Almost a decade ago, when I was just getting started as an entrepreneur, I remember thinking to myself, “All I want to do is make 100k per year”
So I broke it down and realized “I need 10k per month.”
(Young Derek was a math wizard, obviously).
At that point, I didn’t even know what $500 looked like, let alone $10k.
Yet, there I was, shooting for the stars – and getting frustrated.
How to Earn More Money: Six Figures Per Year
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Yes, send me the free ebookYears later, I realized the error of my ways, and have never made that same mistake again.
But I never talked about it.
Shame on me.
No wonder why I get questions from readers who are clearly making the same mistake I made years ago.
Well, that’s about to change. I filmed a new video where I talk about this mistake – and show you what to do instead.
What’s great is, even though I’m talking about revenue, it’s not just about revenue. This same mistake applies any BIG goal. So, feel free to replace revenue with anything else, and you’ll see how this works.
As I mentioned in the video, here’s what I want you to do: Leave a comment below and share two things: Tell me what your dream goal is. And tell me what your realistic goal is. Do it now 😉
Pls i need the link sent to my mail
I wish that I wouldn’t have to work to jobs to barely get by, while still living at home. I wish that my primary job paid more, and that my car and credit card was paid off so I could move out of my parents home. I want to have my own space. I want to be me.
My dream goal is to make 6 digits a year. My realistic goal is to make $6,000 a month.
Today though, it doesn’t seem possible.
You have GOT TO Think Bigger <3 Think outside the scope, do some research, tune into you body, follow inspired action! Life is absolutely more possible then you think right at this moment <3
This is very much great and hope fully nice blog. Every body can easily get perfect information from here.
Hi Derek,
I’m making a big move coming in Feb, 2017. So I need to start making money. Especially since everything is landing on me. I need about $50,000.00 to get everything done that I need too. I own a house that I’m going to be renting out but I have to do some work to it before the renter can move in. So that will be taking some of my money. So right now I’m working 2 jobs and I’m barely making it.
So my dream goal is $10,000.00 a month
My realistic goal is $4,000.00 a month
I’m also trying to get a new thing up and going so that is taking my money too.
Really like the reflection to teach and help others not make the same mistakes!! (I’m making those mistakes :D) haha
Dream goal $120k/month
Realistic Goal:$15k/month
Going to do it across a few different sites though the first one I am focusing on with my momma is http://momsmeatloafrecipe.com
We’re finishing up about 50 new articles and working every day with blog outreach.. at about $25/month in Adsense right now.. we believe!
Thank you for the inspiration!
Hi Jennifer,
I was just wondering would that work for someone like me who has bad credit? im basically in the boat you were in. im out of money, bad credit and tired of living a life like this. Any incite would greatly be appreciated.
Thanks,
Justin Feldman
Thumbtack doesn’t really have a section for what we are looking for. So here is what our job listing elsewhere looks like:
Are you sick of working for $10 an hour? Are you tired of working hard for no extra pay? Well you can start earning uncapped commissions and earn well into the 6 figures your first year. Work as little or as much as you want!
So many businesses are looking for loans now a days and the small business are having a harder time getting them. I help people get loans up to $1,000,000 (one million!). I am looking for a lead generator/ appointment setter who will earn 2% on every deal! The average part-time person can generate $250,000 in loans a month ($5000 income) and a full-time person can generate $750,000 or more ($15,000 a month). Get bonuses for hitting your sales goals too! Top earners make over $250K a year!
You can get paid in as little as 10 days and there are bonuses for hitting sales goals as well!
When can i start?
How do I get started?
my dream goal to live the good life to me thats not having to worry about anything financially to be able to to give back to my family and charity and whoever else i choose now my realistic goal is to make $10,000 by the end of the summer
My goal is to realize that making money online by writing blogs and similar stuff is just wasting of time. Internet in the 90’s and its today exsistence is not the same at all as it is overwhelmed by informations, torrents, bulls…, usless crap that everybody can recognize it in just a tick of a time. Making money online from non tangible product is possible only if you know programming, i.e. have real product to offer that will do something for a specific task adjusted to the customer’s need, so you need to create customers by creating real relationships and not through the lite of online invisibility, only eye-to-eye contact. This is very hard task to do and that’s why most people end up to just finding work and only dream. What is up to tangible product, well you still need to make customers with eye-to-eye contact and a website of your own will be only an instrument to be recommended by some of your existing customers. Believe me I’ve tried the online business with informations that are very useful to my beloved followers, but none of them donated a single penny till now, because obviously, my information is already present somevhere in the ocean of informations out there.
B and get happy for an A, and more dreaming of an A and setting realistic goals towards getting one. There’s a fine line between cynicism and being realistic, and I think the latter approach is closer to being realistic friends……..
my goal is $10000 in 4-5 months this is difficult because I am 14 so please help me make this goal possible.
I earn $100 on an average per month now. I am blogging for around 9 months and after 7 months I reached $100 per month target. But my target is $1000 per month.
My Dream Goal is $10,000 a month starting now .
My realistic Goal is $10,000 a month.
I am close to broke and I met this girl awhile ago , fell in love and now want to marry , so of course I need money for the wedding and then some to support us both for as long as practicable.
Hi Derek.
Not sure how late or early I am on this – didn’t see any dates.
I wanted to respond to your post because:
– I DO earn over 10k per month (and it took less than 18 months for me to do it, maybe sooner).
– Own a home, no cc debt, save/invest, etc.
The six figure mark was a something I wanted to do in my mid-twenties (I’m 35 now); and believe me when I tell you that should be the MINIMUM goal for any one trying to ‘make it’ – there’s a big difference between 100k, 250k, 300k, and so on.
I’m happy to share with you & your readers how I did it – if you need me to substantiate my info/stats via tax returns, statements, heck, I’ll even give you permission to speak to my CPA – no problem.
Point is, I appreciate ‘young money’ and camaraderie of pursuing such goals and the like together is important.
best,
DDH
Hi Don
If you could share your secrecy that would be great! My husband didn’t have a proper job since we met 6 years ago! We have two little kids and it looks like I have to bring the cash. So any input is appreciated!
10k would be great anything more awesome.
TIA
Keren
you seem like a very intelligent guy, would you be open to an apprenticeship / mentorship to share that knowledge with me? I would very much like to pick your brain.
Well… How’d you do it?
My dream goal is to make $100,000 a year but my realistic goal is to make $75,000 in the next two years. I had to close my business down after 6 years of working for free and still continue to pay out of pocket about $1600 for mortgage and monthly expenses.
My dream goal os to make 10K a month to help my family from struggling day by day. My realistic goal is to be making this much soon can afford to get the shoes for my daughter or the new car that my wife needs or even a house for my girls.
My Dream Goal is to have a monthly income of $10k per month ($120k/yr) and to HELP OTHERS get there through FINANCIAL EDUCATION.
My realistic goal is to save $10k of my EARNED INCOME by December 31st, 2015 to fund my entrepreneur journey to $10k/mo.
My dream goal is to open an adventure/camping park. My realistic goal is to have enough money to pay for my wedding ($2000).
I’m starting a website and I’ll like it to make $10k per month. Realistically I hope to make $500-$1000 and I’m not selling anything over $50 :-/
I like what yo said about setting goals. I quit smoking by setting the first goal to quit one day, then three, then one week, one month, three months …
and finally was able to quit for good.
This is one of your blog posts that I have not yet read till now, and I’m so glad I came across it. This really puts my revenue goals into perspective. It also makes it less daunting for me now. Thanks Derek.
Hi Derek,
This video is full of inspiration. I am also a dreamer. I think I need to convert my dream goal into a realistic goal. Wish to learn more for inspiration for which I am subscribing. Thanks dude
Dude what an awesome discussion going on here. Thanks Derek for the video. I have this dream of making $100,000 per dream last year. The problem was i jump in and start whatever i can do to make that happen. until i get no where. So i decide to sit down look back and start doing the math.
100,000/365 days = 274 per day
How many visitors needed to make that sale. it depends very much on the item sold. if you selling low tickets then that would mean more traffic amount more sales. High ticket products will also less sales to make to your target sales per day. so lets do the math again
Lets say I’m selling a $49 product @ 100% commission. How many sales do i need to make to $274 selling $49 product.
274/49 =6 sales per day
How many amount of traffic do i need? There is a formula you can calculate it. The key is selling higher end product and recurring product will achieve this easily.
Have written goals will be a tool to guide us towards our goals. After finding our the right traffic amount (x) then focus on traffic plan to achieve needed traffic to make that daily sales to achieve (y). Start rolling out my math towards my target. hope this help as well. Bookmarking this site to come back and learn more
Hi Derek,
I found your site from the SPI Podcast (which was great btw). Loving it so far!
My dream goal? Quit the 9-5 and work for myself
My realistic goal? Earn some income on the side
This is a great way to look at it.
It’s just like eating an elephant, one bite at a time.
(I think that’s how it goes!)
Hi Derek
Two years ago I was subscribed to all the Big Blog Guys and not making anything.
Today, I’ve unsubscribed to all of them except practical lists (SPI, ThinkTraffic, CopyBlogger, for example) and I’m making a couple hundred a month in passive income. I know, I know… it’s a pittance. BUT it’s a couple a month I never have to work at getting. Now I focus on rinsing and repeating to earn more, faster.
What finally put me on the right track was, firstly, just *doing* it – I have a lot of working experience in building websites and making them look nice; That’s my day job (I’ve developed for the NFL, even) and I can’t say how much this has helped me over the last two years BUT I’ve had to rein myself in because the Developer in me overanalyzes. Setting Realistic Goals not only helps me do *more*, but in this case it has helped me do *less*, e.g. be less sidetracked and less nit-picking. The details of development were getting in the way of my progress.
The 2nd thing that boosted me was actually paying for a 16 week course on writing ebooks. It cost a bit (not much by your income, I’m sure) but it helped me to put my money where my mouth was – and subsequently put my elbow grease where my money was. I’m not saying people can’t do it entirely on their own, but for some people my way works better.
Some people, like I was, get too bogged down in the Dream. It’s good to carefully enunciate in your mind where you want to be in five or ten years, but too often people get paralyzed by those very dreams and don’t even start.
Two things have helped me: (1) Find out what you love and what you do best, and charge the most for it. (2) As my grandmother says, Do What Comes Next. Instead of taking random steps in my workflow, the steps I take I try to take in the direction of my goal and Dream. It might be directly towards it, but it’s heading in that direction. I released a book two months ago, great; Do what comes next: I start working on my next one rather than pass out on my Dream.
sound advice – start small, stay focused. We have finally reached about 2500/month, but we would really like to get to 8000/mo. Keep pushing I guess. It’s taken about 3 years to get to the 2500 mark.
Hi Derek.
I love your work and the value you create for your followers. But this is why I’m not going to share my goals with you:
http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself.html
Have a blessed day.
Tailwinds,
Martin Pigg
Thank you for this video Derek. I guess the 10K per month IS a dream goal for most of us. And even though some of us have a better shot at it than others, it is never without a ton of work that it can be achieved. I have set myself realistic goals (much smaller) that represent a challenge too, but within reach give me hope and keep me motivated and creative everyday. I have tried what i call a “complete spaghetti” of options, and still haven’t found the right track. But i will continue to punch hard until i get a KO.
Thanks again!!
Great video Derek.
I’ll sit around and read your rest articles to get more inspiration.
My goal is $2000/mo but I am totally newbie as a marketer/blogger.
There is still a long way for me to go.
Leo
Great advice Derek. It’s true if people set they’re goals too high then it becomes too daunting a task, and they end up not following through. I’m first aiming for $100 per week in my business. I’ll work out working on my site and what’s not, and simply scale up on what is. Of course my dream goal is to be earning $10,000/month :).
My dream goal is to be the leader in high heeled footwear and sell 20 to 30 pairs of shoes per day (to Zappos, this is laughable)
My realistic goal is the selling of a single pair of shoes per day from my website. This will net $1200 per month after product cost and other expenses.
Talk about laughable, i am in the nutrition supplement business and trying to compete against bodybuilding.com My goal for now is to get a transaction everyday as well, that would put me in a good position to get some cash for additional marketing. Good luck !!
Inspirational video ever. Thank you Derek.
just started my website couple of months ago. Lets c how it goes.
And yes, my realistic and dream goal is to make 5k-7k$ per month. And i hope its self sufficient for me 🙂
The best part was the end out-take… I laughed out loud.
Derek – I recently wrote about how research by NYU’s Gabrielle Oettingen, which shows that setting unrealistic goals will cause your limbic system to act as if you already hit them, taking away your motivation to hit the goals. Setting small, incremental goals is one step in the process, but to truly get your entire mind engaged, you also need to picture the *benefits* of the final goal. You can see the research here: http://www.hullfinancialplanning.com/what-does-your-retirement-look-like/
Great advice. Baby steps with the big picture in mind.
Thanks Derek for the video; so comprehensive and helpful. Great mathematics
I feel that many people set their goals on the result – make X amount per period. This is OK, but I think a better way is to focus on the inputs that you think will get you to your output (the X’s that will give you the Y you want).
Bear with me here. The Y could be $1000/month, the X’s to that are so many post, so many hits, so many conversions, etc. I think it’s better to set goals based on these X’s. Examples would be:
– 10,000 visitors per month
– 20 posts per month
– 20 hours per week spent marketing
This way, you set things you know you can achieve, and you then measure the output (the Y). If you don’t hit where you wanted to go, then you need to adjust the X’s that you’re tracking or set different goals for them. This way, you can never be let down unless you just don’t put in the effort.
Great tips.
I’ll focus on my X’s in order to get my Y.
Whole lot of realistic sounding dream goals here. I’ll go big. My dream goal is 500k per year. As a realistic goal…I’d have to say 12k next year. That’s 1k per month. Still working on how I’m going to pull it off but I’m building a product for a niche market that will sell for $39. To do my thousand per month I’m going to need to do one sale per day. I think that’s fairly realistic!
Great video Derek, just found your site through your interview on the Smart Passive Income podcast…glad I did.
$100. Simple goal but reaching that goal will mean that I officially have my first product on the market.
I make more then that with affiliate products each month but the first $100 sale of my own product will signal the beginning.
To be honest, my man/ biz partner is so much better at the money and numbers part of the business. I should pay more attention to it, but I have a hard time going by numbers like that and breaking things down to the number of email subscribers, etc. I just keep interacting and putting out good content and paying attention to what people are really receptive to and do more of that.
With all due respect, I suggest you make it a habit of paying attention to the numbers or your partner or anyone else will take advantage of your disadvantage and you’ll end up with a valuable lesson learned. Think of the numbers like training practice and consistency. Build your number muscle. Cheers!
Thanks for this insight – I realize that I’ve been setting unrealistic monthly goals, but instead should be framing it according to getting to 10K (or similar goal) and then working on how to turn it around faster the 2nd time.. Happily have made the 10K goal, now the question is to turn it around faster.
Quick goal 1k mo. Medium 4k mo. Long 10k mo.
Hi Derek and the Insiders. Thank you for the great video(s). It isnt’t often you find inspiration,aspiratation, and legitimate instruction in the same place. Repeatedly and consistently.
I am a massage therapist, and my goals are not income based. Of course I want to make money, (warm fuzzy feelings don’t pay the electric bill), but I’ve set my goals in massages. Realistically, I’m looking for 10 massages a week. That’s 40 a month. (Math. Ugh.) Of those 40, I want at least 20 to be repeat clients. I currently have 3 “monthlies”. Yes, one is my mother. I’m still counting it.
My dream goal is to open a clinic and spa with 5 therapists, 2 admin associates, 3 cosmetologists/estheticians, and 3 “fluffers” (laundry and supplies). When the clinic/spa is profitable, I want to spend my massage hours treating pediatric rheumatology patients for as close to free as possible.
My “Do it now” goal is 15 massages a month. (This is my first month in business.) And for now, I’m still going to count my mom!
Thank you again, and warm fuzzy feelings to everyone!
Hey Derek just wanted to say thank you for the value, it is much appreciated.
Fantastic video Derek! You can’t just all of a sudden start making 10K per month. You have to start by earning that first $1.
In my business I thought about the elusive 10K per month as well and then put a plan into action that would get me there. I traded short term earnings for long term gains by developing a recurring payment system for my services which is actually much better for earning steady money and getting to the 10K per month number. I am not there yet but I am most certainly on my way and getting closer and closer each day.
Thanks for all the knowledge you have given me and the rest of the community.
TIMELY video! I’ve been writing down my goals every day, but not feeling sure how to hit the discrepancy between them and now!
My current goal is to earn $50,000 in one year, from a combination of voice-overs (well paying, but a bit hit and miss) and my business (which is still very new).
My SHORTER term goal is to earn an extra $500 from my business, between now and the end of January.
Wish me luck!
And thanks, your videos, podcasts and blogs RULE. They’re always so helpful, and I’m constantly telling people how they HAVE to read Social Triggers.
Ultimately I would love to make $100 000 per year. I currently work for someone and would like to first make at least the same amount in my own business. I’m going to start with $1000 in sales by the end of the year, then $500 per month until I make $1000. At that point I would have proved my concept works and start ramping it up. Great lesson Derek because sometimes you set such a big goal you have no idea where to start and time just goes by with nothing getting done.
Dream goal: Wow…my dream goal was never to be rich or do 100k/year. My dream goal is more like $70-80/year! (I dream big, I know…).
With that, my first realistic goal is to get ONE new client. “A” client is more like it. By November, I will have my first client. December, 2 clients.
Thanks, Derek. Sometimes we miss the little things and just get overtaken with the big picture. Great article!
Dream goal: Become a globe Trekker.
Realistic goal: Do short films to boost my acting career.
This did get me thinking…I did about 5 minutes of research to find out more about Globe Trekkers and where they started. And most of them started to travel. Most of them didn’t have any experience on the screen or on stage. They have travel experience. So, maybe my realistic goal should be to travel somewhere new each month or every other month.
That would be cool…right?
I’m transitioning from being a jill-of-all trades freelancer, doing whatever I can in my skill set to make money, to a single-focus entrepreneur. I would also like to transition from doing all in-person work to being able to work from home. This means developing a product that can be delivered by phone or online.
The easiest next step is to offer sessions with clients via skype. So my first goal is to sell one skype session at $100. Then to sell 100 sessions to make my first 10K.
Dude…. Omg…. I now understand why your website is so popular….
My goal is seriously to make enough to not have to get a job for the man. I dont’ care about being rich. All I want to do is do boxing for half the day and play guitar for the other half…
I love this video! It’s where I’m at right now… with zero income, and lofty goals. My “big goal” is six figures a year. My “more realistic goal” for right now (or asap) is $2,000 per month net income. So far this month I’ve made $55 with my new copywriting business…. step by step I’ll get there…
Thanks for all your videos and blogs, Derek, I enjoy them all!
Sarah
Love this – reminds me why I read the Compound Effect. The part where you say set a realistic goal and then another fits right in with what Darren Hardy writes in his book. My goal is to hit 10k/month and fortunately for me I am over 1/2 there. So to get to the 10k/month my goal is to build and launch 3 products in the next 3 month. They are already built – I just need to get off my butt and start launching.
My dream goal is to be Editor-In-Chief at Harper’s Bazaar. My realistic goal is to get a job in the fashion industry after graduation.
Great video Derek. Goals are critical to success. Breaking those goals down into action steps makes your goals manageable. That’s why I developed Actionplanr.com, a simple goal-setting and project planning software program for people who want to get more done in work and life without all stress. Keep up the great work!
I found out for myself that money is just a means, but happiness you can not buy, it’s for free
Thanks for the video, Derek.
My dream goal is to one day own and run a successful vegan bakery, with at least one second location in Europe.
My realistic goal is to start out as a small business, selling my pastries at food festivals and events like VegFest and Smorgasburgh. I’m doing this one step at a time, starting with developing a social media page & website. I definitely will include an email opt-in as you previously suggested!
Thanks again 🙂
Shoshana,
I just had to reply to you b/c I LOVE your goal to open a vegan bakery (multiples ones, it seems, in different locations). I used to be 100% vegan, and I admit to “slacking” a little as of late. Currently I’m probably about “75% vegan.” But anyway, I LOVE LOVE LOVE to see all-vegan restaurants, cafes, and bakeries! My city doesn’t have any currently, but there are two in the works which I’m super excited about! I’ve been to other cities that have a much more thriving vegan community. It’s great to see!
Anyway, best of luck in your plans!! You’ll get there! 🙂
Sarah
Thanks Derek, Halpem the vidio, motivates me, and makes me realize that I am not alone,
I am starting up. to make a living, if I end up rich ,fine, if not, then at least I am creating my own destiney.
Thanks, Derek, great video and awesome tip!
I was in the same trap too – when I launched my web-site and thought it was all good to go, I put a goal for myself to start earning 4000euro per month (even though I calculated that I needed around 15-17 clients a month) That’s waay too high when starting with zero subscribers, sales, etc.. Thus I was super disappointed when month after month I couldn’t be any close to that number.
Turned around my whole thinking about it now – decided to keep my biz as a weekend hobby and start with 2-3 clients per month.
Thanks for a great reminder on realistic vs dream goals! Super useful video as usual
Thanks for the advice Derek.I have a lot of dream goals in my mind but I have only one realistic goal-to make $20k a month:)
My dream goal is to be able to make enough money for my family and I to travel anywhere we choose at the drop of a hat. I think that the mid six-figures is a good spot to make that happen.
Since I should live in the real world I want to make enough money to pay the bills and eventually put more away for retirement. Something along the lines of 2k-3k should be sufficient.
Great video Derek!
Thank you.
My dream goal is like everyone else “six figures” online yearly income.
I have started 2 months ago. I am doing my bus in a very good way offline but As much as I am good in closing sales offline, I am bad online.
My realistic goal is to close 10 sales online by the end of this year which is one sale a week.
I hope everyone can reach his goals and dreams.
Turn online into offline by asking for a phone number or offering up your own. 🙂
Thanks Jim.
I am new online. I am targeting people from another countries now. I offer my number. They will need to deal with me online but yah I can call them in certain stage and that can give a big push. I ll follow your advice and ask my customers their phones and I can have a skype meeting with them too. I feel stupid not to think about it!
Thanks a lot. for the idea!
My life goal as BIG extremely BIG ( As an experiment) – and I notice it helps me put things in perspective it makes me think more effective and bold when i start up projects.
And it attract a stream of money from the day i started this intention !
My next year realistic goal is 70.000 Dollars
my dream goal is to have 60 billion 🙂 over my whole life.
The intention is to build up at international network of Zen Coaches that spread peace in the world.
Big Smile from Tine
I’m interested to just earn $1k passively for one month, trading forex and selling my ebook and offering membership for my signal.
I’m planning end of October to hit 100% on my trading capital so that I have something to show.
Problem is I’m not good at writing content. What should I do?
My dream goal is to make $5000 a month. My realistic goal is $500 a week. Sometimes I make $1,000 a week, which seemed impossible a year ago! but then I’ll make $200 the next week. It’s a crazy up and down ride but the overall shift is upward and as a full time artist that is pretty amazing.
thanks Derek – I much prefer your short educational videos to the long podcasts.
Great advice yet again Derek. Took some guts to go with such a spammy headline as well!
Keep it coming!
My dream goal is to get 20 people to sign up for my new program within 1 week and at least ten more each additional week, for the next month. I have 10,000 newsletter subscribers, so that should help, along with my social media presence. Plus, I know it’s something that women with ADHD will find helpful. : )
Thanks for crushing my dreams. Oh well, back to the drawing board :-/
Dream Goal – my blog makes enough money that my husband can quit his job…Realistic Goal – that my blog makes $100 each month
Hi Derek!
Nice video! My dream goal is 10k/month. My plan
1. Start working clients to get use to this new adventure (from optometrist to sales coach). Objective: gain social proof. Done.
2. Set my LinkedIn profile, web and product. In progress.
3. Earn online customers. In progress.
4. Start making money, step by step
5. Reach my dream goal & have a nice trip to PR.
Derek showing his wallet reminds me of what happens after my kids catch up to me on a Friday night.
Great information. Aim small miss small especially when starting out.
Hey Derek, thanks, great kick in the butt!
Hey Derek – thanks so much for this! Reminded me to break some goals down to biddy goals and tasks. Often the bigger goals seem to stop me in my tracks. Fab advice. PS And I like what Nathalie Lussier mentions and breaking it down by three months. Love it.
Goal $150/day
Dream goal: Owe nothing and pay upfront for everything. Including the yacht with a helipad.
I was making about $200/year with Adsense on a crappy website. When I realized the potential I took down the site and now am rebuilding it along with 2 other sites.
As content is growing so are visits and the EMAIL LIST. $200 a day isn’t far off. I made .09 cents yesterday and three clicks to my Amazon store.
BYOB(Be Your Own Boss) 2014. Good luck everyone.
My goal is to work full time as a freelance copywriter. Obviously, I need to make enough money to pay the bills, but I have a hard time using a dollar amount as my motivation.
I do, however, try to break my dream goal down into more realistic goals.
First, I set my goal to get one paying client, but that didn’t pan out for awhile and I started to get frustrated.
Then I broke it down further and set my goal to simply having a conversation with a potential client. That way, even if things didn’t pan out, I at least got some practice talking to prospects and began to learn what people want and what their concerns are.
I find it a lot less stressful when I just focus on creating more opportunities to talk to prospects. I’m concerned that if I think of every consultation as an opportunity to hit a financial quota, it will be harder for me to focus on my customer’s needs and make sure we’re actually a good fit.
Then again, I’m still a long way away from being a full-time freelancer, so maybe I need to adjust my thinking…?
Thanks for the great video Derek. While $10,000 per month is a
future goal at some point- now would be very happy with $300- $500
per month and building on that to get to $1,000 per month within
six months and growing from there.
Enjoy all of your articles and video’s- Thanks again…
My dream goal is to have a thriving Chinese medicine practice and yoga studio, and have my website be a primary source for people looking for information on natural health and wellness. My realistic goal is to continue getting my name out there and collect emails for my email list, and perhaps to begin selling month-long wellness programs online.
Sound good? 😀
Love your informative and down to earth videos. Couldn’t agree more and this is exactly how I have just reached my dream goal. But now I have reached it, I now have set a new dream goal. I also monitor my progress on a daily basis so that I always know how I am tracking. 🙂
Dream goal: 20k/month
Realistic goal: 1k/month
Initial goal: Make $1 this year
Tony, I totally hear you. Initial goal make some money soon!
From what I hear the Fizzle guys say, it’s important to make that first buck just so that you know that this thing is possible. I’m looking forward to that first dollar… 🙂
Dream goal: $15,000 per month
Realistic goal: Side Income of $100/month by Dec 31, 2013
I think Derek has a goal of upping the game on his style…looking sharp.
Right now I make zip. But then, I’m not offering a product right now or doing anything to monetize my site. My goal would be to make $2-3k a month by this time next year. I’d love to be able to quit my part time job and when I meet this goal I’ll be able to! I guess my stepping stones goals would be 1) finish creating my product 2) aim for my first $200, then $500 and $500 again until I get to $3k. Then I’ll start upping my goals. I love this idea. It’s it a forehead slapper, but it needed to be said and me to hear it! Thanks again Derek.
Is something wrong with me that I want $1m a year and that is not even the Dream goal..
Everyone is upto $100k/year with a few who have gotten around 200-250k/year.
Hmm.
P.s just starting out. So probably makes it worse…
Derek I currently have about 50-75 unique visitors to my blog everyday. Of course I would like 20,000 unique visitors everyday, but like you said that isn’t going to happen overnight. My blog has been up for 3 months and I am currently trying to set realistic goals to get 200 visitors a day. Right now, I am commenting on other blogs, tweeting them, and using social media sites. I am also going to start emailing and contacting other bloggers for guest contribution and collaboration projects so that their readers are directed to my site. Any other advice for me? I am a new student that desperately wants to soak in as much advice and information as I can get. I had this blog in the works for about a year and it really pushed me to start doing my dream after I was laid off from my full time job 3 months ago. I currently am making $0 and looking to make this my full time job. Thank you again for listening. – Alecia
Great advice, Derek, and super-helpful to avoid overwhelm. I think so often as human beings we get stuck in this “all or nothing” mentality and can’t conceive of the bridge between where we are now and where we want to be. Especially when “where we want to be” is such a huge, cavernous leap from “where we are now”!
For me, my dream goal (ginormous, cavernous leap, though it may be) is to help the young people of the world to learn ALL the stuff that we as adults wish we knew when we were their age so they can jump into adulthood as successful, happy, passionate people. My realistic goal is to start with some baby steps, like creating a small focus group with some kids I know and love, and bounce some ideas off them first.
Such a helpful reminder to start small, keep moving forward, and have faith that the big vision will come as a result of all those small actions. Thank you!
Hi Derek,
My Dream Goal is to become a Personal Stylist. My target market is helping women who’ve become mothers get themselves and their “hot” back, or women who’ve never felt they had it. I have a blog that I update 3-4 times per month. Current income $0. In fact I am in the hole about $1500 for buying the supplies to use to help me see clients, and making my website. My realistic goal: Get my supplies all ready and start to see clients.
i have a website that makes around $ 4500 i want to triple that i will do more of attraction marketing and do more guest blogging
I’m actually not really sure that this is the right way to achieve what you are trying to do.
Why?
Because if you have a really high target, let’s say $1 000 000 per year and you are trying to reach that target, this means that if you achieve half of that during the year that would be more than $500 total revenue as you are saying.
So the idea is to set a really high target, ignore everything that is small, work hard and reach the level you want and you are looking for.
If you are trying to make $500 per month or per year and it takes a lot of time you are going to say “well, I spent so much time only for $500 and there is no way to automate the process? That’s bad …”
Derek, the only way to make $10k per month is to work HARD, really HARD, no matter what it cost you need to work hard. During the time people are having fun outside, you need to work, during the time they are sleeping, you need to work. That’s the recipe.
And the most important , you should say “I CAN do it! Why other people can and I can’t? What’s the difference between me and them?” The answer is that there is no difference actually. It just depends how much you want to do something and how much do you want to succeed in something.
Vince Lobardi said “Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man. Sooner or later the man who wins in the man who thinks he can” so I can explain that pretty simple:
– Set your highest target
– Learn from the other people who are on the top of the market
– Start with 1 business
– The possiblity to fail with your business is 70%
– If you fail, start another business
Sooner or later you will have a successful business and you will have enough experience not to fail anymore.
THEN you will be able to earn, not $10k per month, but even $100k per month because you know how NOT to fail.
Think about this Derek. I already implemented that in my life and I can assure you, it’s very successful 😉
Im hoping to get 250-500 a month with online fitness coaching. As ive just started Id like that to be in the first 2-3 months. My honest dream is to do around 3000 a month.
Id like the full on extravagant life but im honestly simply happy with being potentially comfortable and realistic that im in a competitive niche.
Thanks for the great content
Jamie
Great insight,
That part with the wallet thing was awesome!
I think you are totally right because sometimes we think so much in the big things that we aren’t willing to do the small steps that will actually take there.
We should dream big but act small BUT act consistently and always checking that we are on the right track, change strategies if it isn’t working for us UNTIL we reach our goal
As in right now my main goal is to have all my products ready I want that so bad because I am seriously creating them for my self to use also!
It will probably take me until December to do that but my plan is to work for companies training their employees so I can earn the money I need to invest while I expand my reach
It is great to see there are so many of us persuing our goals and dreams!
Best of all,
Nelson
Love the way you break things down Derek. For some reason what should be obvious often is not in terms of what it takes to get from where you are to where you want to be. My realistic goal is to make $25 a day from affiliate sales consistently, at $3,000 a month my life would change dramatically, at $10,000 a month lives of my whole family would change.
Great video as per usual!!! Very encouraging 🙂
My dream goal with my newly developed online store (in the making) is definitely 100k profit/year! My realistic goal is finding three paying customers, then 3 paying customers/month, then a week, then a day, etc., and then keep growing exponentially…I’m focusing on developing a profitable/efficient business system with happy customers first and I believe the revenue will follow 🙂
Great advice Derek. I’m aiming for 5 sales through my links and 5 sales of my books. Starting very small.
Thanks for the videos
Fionna
Great advice about setting realistic goals and taking action. BTW, your video completion rate must be very high because I always stick around for the blooper at the end. Great idea!
I also noticed the new “Play” button icon in your email. I have only one other email list that included the same icon–guess what, I clicked them both! Even though the YouTube is not embedded in the email message, the illusion that it is embedded is compelling and must result in more clicks. You are always the innovator!
Hey Derek!!
Great topic for a video!
Anthony Robbins had a great example of this. At one of his seminars, he had a guy who was a CEO. He was earning $2M / year. He had a body fat percentage of something low – I think it was 13%. He had an amazing wife and family. But this guy did not think he was a success. The other CEOs he knew were earning $4M / year. He thought his body fat percentage should be 9%. Etc. He was a guy who was succeeding at the highest levels and his high standards did not let him feel like a success.
Then, also in the room, there was this other guy. He was bouncing off the walls. So full of energy and love for life. Did he consider himself a success? You bet! Anthony asked him: what are your criteria for calling yourself a success? He said: Anthony, every day I’m above ground is a good day! So, he was automatically a success every day he was living.
The other thing to mention about the 6 figures thing is that this $100K a year thing is very contextual. For a young guy or gal straight out of uni it’s a lot of money. For someone mid career in the corporate world, already earning $150K-$250K / year, $100K might be like the bare minimum they need to earn in order to keep paying the mortgage and supporting their family. $100K is NOT the ‘big dream’ for them, it’s a subsistence level basic income they need from a viable business. And for people for whom it’s a NEED, where they MUST succeed to that level, they are going to find a way to it much more quickly, or have a 2 or 3 year transition plan in place where they start their business on the side and keep the day job going, or get out of the game much more quickly if it’s not working for them. To them, earning just $100K / year might be a significant income cut.
Realistic Goal: 2-3 copywriting workshop clients / mo. ($4,300+)
1 ghostwriting book gig / mo. ($5,000)
Dream Goal: 30-50 copywriting workshop clients* / mo. ($43,000+)
10 ghostwriting book gigs* / mo. ($50,000)
* will finally be blessed to have a team
Love this advice. Will incorporate this into my Dream Board. (Something ELSE that frustrates me. LOL)
Thanks, Derek.
Wow, I really needed this video! I just spent the past two days tearing my hair out (metaphorically) because of my unrealistic goal (based on my dreamline…) 4K euros per month… and I’m exactly like you described: I have zero revenue and never got started yet.
After watching this video my new realistic goal is to earn my first 1,000 euro by end of 2013 ie basically earn one month’s salary 🙂 Since I sell 60 euro products, I need to sell 16 to reach that goal.
good luck ,
Love your stuff, Derek! About 30 seconds in, I had to pause your video to send it to a friend who I know will be all over your work! You do this so well!
My first goal is to figure out if I want to build an agency again or not. Yes, or no. I have no idea at this point, but I’ll know by the end of this month! So that’s my goal – certainly not a biggie, but lots to think about!
It is an AWESOME article. I’ve been thinking about to set these small goals as well. I live in Hungary, so we have a different currency. My monthly wage in USD is around 450$ so if I could make 1k$ each month I would be more than happy! My niche is selling hip-hop/rap/rnb beats online and my dream goal is to live as a music producer because that is what I’m doing. I know a couple of big names in my niche and their monthly income going around 20k$ which is amazing. I can’t even imagine to make that ammount of money just like breathing at all because music is like air to me.
So my first goal is to have 500$ per month through automated sells and then 1k$ per month and keep going. Ain’t no stop 🙂
How is that in 3 mins you make more sense than most hour long training videos!
Derek,
what a great message. The business goal is to make 3 sales a week. This equals $350 per sale and recurring revenues of $55 per month.
We have just begun hitting these marks and are discussing how we begin to duplicate the process on a consistent basis.
So is seems to resonate with your message.
Love your message and Social Triggers Podcasts, thanks
Love this!
My blog is all about finding ways to get organised so you can live the life you want, and all too often I get readers giving up as they have the dream goal of “being organised”, trouble is, no-one is perfectly organised, and so they are ultimately bound to fail, so I help to realign their goals to tackle one thing at a time.
If you are only focussing on the end goal, you miss so much success along the way that can ultimately give you the push to carry on.
Thanks!
My dream goal is 1,100 a month. My realistic goal is like 600$ total I can invest back into my business.
Ironically, I just had my first $10,000 month. The cheque (literally) arrived in the mail yesterday from one affiliate (it was actually $15,564.60 based on two months of sales). And this revenue is the result of a tutorial I had created nearly 2 years prior!
Mr. Halpern is absolutely right — $10,000 is too daunting as a goal. $500 is doable in a fairly short amount of time. Aim for that….and you may be surprised one day when a four (or five) figure cheque arrives at your front door (like it just did for me).
Ahhh this is so good! My favorite thing to do with my clients is break down the math for them. It’s always eye opening.
My dream goal is $15k/month (more some months, and NONE other months).
My more realistic goal is $8k/month (but still more some months, none some months)
I love this video Derek and your no-nonsense approach to breaking down big goals. I think 10K, 20K, 100K are such big nebulous concepts that if you’re not earning anything yet it can just be too overwhelming.
Another concept that’s really helpful is to think in quarters of the year. A month is a short amount of time if you don’t yet have any traction in your business. But 3 months is enough of a chunk of time to get a lot done, and it’s usually enough to make lots of progress and money. 🙂
I started researching the real estate market. During my lunch break I interview real estate agents about their biggest problem in their industry.
My dream goal is to have validated an idea by new year and from there get 3 paying customers after another 3 months.
Realistic goal: Have 3 valuable interviews per week.
I’m an email subscriber and I always get psyched to see new emails from you, especially ones with videos. I think you do a fantastic job of showing just how much you enjoy what you do when you video.
As a social psychologist, I love your stuff. This post/video especially is great because it applies ev-ery-where. I’m a college professor and I blog about parenting for fun. I tell my students about this same phenomenon – don’t try to write a 10-page paper, write a one page summary. Then do it again. And again. Pretty soon you’ll be done.
I recently added two friends as authors to my blog and they have these lofty goals of followers and email lists and X, Y, Z, and I’m like, “Great ideas for the long-term, but let’s be realistic month to month. When we don’t have a product besides our content, we’re not goaling about money, we’re making goals about other things.”
And the vest is good. I like it.
“Great ideas for the long-term, but let’s be realistic month to month. When we don’t have a product besides our content, we’re not goaling about money, we’re making goals about other things.”
Great insight, Liz!
Because this is so much of a money driven society, sometimes it’s easy to forget the tasks/things that lead to the money. So, it just makes sense that they would, and should, be a part of the goals.
Thanks for that reminder.
And you too, Derek…for bringing up the topic.
Another excellent post Derek.
Setting realistic goals will eventually lead to monetization.
Right now I am concentrating on driving traffic to my site.
All the rest will follow.
Very engaging Derek, your videos keep getting better! And of course great content!
Hi Derek,
My dream goal is to pay off approx. $150000 in debt so I can spend my time searching for a soul mate.
My realistic goal is to finish some SEO tutorials amd apply them so my website starts generating some interest and sell one of my truck along with some other unneeded possessions. Also to network and cold call until I at least get a small contract. Meanwhile, I can still be looking for a soul mate.
This video has been very helpful
thanks
Great Tip Derrick. Sometimes I think when I set a small goal, I don’t put in as much effort if I were to make a bigger goal. What do you say about that Derrick?
What if the small goal was a part of the bigger goal Billings? Wouldn’t that be motivational? 🙂 If you keep a log or document with your goals and watch them increase until you get to that big one I think it could help.
When I was playing poker I learned one thing really important.
Have one goal.
AND
multiple targets.
You cannot beat 400$/800$ cash game players right now, but it is a great goal.
You want to target a positive ROI at the 0.05$/0.10$ tables first,
Then Target 0.25$ table where you could make a good income when you played well.
Thank you for remembering me that
my current target is to have
1600$/month income ( this mean 3 to 5 more clients )
My second target is to have so much work to do that I need a full time employee.
My goal is to have my seo business bring me 300 000$/year with all the great stuff around seo, affiliate website and link sell.
Thanks for the insightful tips Derek!
As a Wedding & Event Planner, business is VERYYY seasonal. I only launched my business July last year, my goal was to book at least 10 clients in my first year…. but I only booked 4. Moving into my 2nd year, I still want to hit 10 clients!
DREAM GOAL: 25 clients = $200,000 p/year (on average)
REALISTIC GOAL: 10 clients = $60-$80,000 p/year (on average)
WISH ME LUCK!!! 🙂
Thanks a lot for that video Derek.
The topic reminded me of an article that I read recently.
The topic of that article is why most people in our generation are unhappy with what they’ve achieved or haven’t achieved. Therein also lies the big reason for procrastination. Because we think that everyone else is making $10,000 (to take your example), we think that we also need to make at least $10,000 and much more. That’s actually a pretty cool goal, and here comes the big BUT:
Everyone of us plans to travel to Mars without even being able to travel to the nearest city. Successes are built bit by bit. In your interview with Marc Ecko you mentioned how you started out some time ago with that celebrity website. That’s pretty awesome, and I think you understood something back then that most people still don’t understand: Successes are built by taking babysteps. The book “The Kaizen Way” by Robert Maurer teaches the same thing – babysteps. Dreaming big and being very ambitious isn’t bad in itself. But most of us, myself included, set such high expectations that can never be met. Thus, we procrastinate.
What we should do instead is to NOT set extremely high expectations and goals (and you summarised it pretty well in your video by differentiating between ‘realistic goals’ and ‘dream goals’). First we should try to achieve something small, and once we’ve achieved that we should continue set ourselves slightly more difficult goals.
To come back to the article I mentioned in the beginning, your video gave me the last bit of understanding that was necessary to make the picture complete in my mind. I’m now ready to take the next steps in order to make my blog successful amongst the men of this world.
Because you’ve asked:
My dream goal is to make $40,000 every two months. That should be $480,000 per year. However, I’m currently making $0, so the more realistic goal for now is to get some subscribers first. I want to get 10 subscribers in October. And then hopefully 10 more in November. The other goal is to write 10 high-quality articles on my blog in October/November.
Thanks again for that video. It was exactly what I needed today!
Best wishes,
Steve
Hi Derek,
thank you for this, it is really spot on! This is something I naturally gravitated towards anyway so it feels great to have it confirmed from you!
Great advice!
Derek, first let me say that the vest was hysterical! It was very hard for me to focus because I was truly laughing out loud! As far as goals, my goal as a soapmaker is to one day be as big as Burt’s Bees. I want my products to be in stores across the nation. I am working on this goal, one boutique and gift store at a time. I also pour candles for a national company and ship products worldwide. I am slowly but surely setting monthly, yearly, and five year goals for myself and my company. I also read motivational material, and follow motivational speakers like yourself. When I reach my goal, I’ll let you know!
Great advice. I totally agree with setting realistic goals and I remember learning about making your goals S.M.A.R.T. The thing is remembering that when the time comes and not getting ahead of ourselves which can only set us up for “failure” and then in turn, make us feel disappointed and we are likely to throw in the towel. Small steps are better than no steps or steps backward.
Hey Derek,
Great Video. Interestingly enough I had emailed Pat F. about this very topic just last week. I told him that my “realistic goal” would be to consistently make $1000/month in the next 3 months. Ultimately, I would like to take that to between $8-10K/month.
I had explained that I could see opportunity everywhere but in my own back yard. I feel like I have a great niche to work out of, but cannot see how to implement what I am learning from folks like you, Pat, Cliff, Dave, Michael, etc.
I see what you are saying, because I am truly starting from no income (online). I have an income from my day job that I am using to help fuel my platform and my life.
The big question is, how to go from zero duckets to generating an income that would help contribute to the family.
I am not a dreamer, and nor do I believe I can get rich quick. I want to build, grow, and do the work it takes.
take care…. keep up the good work.
Here are the results of a personal study of my own approach to “making money”:
• Started with the goal to make a lot of $$$$$
• After 20 years with that same goal, I still hadn’t made a lot of $$$$$
• Had the realization that if my goal was to make a lot of $$$$$, I shouldn’t be doing anything else but what it takes to make a lot of $$$$$
• Did a little research to find out what makes a lot of $$$$$
• Had the realization that none of the quickest ways to make $$$$$ were what I wanted to do to make $$$$$
• Had the realization that maybe I should revisit my goal
• Realized that my original goal — to make a lot of $$$$$ — could not be packaged in and of itself as something useful and valuable to others
• Decided that instead of making my goal be “to make a lot of $$$$”, I would make my goal be “to become the best at doing the kind of work I love to do” and “share the result of doing my best work with those who need and want it” — the sharing part being the most important
• Realized that I now had something of value to share and contribute to an exchange with others
• Started a food blog with my wife in 2012 that sees over 2 million visits in the first 18 months of its existence; and we’re thoroughly enjoying the benefits of not only what we receive, but what others say they received by sharing what they got from us
Hope that helps.
Derek, I’m new to internet marketing. I listened to The Solopreneur Hour. My dream goal is to be living in Okinawa Japan as a profitable internet marketer. When my internet income replaces my J.O.B.!! $5-6000 a month.
My short term realistic goal is to define my niche, get a mentor, and make my first $100.
Semper Fi,
Jim
I could handle $10,000 per month, but I’d be happy with less. I’m shooting for a dream goal of $6,000 (or even $5,000) per month with my own business.
Realistic goal is to switch from a 10o% service model to introducing some info products online. Planning to release my first ebook before the end of the year.
Thanks for the video Derek!
I’m currently making $500 per month from my leadership training for teachers and high school students. My dream goal is to make 5k-10k a month with it.
My realistic goal is to double my income to $1000 per month. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
Great video, Derek! It is so much more approachable to focus on a small goal rather than expecting crazy amounts of passive income to just roll in and get discouraged when it doesn’t.
My dream goal is simply to make enough that I can support myself fully from online revenue, so maybe $50k a year to start out. My realistic goal is to reach that first $500 in a month.
Dream goal: 8k per month. Current reality: 3.5k per month. I’m breaking it down into the first 1k. And then the next 1k. In under 6 months, I’ll reach my goal!
Nice going Val!
Thanks for the video, Derek.
Dream Goal: Create an opt-in email list of over 25,000 subscribers.
Realistic goal: Create an opt-in email list of 3 subscribers.
Right now, I’m at zero so three subscribers would be progress!
This is a great video Derek.
I’m totally going to out myself here and my dream goal is to reach a consistent $15 – $20k per month. Keyword here is consistent.
I’ve been fortunate enough to launch several times and have no problem clearing that, but I’m still putting the systems in place to make sure that stays the norm in between launches. I’m even happy if it spikes during launch months and then goes down no lower than $10k during off months.
So – I think my realistic goal is to get $10k to stick every single month – then when I launch – it’ll feel like a bonus.
Did that answer both your q’s?
-Anne
Hi Derek,
1st off – I love your style and your advice.
2nd – I’m making about 4K right now per month, I’d love to get to 7K by upping my marketing game. I just wish there was more time in a day. With two babies under the age of 2…finding time is my issue.
Gr8 Job Susie. You’re building future for those little ones. Keep it up.
Hi Susie,
as a mother of two wild boys (2 and 4 years old) I know exactly what you´re talking about 🙂 It is a challenge, I admire you for making even what you are making now! Respect.
Wow, nice going Susie!
Hi Derek
I did have a monetary goal but, like you, I realised it was not going to happen in my timeframe and I was starting to disappoint myself.
I changed my main goal and set it to create a 15 good quality webpages a week, 1 youtube video a week and complete my first ebook by the end of new year.
On the whole, besides when I had to do lots of overtime at work, I am keeping to my goal and know that it will pay off eventually. I am also learning more about SEO, analytics and marketing psychology (mainly from you) on the way, which is a major bonus.
I feel a lot better knowing I am attaining my goals and that they will, and are paying off.
Thanks Derek
Thank you so much for your videos! I’m following since half a year now and there are always great advices.. Thank you thank you thank you so much for all this!
While reading this and watching the video, i thought about what you were saying and realised this would work for my private life as well! I will never be able to spend a week on holiday with my parents right now but i could start going regularly for dinner. Just a stupid example but it gets the point 🙂
Thank you again! 🙂
Just went through my paypal records, and I made about $500 a month over the last few months after paypal got their cut (I didn’t take out shipping fees and other fees I paid, though). In October, I’m not on pace to make that amount via paypal, but I’ll collect at least $1200 from clients paying with cash or wire transfers.
My new goal is to make $1500 a month CONSISTANTLY, while not working quite so hard to get it. Trying to learn how to take advantage of automation and outsourcing. I’m still on the learning curve, but I’m reading a lot and being more disciplined with marking my progress with records, not by how I feel. As an artist, that’s hard… but I’m thankful for people who help me stay motivated!
Hey Derek. You really need to do more video bloopers. It brings the real in and makes us connect better with you. Anyhow had a multimillion dollar mentor that taught that you can only realistically see twice your income level. So so if you make 4k/ month realistically you can only believe for 6-8K per month. So as you achieve the reasonable achievable goals you can learn, tweak, repeat and accelerate… over time you climb the 10K mountain and bigger. It’s very important to do it this way because you must develop the skills. The reason is that everything is bigger at the bigger income. The problems and challenges are bigger and if you don’t learn to develop the necessary skills at the lower levels and get thrown in to the bigger level, you will ultimately cave under the pressure because your not trained for it yet. It would be like getting some one in the gym who has never lifted weights before and throwing them under a 400lb bench press. Get the crushing image. So yes dream big but develop the muscles at the lower levels, then you can climb mount Everest. Great post.
Roger, that’s a great insight about realistically seeing only twice your current income level. Great stuff to reflect on!
When I saw the title of your newsletter I was like: “I know this is spam, but I’m still going to open it and read it!”
Got me here. Saw the video. Haha. 🙂
Mistakenly I thought the same, but after reading the article and watching the video I felt much more motivated to pursue my goals.
So what did I learn from this?
That Derek’s mails aren’t spam and are actually helpful. I’m glad I came 🙂
I have been applying this idea myself but never had it so clearly defined. I will also be applying this to my learning French. Thanks for another great life lesson!
Crazy, I was just thinking about this exact topic this morning! I’ve been making $1,000/month, and I was daydreaming about making 10K/month. And I realized I had absolutely no idea how I would ever make that much. I can’t even imagine it. I pulled out a calculator and started playing with numbers, trying to figure out how it would even be possible. And then I realized I was wasting my time. It’s pointless to even think about, except as a dream goal. Instead, I calculated how I could line up $1,500 next month — which is totally doable. Maybe I’ll aim for $2,000 the month after that. 🙂
Lisa,
I had to reply to you to say first, congratulations, very few people make a $1000 a month. The other thing I have to say (and +Derek Halpern I hope you will start thinking of doing this) you have to have a dream goal and make a strategic plan and work back from that goal to figure out how you can get to it. I have a coach who has helped me make a strategic plan that I could make $100,000 in five year and (fingers crossed) $24000 next year starting with blogging, membership site, workshops and coaching. I have a Strategic Plan and with my coachs
help, I know what I have to do to get to the goal. So, Derek, if you are listening, I expect you can help with strategic planning or know who can help. So keep on with this videos! Jane
Love that! Realistic goals really are the stepping stones.
My income before Blog That Converts was $1,000 per month. Now, it’s a steady $4,000 per month. Since taking your course (which I LOVED!) I focused in on one thing… and did it really, really well, then moved on to the next. This insanely simple tactic, that I just didn’t practice until I went through your course, really helped my business grow. My realistic goal is to get to $7,000 a month by February 2014 and $10,000 by June 2014. Whoop! Totally doable!
Thanks for another awesome video 😉
That’s very inspiring Leanne! Focus has been hard for me to achieve as I always feel like I’d be missing out on something, and your post here gives me more confidence to do it. Thanks for sharing!
Snazzy vest, Derek.
The video was good, too. 🙂
Thats great to hear – I’d love to take that course
Dream goal is to make $100,000/yr online so that my wife and I can continue working from home. Our new authority site is slowly gathering steam. We’ve set monetary baby milestone goals for our site: 1$, 10$/month, 1$/day, 100$/month, $1000/yr…. So far we’re working on first 100$/month.
My dream goal was to make 20k per month with my 2 niche sites. But I have yet to hit $200! This video was definitely a good reminder of what I have to do to get there.
My new goal is $800. I think I can hit it now that my goal is smaller so is my to-do list.
Thank you!
Great advice! I hold a revenue target as a HAG (hairy audacious goal), eg ultimately I’d like to achieve 20k per month, but then break that down into what I would need to give in return for that amount of revenue. Then dissect it further and work out what I need to do today to get to the point that I can give that much.
For example, I am only just creating my site, so I need to get that channel up and running to create awareness, however I also need to talk to one person a day about my passion and let them know my site is coming. And as soon as my site has some content, I will create some buzz for its launch etc etc. so the revenue goal gets filed away and replaced in my thinking with the actions I need to take to move towards it.
Hope that makes sense.
Ps. Love the vest!
HAG…..that’s awesome Samantha! Reminds me of Martha Beck’s WIGs…http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Wildly-Improbable-Goals.
My goal is $20k/month too. Can pretty much do what you want with that kind of dough rolling in.
Thanks for this vid Derek (nice vest). How long has it been since your wallet was empty? 😉
I finally got myself to take baby steps. My realistic goal is to sell 50 copies of my fitness program (program guide and DVD/digital download) at $25 each. I can easily accomplish this by selling to my family and friends. Next I’ll survey them and ask them how the product can be improved and what they’d like to see in the future. A big question in my mind for future progression toward my dream goal is should I make additional $25 products so that I have a small series of individual items to sell so that my dedicated customers have more to buy. Or should I begin a monthly subscription service at $25 per month. I want to find out what my customers are willing to pay for. To achieve my long term dream goal of $20,000 gross revenue per month I will need 800 subscribers ($25 per month) or 800 monthly sales of my book/DVD programs ($25 per unit). The subscription service sounds better because I need fewer customers. However it’s not better if no one buys it. I’m within about a week of launching my website. I currently have 500 people on my mailing list and will start building on that list as I move out of product development mode and into marketing mode.
Let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks for the great content!
Drew
Awesome video! I have my goals all sorted out, big and small, how to get there etc. It’s videos like this one that remind me I’m on the right track and patience is important!
One of my dream goals (that helps all my other goals) is to have 1 million page views a month. My realistic goal (the one my to do list reflects) is to get my SEO traffic to reach my Pinterest traffic…. that seems far less overwhelming!
Great info here Derek!
A lot of people tend to come into business and want to “get rich quick” and when they find out, that it actually takes a significant amount of time to get there, then they quit.
However, the key here is to start earning your first $100, $500, $2000 etc dollars, and then to constantly try to grow that, because if in business you are able to already earn some type of a money, then you can always find ways to multiply that as well, and this is how you get exponential growth!
Martin
When my income was zero, I knew I’d get to $10k per month. I disappointed myself for two years, but I got there. My goal for Write Ahead for next year is $250k and with help I think we can reach it – but we’re still aiming for incremental revenue increases that will get us to that goal month over month. I find these sorts of challenges really fun. Thanks for the motivation!
Nice one Derek! I am all about setting the big goal but breaking it down into digestible steps.
When it comes to money, especially for those jumping from working for someone else to working for themselves, I want to stress that it’s important to set realistic income goals factoring in expenses, etc.
Here’s what I mean: If you make $5K/month at your job, the goal to quit your job should NOT be to quit the month you clear $5K. You want to have at least a quarter (=3 months) doubling that, to factor in the extra taxes you pay as a small business, health insurance and other benefits, and a cushion for potential slow months, vacation, hiring, and necessary investments like technology, marketing, education, etc.
Good luck everyone!
Thanks derek.That was a timely reminder for me.I have and still do a huge huge goal…but kistening to you reminds me to slow down a wee bit.thanks.Love your videos.
AMAZING video Derek. This reminds me of something interesting I discovered when I go jogging. A lot of times I’ll have a goal such as run 6 miles. But that sounds impossible and whenever I run at that goal, then I just quit and give up and walk halfway through it. And so what I started doing was saying “I don’t need to run 6 miles I just need to run to that spot 10 yards in front of me.”
Then I would reach that spot and say it again. And by doing that I’ve always been able to run much further than I ever thought was originally possible. It’s an interesting trick of psychology.
My current dream goal is to get 3,000 subscribers on my mailing list. But right now I only have 250. I’ve been having a hard time motivating myself to work through all of the modules in your blog that converts course, even though the plan is laid out right in front of me. And I think it’s because of this dream goal being too far away. How can I get 3000 subscribers when I don’t even know how to get 1000 subscribers?
So I’m going to break down my dream goal into smaller goals, and my next goal will be to get 500 subscribers and all celebrate and reward myself when I do it. Thanks so much for a great video Derek! I love your stuff, it’s inspiring!
This is definitely a problem I have and it’s done nothing but discourage and make me feel like I’m not doing enough or it’s caused me to value my success in monetary form instead of other accomplishments (guest posting, interviews, podcasts, telesummits, etc.)
A lot of it has to do with hearing all these other people who earn 5-6 figures a month and just comparing myself to them. I know I shouldn’t do it and that it’s not healthy – but sometimes, I can backslid and get discouraged.
My dream goal: $10000
(My ideal goal: $2400 lol)
My realistic goal: $350
I feel like these numbers are, like Josh said, realistic and within reach for me.
My goal is to make $1,500 a month. Currently, I make about $600 on average with my seasonal website.
I don’t have any daily goals at the moment besides posting content, but my content has no real goals besides bumping up my traffic.
May have to reconsider what I do every day.
My dream goal is 10,000 a month. My plan is to invest $5000 in education. Take daily action, ingest content and change my mindset (3-6months). Then, start printing money.
Realistic goals are key. We all forget what we can slowly accomplish over time. I did this with learning Spanish. My realistic goal is a few lessons a day in hopes of becoming fluent within a year.
My dream goal for my fitness site is to work with 10 clients and get them all in shape.
Hey Derek,
Like the video — and like yourself and the person who sent in that question, my dream goal is 100K/yr.
And I’m on my way, one realistic goal at a time. My first “realistic” goal was to surpass the annual income I used to make working full time (34K) and this year, 2 years into being self employed, I’ve accomplished that.
That worked out to about 3K/mo. My goal for next year is to take that figure to 5K/mo — and then keep working up from there!
Definitely good advice here.
My dream goal isn’t so lofty as $10000. Actually, my dream is to make $2000 a month in sustainable passive income so I can move back to Thailand, where that amount is enough to live comfortably.
Given that I just started a month ago with no experience whatsoever, my realistic goal is simply to learn how to write good copy, build an email list from the ground up, and make my first sale by the end of the year.
Loved this. I have a dream goal of having a 7-figure business. But I know that it is a ways off. Right now, my realistic goals are:
– build my list to 1,000 people
– close one digital marketing client per month
I have more goals after that, but to your point, if I look too far ahead, it can get overwhelming. So I just have to stay focused on what I need to do next. Thanks Derek!
This is a fantastic advise on how to keep your motivation up at all times,
it keeps you from getting burned out.
I would even set your first realistic goals even lower, say get your first 10 visitors a day, the your first 100 subscribers, and with the same drive and momentum you start to focus on revenue.
Keep up the good stuff Derek nice work
Borja
I love your breakdown on how many visitors, opt ins and conversions needed to really show the reality.
Small incremental goals is definitely where it’s at.
I learned the lesson a handful of years ago to focus on one single invoice. Getting that invoice out and paid is all it that matters.
For me, focusing on the client invoice has been key. Setting up online products has been a success to some degree but not nearly as much as my coaching services. For the online products I definitely need to embrace this mentality of small steps. 10K last year in total online product sales was an awesome additional revenue stream, but adding 10K a month for that stream would really put things on a whole new level.
I’ve enjoyed your content for well over a year now. Thanks for everything Derek!
Patrick
You’re welcome!
Another great video, Derek, thank you so much!
My dream goal is to earn 150$ K+ per year.
My realistic goal is to earn 500$ in October, 600$ in November and 1000$ in December.
I’m about to launch an eBook series called “The Healing ABC of Simple & Real Fruit” which will feature 7 recipes with one specific main ingredient (e.g. apples) plus 2 DIY beauty recipes.
Because I want EVERYONE to be able to afford my step-by-step guideline to a genuinely health lifestyle, I’m going to sell each part for just above 1 $ and if my current subscribers love this series as much as I do and almost each and everone of them invests one dollar per month, my goals for the end of the year are really realistic considering the size of my current email list. 🙂
Nathalie, you might want to check out Andre Chaperons Autoresponder Madness. Its an AMAZING email marketing training.
Teaches you how to really connect with your audience.
Aloha,
Antonio
Hey Nathalie!
I singled your comment out because we share the same name. 😉 I just wanted to challenge your assumption that everyone on your email list will sign up for a low priced monthly offering.
Consider that it’s just as much work to sell something at a low price point as it is a higher one, and that selling at a lower price point doesn’t guarantee that you’ll make more sales. I’d take a look at how you can create a lot of value and charge well for it – that’s a very doable way to earn your next $500!
This is a great point about pricing, cheaper doesn’t necessarily mean more people will automatically buy, but it comes down to your list and the people on it.
Great Advice Derek!
I am currently building my marketing funnel, and blog site and it will take about a month to get this all up and running. My realistic goal for my new business I am starting out is $500 in sales of my product. I will shoot for 2-3 opt in’s per day, and then increase this with more articles out there.
Thanks for helping me be realistic and break it down to manageable, achievable goals.
Carol
Nice, small goals. Great job Carol.
Holy crap, you been peeking in my windows or what!? I feel I am a pretty goal oriented guy but you break this down to the ridiculous and damn if it don’t make sense.
I am going to shoot for $1,000 in the next 30 days. This is realistic for me.
Thanks for the kick in the pants!
Awesome article Derek,
I was actually waiting for another post from you with a video. You nailed it with this one. Really loved it 🙂
I think you should be more of a Video Blogger!
Cheers!
Yes! It’s the same thing for weight loss, too! Or ANY goal you have.
In my hypnosis business, I have people who have never lost more than 20 pounds at time who want to lose 100 pounds now. Nope. Learn to lose 40 or 50. Then go for a higher goal.
Same thing with money… if you have never made more than $25K, just try to get to $40K, then $60K and keep doing that until your belief system can sustain the notion of making $100K.
As a person who did that (I used to make about $30K a year and now I’m into 6-figures) I am speaking from experience.
Derek, GREAT lesson! 🙂
Bryan
“Until your belief system can sustain the notion” Wow! I think you just hit the nail on the head for me! Thanks!
Ah, another Hypnotist here! Thought I was alone 😉 By any chance have you heard of the Hypnothoughts Live event happening in Vegas next summer?
Try to make it. At the last one we had a MASSIVE Street Hypnosis event.
Aloha,
Antonio
I’m jealous you’re on the beautiful island of Kauai! 🙂
🙂
I’d like to make enough with my online ventures to leave my current job and then some as a realistic goal – $2500-3000 a month would suffice.
I believe 10k per month would be a dream goal, I would have a ton of freedom and be able to accomplish anything I’ve thought about doing. Although most ideas I’d start would involve also making more money just doing something I am really passionate about.
Derek, thanks for this video. My dream goal is to make $100,000/yr. at this point – – enough so that my wife doesn’t have to work. My realistic goal is to make a first $500 in coaching revenue. I appreciate your videos because they give me a much-needed boost of courage and confidence. 🙂
It seems that’s a lot of peoples dream goal. Apparently “six figures” is the dream nowadays.
And it’s been the same for many, many moons. I asked my business partners the same question almost twenty years ago – “How much did they want to earn each year?” Both independently said $100K (along with many other people over the years).
It’s a magic number.
The main reason it hasn’t gone up is relatively few people ever reach it.
Really great advice. This sort of reminds of my studying goals in college where I would shoot for a “B” and then feel ultimately rewarded if I did better. However if I expected to get an “A” and didn’t hit my mark I become saddened.
It’s important in business to not get discouraged. That doesn’t mean you can’t set high standards, like you said it’s just about being realistic and gaining traction.
For me I have a niche site I’m building and I’m going to shoot for the site to make $200 per month within the first 3 months. Once it hits that mark, i’m hoping to optimize it to make at least $600 per month within 5 months. I feel these goals are realistic and within reach for me.
I agree with Jim Wang. I think it’s less of a shoot for a B and get happy for an A, and more dreaming of an A and setting realistic goals towards getting one. There’s a fine line between cynicism and being realistic, and I think the latter approach is closer to being realistic.
I’m not sure the shoot for a B and be thrilled with an A is the same thing – you can’t get a B on a test and then just as easily just “work harder” for an A. It’s probably less about morale and more about minutestones and milestones, rather than the finish line.
I guess a better example would be how a couch potato probably shouldn’t get up one day and run a marathon. It would be better to set a reachable goal, learn from their accomplishments, and then push themselves more and more each time they run.
They sound realistic to me too. Assuming the niche is big enough.