4 Keys to Unlocking Growth in Your Biz This Year

Welcome to the first edition of the Friday Freedom Newsletter for 2024. Today, I will give you the 4 Keys to make this the most profitable and successful year for you and your business.

As the founder of Gaia Media Group and creator of this newsletter, my goal is simple. I want to help you create freedom in your life (financially and time-wise) while making an impact with your work here on this earth.

What I will share today will give you clarity, focus, and a roadmap to move forward confidently. It will also help you breathe self-belief into your very core and help you not get distracted.

Why do so many people fail when trying to create success with their businesses? There are several reasons, but four key foundational elements are the root cause.

1. Lack of Vision
2. Lack of Focus
3. Shiny object syndrome
4. Lack of Belief

Unlock Your Unkown Genius

A cemetery is a sad place to visit. I’m sure you’ll agree. In reality, it is not just a place of the bodies that once lived but a place of unrealized potential, broken dreams, and wasted talent.

I often remind myself of it when I begin to doubt myself, start taking on too much, or put off projects that mean the most to me.

When researching some of the most incredible “talents” – athletes, writers, artists, and business people, you will find a common thread to their secret to success. It’s not talent – having a vision, focus, consistency, and belief beats talent.

That is what makes a genius, and you have it within you. What I am about to share with you will help you make these micro-adjustments that will help you bring huge gains to your life and online business.

A Business Without a Vision is an Airplane Without a Destination

It all starts with a Vision. This may sound cliché, but it is 100% accurate. If you don’t have a vision, how do you know the direction you are going?

A vision clarifies where you want to go – even if it is a distant dream. Your Vision should bring about an equal mix of excitement and fear.

The Vision and potential should excite you, yet getting there should make you a little nervous and scared because you’ll need to step out of your comfort zone to realize it.

Here are some tips for achieving your Vision:

1. Your Vision should be your 3-5 year goal for your business. Dream big and make it bold.
2. Make sure you align your Vision for your business with your personal life. You want to build something that is 100% in alignment with your dream life.
3. Align your Vision with your values and mission.
4. Make it measurable. Dream big, but ensure that you are able to measure your success along the way.
5. Be flexible and open. Life is dynamic, and so is business. Sometimes, you will have to take a different course than planned. Keep your eye on the summit and be ok with change.
6. Share your Vision with your loved ones and anyone who works for you. They need to know your direction, too, so they can help you build.
7. You can build it with others. Along the way, you will find the right people, aligned with your Vision, who will want to help you and will get you there quicker.

The Sun Can Give You Sunburn, But a Magnifying Glass Can Burn a Hole in Your Skin.

That is the power of focus; If you lay a piece of paper on the ground, it will warm in the sun. But if you hold a magnifying glass at the right angle and direct the sun, it will ignite that paper in seconds.

One of the biggest blocks to achieving your goals is distractions and lack of focus.

With your new Vision, you will not be able to achieve that five-year Vision in one shot. It is going to take you years. Along the way, you will get distracted and lose the intensity. However, if you stay laser-focused, you will achieve more in less time than you believed possible.

Research reveals that doing more than one thing at a time can decrease your productivity by 40%. The cognitive decline is equivalent to you not sleeping the night before.

Here are some tips to keep you focused:

1. Take your 5-year Vision and break it into one-year goals.
2. With the one-year goal, you break it down into quarterly goals.
3. These become your 90-day sprints and areas of focus.
4. Take the top priorities you need to achieve in those 90 days and write them down in order of priority.
5. You focus on the list, ONE at a time, and wait to move to the next until the top item on the list is complete.
6. Each day, remind yourself of the ONE thing you need to achieve that day to move you towards your 90-day goal.
7. Create 90-minute working blocks daily, where you work on your #1 focus area. Turn off all distractions, tell your family you cannot be reached, go to the loo, get your water, and sit with your timer at 90 minutes. Only get up from your seat when you have completed the 90 minutes.

Simple but life-changing.

Shiny Object Syndrome

We’re all guilty of this as we go about our work. We see these new “things,” hear about people building their business a certain way, and wander.

We get tempted into this new way and jump head first into this new and exciting thing. Only to find it led us down the same path.

Before you know it, you are spinning multiple plates in the air, and you begin to get overwhelmed and frustrated, even burnt out. It is all too much.

Here are some tips for you so you do not fall victim to the shiny object syndrome:

1. Doing the focused tasks above will help because you will be more focused.
2. Focus on mastering what you are working on before taking on anything additional.
3. Only start or take up something new if you have completed the thing you are currently working on
4. Don’t compare yourself to others. That ‘way” may work for them; they may have a team, a bigger budget, etc. Stick to your focus area.
5. Before making a decision, ask yourself. Will this take me closer to my Vision or not? Will this take my focus away from what I am currently doing? Will it deplete me? Will it overwhelm me?
6. You will know if it is an impulsive decision or not.

There will be times when you need to change direction, but you will know because it will be like shedding a heavy burden, and the change will make you feel like the load is lighter and more effective.

How Will You Get There if You Don’t Believe It’s Possible?

That grand Vision of yours means nothing if you don’t believe it is possible. You need to know this. What got you where you are now will not get you where you want to be.

You will have to work on shifting your beliefs around two main things. What is possible for your business and life, and the belief that you can, worthy, and capable of achieving it?

Do you remember the graveyard of dreams I mentioned? Well, the biggest killer to our dreams, the biggest reason we seek perfectionism over progress, and why we procrastinate and self-sabotage ourselves are our limiting beliefs.

Here are some tips to help shift your beliefs:

1. Ask yourself and write down the answer to your beliefs around what you truly believe about yourself as a person, as a business owner, and what is possible for you and your business.
2. Ask yourself where those beliefs came from. That will allow you to see how false and limiting beliefs are created and often rooted without facts.
3. Ask yourself what beliefs you need to hold to become the person you must become to realize your Vision.
4. Start to visualize yourself, talking to yourself and acting like you already have the new beliefs.
5. Setting the daily goals and 90-day sprints will help you hit your targets, which will build new, empowering beliefs.
6. Challenge your existing beliefs and fears by taking action and constantly educating yourself.
7. Seek different perspectives and be open to new ideas from people who have what you are trying to achieve in the past.

Remember, you can shift some beliefs quickly and easily, while others will be stubborn and take time. Nobody is perfect, and we are all a work in progress. Embrace the journey, and don’t only focus on the destination.

I encourage you to sit down today and begin to work through each of these. Don’t just read and move on to something else. Without action, there is no progress, and your Vision will remain just a dream.

Please don’t send it to the graveyard of dreams. You got this, and I’m here to help you make this your new reality.

See you in the following newsletter.

Be blessed

Kenneth

Founder – Gaia Media Group