The “Lucky 500” is Not a Stock Car Race!

The “Lucky 500” is Not a Stock Car Race!
(A Lesson I Learned About The Importance of Gaol-Setting)
Robert Brents, "The 80/20 Guy"

I have been a seminar and workshop leader for over fourteen
years, mixing in stints as a consultant and project leader
in order to stay current and be able to speak from
experience.

Over those years, I have refined my message and created my
niche. I’m now known as “The 80/20 Guy”, and my
presentations are based on what I call The Pareto
Perspective.

For about the last three years, however, I had pretty much
just let things happen, taking gigs when they came along,
delivering a wide variety of topics. Jack of many seminars,
master of one - but not focusing on delivering it
consistently.

Well, folks, when you coast along like that, eventually the
momentum runs down and your vehicle comes to a stop by the
side of the road.

Thus, for the first time in fourteen years in business for
myself, my income last year wasn’t higher than the year
before. In fact, it was lower.

So at the beginning of this year I decided to consciously
set goals. Specific goals. Long-term goals, because I knew
that they would drive my short-term goals. And I did this in
a way I had never used before.

I started with the largest end-objective, and then worked
backwards to figure out what I would have to do specifically
to make it happen.

I determined the financial goal I wanted to attain within
the next six years. Then, based on my current speaking fee
schedule, I calculated that to produce that result I would
need to deliver 500 presentations.

Hence, “The Lucky 500”: the 500 companies or decision-makers
who will hire me to deliver my message that will help them
focus resources on breakthrough objectives to improve their
productivity, profitability, and creativity, and create
outrageous success.

So the lesson I learned through painful experience (which I
have incorporated into the Planning segment of my keynote
speech, “Frank Sinatra Didn’t Mover Pianos!”), start with
the end in mind.

P.S. I have also discovered that using this approach -
having a specific target of 500 presentations – makes it
easier to take the “No’s” that are an inevitable part of
cold calling prospective clients. (The close ratio in my
business is only about 1 out of every 20 to 30 calls.) My
aversion to those “No’s” was what caused me to stop making
cold calls, which led to the decline of my business. Now, my
attitude is that I “only” have to find 500 companies or
decision-makers to reach my goal. So, if not this prospect,
then possibly the next. If I get a “no” I move on to that
next call immediately because the sooner I do, the sooner I
will find my “Lucky 500”!