In this episode, Veronica and Jillian discuss setting goals and breaking them down into smaller pieces to ensure they are achievable. Jillian emphasizes scheduling specific tasks to manage time efficiently, while Veronica highlights the importance of considering individual personality when scheduling activities.
Today Veronica Guguian emphasizes the importance of setting realistic goals based on capacity and aligning with clients' needs. She also talks about the importance of slowing down and integrating personal and professional life as an entrepreneur.
Jillian shares her goals for 2024, including learning Dutch, relaunching her newsletter, launching a new podcast, starting a new workshop series, and returning to the public speaking stage after a 10-year hiatus. She also plans to onboard two new partners, acquire six new clients.
Jillian Vorce discusses her methods for structured and unstructured time management. She sets aside specific times to organize her calendar and gather relevant articles, while also using unstructured time like exercising to generate new ideas. Veronica Guguian emphasizes the importance of building relationships in business development and suggests setting concrete goals for connecting with new people. They consider dedicating an episode to networking tactics if there is interest from listeners.
They also discuss the need to structure business growth effectively and ask for feedback when clients decline offers.
Both hosts emphasize the value of goal-setting and encourage listeners to set their own goals in a systematic manner.
The episode concludes with discussions about future podcast episodes and their aim to reach 1000 downloads.
Jillian Vorce and Veronica Guguian discuss their objectives, with Jillian suggesting a goal of 1000. They both agree on this number and feel motivated to work towards it. The conversation ends with friendly goodbyes and plans for the next meeting on Tuesday.
Both agreed on the importance of breaking down large goals into smaller, achievable tasks to prevent burnout. They discussed their approaches to time management and scheduling.
People & Resources Mentioned in This Episode
SPINIdeas.nl - link to SMART goals framework:
https://www.subscribepage.com/spin-ideas-setting-up-goals-worksheet?ref=spinideas.nl
About Veronica Guguian
- Website: https://spinideas.nl/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-guguian
About Jillian Vorce
- Website: https://thejilliangroup.com/better
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillianvorce
Credits
- Music Composed by BeeLa Music
- Voiceover by Amanda Balagur
Jillian Vorce: Hello and welcome to episode two, zero - twenty - of Creative collaboration conversations with Veronica and Jillian. And I'm Jillian.
Veronica Guguian: And I'm Veronica. And welcome to around number 20.
Jillian Vorce: Imagine that.
Veronica Guguian: I love it. I remember the last episode was like 19, almost 20, and now it's actually 20. I'm very excited. New Year round number. What can be better than that, right?
Jillian Vorce: So today we're going to chat about our goals for the new year. But before we do, let's do our little check-in. How's it going? What's new? Any new things, experiences, ideas, tools, or events? I don't know. Daydreams, recipes? Any updates?
Veronica Guguian: Oh, so many, and nothing pops up. I think this time of the year is, at least for me, the moment to slow down and just take it a little bit easier and just enjoy the people around me and just follow whatever your heart if you want to. Just do not do anything. Do not do anything. And I think it's important to have this slowdown moment. And we did talk about this last episode as well. For me personally, it's very important to also slow down because you're not able to create if you are not taking your time to rest and to get inspired, and be creative again. So for me, it's a lot of just slowing down and enjoying the moment and the small things being that a.
Jillian Vorce: Cup of tea, it's like hibernating a little bit.
Veronica Guguian: Actually. That's the right word. Yes. Hibernation. I love that. How about you?
Jillian Vorce: So, for me, I think it's funny how time works, right? Because as we're recording this, I can say, well, we're preparing to head to Mexico for the holidays, but by the time this episode is live, we'll be returning or just returned or somewhere in. So, I think my end of the year is tricky. I like to spend December reviewing a lot of things, and reflecting. But this year it's going to be different because we're going to be at my mother-in-law's house. So I hope to still be able to do some of that. But I. Yeah, right. I know. So it's going to be some really amazing food, and then we'll be spending quite a bit of time in the sun as much as possible, kind of stocking up on vitamin D.
Jillian Vorce: So that's a little bit about my check-in update and end-of-the-year kind of plans.
Veronica Guguian: Actually, this time of year makes me dream. So I'm dreaming about my ski holiday, seeing my nephew again, just enjoying life. I think that's the moment. Slow down and enjoy a little bit.
Jillian Vorce: Well, that could also be a goal for the new year, too, is to make sure to kind of proactively schedule in more time, to relax, to unplug, to do things that we enjoy. I think that's a really important, I think ingredient in creating happiness and success. Right. Is Having the things that fill us like.
Veronica Guguian: That's a good point, actually; funny enough, I never really took long holidays. I think the first time I took three weeks off was when I went to the States. And of course, you do need longer. It was almost four weeks. And for me, I was like, what am I doing? I'm not going to work for like, what's happening? Nothing happened. Nothing bad happened. I had an amazing time. My business didn't go bankrupt. Everyone was happy. But the point I want to make is that it's a mind shift, because, looking at the Dutch culture, they say they're good at balancing. I think they're very good at setting boundaries, saying, I'm not working after this hour or I'm not doing anything after that. And that really helps them be more present, I think, or to allocate more time to the things that they like. Exactly what you said.
Veronica Guguian: I think from my culture and also the American culture is much more work-oriented or, okay, Romanians, East European and Balkans, we are more Latin and drama, not the Balkans, but the Romanians like drama-oriented. We need to do that. It has to happen. So definitely that has an influence in how we are setting up goals and taking the time. But I'm learning how to slow down instead. And actually, the funny thing is when you slow down, you're not less productive or inefficient. It's the opposite. This is what I'm discovering.
Jillian Vorce: Right. Yeah.
Veronica Guguian: I think that's.
Jillian Vorce: I just want to jump in and say one thing because I was like, yeah, so this is the reason we're doing our podcast, because amazing for other people to listen, but for us to be able to chat as, yeah, I, that is something that I'm also thinking about. But it didn't kind of rise to the surface, is kind of reflecting on the US culture that knows, obviously very familiar with, but then now living here in the Netherlands for almost three years and learning a bit about how life is here and how people structure their days and all of the things that you mentioned is thinking of something like straight away, like every kind of rudimentary or simple, but how many hours do I want to work per day or per week? Like, really, what type of a life do I want to have?
Jillian Vorce: And that in and of itself is very complex and scary for me sometimes because it feels tied to the big picture in life. And are we always going to stay here? Which I hope we do, but because of what we need from life or what we think we need. And it becomes this whole bit. So a simple exercise in what I want? It can really kick off a bunch of other kinds of related or ancillary questions and whatnot. But I think overall, I think it is kind of important to start with that when establishing goals or anything else. What is it that you want to achieve goals for? What? Like what is the ultimate end result you're aspiring to achieve or to experience.
Jillian Vorce: So I think that how we work towards that, in what capacity and what duration, et cetera, is an important component of that.
Veronica Guguian: I like that. And especially for the entrepreneurs that are our main audience, basically founders, entrepreneurs, where you don't take out your professional life from yours, you don't really separate the professional life from your personal life because it's impossible. So that becomes even more important to integrate. Like how many hours do I want? Like you have a kid, for example. Your kid is very important and requires a lot of your attention. How do you integrate that into your work? And that's one of the things that I love about being an entrepreneur, because I can create my own schedule, so I need to take my dog out at lunchtime because my dog needs to go out. So I'm going to make sure I have a break at that point. And no one can actually book a meeting.
Veronica Guguian: So it's very important to how do you balance all of this in a way that works for you. And I think that could be a nice segue to the goals because that should be translated into the goals and everyone knows from my methodology, of setting up goals for your company. And I think that applies here. It's one of the steps. It's actually the third step of the methodology. And I do like to have the bigger picture. And then I strongly believe you need to start breaking it down into smaller pieces. And why do I strongly believe that is? Otherwise you're not going to achieve it.
Veronica Guguian: You're going to set it up like the New Year resolutions when everyone is saying, I'm going to drink less, I'm going to exercise more, I'm going to eat healthier, I'm going to travel more or be more eco friendly or whatever. Like, you have amazing goals, some realistic, some not. But the problem happens. December comes outside, is cold and wet and depressing, and everybody stops doing everything.
Jillian Vorce: Yeah.
Veronica Guguian: So how do you prevent that? And I think that applies for in all cases, you actually make them very accessible to you and you start making them habits. Instead of something I need to do, they need to become an integrated part of my daily activity. And that can be for your business. Like you mentioned in the last episode, writing more. So if your goal is to be more visible, that means you need to go to more conferences, speak at events, write, and have social media posts. So start breaking down that per week and per day and it becomes a norm. Like you are waking up and having your coffee. Right. You do it without thinking. How about if you do that with I need to write a social media post. Of course you're going to think about what you're writing, but it becomes second nature habitual.
Jillian Vorce: Yeah. And I think exactly what you said, creating that habit and creating it as part of our ethos. And I feel like a tangible step to take to help achieve that is to have those things scheduled and know what they are and schedule specific things. I set up my calendar that way, so I have the biggest kind of blocks of all the things and what block they're organized in. They're like color-coded and whatnot. And I know how many hours a week I'm allocating to each thing, but I schedule all of the things, including time to think and time to create and all of that to try to keep a handle on how I'm spending my time and ultimately trying to become more and more efficient and productive with the time that I am spending working. Anyhow.
Veronica Guguian: I like that approach. But I do want to make a small point here for the listeners that I tried, for example, I'm scheduling a lot of things, but not everything. And I tried scheduling thinking time and it didn't work for me. It was actually so demotivating with my personality and way of being, because it was interesting. For me to think, I need to be in a specific state of mind. Like if I'm tired or if my mind is on something else, a client or, I don't know, I will not be able to stop everything and start thinking about business strategy or whatever is scheduled for that thinking moment. So how I see it is more like setting up the non-negotiables and then being flexible with those things. That doesn't mean you don't need to do them. It's very important.
Veronica Guguian: That's not the point I want to make, but the point I want to make is think about your personality and do them. Like, for example, the best way for me to think and to come up with things is either walking or cleaning my house, because then I focus on something else and that takes the pressure out. And then my mind is relaxed and I will start thinking without really putting pressure on me to think makes sense. And some people are like showering or whatever. It's very personal. I'm not saying that. Start cleaning your house, maybe good work. Yeah, but everyone is different. And what I want to do is not stress myself to do specific things, because then you're going to go to the opposite. Instead of being efficient and having a schedule and working towards your goal, you're going to freeze.
Veronica Guguian: And I saw that with a lot of people. That's the point I want.
Jillian Vorce: It's interesting. Yeah. So I think of it as like structured and unstructured thinking time, right? So the unstructured thinking time for me is when I'm at the gym, right? And the way I get myself to the gym is knowing that I'll get to listen to podcasts, because the rest of my day in life, it's harder to have the time to do that. So if I go to the gym, I can exercise and listen to podcasts. And when I'm doing that, it's giving me a whole frenzy of ideas and all of these things. So I'm exercising and taking notes and whatnot. So that's unstructured. The structured time is how I organize my calendar based on specific things that I want to think through. And so I will set it up and include the links that I come across.
Jillian Vorce: So if I'm working on ways to structure a team, for example, like all the different articles and things, because I read a lot. So all the things that I see that are related to it, I will grab all of those links and put them into a document so that when that time comes up to schedule, I'll look through those links. It'll get me right back on focus for that specific thing because I agree just to be like, okay, now it's time to think about. It's hard just to do that. Yeah, it's hard. So that's how I set it up. And also it gives me a place because I'm reviewing so much content all the time and a lot of it is really interesting.
Jillian Vorce: But I can't just stop and read all of these articles right now because I've got other things that need to get done. So then I can take those and put them in their places and then I already know I'll return to them and read them when it's time. But anyway, that's why I structure that. But anyway, goals for 2024. My first goal is to learn to speak Dutch. How about that?
Veronica Guguian: Yes, I feel I should have that goal as well.
Jillian Vorce: It's very intimidating. So I'm going to an immersion training in February and we'll see how it goes. So that's a really big one for me personally and professionally. So yeah, that's number one on my list. So it's very scary and overwhelming. That's my first one.
Veronica Guguian: I need to add that one to my list, but I must admit it's a little bit lower. My biggest goal is actually to launch the marketing accelerator in Q one of next year and it's been on my mind for a long time and now I feel I'm ready for it. The pieces of the puzzle start falling into the right spot.
Jillian Vorce: It's great. Yeah. So when it's ready, then we can have an episode. You could introduce it or acknowledge, hey, we can celebrate it like it's going live. It's a big one. That's great. That's what's nice about having this chat now. Yeah.
Veronica Guguian: And relaunching-based conference. That will be the second one, actually. There are quite a lot now that I think about it. Once we have the right format now. We are going ahead with it and keep on increasing the number of people. And I do enjoy that one. These are the biggest ones at this point.
Jillian Vorce: That's good. Another one for me is a little bit quantifiable and not. But anyway, it is what it is. So I guess it is largely it could be. But in any case. So another goal of mine is to continue building momentum and what I've started to put into place over the course of this year. So building on the momentum, continuing to build relationships and kind of new learning and insights and connecting dots is an important kind of momentum to continue as well as collaborations and opportunities, continuing to build those. And what you were just alluding to is moving into the thought leadership space, which requires consistent quality content publishing. So really working to capitalize the C on consistency and the Q on quality.
Jillian Vorce: So working on those and I would say another really big goal for me next year, like I can't believe this, but is to return to the stage, right. I used to do a lot of public speaking. The last time I did it was Q Four. I had seven speaking engagements in Q four and next year will be ten years, since ten years have evaporated, so it was the 24th time to go back.
Veronica Guguian: Can you imagine how much knowledge you acquired in those ten years? So how many things do you need to share and you have to share?
Jillian Vorce: Yes, I'm working on exactly that and what I want to speak about and where do I want to speak, et cetera. So that's some of the particulars with this kind of high level goal I'm just sharing. So I'm actively working on that. I do want to jump. Go ahead.
Veronica Guguian: Sorry to interrupt, but you mentioned something at the beginning and I will forget it. And I think it's important for our listeners because you said you want to. I'm starting to forget it. At the beginning you said you want to focus on the connections, to keep on building connections and having those conversations. And I think that's very important because when we set up goals, we are focusing more like me, the conference, or like the big goals. But I love the fact that you brought up the building relationship. That is very important to us and that's the way we run everything. And I'm looking at the normal people, I don't know, not at us, but the more beginners, in terms of business development, they are not focusing on building relationships. They're actually focusing on publishing or things that we just shared.
Veronica Guguian: But I do want to invite them actually to make that as a goal and to actually say, I want to speak with ten new people this week to make it very concrete. Like the smart method, right? And if you don't know that, go to the Spinids NL website. I actually have a form on how to set up calls according to the smart methodology for free. Download it and apply it, because that's very important. Building relationships sounds hard to quantify, as you said, but actually it's not. It can be very practical. And building the way you build it depends from person to person. And of course it can take longer. But the first step and the second step, they're very clear and you can actually make it. Just reach out to that person, follow up, and go to a coffee with that person. That's the way you do it.
Veronica Guguian: I had to interrupt and to do that because it's very glad you did. And I see people are not doing it.
Jillian Vorce: I agree. I think it is very important. I think I missed an opportunity. It is a missed opportunity. I feel like any person we meet has the potential to change our life or business, and we have the same opportunity to change their life or business.
Veronica Guguian: Exactly.
Jillian Vorce: Just a matter of timing and whatnot. So we have to continue. So when we meet people, it's maybe a very simple or maybe played-out analogy. But for me it's so accurate that the way I see is every new relationship, every new person I meet is a new seed that I'm planting. And this is not like Jack and the beanstalk seeds that you just plant them and they grow. It's like we have to continue to nurture them. Some of them grow faster than others. So therefore moving forward, it's like continuing to nurture those relationships and those referrals and then adding it. Because after you start to do that, you start to have a compounding effect that happens.
Jillian Vorce: So one of them goes back to my kind of data mind and KPIs and numbers and things and my super nerding out, I also pay attention to the layers deep, like how many concentric circles with relationships I go. Right? So what I mean by that is if I get one person who refers to me to somebody else, and then they refer to me and they refer to me. So I look at how many layers deep I can go and that goes back to, it really compounds that one initial relationship that then sent that first referral and all the way through. So I often will go six to eight to ten layers deep on new relationships. And the more I do that, then I can go back down the line and say, oh, thank you. I also met and then connected with those people as well.
Veronica Guguian: Yeah.
Jillian Vorce: So anyways, I like that you brought that up and kind of highlighted that because I feel like, yeah, we could do a whole thing.
Veronica Guguian: I think we did another episode only about that actually to our listeners, if that will be of interest to you. And maybe they actually are more knowledgeable than we think and they know how to approach it. But if you think that will be something of interest, let us know, reach out to us and we're going to make it happen. We can share our experience and how we approach it and what is happening and we do have, I think, halfway. We are similar, but half of our approach is different when it comes to that. So we'll be interested to actually share it, see how we can do it.
Jillian Vorce: Yes, we had our episode on the Tactics. Networking.
Veronica Guguian: Yeah, the networking tactics.
Jillian Vorce: Yeah. It was episode twelve, so we did that. But this is a little bit, perhaps even going more granular. We could do that anyway. So actually, that's related in part to a couple of other goals I have for 2024. So again, for some people, it's very simple. For me, it's been quite a journey. But to actually relaunch my newsletter. Yes, here I am years later, finally getting it together. So have my newsletter coming back out through thejilliangroup.com. And another really big one I've also been working on for quite some time. I think you also know about this by launching my own podcast. So that will be, I'm hoping for Q One, but it's probably going to be early Q Two, so that will be coming up. And also, another thing that anyway, the past doesn't matter. Moving forward is launching a new workshop series.
Jillian Vorce: So that will be coming out, too. And that relates to the other things that we've talked about, all the other things we said. It's a busy year, and then the last two little blips also. So onboarding, it's already started, but I want to complete next year onboarding my first two partners. One is in Mexico and one is in Boston. So growing through partnership development. So I've got my first two partners, so onboarding them as well as onboarding six new clients is where I'm looking now. Congratulations for 2024. In a nutshell.
Veronica Guguian: Well, you are much more advanced than I am because I'm going to set up the goals in January this year. I know I should have done it in December, but I said I'm slowing down now. I do have the big ones that I said for me, this episode was more not necessarily sharing my goals, but inviting people to sit down and do them and to show them a different approach to setting up goals, or actually not necessarily a different one, but really, I love the fact that you said, I want six clients, I want two partners. So that is very important for me. And again, I mentioned the smart methodology because what you keep on hearing is, I want more clients. And I said, yeah, that's very nice. Everybody wants more clients. But what does that mean?
Veronica Guguian: How many clients are you actually able to take on board and do quality work? What's the capacity you have? How much time does a client require from you? How much time do you need for the normal running of the business? How much time do you need for actually going and prospecting? How much time do you need for your own marketing people? Forget about that. So a question that I'm asking, or I'm pretty sure you do, so if tomorrow you're going to have 100 new clients, are you able to actually provide for all of them? And pretty much depending on if it's a service-based company, they will not be able to do that. So it's very important to be very clear about what your capacity is and how many clients you really need.
Jillian Vorce: And also how to structure that though, too, how to structure that if you do get an influx of new business opportunities, like the worst thing is that people feel like have to do it all right now when we really don't. So a lot of it is to process exactly how to structure things, and plan. So there's a lot there. It's different for me because this is why I think the conversation about KPIs and metrics and whatnot, there are basic ones that all businesses should know is like, yeah, what kind of revenue, what's your cost and then what's your commitment to that? How much time does that take from you, et cetera. But I really think, like you mentioned earlier about your conversion rates and whatnot. And that's something that I've never really had to contend with.
Jillian Vorce: But I am scared and nervous, but excited to start to step into that, because thus far, 100% of my business has just come to me. I've closed just about 100% of the business opportunities that have come. So this is part of stepping into a new way of doing business, is being more proactive in going after new business and targeting certain companies and organizations and projects that I want to work on, which means by default, it's not likely that I'm going to close 100% of them or even 90% of them.
Veronica Guguian: I feel you because I was the same. My conversion rate is around 75-80%. So I did have the same scare. But what I'm realizing, and went to a conference together yesterday, and the lady was talking about values and about KPIs and how do you put the SDGs and align with the communication. And actually, because both of us closing business is basically us speaking with the client and connecting with the client. The bottom line, of course, it's much more complex, but everything starts with that alignment in our approach and how we can help them, right? Once that happens, the client is booked.
Veronica Guguian: So the reasons for which they are not booking is either we are not aligned and will not be able to work together because we're never going to work, or we're going to work for a couple of months. Then we say goodbye because we are not compatible or will be budget or time-wise that have an influence and you can't do anything about that. It can be flexible. But if they don't have the money and that's it, right? Simple.
Jillian Vorce: Yeah, it could be the money. Most of the time we're not going to know what the reason is.
Veronica Guguian: I'm always asking what I actually learned. If it's a no, it's very good too. Okay, it's a no. Thank you. May I know why? Because that provides me so much information, and it may be maybe something wrong in my approach, or maybe my services are actually not the ones that they need, or maybe I wasn't able to communicate properly, or they didn't understand what I'm offering. So for me, that's a very good opportunity to learn. Actually, when they say no, yes, it's.
Jillian Vorce: A great thing to ask. It doesn't always mean we're going to find out, get the right. True.
Veronica Guguian: That's very true. I lost my thought.
Jillian Vorce: I don't know. So, yeah. Goals for 2024. Have some goals.
Veronica Guguian: Have some goals.
Jillian Vorce: You mentioned a great resource that we'll also share in the show notes about the smart goals and the framework for that. It's really useful. And you shared some goals for yourself, and we'll circle back to you once you have kind of more concrete goals. And when you're ready to do that, we can circle back. And then I sprinkled a few of mine out here, so we'll see. Feel like the pressure is on. It's kind of like when you tell people, oh, I'm going to quit smoking now, it's like, now people know. Yeah, right.
Veronica Guguian: But the invitation, and I think that will be my main point and probably the last point of the podcast, is to set realistic goals and get the big goal and then split it into smaller bytes. Insert that in your agenda, as we said. So they will become a normal part of your routine or of your weekly routine, and just go for it.
Jillian Vorce: That's it. Just go for it. Maybe that'll be the title for it.
Veronica Guguian: That's not a bad one.
Jillian Vorce: Yeah. All right, so this is a wrap on Episode 20. Happy New Year.
Veronica Guguian: Happy New Year, everyone. And thank you for sticking with us for 20 episodes. Yes.
Jillian Vorce: Cheers.