving them. And here’s the things I’m going to offer in order to serve them.

Then you can say, okay, well, I either have these things already that I can offer them. Maybe I need to build some of these things, but here’s how I’m going to sell it, or here’s how the things, here’s how offer these things. Those are the ways that you’re going to be able to be successful and love your business because you can now put goals around what it is that you want to do.

If you hate email low, if you loathe email, then you got to find a different way. It doesn’t have to be email, but if you’re like, I don’t like email, but I’ll send it if I think it works for my business, right? You can make other choices. Always looking back and seeing what it is that you want to do, what you’re in your mind, where do you want to go?

And then breaking it out and see how many different ways you can make it happen. Because there’s never one way to make it happen. If somebody says to you that you have to follow my, this is my biggest lesson. If you have to follow my plan, because my plan is the only way. And I am going to show you the.

The exact way to make it happen. Sometimes, that could work, I suppose. I mean, it works in terms of you know, if you’re looking, if you’re going to buy a McDonald’s franchise, for example, yeah, you have to work it exactly the way they do it. But there’s a huge layout to doing that. But do you want to be a cookie cutter?

If you do, Go for it. But most of us in that neurodivergent space don’t want to be completely cookie cutter. We don’t want to fit in a box. We’ve got our own container that we want to be in. And it’s definitely not the same as a box of anybody else’s box. So think about how you can get this information into your head.

So there are a lot of different ways for you to think about what are my goals or where do I want to go with this business? You can brain dump it, you can mind map it, you can create a list, bullet list of things. You can use vision boards for sure. Always looking at what are the different ways that I can brain dump.

And then from the brain dump list, You can actually say, okay, what are the things I actually want to tackle? What are the things I want to do next? And put that into the goals. And then when you’re checking in, you can say, oh, here’s the actions. Did it work or didn’t it? And then if it doesn’t, you can go back to that repository of all those other ideas and choose a new one.

That’s the best part, I think, because we do like to choose a new thing. So if you have a repository of ideas. And something’s just not working, either it energetically doesn’t work with you, you’re not having fun with it, it’s not actually getting you the results you’re looking for, I give you permission, please take the permission, give yourself permission to say, I don’t have to stick with this, I can try something new, but still you’re working towards that same goal.

That’s the best part, okay? So, set up a system that works for you. Get those goals down. Figure out what it is that you want to accomplish this year. Break it down into smaller steps, and smaller steps, and smaller steps, right? Quarters, months, weekly, obviously. And then, Start working on those things, then check back in with yourself.

Hey, where am I? How did it go? If you need help with that, the Rockstar Success Circle is here for you. If you want to try it on your own, have a blast, have fun, try to do it in a way that brings you joy. Don’t shit all over yourself. I just really hope that you have the ability to review and revise without any guilt.

Sit back and, and here’s some of the wording that I like to use. Here’s the goal. Did I meet it or not? If, if the business didn’t meet the goal, then I go, okay, the goal wasn’t met. Here’s the actions I said I was going to take. Did I take the actions? Yes or no? So did the business take the actions? Yes or no?

If the actions were taken, but we didn’t reach the goal, then maybe we need to choose different actions. If we didn’t take the actions Hmm, why didn’t we take the action? Sometimes we don’t take the action because there’s been a sickness or something going on in the family or they just don’t resonate with you.

Somebody’s like you have to build an email list of 5, 000 people and here’s how you have to email them and you have to do this and the whole time you’re doing it you’re like I hate doing this. You’re not going to do it. So if you’re not taking the actions because you hate it then go back to the well.

What’s another way you can try? And then try that next thing. Okay, now there is some truth to the 90 day rule. What you do in your business today will show up 90 days from now. I don’t know why it’s a universal rule, but it is. I see it happen over and over and over again in business. So if you’re doing something and you like it, but it’s kind of not giving you results, but maybe you’re getting some results.

You might want to dial in and try a little harder, okay, because that 90 day window. But if you’re putting the effort in, kind of, maybe you’re not putting all the effort in, but you’re exhausted and you hate it, get out. You don’t want to spend the next 90 days hating everything, right? Try something different.

Go to the well. There’s a lot of different ways to do it. Okay, so you also might find that maybe six months in, your goals no longer work for you. That those goals you set for the whole year, you might go, it’s no longer working for me because of whatever happens to be coming up in the world. I mean, let’s talk politics for a minute, nevermind.

There could be something that’s outside of your control spanner into the works. Well, you can go back and say, okay, well, how can I adjust these goals now for myself? But by doing that. You’re checking in and you’re going to adjust those things before it’s too late and the year’s over and you’ve lost a whole nother year.

So reflection is very, very valuable when it comes to these things. So I encourage you, please make sure that you are looking at the goals that you want to set for your business. Where do you want your business to go? Who do you want to help? What impact do you want to make this year? And get it out of your brain any way you possibly can.

And then from there you can start looking at, what do I need to do to accomplish those goals? What actions do I need to take in order to get to those goals? And then the check ins. Make sure you are checking in with your business, checking to make sure that those goals still align and that you are taking the actions required.

And if not, why? Stop shooting on yourself. If I could give you anything, it’s that. Please stop shooting on yourself. Don’t think of your business as your baby. Your business is a business and we just need to get the business to work. You are your own human being. The business is an entity all on its own.

Okay. So if you’re looking for some help, like I said, the Rockstar Success Circle is here for you. If you want any information about that, please leave us a comment, send us an email at clientcare at geekygirl. ca if you’d like as well. We’re here to help if that’s what you need. But if you want to do it on your own, there’s a cornucopia of ways that you could possibly make it happen.

I hope that you take the first step today though. Take one step towards your future that says, hey, here’s the thing I’m going to do next. Here’s the goals that I want to accomplish and here’s the impact that I want to make this year. I hope you have a fantastic day. I look forward to talking to you next week.

Have a good one.