Understand Your Goals

The Inventive Journey
Episode #340
Understand Your Goals
w/ Colby Flood
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"Honestly, understand what you want to achieve and why you want to achieve it. You hear that all the time right but, you hear it all the time cause its important. Really focus on making sure you're not limiting yourself and bottlenecking your own growth. Check out that book the Big Leap by Hendricks. One thing I did not mention but is pretty important to me is making sure I write down my goals. Plan my goals ahead and keep track of them daily. One thing I always tell the team is to slow down to speed up. take the time to plan out what you want to do before you go for it. Lastly remain a student. Don't stop learning when you feel like you've gotten to where you want to go. Keep looking for educational opportunities."

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What Is The Inventive Journey?

Starting and growing a business is a journey. On The Inventive Journey, your host, Devin Miller walks with startups along their different journeys startups take to success (or failure). You also get to hear from featured guests, such as venture firms and angel investors, that provide insight on the paths to a successful inventive journey.

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 honestly um understand what you want to achieve and why you want to achieve it and you hear that all the time right but you hear it all the time because it's important um really focus on making sure you're not limiting yourself and bottlenecking your own growth check out that book the big leap by gay hendricks and then one thing i did not mention but has been very important for me is making sure i write down my goals plan my goals ahead and then keep track of them daily as well one thing i always tell the team is slow down to speed up take the time to plan out what you want to do before you go forward there's a planner from darren hardy called living your best year ever ever i sound like an affiliate marketer at this point but um it's huge it it has helped me a ton and then lastly just remain a student don't don't stop learning when you feel like you've gotten to where you want to go keep looking for educational opportunities [Music] hi everyone this is devin miller here with another episode of the inventive journey i'm your host evan miller the serial entrepreneur that's uh grown several startups in the seven and eight figure businesses as well as the founder and ceo of miller ip law where we help startups and small businesses with their patents and trademarks you ever need help with yours just go to strategymeeting.com grab some time with us to chat now today we have another great guest on the podcast colby flood and uh colby um and in his own words high school and college wasn't the greatest experience um ended up having to go through uh go to rehab throughout part of the experience dropped out of high school after a year finished rehab uh worked in retail for a period of time and always wanted to go into marketing so as part of that he went back to the rehab center and i think he was at and did their social media and marketing for a period of time and then left and started his own uh freelancing or did freelancing on his own for a while and was freelancing until covet hit um and then you know as it happens he uh during her while cove hit her i guess shortly before after hired his first employee and now is all the way up to 17 members on the team so with that much his introduction welcome on the podcast colby uh thanks for having me thanks for having me absolutely so i just took a much longer journey and condensed it into the 30 second version so why don't we unpack that a bit and tell us how your uh journey got started a little bit in the high school college time frame yeah for sure um so definitely starting back in high school right so um uh going through you know troubles at home getting mixed in with not the best crowd at school and just really kind of losing focus on school i continued through high school and that's really when i started to use drugs started with weed and then it just kind of progressed from there right as i graduated high school it had gotten i mean it was definitely out of hand from the beginning but it had gotten much worse and i wasn't too much focused on school although i continued to try that path so i went to a university for a year and you know you hear people say um like i don't remember being in class or i don't i genuinely do not i remember two class periods and one is weird there's a thing i remember but one was a classical music appreciation class and i remember it because at the time uh ring back tones were still a thing and it was like the ring back tone for verizon and i remember them playing that and i was like oh nice so yeah ed um college was definitely i related to like the uh blue period for uh um what was it warhol i believe um not not the best time um dropped out of college after that first year and really continued spiraling down um i mean i got to a point where i was doing 300 milligrams of oxycodone every day and just kept on that path until 2015. um so i was 21 years old and had just thankfully hit rock bottom and went to a rehab called living free ministries which is in snow camp north carolina i was on this nice little farm a very small community out there and spent four months out there and turned things around i'm happy to say since 25th september 15th 2015 is when i went in i've been able to stay 100 clean since then and just that's where uh i'm here now that's where uh this journey started was that kind of page turn right there no and i think that you know i think everybody has attorneys or their journeys and you know that one sounds like you know during the high school college time frame it was a bit of a rough journey and you know he had to have that downward spiral thankfully he got uh he got help with that and were able to turn it around and you know start to put your life in a bit better direction or a bit more successful direction now as you're doing that you know you've going through rehab and and getting clean and otherwise um or turning those things around how did you kind of figure out that you liked marketing or that was something of interest or kind of as you're saying okay if life is going in a better direction a bit more happy and things are a bit more stable coming out of that you know how did you do that because i think that you know for other people that may have had a similar you know similar situation or they've other had some of those addiction or issues that they're overcoming it can be difficult to find a path where you can find good employment or where people are willing to trust you or hire you and so it becomes a bit of a barrier so how did you kind of as you're coming out of that situation figure out what you're going to do next yeah i'll tell you that is that is very tough that that transition right there especially so i was lucky and to say that i was 21 years old when when my turnaround happened that is very tough um really what i did was just focus on what i enjoyed i've always been very into psychology very much into that just that kind of learning and thinking and translated that into business like you were saying it can be very tough to find employment right i am a felon i have a marijuana charge drug felony and when i started working retail i moved up quickly but i hit a ceiling right i um i couldn't get a store manager position at dollar store because i had a felony and it was tough so that's when i had to make the decision to begin to go out on my own but just to kind of circle back to your question of how people can go about that definitely focus on what you enjoy but also look for the resources that are out there um look for the resources that your state or your county uh may have for you there's something in north carolina for example called the brian hamilton foundation and they solely focus on helping people who've been incarcerated begin their own business and training on how they can do your own business so don't feel like the burden is completely on your shoulders to to keep going forward uh or to to make that progress find people find resources that can help you with that no and i think that that's that's a good point in the sense of finding a lot of those uh resources give you the ability to you know other otherwise address or overcome some of those obstacles that may otherwise be in your way and it provides this doesn't make it you know an easy path and i think that but it does at least provide you with a path to success so now you're saying okay i found some you know coming out of that worked at retail hitting the you know a bit of that ceiling or you know makes it difficult for uh to um continue to go to move up upward within the business you know how did you then say okay maybe i'll try my hand at you know marketing and and doing some of the social media in other words was that an opportunity you sought out and you said hey this would be interesting or was the rehab center that you've gone to looking for that or kind of how did you make that transition to say i find this interesting and that's where i'm going to pursue is to create more opportunity yeah for sure i'm going to go ahead and tell you there's sometimes i don't give direct answers so i'm going to get there to you but uh the first thing i really did and this is something i would suggest for anybody is really just focused on that mindset shift of believing that it could happen there's a book called the big leap by gay hendricks which was pivotal for me because i hit a ceiling at the places i was working but i also could hit a ceiling with what i believed i could do and that's that book really focuses on helping with that but honestly um [Music] i am a very planned out person with two planners at all times but this point in my life where i made that jump i had no plan originally my idea was to go back to school and to go the school route and at the same time so happens that living free was looking for somebody to come on board and do marketing for them so i i continued at a community college for a year while working with them and for me personally and school may be a good option for some people listening that need that but for me personally i found that i was more so in school at that time for confidence than i was for knowledge and everything that i was doing at living free was teaching me what i needed um and i spent a year just being a student while working uh learned teaching myself website design email marketing all of that and just really going with that so like i said roundabout answer find a find a job in your career that you're wanting to do and just be a student as much as you can and and really focus on going above and beyond with everything you're doing with it no and i think that that's that's a good you know a fair point and i also like you know sometimes school is a good option for a lot of people it's also not a good option for others and you know finding the way that the education that you can gain that those skills and then looking for the opportunities to build your resume your portfolio type of thing in order to utilize and showcase those skills makes a big difference so you say okay took the next you know thought about the college route took the next year i assume you're working in the time but continue to develop those skills as you're continuing to you know get the income and then as you're gaining those skills how did you start to get or find those opportunities of actually turning those skills into employment yeah i started by working with people that i knew started by reaching out to people business owners in the local area and seeing if i could really give a go at the freelancing part and building out enough monthly revenue that i could justify stopping a nine to five job i i believe it was when i hit right at four to five k a month is when i made that just full change over there and just kind of kept going with building out referrals that way so now you say okay and i think that's a great place to start with the network you have start with the people you know see if there's any connections anybody that's interested or has work which you know sounds like one of the places was the rehab center then you start to get those clientele on board continue to establish reach out to people and kind of build it a bit organically and then you know and now when did you when did you start doing that or kind of as a time frame how long or when was that when you started doing those or doing those projects or showcasing or doing that work for other people uh year-wise i believe that was 2017 i believe yep so now you do 2017 and you're doing that you know you start out sounds like maybe on a bit of the side gig or side hustle and then you urge you to reach the point where it was enough to enter income to make it sustainable you could do it full time then it sounds like for the next few years and if i'm putting words in your mouth definitely um or feel it or feel free to change it to the right words but for the next few years you were basically doing it mostly on your own or as kind of a one-man show so to speak until more recently when covet hit and you happen to have the upward spike is that right yeah that's right i um really focused on continuing to dial in so i may i made the first mistake of trying to be a catch-all with marketing right i tried to do email a website and that's just not scalable uh at least when you're a solopreneur trying to scale so i dialed in on one specific service and focused on the one thing and really found uh one good lead generation source for me as well to start building myself out and yes until um so december 22nd of 2020 is when i hired my first team member and from that point until where we are now is just kind of in the scale journey for me now what and just out of curiosity what was the difference in you know first few years doing it on your own and then now for be able to scale it higher on additional team members and go to where you're at today was it just took a while made the connections pivoted niched down focused figured out what worked on marketing a bit of all the above or kind of what made that you know that pivot point from going to kind of doing it mostly on your own to having or building a team around it yeah it was definitely it was definitely some of those things so learning um learning a lot of things outside of just my craft outside of just marketing right and i circle back to this the biggest the biggest shift for me was just the mindset shift of just allowing myself to continue to go forward and and i just continue to say anybody that has ever dealt with that or had that kind of limiting belief check out that book the big leap but that just allowing that to go forward um really helped me kind of turn that page and continue to keep growing and um start hiring at a pretty fast rate oh i think that you know that sounds like one it's a definitely a good good resource and book to check out and two not only did you read it or learn it but then you put it into practice and it was a worthwhile endeavor well that kind of brings us to a bit to where you're at today now if you're to look kind of the next six to 12 months and i know world's always uncertain and you never know exactly where you're going but if you're to project out a little bit and say hey here's our kind of where we see things headed or what the plan is for the next six to 12 months what do you think the next steps are for you yeah so last year we grew at a 267 percent rate we're looking to keep that consistent and hopefully double that this year which is pretty aggressive but we are looking to build out additional services within our company the biggest goal for brighter click really i mean from our name brighter click to what our core values are to what we want to do starts with what my journey has been we want to become an educational resource for people we are education first so we make sure that our team members take paid or free courses every quarter we educate our clients but we're looking to build out university courses that are free to provide to either business owners or marketers who are in the united states and don't have the paid opportunity or in third world countries that need education as well and we want to help people reach their goals uh with no charge that that's that is our ultimate biggest goal as we continue to go forward awesome well it sounds like one it's a a very amicable goal and i like both the you know you have the growth goals and expanding the services but also or figuring out ways to offer opportunities to others that will help them to improve their situation as well so it sounds like a great uh great mixture of behind both fronts so yeah well now as we wrap towards the end of the podcast i always have two questions that i ask at the end of each episode so we'll transition to those now so the first question i always ask is along your journey what was the worst business decision you ever made what'd you learn from it yeah so i know we talked about me starting out with the network of people that i knew but i would say the worst business decision that i made was just not truly understanding how valuable networking is especially for b2b companies or being in the b2b industry and just not tapping in as much as i could have and should have to just building uh good connections and good good uh networks within uh the realm that i was in so very important to do no i think so and i think it's one that it on on paper you know it sounds like it's something that's easy to do and yet figuring that out implementing it and understanding the the value of it is oftentimes gets overlooked so you know the mistake that's certainly easy to made but uh one that uh is great to learn from yeah second question i always ask is if you're talking to somebody that's just getting into a startup or a small business would be the one piece of advice you'd give them you're gonna get annoyed because i'm gonna go back to the same book but um yeah i would say honestly understand what you want to achieve and why you want to achieve it and you hear that all the time right but you hear it all the time because it's important um really focus on making sure you're not limiting yourself and bottlenecking your own growth check out that book the big leap by gay hendricks and then uh one thing i did not mention but has been very important for me is making sure i write down my goals plan my goals ahead and then keep track of them daily as well one thing i always tell the team is slow down to speed up take the time to plan out what you want to do before you go forward there's a planner from darren hardy called living your best year ever i sound like an affiliate marketer at this point but um it's huge it it has helped me a ton uh and then lastly just remain a student don't don't stop learning when you feel like you've gotten to where you want to go keep looking for educational opportunities oh and i like that i like all the above and um you know i like the looking for additional educational opportunities and that does not always mean going back to school you know whether it's the book that you're mentioning i love podcasts not only do i do a podcast but i also love listening to others and i think that you can garner a lot of education outside of just the conventional means but you and or the conventional means as well but either way if you're continually learning and improving then it's helping you to be better at your craft and otherwise be able to better or be able to better perform and build a business so i think that's a a lot of great takeaways yeah well people are interested if they want to be a customer they want to be a client they want to be an investor they want to be an employee they want to be your next best friend any or all of the above what's the best way to reach out to you contact you or find out more i think it's funny i was thinking earlier i'm at the point where i respond to email better than i do text message my email is simple colby c-o-l-b-y at brighterclick.com you can definitely go to brighterclick.com as well if you want to uh book on the calendar but feel free to reach out their email i'd love to connect with anybody who is any of the above or anybody that has questions about that journey that i've been through love to help somebody out with awesome that i definitely encourage people to reach out connect and take advantage of of uh some great resources and and also a lot of knowledge there so with that um thank you again for coming on the podcast it's been a fun it's been a pleasure now for all of you that are listeners if you have your own journey to tell and you'd like to be a guest on the podcast we'd love to have you and share your journey just go to inventiveguest.com and apply to be on the show a couple more things as listeners make sure to click subscribe make sure to click share make sure to click like make sure to click uh leave a review because we want to make sure that everybody finds out about all these awesome episodes and last but not least you ever need help with patents trademarks or anything else with your business just go to strategymeeting.com grab some time with us to chat we're always happy to help well thank you again colby for coming on the podcast and wish the next legion of your journey even better than the last thank you very much [Music] you

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