16: 7 ways to actually hit your 2025 founder goals and have the most profitable year yet

Tis the season to set some goals, but a lot of us, sometimes may feel like no matter how hard we try to set our business goals, we just don't accomplish them. Maybe January 1st rolls around and it's a time when you feel shame, stress, or guilt that you won't hit the most explosive and exciting business goals you dream of.

Well, today I want to let you in on a secret on how to actually hit your founder goals and set your business up for success, but flexibly and realistically. I want your next year to be as expansive and explosive as you dream, but that takes some hard and honest advice. This isn't your average 2025 goal-setting episode, let's get into it.

Check out:
Ink + Volt Goal Planner

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction and Setting the Stage
01:33 The Importance of Goal Setting for Founders
03:33 Laying the Groundwork in December for Founders
05:46 Creating a Goal Setting Ritual forFounders 
09:47 Diving into the Goals for your Business 
13:21 Shifting Identities for Success for Founders 
16:36 Taking Radically Different Actions for your Business 
21:32 Tangible Example 

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Transcript

Lucy Bedewi: [00:00:00] You need to take a radically different action. If you want a radically different results, Hi there, you're listening to The Bold Founder, Lucy here. I'm so excited to inspire you to go bigger in your messaging, marketing mindset and moves while finding a joyful middle ground between intense hustle and easy flow. 2024 is almost gone. I know I didn't want to talk about it. It's December. There's still time.

There's still tons of time. I don't like to skip ahead when I don't have to. I believe in being present, especially as we come into the holiday season. But there is a new year on the horizon, and I think it's fun to kind of feel the energy of newness, of change, of transition, and I'm sure you're starting to feel it.

And as founders, it's honestly a really great time to start thinking about our goals. You're going to hear this more in the episode, but I'm a big believer in, January 1st is just a date on the calendar. So as we move into this new year, it's awesome to get this conversation rolling of how are you going to be.

Incredible in 2025. How are [00:01:00] you going to explode your company? And I am going to take you through my process of how I set my goals. So you hopefully get some new insights on how you can set your goals and how you can set yourself up for success. But I also just hope this episode is really activating and encourages you to approach your goals and your life and your year with just a fresh, excited set of eyes.

So we're going to dive right in. And I hope you love this episode as much as I do. Tis the season to set some goals. I know it's a little early for the goal setting episode because it is only December, but you're gonna see why I am doing it in December for essentially a January 2025 setting goals episode. When it comes to setting goals, I know there's a lot of different ways to do it.

Everyone has their process. But for a lot of us, sometimes we may feel like no matter how [00:02:00] hard we try at setting our goals, we just don't accomplish them. I love goal setting time. It's something I'm really passionate about. I always say set your goals and treat them like promises because if you can develop a system that works for you and you're able to set those goals that are very doable and they're very clear and they're very structured and I'm not just going to go through a smart goal in this episode.

In fact, I think I'm going to teach something that's a little bit more flexible. You can really surprise yourself what you can accomplish in a year for your business or even for yourself. This episode is going to be very kind of a hybrid between business and self and life. So take this to whatever goals you feel like you want to set in 2025, because I'm going to take you through my process of how I set my yearly goals.

Let's dive in. When it comes to setting goals, I am a big believer in If you're gonna start January 1st, you're gonna move into this [00:03:00] crazy wild tornado of everyone setting their goals and you're going for this arbitrary date and then you're trying to go from like zero to I'm this new person with this new goal and I think that's why a lot of people I think the statistic is something like people give up on their goals on the second week of January.

Like what? No, you're, you're not one of those. And I, a hundred percent don't want you to be one of those people. And I don't think you are if you are a founder, because if founders give up on what they want, none of us would have our companies. But there is something to be said about not waiting until January.

So I'm a big believer in let's start laying the groundwork. for the goals that you have in December, let's start creating what you need to create. So when January 1st comes around or January, I mean, January 1st, I hope you all are partying. but when early January comes around, you can just hit the ground running because you're like, okay, we've already been putting the things in place that we needed to put in place to get this kind of Almost pre launching or getting off the ground.

So what I'll [00:04:00] do in December is I'll kind of figure out the categories of goals that I'm thinking about setting for the new year. So I'll ask myself, do I want to make more sales? Do I want to pivot my marketing? Do I want to tighten up my operations or are my goals closer to me developing myself as a founder?

And then once I kind of have that category, I won't write down my goals right then and there. Cause usually I don't know until I move further in the process, which I'll let you know, but. I do a general, well, what do I want to focus on in this upcoming year? Sometimes I'll think of a word. I know a lot of people are big word of the year people.

So if that helps you, amazing. And then how can I give that category or that focus a little bit of love right now? So let's say I. my word is intentional. I want to be more intentional with my time. I want to be more productive. Then I would start becoming more intentional with my time and doing little micro actions like asking myself when I'm working Do I really need to be doing this task?

And if I don't like writing down okay to do item outsource this task I don't really need to be doing it [00:05:00] myself or for example if that is my my word of the year is intentional, I might start tracking my time to just see what am I spending time on so I can at least have that awareness and then I can do that fixing part come the new year.

So how can you strategically use this time in December to do the things that are essentially setting up your future self to just go in January? So really just focus on those big Big picture things that you want. And then from those big picture things, from those categories, you are able to start saying, okay, well, I want this.

So let me start laying the groundwork by doing some research by calling a friend who did achieve this just to talk to them, because you're able to set that groundwork so it doesn't feel like you're starting from zero come new year. Then. So, when it's the new year I love getting really far away to set my goals.

So I obviously, anyone who's been following this podcast knows that I travel a ton. I know some people do not have that luxury or that desire but [00:06:00] the idea is to just travel. How can you create a ritual around your goals? So it's not just you sitting at the table scribbling something down on a sticky note that may or may not get done, but you very intentionally kind of going inward into this cave saying, What do I really want?

What do I really desire? Where do I really want to take the business? Because when you can create this ritual, Then it becomes more serious. You're giving it more respect. It's not just a goal you're setting. It's like, you're actually almost creating a quarterly planning session or a year long planning session, which you can do for your business, but also for yourself as the founder of your company.

I think it's just. It's just as important to create goals that are going to make you happy bubbly and healthy and all of those things that you need to really run this company. So bring it all to the table. The company goals, the company plans, and the you goals all exist together. One thing I do is I go with a friend and we did this last year and I definitely want to make it a routine or something that we do every year is [00:07:00] we went to Guatemala to a yoga retreat for three days.

We did a little bit of yoga, like an hour of yoga a day, but most of the time was spent drinking cacao, sitting in the sunshine and really going deep on our goals for the year. And we spent. set this up as a goal setting retreat, the two of us, and it was really fun to just do this with a close friend, and maybe that sounds fun to you, or maybe that seems a little bit extreme or extra cool or all different, and maybe you want to just go 20 minutes away from your house and spend one night at a hotel to just give yourself that quiet and that time to make this a ritual.

But the point is, can you give yourself space to do this? To make a goal setting something that is really close to your heart instead of something that is just I guess I'll just set a New Year's resolution because everyone is doing that. Because When you can lose the noise and get deep into your head, it'll be amazing what pops up.

It'll be amazing what your intuition tells you. It'll also be cool to see how expanded you are of what's possible and your goals will [00:08:00] be more audacious and more activating for your business. You know, you might even think, we can really hit. Two million dollars in revenue this year I'm gonna write that down and maybe if you just kind of casually were thinking Okay, how much do I want to make this year you put 500k or a million and it's because you're in that space where?

You are giving yourself that really deep going inward time You're able to push yourself more and that's always so incredible when you're able to do that when setting a goal Another thing I like to do is I like to start the year with something scary or crazy or different or it just really pushes you outside of your comfort zone.

Because a good goal, and I know you're all setting great goals, you're all setting really audacious, huge goals, it means you're going to have to get really uncomfortable to make it happen. If it's for your business, you're going to have to do things differently, you might have to bring on new teammates, and you might have to stretch yourself in ways that you haven't stretched before.

If it's a self goal, it means you might have to take radically different actions that you're not used to taking. You might have to shift your identity and we're going to get into [00:09:00] those things later in this episode, but can you get uncomfortable to kick off the year? Can you go skydiving? Can you do something that you never thought you would do?

Can you go pet goats, even though you've had a phobia of goats your whole life? And if you can really get yourself out of your comfort zone to kick off the year, How fun energetically is that for when you are setting your goals or starting to, get these goals shows on the road that you already started from a place of boldness.

You already started from a place of, wow, I did something this year that was really big for me. So I think it's always fun to kind of start the year on a bang. And if you resonate with that, that could be a fun thing to explore. So we've kind of moved into the setting the scene of how I create goals. Now we're going to move into the goals themselves.

So I use the Inconvolt Goal Planner and I swear by it. I'm going to link it in this episode. I've been using it for three years and I always accomplish my goals. Is it a coincidence? No, I think [00:10:00] it's complete causation. it is a beautiful format. It's a really easy to use system. I like that it always helps you go back to your yearly goals so you never forget about them.

You know, you're Always revisiting your goals and thinking, okay, how do I get there? What are the monthly goals I want that are going to support my yearly goals? And just the breakdown they do is really, really strong. So I'm not sponsored, but I'm going to give you that link in the show notes because it's incredibly helpful when you're goal setting.

So when it comes to your yearly goals, five seems like a good number to me. I think it's enough that it, it keeps things interesting. I think if you're just pursuing one goal for the whole year, that's not so fun, but if you have ten goals, then where do you go? You're gonna be to scattered around and then try and spread your goals out among categories.

If you have one goal that's kind of more centered towards your business's revenue and you have one goal that's more towards a product launch or a new offer that you want to do and you have one goal that is more kind of the interpersonal workings of your team and then you have another goal that's like, I just want to eat more vegetables.

then you're [00:11:00] doing pretty well because you're really spreading out goals into all of the different categories of your business instead of just having Five different goals that all kinda seem the same things. That are like, we want our marketing to be better, but you're saying it in different ways.

So really diversify those goals that you're setting. And then there's really two ways to set a goal. And there's no one right way. I think some people will do way one, and some people will do way two. But when you're One group of people likes goals that feel really empowering and activating and inspiring and these people want to write down things that feel scary to write down.

So they will write down something like, I want to make a million dollars. I want to have abs. I want to be able to talk to my aunt without going into a room and crying after. I want to be able to pitch my business on Shark Tank. I want to raise five million dollars in funding. So these are Big goals. They are things that make their heartbeat They make them sweat a little bit as they're writing them down but [00:12:00] when they see these goals they get excited and it creates an emotional response and These goals are great If you're one of those people write that down just a simple act of admitting to yourself that you want to do something is so powerful And then there's other people that look at goals like that and think, Oh God, I'm going to like stop before I even start them because what does that even mean?

These are people who are maybe a little more logical. They're like, yes, I want to set goals, but just writing down some arbitrary number doesn't help me. They're probably people who have made smart goals in their past. So they are people who will want to create more doable goals. So, Instead of saying, like, we want to make a million dollars in annual recurring revenue this year, they would want to write down a goal that says we are going to get a marketing email out every single week because they can see, okay, that is something within our control that we can do.

So think about who you are. I tend to be more on the side of big, activating, exciting goals, and then I know that later on in the goal process I could think about the breakdown of, okay, how am I actually going to make that happen? But I have some [00:13:00] friends that Only write down goals that are measurable, that are in their control, and they're like, that is going to keep me on track, that's going to help me be consistent because I know exactly what it is that I need to do.

So maybe you're person one, maybe you're person two, but try and figure that out before you move into goal setting this January. Then when it comes to all the different goals you wrote out, you wrote out five, let's say you feel really good about them. The number one question you need to ask yourself is what identity do you need to change to make those things happen?

There are probably stories going on in your head, maybe you have a team of five and you want to bring on a six teammate and that six teammate is going to be a kind of more high level admin position. And there's a story going on in your head of admin is such a waste of company resources because I can just do it.

I'm fine at doing it and it's not really going to drive ROI like the other people on my team. So why would I hire an admin person? Yes, I know it's to save me time, but it just doesn't feel. feel like it's worth it. There are so many stories going on in that head. [00:14:00] And those stories are saying things like your time isn't valuable, your time doesn't lead to ROI, that only if someone is creating a direct monetary change that they are worth it on the team.

And these are all really important things to notice and unpack because they're probably things that are subconsciously sabotaging your success as a founder and sabotaging your company. So you could something like, okay, Because I'm thinking about bringing on this admin person, the beliefs I need to shift are when I'm not working on tasks that can be better done by someone who's more efficient at these tasks, the business grows exponentially.

And I think it's in that identity shift that you start to believe that you are worth the goal, that your company is worth having this goal, and you're safe in it. You know, you can do this and it's not something that's so stretchy that you just have to avoid. You're safe in it. And when you can feel that sense of safety, when you can feel that kind of uncomfortable inside shift, then the rest gets so much easier.

So this year I really wanted to [00:15:00] focus on my physical health. I always had the identity of, I'm not fit, I'm not athletic, I'm the slowest person on hikes, I don't really hike, I'm kind of everyone's non nature friend that they just drag around. I was like, what would happen if I adopted the identity of I am the girl that hikes I am the girl that's athletic and strong And just by simply starting to say those things to me instead of the alternate identity It was so much easier to become the girl who works out every day to become the girl who says yes to the hard hike And doesn't check all trails first to make sure that it's within her range So that I think that's a really good kind of easy to digest example and it can obviously be applied to your business too, but Usually when you have a goal and it's something that you've never been able to achieve before and you know that this is the year You're going to achieve it You're going to have to change something that you believe about yourself to make that happen Number six, what are the actions you need to take to make this happen?

So this is more for [00:16:00] my people who set big audacious emotional goals as opposed to my people who set doable goals because you know if you Want to send one marketing email out a week. That's a very clear thing that needs to happen, but you still need to think about the micro actions because that in itself has a lot around it.

The same way as someone who says, I want to make 5 million this year, that also has a lot around it. So when it comes to the actions you need to take to make this happen, usually if you have big goals that you've never been able to accomplish, radically different goals, stretchy goals, whatever you want to call them, basically they are.

Moving you out of your comfort zone. They're taking your company to a new level, something about what you need to do is you need to take a radically different action. If you want a radically different results. So it's not about an overhaul all the time. Sometimes it is. Sometimes you just need to say, Okay, what I'm doing is not serving me.

And starting today, changing this. And we're doing these actions. And we're making this promise to [00:17:00] ourselves. And there is no shortcut around just doing that sometimes. But sometimes the radically different action is maybe you Only post about your business once a week or a couple times a week or maybe you have a social media manager on Your team, but you're only able to get kind of two subpar pieces of content out a week and you just know that you're under utilizing TikTok and your brand mostly serves Gen Z's and if you could just get on TikTok and be really amazing at TikTok then you could blow up your business.

Cool. Let's say those are the things running through your head. To get the radically different result of blowing up on TikTok when right now you're getting a couple plays per video, you need to take radically different action. You need to hire someone who is a TikTok specialist. You need to post. four to five times a day with hyper relevant, trendy content.

You need to do things that are going to make you so uncomfortable, but that is how you get the stretchy goals is by saying, you know what, we're going to do things totally differently. And when you are thinking of those [00:18:00] actions you are doing, if you are someone who set that really big, audacious goal of 5 million, well, okay.

How many people. Do you need to actually get to 5 million? Is it even doable in your current business model? ask yourself those hard questions. And if it is, what are the activities you need to do every single day or every single week to make that happen? Because you need to make a promise to yourself that those actions are not going to be things you do.

If everything else gets done, there are going to be actions that you prioritize and you say, we are doing this this year. So these actions are going to happen. And then if you are someone who has a more doable goal, let's say you're that person who says, I want to send out one marketing email every single week.

Well, that's clearly not happening right now because it's a goal. So what's the blocker? Why is it not happening right now? Is it that you don't have someone on your team that can do it? Is that you don't know what to write and you need some sort of resource that can kind of help you. is it that, you don't feel inspired to write these marketing emails because no one's, I don't know, opening them.

where is the problem and how can we kind of [00:19:00] plug that hole with concrete so you are just ready to break it down and know exactly what you need to do. Write it down in granular detail of what is going to have to happen for this goals to occur because this is That is the only way you're going to be able to do it.

Whenever there is a lack of clarity around a goal, whenever you have this goal, but you have no idea what to do to make it happen, it's just going to live on the page and then you're not going to get to the end of 2025 in December, 2025, and you're not going to have this amazing, wow, I really did that moment.

You're going to just be where you are in January. And we often overestimate what we can do in a day. But we underestimate what we can do in a year. And imagine if you set these goals and you stayed with the process and you created actions that are actually going to get you there. And then you just did it and you stayed consistent and you didn't reinvent the wheel, but you, you decided to show up for you.

You decided that you are worth making promises to and you're worth following through on them [00:20:00] and then you're able to bask in that I did it feeling and then you're able to set 2026 goals that you also accomplish because you are a person who gets things done. Talk about an identity shift. And then the last question I want you to ask with these yearly goals is, who do you need to make these things happen?

What do you need to invest in to make these things happen? And these don't always have to be people on your team. These don't always have to be service providers or coaches or strategists or consultants or courses. They can also be things that you're investing your time in.

They don't have to be expensive. They don't even have to be anything relating to money. They can be someone that just helps you. A family member who's done this, who's willing to help you. But everyone needs support. And everyone needs a team. And team in a very metaphorical sense of the word. So I would have you ask yourself, who do you need to hire?

Sometimes you just need to hire someone. I would ask yourself, who are the teammates you're going to bring on? Who is your team to make this goal happen? Who's going to be your [00:21:00] muse? Who's going to be your inspiration? Who's been here who can help you get there? And Who's the team you're going to be calling on to keep you accountable to talk about these goals with?

Maybe those are the friends that elevate you that know about your goals that can be like, Hey, you, you working on that? How's that going? Maybe this is your mastermind cohort. Maybe this is your book club, but we all need people. We all need accountability. So make sure you have that in there because it's so much easier to accomplish a goal when you know exactly who you're going to call upon to help you get there.

I want to pivot this episode a little bit into a tangible example because I think that can really help when we're talking about something like goal setting. I tried to give some tangible examples throughout this episode, but let's pretend I have a swimsuit line and it's a bikini company. I love my bikini company.

It's doing relatively well. And I decided my goal for 2025 is I want to start. a one piece line in my business. I want to expand. So remember how I was talking [00:22:00] about how in December you want to get the groundwork going? You don't want to go from one person to a whole new person in January. You want to kind of set this stage for the person you're about to become.

So in December, I would start visualizing my one piece line, thinking about, okay, what are some of the colors and styles? And like, what do I want it to look like? just get the wheels turning. And then I would just really drop into my body and I would feel what it would feel like to have that in the market.

Does it feel really expansive? Am I excited? Am I launching it on podcasts that I'm on? Am I running new ads to my one pieces? how does all of that feel? What are the feelings that are attached to that? And then I might do some casual research on one piece styles. I might talk to a friend who also has a swimsuit company who expanded into one pieces.

And then I would start telling my family and friends, 2025, when all of you guys go to like Bora Bora, you're going to be in my one pieces and they're going to look amazing. So it's really just getting stuff into the universe and saying this is happening. I'm [00:23:00] so excited when 2025 rolls around because I'm going to be doing this and we're already getting that wheel ball, whatever, rolling.

That's exciting. And then come January 1st, I would go on my retreat, it'd be 20 minutes away from my house, it would be a cute little cabin in the woods, I might bring a close friend, I might bring my partner, and because I talked about doing something to get uncomfortable, to kick off the year, do a polar plunge for the first time.

It doesn't have to be something crazy, I know I mentioned skydiving, I know I mentioned bungee jumping, and like, that's it. Do I do crazy things like that? Yes, I did bungee jump one year to kick off the year. But it can be something simple like if you've never used a sauna maybe if you get a place with a sauna you go into the sauna for the first time or you do a polar plunge or you reconnect with an old friend that you've always been kind of scared to connect with because you guys fell out years ago It doesn't have to be huge But get uncomfortable and show yourself.

 we can do really hard things and we're going to do these hard things that we're putting on this goal paper because that's just the kind of person we [00:24:00] are. Then in terms of identity, This one is a little bit more of you're shifting a business side identity and you're shifting a positioning and an idea that you're a bikini company in this example and total, total pitch.

we can help you do that in my studio, my right hand woman. So if you need help because you are launching a new product or you're pivoting or your messaging is shifting from something to the next, we offer something called the brief where we go through your entire company's messaging to help you make sure that this offer is really well communicated and it.

Only explodes your brand instead of hindering it. So you have to change the business identity of going from a bikini brand to a swimwear brand. And that's huge. That's a big identity to have to shift to create this goal. Because if you don't do that identity shift, you're always going to have this fear of what if we dismantle our bikini business, because you're not actually mentally ready to become a swimwear brand.

So it is a combination of actually shifting the business identity, but also shifting your identity as a founder. And. What I would do for this identity change is, I would probably work with a [00:25:00] consultant to help with the business side. like I just said, we will be more than happy to do that with you if that feels right.

But it also is just really reminding myself, I own a swimwear brand. we don't just do bikinis. We're only going to expand. This is one of many and our one pieces are going to be amazing because everything we do is amazing and giving myself that full permission to shift and change who I am with regard to my business and what I'm creating and the impact I'm creating in my world.

Then it comes to actions. So I would just say, okay, what do I need to do to get this one piece line out into the market? And if you already have a bikini company, then you know what to do. Now you just got to write it down and make sure you repeat that exact same process. You have to sketch out designs, communicate with production, explore, go to market launch angle, set reasonable benchmarks, hire models for a shoot and do some product testing to figure out the right sizes and materials.

Cool. Done. Now you just create. That list of actions and slot it into your calendar of when are you going to do these things by. And then lastly, who do you need to make this [00:26:00] happen? Let's say you have a social media manager and a factory contact on your team. So you have a few gaps to bring this to market.

Maybe you need a launch strategist. Maybe you need a designer to design the new product line. Maybe you need a copywriter to help you with the new copy on the One Piece product descriptions. Maybe you need someone to go in and help you with that foundational messaging during the pivot.

only you know who you need, but assemble your team and start talking to the people that are going to make this happen. The name of the game with these goals is just taking action. It's writing it down, it's writing down the actions you need to do and then just executing, just doing it. I mean, I know I sound exactly like Nike, but the coolest thing about setting your goals for 2025 is You are creating the person and the company that you want to live in simply by putting it on paper.

Once you have it on paper, once you're clear, You're 50 percent of the way there. Now it's just a matter of keeping that promise to yourself and showing up every single day, knowing that at the end of the year, you're going to be the [00:27:00] person who you couldn't even fathom when you wrote down this goal. And that's wild.

So I'm so excited for you to go through and create your goals for 2025, keeping these things in mind so that you can have an incredible year with so much growth and really, truly become unrecognizable. Make that company that just breaks all of the timeline barriers that people think, oh, you know, it's unheard of for a company, but at the end of year one to do X, cool, do it.

It's unheard of for someone to be able to accomplish this goal, within this short of time period. Awesome. Well, you're going to be the exception. So when you have this idea that your goals are going to happen and you write them down and you treat them with the respect that they deserve, I know the person you are at the end of 2025, it's going to be.

Insane, and I can't wait to meet them.

Lucy Bedewi: Thanks so much for listening. If you want to connect with me further, definitely follow me on Instagram at @lucy.bedewi My last name is spelled B E D E W I. If you want to work with my [00:28:00] studio for either that verbal branding offer that I talked about, the brief, or because you need some new copy in your business, definitely head over to www.myrighthandwoman.com. It's in the show notes or you could type it out with right spelled like writing and my Instagram is at my right hand woman You can literally DM that and ask any questions. I am very informal over there as well But I hope you have a great rest of your year and a happy new year new year. If you have a second and want to give me a Christmas present, please leave a review or rating about the podcast.

If you are enjoying these episodes, it really makes a difference and helps us reach new people and create new episodes. If you keep giving us feedback that you like it. So it takes two seconds. If you're on Spotify, you can literally just click the stars and Let's have an amazing 2025 together.

If there are topics that you want me to cover in the new year, feel free to slide into my DMs. you can slide in honestly at @mywritehandwoman or @lucy.bedewi at whatever account you like more and vibe with. But, I'm really excited to have 24 more episodes of [00:29:00] Boldspounder with you in the new year.

So have a great rest of your day, eat all the cookies and I'll see you soon.