Want to know a simple trick that will help you get more customers, hit your goals, and grow your business ALL AT THE SAME TIME?!
Well, this is my 150th Podcast Episode, and I'm talking about MILESTONES and why celebrating them will help your business achieve amazing success!
Okay, so, This is my 150th Podcast Episode! 🎉
And today, I'm going to talk about BUSINESS MILESTONES: what they are, which ones matter most, and why celebrating them will actually help you to grow your business faster!
Let's get into this…
"Milestones" used to be markers set up on the side of a road to measure the distance to a particular place, and paying attention to them was important if you wanted to reach your destination.
Whether it's a birthday, graduation, anniversary, athletic achievement, or work promotion, we've all experienced a milestone celebration that helped us to move into a new phase of life.
These achievements give us an excuse to throw a party, but they also serve as a signal to ourselves and everyone around us that we're making progress, we're taking on more responsibility, and we're evolving.
Celebrating achievements, milestones, and wins, even small ones, not only feels good on a personal level but also has an amazing effect on businesses!
So you might be asking, how does this relate to me?
Even under the best circumstances, running a business is crazy and chaotic. It requires intense effort, focus, and CONSISTENCY. And when you're super busy, it's easy to overlook the small milestones you pass along the way.
But believe it or not, celebrations have a HIGH return on investment!
In other words, the more you celebrate your business, the more your business will have to celebrate!
Because milestones are not only a shortcut, they're the biggest SMARTCUT to growing your business!
They turn a big scary journey into a fun adventure of a million little steps.
They're how you build a giant business from nothing. They're how I built Credit Repair Cloud from nothing. They're how our millionaires got on our millionaire wall. And they got there by setting REALLY BIG goals, consistently working toward them every day, and celebrating milestones along the way.
That's you achieve the impossible!
Recognizing a "Business Milestone" is an opportunity to market to customers, form bonds with your team, determine new goals, and even pat yourself on the back.
They inspire, motivate, and reassure that hard work is recognized and progress is being made toward your long-term goals.
Maybe your long-term goal is to be a Credit Hero Millionaire and get a plaque on our wall. Well, it's important to set big HUGE goals! Setting the big giant goal is the first step towards achieving it. And the second step is setting a bunch of smaller tiny goals that build a roadmap toward your big huge goal.
That's why each milestone should be celebrated! Because in the craziness of your business, it reminds you that you're making progress toward your big huge goal!
Here's the thing to remember…
What you choose to celebrate will vary depending on the size of your business.
If you're just starting in Credit Repair, your wins might not seem important enough to celebrate, but they are!
Take a look at our Facebook Community, and you'll see Credit Heroes celebrating when they get their first paid client, boost a client's credit score, get their first great review, make their first hire, and ESPECIALLY when they change someone's life.
It's always amazing to see a client get a new car or house they couldn't afford before their credit was repaired. That's something worth celebrating EVERY SINGLE TIME!
Not to mention, celebrating it is actually the best way to get new leads and market your business!
Here's why this is important…
The focus of a milestone celebration can be the company, a product or service, accomplishments or anniversaries, or your company's relationship with a specific customer or an entire community!
Or, in my case today, a Podcast hitting 150 episodes! 🎉
Anyway, if you want your wins to multiply, and inspire more success, here are a few milestones you need to celebrate…
Company Anniversaries or Achievements
We've all seen companies that promote the year they were "Established" or the fact that they were "founded in a garage." And that's because celebrating founding milestones gives you and your company a reason to tell your story (which I believe is very important). Telling your story well will grow your company.
It also allows your company to promote your history, remind customers of your past achievements, highlight your current goals, and announce future plans.
You can write a Newsletter that explains the achievements and tells your customers how it benefits them. You can share wins you've had for your clients. Maybe one of them bought a house or a fancy car. You can celebrate that on Social Media, post print or digital ads in your community, and add these wins to your website.
For you and your staff (if you have one), promoting company accomplishments allow you to set the next big huge goal, and those big goals allow your staff to set smaller ones, establishing a consistent rhythm of success, celebration, setting a new goal, followed by greater success.
Product and Service Milestones
You can celebrate sales records, maybe an added service you're now offering, or even positive reviews! But when you celebrate the product or service, don't make the message about the product or service itself. You should celebrate the impact it made.
Think about it this way, maybe you added Credit Building Coaching as a service your business provides, and that service was very popular. It immediately doubled the number of paid clients. That's an amazing achievement.
But you shouldn't celebrate the service itself. You should celebrate how many lives you're now able to change through Credit Building Coaching.
This style of messaging is good for marketing AND staff morale.
For example, one day, I decided to set a big huge goal and said I wanted to make a free resource where people could watch or listen to Credit Repair News and Financial Tips.
So I created this podcast as an added CRC service for anyone interested in Credit Repair. I made a plan and a commitment to release a new episode every week, no matter what.
Consistency is key to success, so I released episodes no matter what!
If I was traveling, swamped with work, sick, or burned out, it didn't matter. I was consistent. We had guests never show up, their internet or equipment died mid-interview, and all kinds of problems. But it didn't matter because we found a way to get the episode out.
I released my first episode on Feb 4, 2020, just a month before the pandemic, right before the world went crazy.
I had never made a podcast before and had huge imposter syndrome. I still do. I thought everyone else's podcast was better than mine. Because they were! Mine sucked at first.
And Keenan would sit near me and give me feedback after every interview, and his feedback wasn't always easy to hear.
But each week, we got better, faster, and clearer. We made small and large improvements along the way and celebrated our little podcast victories when episodes got a good response.
It makes me smile thinking about how far we've come.
And since our first episode, this Podcast has been downloaded and viewed over 2.2 million times. I'm proud of that number, but while that number is cool to say, all I really care about is the impact. It means I helped give 2.2 million pieces of Credit Repair Business advice.
There are a lot of people who've grown their businesses with things that they've learned on this show. And I'm really proud of that.
Staff Anniversaries and Achievements
Now, not everyone listening to this will have a staff. According to IBISWorld, the average Credit Repair business has 1.2 employees.
But even if you just have a virtual assistant or you have relatives working for you part-time, celebrating staff is a huge part of your company's success.
And don't forget, if you're the only person at your company, YOU ARE THE STAFF!
And you should absolutely celebrate YOUR WINS!
Because celebrating staff wins and accomplishments, even your own, creates a company culture, forms traditions, and demonstrates what your business believes in, beyond the numbers.
They signal that you actually care about people, their growth, and their success.
At Credit Repair Cloud, we have weekly meetings where we celebrate personal wins, professional wins, birthdays, and work anniversaries (we call them Cloudyversaries). We give shoutouts and pubic praise for big achievements and merit-based pay increases.
We do all this because it's fun and the right thing to do.
But if that's not enough of a reason for you…
Celebrating staff milestones, even your own, inspires new goals to be set!
It doesn't matter if you have one employee, one hundred, or your little brother helping you put up Credit Repair ads on telephone polls. These people believe in you.
Show them that they're appreciated!
You can give a high-performing employee a day off, a thoughtful gift, or you can take your team out to lunch. These little gestures improve communication, team-building and give people well-deserved (short) breaks.
And if you're the only person at the company, you're allowed to take yourself out to dinner. And it's okay to give yourself a gift. You achieved something!
You can and should celebrate yourself!
Just celebrate! 🎉
My final point...
Reaching a milestone gives you a moment to rest, look back, smile, and look ahead.
You can reflect on how you got to where you are, the sacrifices you made, the good and bad decisions, and the relationships you built.
You can take a moment to consider how you grew and changed to meet that milestone, the effort, and the consistency it took.
As an entrepreneur, who is always putting out fires, it's important to take that moment and actually enjoy it.
As I said, this is the 150th Episode of this Podcast! 🎉I'm really proud of that. And it would be crazy to have an episode dedicated to celebrating milestones if I didn't acknowledge Keenan. Young Yoda. The first person I hired at Credit Repair Cloud.
I could not have gotten this far without you. Your hard work, dedication, expertise, and endless - not always easy to hear - feedback.
Cheers to 150 episodes and 150 more! We're just getting started!
Now, looking ahead, we're actually about to update the style of the podcast, and I'm really excited about the upcoming changes. And we have some amazing guests coming up, and they're gonna blow your mind!
But before we finish talking about milestones…
What are some of your business milestones?
What's your big giant goal?
Tell me what they are and how you're gonna celebrate them!
Drop a comment with the episode or leave a message in our Facebook Community!
I'll end by saying…
If you don’t already have a Credit Repair Cloud account, check it out. It’s the software that most Credit Repair businesses in America run on. Just sign up for a 30-Day Free Trial at CreditRepairCloud.com/freetrial
And If you’d like me to hold you by the hand as you launch your own credit repair business, check out our Credit Hero Challenge!
It’s an amazing program where you’ll learn the processes that have made millionaires, and it costs less than you'll spend taking your family to McDonald’s for dinner.
We’ve got another challenge starting in a few days, so grab your spot right now at CreditHeroChallenge.com!
Until next time, remember…
The more you celebrate your business, the more your business will have to celebrate!
Keep celebrating!
And keep changing lives!