Adam - How to win in 2021, how to win in your business, but some of these things can apply to other areas of your life, as well. So, how to win in 2021? The first thing, define what winning looks like, okay, define what winning for you looks like. Okay, because it you know, I think that there's a you know, and if you're anything like I was, you know, when I was just getting started, you know, in the industry, it's like, I saw what other people were doing. And I'm like, I'm like, okay, I've never, you know, I've never made $1,000 in a month before, you know, in my own business. But this year, I'm going to make a half a million dollars. And it's like, if that's where you're at, like, you know, you haven't, you haven't even cracked your first $1,000 a month as an entrepreneur yet. But you want them to know, your goal is that half a million. And that is your only definition of winning in 2021. Okay, you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

Meredith - So important. And I absolutely love that you're saying this, because one of the things that I think drove me out of the corporate environment, right, so I was in corporate sales and marketing for like, 20 years. And one of the things that drove me out of that environment, it would be this time of the year more like in the fourth quarter that your boss would come to you. And they would be like, so you know where it is? What are you going to deliver for the company next year? You know, what is it you're going to? What are your goals going to be? What are you gonna do for your team, right. And you always tell them what the goal was, and, you know, maybe be realistic about it. And they will always push you to have these goals, at least in the environment that I was in, that you just knew weren't possible, but they didn't want to hear that from you. Right? And they wanted you to push harder having to be bigger, go go go grow, grow, grow, and they didn't want to listen to all the things that it was going to take to actually hit those goals.

Well, then I step into the home business industry. And it's like, exactly the opposite. People are like, No, I'm, you know, I'm gonna be, you know, chairperson, 9 million, whatever, in the next year. And I think what I've learned from those experiences is that you have to, you have to stretch. Absolutely, you have to stretch, if you wrote down your goal. And you're the opposite of what Adam said, and it you you're like, Yeah, I got that no problem, then your goal is probably not big enough. And both of those issues are issues. It can't be so big that you feel unmotivated and deflated when you don't get it. But it's out there. You can't you also can't play it safe, right? You you've got to be willing to stretch and grow. And hopefully you've got somebody that's mentoring you and helping you to do that. That's what we do for our clients. Hopefully, you have found that. But that's what I would say set something that you know, you're going to be motivated to work on that is a stretch, but it's not so, you know, ridiculous that you're setting yourself up to fail.

Adam - So it's weird because it kind of has to be realistic and unrealistic at the same time.

Meredith - It does. I mean, it has to be, it has to be a stretch, but it can't be. You know, I was on a call the other night with the team that I'm on. And I loved it because the leader of that team came out and said the same thing if somebody was trying to set a goal like that, that she was mentoring live on this call. And she said that needs to be your five year goal. Yeah, so she didn't tell her No, which I loved, but she provided the dose of reality of Hey, you know what, that's an amazing five year goal, what would you like to do this year? Yeah, so if you're that person that set that crazy, huge goal, then just put the appropriate timeframe with it, it could still be your goal.

Adam - It's so good. And and, you know, one of the things that I really got from, from my mentors this past year was that, like, accuracy creates confidence. So, I mean, but but like, you know, you wouldn't just hit, you know, set one big goal and that's it. It's like, you know, you've got to be, you know, if you want to set one big goal, then you've got to be like, Okay, what needs to happen on a monthly basis on a weekly basis on a daily basis, and then even start setting goals. Like I mean, you know, and I know that you know, you're you know, you're an entrepreneur on the level of doing that, but I don't know about, you know, a lot of the people that are listening to this, it's like you you you want to be setting goals on a yearly basis or a quarterly basis, but like, every single month, you want to set new goals, new projections, even on a weekly basis. Okay, what do I need to do this week in terms of like, you know, actual concrete numbers in order to hit my monthly goal, that's how you're going to hit your, your, your, you know, your your quarterly goal.

And that's how you're going to hit your, your, your yearly goal. And that's actually the next thing. So number two, how to win in 2021. When the moment, right 2021 is going to unfold in a series of moments, right. And if you just win, you don't have to win on when that would be impossible, because we're going to be seeping through a lot of that time. But, but like, if you just have to win more moments than you're winning now, right?

If that, if that makes sense. It's like, if you can, if you want to win the year, you've got to win the quarter, if you want to win the quarter, you've got to win the month, if you want to win the month, you've got to win the week, if you want to win the week, you got to win the app, you know, the day, if you want to win the day, you got to win an hour, if you want to win the hour, you got to win the moments within the hour, right. And if you could just do that, if you could just be be better than your bed being up to this point, you know, focus on, you know, on improvement, just just progress and improvement. And if you do that, and you focus on winning, it's small compartments, right, then that is what is going to compound that will ultimately create the ultimate win over the course of the year.

Meredith - Absolutely. And you know, that's so important to I call it winning, winning my morning, like if I can win my morning, I can win my day.

Right. And so I've gotten really good at choosing to win my morning, I don't, I don't necessarily choose to win Sunday mornings, you know, everybody's got to have a day off. But I win my weekday mornings, because it sets the rest of my day up for success. And it's it's not hard to do. But I love that, you know, just be in the moment and, and also be present because that's when we we teach so much around relationship, right. And if you're not in the moment, if you're not winning that moment, if you're not present with whatever it is you're doing, or whoever it is you're doing it with, then you're not really fully serving them in your business. Right. So you do have to be present, as well.

Adam - Yeah, and then and then that's great, too, because because it's like, you know, like I mentioned, it's not, it's not just winning in your business, it's winning in other areas of your life. You know, winning the moment, I think applies to all areas of your life, it's like, it's like when you are when you are with your family be 100% when you're when you are working, you know, on your business, be 100% focused on your business. And that means like, don't, you know, be a little bit ruthless about letting distractions come in to those to those moments, which which means if you're with your family, don't look at your phone, when you get a ding because you think it might be a prospect or something like that, right. And on the flip side of that, when you're working, let your family know that look, this is the time that I'm working. And I am not to be bothered in this time.

Meredith - And 2021 or 2020 has been has been one of the most challenging years to do that, especially those of you and drop a comment below. If you have small people in your life, that you have been working from home, maybe working a regular job, also working on your side business. And now all of a sudden, you're you're homeschooling to write or maybe you just have kids that are doing online school, or maybe you have parents that are now living with you. I mean, our home environment has changed so much in this last year, if there was ever a time that it was hard to be 100% into your family or 100% into your business, it's probably been this last year. So I think the win in this area is asking yourself is the way I have been working recently setting me up for success, or do I need to change the way that I've been working? Right? Do I Do I need to change that? Do you need to get some help with the kids?

Do you need to you know have like, you know, some kind of outlet for you to be able to do that. Do you need to change your schedule? Do you need to look at something different? So if you're listening to Adam is saying how could I be president I'm trying to work when I've got three kids or anything my house or you know, my mom now lives with me or whatever it is. You have the power to make those changes so that you can be focused and present and don't be at the effect of that, you know, be the be the change that you need to be in order to create that time for yourself.

Adam - Yeah, that's great. All right, number three is respect the rollout. Now, let me let me set this up for you what I mean by this, I actually heard this term roll out on a podcast I was listening to earlier today, and I'm like, Ooh, that's good, I'm gonna take that. And the rollout is like, you, I mean, it's a, it's a term that that, you know, just, it just applies to this, you know, this particular situation, it's like, you create a goal, to, you know, to, to, to do something, or to create something, there's going to be a little bit of a lag time, between, you know, obviously, there's a lot of actions that you're going to have to take in order in order to, you know, bring the goal to fruition. But there's like this, this in between time, Where, where, like, you're just getting started, and you're not going to see results right away, right, like anything that you're doing, especially if this is new to you, if you're if you're doing something that you've never done before, or if you're you know, maybe you're building your business in a new way, now, maybe you were, maybe you were all belly to belly, you know, calling leads, you know, building your business in that way. And now you're like, you know, you're doing it online with, you know, with with with, with funnels and systems and things like that, right, there is going to be a little bit of a lag time, where there's not, you're going to be taking actions, and there will be no results.

There's going to be net like, though, you're not going to see the results right away. And your mind is going to play a lot of tricks on you in that time period. Right, your mind is going to come in, and it's going to say, and especially if you're like very uncomfortable, right, your mind is going to tell you that this is wrong. Like we shouldn't be doing this, we you know, we got to find some and that's where that's why people get shiny object syndrome, because they're because they're like, they start to do something, they start to develop some momentum, but they don't see the results right away. And it's like, you got to understand that momentum is building. Right?

Even if you're not seeing any tangible results right away, momentum is building, and you've got to stick with it through that rollout. Because it's like, the decisions that you make in that rollout time period. And how you behave in that time period is going to affect is your it's going to it's going to determine if you're going to be successful or not. I mean, is that is that communicating?

Meredith - Yeah. I mean, it's totally true. And I just want to say because charity is on and she's saying, you know, hey, I've been thinking about that same thing, you know, around having that balance at home, right with my kids there. And I just want to recognize that it because it's so true. You do absolutely have to own that time. And Emma is saying hi to you, too, as well. Adam in the chat. Oh, great to have you here. So here's the thing, right? Yes, you you have to stay the course. Right? It's not like imagine I was talking about baking bread with some people today.

That was my analogy. For some reason, I don't know why I was like coming up with this bread baking analogy, you would not get all the ingredients, follow the recipe, put everything together, mix it up, grease the pan, turn on the oven, and then walk away from the loaf of bread and leave it sitting on the counter would you know you would you would finish right? And you would put the bread in it, you would let it bake.

And it might take a little while you might check on it. And it's still not done and you got to check on it again. And it's still not done, you got to check on it again, it's still not done. The same applies here, you have to find the fortitude to stay in this. And you know you address people that have been meeting just started out and so they're just getting those results. But this I have found that that same theory applies every time I infuse something new into my business. So if I decide, okay, now I want to launch a course.

Adam - This oh man that's so good, brilliant analogy too. By the way. I love the baking the bread analogy.

Meredith- Sometimes that analogy gets applied to other things but it applies here as well.

Adam - Yes, it's so true. It's like we, you know, we live in just such a, like a microwave society that like we, we need the results right now, right. And if we don't get the results right now, then there's something wrong. And I feel like we need to, we need to break that, right. Because things that are worth having take time. And a residual income takes time to build, if you're I mean, we talk to people all the time, they're like, they're like, I want to get to $10,000 a month for my business. So it's like, I mean, you're kind of, you're kind of talking about $10,000 a month in residual income, like, people should take years to do that. And real estate and like other things, it's like, you know, it's, it's, you just have to have the right expectation and realize that that if it's worth, if it's worth having, it's going to come at a cost. And it's going to require some commitment, it's going to require you doing some things that you haven't done before. And if it gets handed to you right away, then it's probably not going to last, if you if you are able to attain it right away without any struggle without any sacrifice. It's, it's probably either one not worth it. Or two, you're not going to have it for very long. Right?

Meredith - Right, Emma's asking a really good question. She said, How do you know it's working, if nothing is moving, right. And so number one, it's making a decision, right? If you see other people using the same type of media, the same type of platform, the same type of funnel, the same type of process, in the industry that you're in, and you can see that it is working for them, do not look at that as something to covet. rather look at that as Okay, what I'm doing can work. And if it can work for them, I believe it can work for me. So then you have to ask yourself, are the daily actions that I'm taking, giving me clues, look for clues you might not get, like, let's say you were running an application funnel, for example. And maybe your your ad is actually attracting people, and you're getting some leads and are going through the application funnel, but all the people are ghosting you, you're not getting any appointments, right? That doesn't mean that that digital marketing doesn't work. And that you should just like throw in the towel and run for the hills.

That's not what it means at all. What it means is that there's some tweaks that you need to make in that flow, in order to get the better result of the type of applicants that you're getting. So then you have to say to yourself, okay, well, where can I maybe tweak this. So I think of it, my brother's as an engineer, he's a firefighter. And so they have this massive fire trucks. And his job is to go on to a fire and run all of those controls on the side of the truck. And it's like, there's, I mean, there must be like, 80 of them on there, I don't even know, right, and he had to go to school forever to learn how to do it. running your business and being a digital marketer is like being a firefighter, that's got to run the engineer, that's got to run that truck, you've got to constantly be turning these little tiny dials, you've got to know what each dial does. And it takes time to figure that out. But once you learn it, you really can set it, forget it, move on to the next innovation that you want to put into your business. But you've got to stay the course Am I so? Hopefully that answers the question for you.

Adam - was just thinking about that the other day in that in like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like the Wizard of Oz. I'm like, I'm like turning all the gears like, like, you know, it's like it's like, okay, now this thing is, you know, this thing is not working, you know, the way it should over here? What if I was to turn this gear a little bit over here? What if I was to tweak this a little bit over here, and like that, that's really what what what, you know, a successful business comes down to is like, you know, it's like, it's like a series of little things that, like, you just you just learn how to make those, you know, tiny tweaks and be able to like realize, you know, okay, well, this breakdown is happening, this must be a result of this happening over here. Right?

This is a breakdown, like, that's the it's like the, the, the, the, the, the effect of this cause. But But I mean, it's also like, you know, yeah, you've got you've got to look at like, the macro to not just the or not just the macro, but the micro, and you got to be able to say like, like, Okay, well, you know, I might not be crushing sales right now. But my audiences grow. Right? I've gotten it you know, now people are starting to, you know, reach out. I'm starting to get people book. I might not be closing them yet, but I'm getting them you know, I'm getting I'm taking them to the next step. That's how you know that you're, they are they are they are making progress.

Meredith - Yeah, look, look for the clues. Right. And you can do that each week. Each week. You should be taking a little bit of time, at the end of the week. And you should be thinking to yourself, what what clues did I pick up on this week like what positive indicators were they they might not necessarily be the KPIs of your business like the actual nuts and bolts, you know, number of enrollments, number of customers amount of revenue, that are there indicators that are helping show you that those things are getting close? And allow yourself to celebrate those things.

Adam - yeah, great. Number four, become the person who can hit the goal. Right? It's like if you have a big goal, right, and I have a big goal. I know, Meredith has big goals for the for the new year, like goals, like, our goals, like, Is it fair to say that like, you know, your goal, the person that you are right now is not going to be able to hit that goal. Like you actually have to become a new version of yourself, that can hit the goal, like my goal is so is, it's, it's, it's like, there's no way that the person that I am right now is capable of hitting that goal, but I'm going to become the person through through developing myself through getting around successful people through, you know, investing in my, in my, in my personal growth, investing in my professional growth, like, it's like I'm in in doing that. And in taking those consistent actions, I'm going to become the person who can hit the goal. And if I don't, then I'm not going to hit the goal. Right?

Meredith - Absolutely. You know, and that's, that's part of what you have to look at as well. When I left the corporate world, I actually had every year I pick a word. And one of the years that one of the words I picked was actually unbecoming. Because I needed to wind down some of the behavior, some, some of who I had become, in order to survive in that world. In order to succeed in the new world that I had decided to be in as a as an entrepreneur and a marketer, I had to start thinking entirely differently. I couldn't have that employee mindset anymore, I had to have an entrepreneur mindset. So my word was unbecoming.

And I wanted to shift my behaviors. So again, if you if you know that there's something that you do now, that's preventing you from being that person, then an exercise that I love is the five why's, ask yourself five times why you do that. So if you're like, Oh, you know, if I got out of bed a little bit earlier, every day, I'd have time for my side business. Well, why? Why do I sleep? Well, because my bed is comfortable? Well, why? Why is your bed comfortable?

Well, my bed is comfortable. Because I don't want to have to get out of bed and get ready and face the reality that I hate my job. Well, why did you hate your job, right? So you can really start getting down to the core reason, you're, you're not doing any individual behavior, just because that's not like how humans work, right? You're doing this individual behavior, for some reason you're getting something out of it, whether that's positive or negative and negative, but you're getting some kind of result from whatever it is you're doing, that's preventing you from being good as you need to become.

So get really honest with yourself, journal that write it down, figure it out, because becoming who you need to be is also a process of unbecoming who, who is no longer serving you what parts of you are no longer serving you. And they may have served you in the past beautifully. But as you're becoming someone new, you've got to be willing to leave behind what doesn't serve you and step into what you know well.

Adam - Exactly what what got you here is not going to get you there. Yeah. And then number five is model successful people. And this is this is something that I've been like this, this is one of my, you know, secret keys to success, you know, over the years is I've just, I've just been really good at copying and modeling and like looking at, like, looking at like, Okay, what is it?

What are they doing, that I'm not doing? Like, what what it you know, I remember during the when I, when I first started getting into video marketing, which was right around the time, right, when I started, you know, started marketing online. I had a mentor who was, you know, doing, you know, doing, you know, 1000 times better than me, and I was looking at how he was making videos, different than how I was making videos.

And I really noticed that, like, when I was making the videos, like, I was like, all over the place, you know, and he was making like, eye contact with the camera. Right? And when you make eye contact with the camera, it's like, it's like you're looking at the other person talking to them. So and it was just one of the things that I identified by just by like, just asking the question, what are they doing that I'm not doing? Like, what can How can I be?

How can I be more like them? It's like, you can self coach yourself just by just by saying like, you know, what are the characteristics that this leader has that had this person that has the results that I want? What are some of the characteristics that they have? But I don't have that I can maybe work on this year, right so that I can become more like them so that I can get similar results to the results that they get.

Meredith - I've heard it so many times in different environments, but you're the sum total of the five people that you spend the most time with. And those don't have to be five physical people that you spend time with, who are you allowing to influence you? Who are you following? Who are you aspiring to be? Right? Who, who really speaks to you, and they may or may not be in this industry, it's probably good to have a combination of both because you're not just your job, or you or your business. As an entrepreneur, you're more than that too. But you know, you do have to really control who you spend that time with and who it is you're looking up to, and what voices you're going to allow to enter into your head. And so using your time wisely around that is so important. So important.

Adam - Well, yeah, and it's also, it's like, you might have, you might have somebody that like, Okay, this person is my mentor, in this area of my life, but I'm definitely not paying attention to them in this area. You know, what I mean? Like, I could have somebody who, you know, they might be my health and fitness mentor, and I might be I might model, you know, if I want to get healthier and in better shape, I might model their behaviors and look at their characteristics in that area. But I but I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to ask them, you know, what kind of, you know, what they're doing in terms of business investing, right?

And the same, you know, the same goes for, like, I might, you know, that I might model this person, because, you know, they've got a great business, but, you know, they have a terrible marriage, so I'm not going to model them in that area. But like, it might even make sense to, you know, check to look, you know, identify what are the areas of your life that you really want to prove this year? Right? business, finances? health, right, those are the obvious ones. Right? But like, you know, what, are those the, you know, what are those to you? And who are the people that you can identify that you want to start being more like, in those specific areas?

Meridth - Absolutely, you know, and I led a group in an exercise about a week or a week or so ago, where we actually used a tool to allow ourselves to score where we were in eight core areas of our life. And then we asked ourselves, what is one simple change that I can make in that area of my life in order to improve it, right. So if you know that there's an area of your life that you need to improve, one way of improving it is looking for that mentor and looking for that successful person to follow so that you have somebody to look up to in that area to show you the way because a big part of your business, especially if you're in network marketing, and direct sales, which nearly everybody here in the digital upline is, in one way or another.

A huge piece of this is leadership. You have to be someone that other people will follow. That is just a requirement. If you want to grow your business to the level that you want to, you must be somebody that people will want to follow. So what are the traits of the people who you follow? And how do you begin to embody those traits yourself?

Thank you for listening to the digital hub live show. Adam and the team are committed to leveling up the network marketing profession by equipping distributors with 21st century systems and skill sets that decrease resistance and increase cooperation with prospects and team members. Visit digitalupline.com/subscribe to get notified when we release new podcast episodes and to get exclusive access to our weekly live trainings.