Graham (00:05.142)
If you want to 2x your income this year without hustling harder or jumping on a bunch of trends, then you need to answer these three questions. In fact, by answering these three questions, you will have secretly created the clearest business growth plan imaginable, which will give you unstoppable confidence, clarity and conviction about what you do over the next 12 months to double your business.
And be sure to stay to the end where I share the best quote that I have heard anywhere on accomplishing your biggest goals.
Graham (01:05.528)
So I coach high performers day in and day out, like successful multi-six and seven figure entrepreneurs who are great people, they're great humans, they have great companies that do great work in the world, but they all have a problem. And that problem is they're bumping up against the ceiling. And yes, even with making seven figures a year, they wanna make more because they can have more impact and they just are growth-minded. They don't wanna cap.
what they're doing and so when they hit that wall, they come to me and it's not just an income wall because if you dig deeper, yeah, they wanna make more money but they also kinda hate the business that they've built. They loved it at first, it was beautiful, it was fun, it was exciting and as it's gotten more successful, it's gotten more frustrating. They've gotten more exhausted, they're having to do things they don't wanna do, they're jumping on trends like I talked about, they're scrambling, they're pulled in a bunch of different directions which,
Actually, the more I tease it out, that becomes the glaring issue. The more questions I ask, the more I realize you're doing a million things, you have a million offers, or you wanna go in a million different directions, and so they'll come into a new year like, hey, it's the first week of January right now, they'll come into a new year like this, and they'll be so frustrated because they have a list a mile long of what they wanna accomplish, and that in and of itself is a bit of a problem as we'll get into, but not only that,
The way they go about trying to accomplish those goals, whether it's doubling their business or it's getting into new rooms and getting invited into bigger stages or bigger platforms or whatever it is, they go in a million different directions to try to get there. This is the reason why most people, even successful entrepreneurs, will not double their income this year. They have diluted focus. That's it. It's just they're focused on a million different things.
It's just not gonna happen. So they're gonna work for a little bit on this and work for a little bit on this and work for a little bit on that. 12 months are gonna go by and they're gonna be super frustrated because they didn't really make much more money and it was an exhausting year. And they're gonna ask themselves, what did I do?
Graham (03:15.118)
So I don't want that to be you. So some of you, this might be all you need to hear is you're doing too many things. And that's why I could look at you and predict you're not gonna 2X your income this year. Because you're doing too many things. You're on every social media platform. You're doing webinars. You're doing podcasting. You're doing blogging. You got a newsletter on Substack. You're speaking on stages. You're doing it all.
and you're doing affiliate partnerships and you're opening up a brick and mortar and you're and and and. Good luck. Maybe they're all good ideas, but are they the right idea for you? And so what I want to give you today are when I'm looking at planning and when I'm working with with high end clients like this, it can get overwhelming and even New Year's planning can be overwhelming. I just gave you my million dollar a year in review a couple of weeks ago. Like all the six things I go through during my year in review and my planning, all the questions to ask.
You might be like, dude, that's a lot. That's a lot. So let me give you three questions that I gave one of my clients just a few weeks ago when he was looking at the new year, because here's what he told me. He just had a baby, baby number two. He hadn't been in the office in weeks, honestly, in months. They also moved that year. So was a very big year, 2024 for them. Moved, second child, and he was exhausted. All these other things popped up. And because he's built
A business, in the way I teach, money was still coming in. So you could look at it and slow clap and be like, well, that's amazing. But he was frustrated because he's not moving forward and he was starting to get overwhelmed thinking about the new year. I don't know what to focus on. Overwhelmed. So let me tell you what I told him. I gave him three questions and I'm going to give them to you now. I want you to literally write down the answers unless you're driving. Don't write while you're driving, but get to a place when you can stop. And this is your homework for the week, is to answer these three questions.
because two things are gonna happen. One, you're gonna have incredible clarity, but two, you're gonna literally know what to do this year to do extra income without working harder or more hours. You ready? Let's jump in. Question number one, most important question. Where are you going this year?
Graham (05:34.735)
The diluted focus thing, the reason nobody gets anywhere because they're trying to literally go 20 places, different places, in different directions at once. So they end up going nowhere. When we say we wanna accomplish, when we say we want to achieve, when we say we want to grow, these are, this language invokes going somewhere where we're not. So if you make $100,000 a year and you wanna go to 200,000,
That is a destination, that is a place. That could be the one place you wanna go this year. If you're at 500,000 you wanna go to seven figures, that's where you wanna go this year. If you have a business model that's launch oriented and it's exhausting you and crushing you because there's so much pressure on every single launch and you wanna move to an evergreen model, that could be the destination for you this year. Are you catching it?
Another way to think about this is ask yourself, what is the one goal, one goal you want to accomplish in your business in the next 12 months that if accomplished will make all your other goals fall into place more easily? You get one friend and I know you've got thousands and I know you could say, well, can't I just do one a quarter? No.
One, there's one destination this year. Now that one destination will spawn off sub destinations along the journey. Like if I'm gonna drive my car from Tampa, Florida to where my grandmother used to live in Seattle, Washington, all the way across the country, getting to Seattle is the one goal. That's where I'm going. But to get there, I'm probably gonna have to stop for gas and stop to sleep. And so I'm gonna plot some sub destinations along the way, but really I'm going one place.
So you will not grow your business if you do not know where you're going. So this is why you have to stop and you have to give up the, I want all these things. No. Real business owners focus on the one big goal this year. What is the one big goal you want to accomplish in the next 12 months that if accomplished would make all your other goals and dreams, which are just as valuable, fall into place more easily?
Graham (07:54.647)
Most important question you'll answer. It's going to give you a north star for everything. Think about this. If you know that your number one goal is to move from a launch model to an evergreen model so money comes in on autopilot without any stress or any bug in your list or any pressure,
Well then that changes how you answer questions. That changes how you respond to requests. That changes, you know exactly what to say yes to and no to because you're like, you know what, I'm not gonna take that affiliate launch because I'm actually literally moving away from launches. I'm not going to worry about creating a new offer until I can evergreen the mess out of my current non-evergreen offers. Like, it gives you so much focus. Now I can say no more easily, which is one of the hardest things to say. This is the entrepreneur's
Dilemmas we we see every opportunity is a good opportunity and we're afraid of saying no we think we need to say yes We say yes is what got us to where I am. So I'm gonna keep saying yes That might have gotten you going but real ballers. The word is no, that's what they've learned They've learned how to say no, that's how you get to the next level is no. Yes gets you money Yes might get you to six figures. It might even get you to seven But only learning the word no will get you to the absolute next level whatever that looks like for you
So that's the first question, where are you going this year? One place, one big goal.
Graham (09:22.924)
That might be all you needed today. I'll give you question number two. Who are you speaking to this year? Now don't mean on stages. You don't have to be a public speaker.
but I've chosen that language very intentionally. What one person are you going to focus on serving this year and what will you say to them?
Graham (09:52.642)
Some of my clients, and this might be you.
they're serving anybody that's got money. And they're like, hey, I gotta appeal to moms and I gotta appeal to dads, I gotta appeal to high school grads, I gotta appeal to retirees, I gotta appeal to, they wanna reach everybody. And so their messaging and their content on YouTube or their blog or Instagram is so diluted. Like who are you talking to? The human race? I don't know who you're for.
because you won't specify.
Graham (10:32.153)
So this is the crazy cool thing about being an entrepreneur. You get to decide who you want to speak to. And I say speak to because all we are doing in business is having a conversation. Everything is a conversation. What we're doing right now on this show is a conversation. A sales call is a conversation. A blog post is a conversation. A sales page is a conversation. A webinar is a conversation. There is a conversation that you're having in your mind right now.
And I'm either jumping into that conversation with you and having the same conversation or I'm talking about something else to somebody else. So either what I'm saying resonates with you or it doesn't. So you can think of the word resonance. Your brand at all times, everywhere, at all touch points is communicating something. It's putting out a frequency in the universe. The question is what frequency, what message are you communicating? And if it's unclear, no one's gonna resonate with it. But if it is clear,
then the right people who are on the same frequency as you, if you want to use that analogy, will resonate. The people that have that question internally will hear your message and hear your answers and they will come to you. Or if they hear you asking the same question that they're asking, they will know she gets me. So messaging is everything. But you don't start with messaging, you don't start with copy, you just start with the simplest thing is pick the one person who is your
ideal client, I call this the perfect client. Who is your perfect client? If you've already been in business, you've already probably have had clients or customers, think of the best customer you've ever had. You're like, if I had a thousand of her, I'd be so happy and rich, right? That's who you wanna think of. And then you have, I'm gonna give you like four simple things to flesh out. This is like bonus exercise work, right? Once you know who that person is, and if you haven't launched anything yet, you get to decide who.
Who are you most powerfully positioned to serve, as my friend Rory Baden would say, right? Who do you want to serve? You get to decide who you want to serve. Okay, here are the four sub-questions you need answer. What is that person's one big problem? Now, people got more than one problem, but you're gonna make millions of dollars by deciding to solve one problem. There are gonna be sub-problems that are related, but again,
Graham (12:53.807)
Don't solve everybody's problem and don't solve all of one person's problem. What is the one big problem your ideal client has that you are capable of solving? Just you get to pick one, just one, write it down. but I help people do all the, nope, not a list. What is the, if you had to sum it all up, if you gave me 13 things, 13 problems you solve, put them into our category. What is the category that, what is the real problem all those things point to?
Okay, some of you have never done this before. So what is the one big problem that your person has? What is their one dream outcome they have?
Graham (13:35.181)
This is hard work, I get it. This is fabulously powerful work. Because once you identify, and you can, once you identify the one big problem your client has and the one dream outcome they have, you realize all you're doing is helping people move from problem to dream outcome. And that's all your business is. And there might be a million ways you do it, and there might be a lot of nuance there, but at the end of the day, I help this type of person go from this problem to this dream outcome.
There's your elevator pitch. Okay, so you answered, what is their one big problem? What is their one dream outcome? Now we flesh this out a smidge more. Going back to the one big problem, what are three to five pains that they feel from the one big problem? So the problem is the overarching challenge. It's the thing that they need your help solving. Because of that problem, they deal with these three to five pains.
Graham (14:36.492)
Right, so for example,
My clients have the overarching problem.
dissatisfaction in their business. Now they may not use those words exactly, but at the end of the day, that's the problem. They're dissatisfied with something in their business. I help business owners, specifically I'm helping six and seven figure business owners who are dissatisfied with their business. They might say I'm plateauing, I'm stuck. They're not where they wanna be in their business. Their dream outcome,
more money, more freedom and flexibility, and they want to love their business again. So they want to go from the stuck, plateaued, handcuffed business to this vibrant, life-giving, joyful business.
They don't know how to get there. Because of their big problem of being dissatisfied and stuck in their business, they feel overwhelmed, burnt out, insecure, lacking clarity, they feel isolated because they don't know who to talk to. These are all pains of their big problem. Consequently, the fourth thing is what are the three to five payoffs that your client will get when you help them achieve their dream outcome? So once I help my client go from
Graham (16:02.014)
stuck, plateaued, dissatisfied with their business to the business of their dreams. Well, the payoffs are confidence, clarity, increased joy, more autonomy and ownership of their time, less comparison, community. mean, the list goes on. What are three to five payoffs? If you just journal those four sub-questions of who you're speaking to this year,
Now you've got messaging. Now you can write sales copy. Now you can create content. Now you can use language more powerfully on a webinar. It's gonna speak to your ideal client. Who's the one person you're speaking to this year? So where are you going this year? The one big goal you want to accomplish? Who are you speaking to this year? Who's the one person you're gonna serve and speak to? And the third and final question. What...
One to three things do you need to do each week to accomplish your one big goal?
Graham (17:07.446)
What one to three things do you need to do each week to accomplish your one big goal?
Here's what's fascinating. I find people who like goal setting, even if you're, especially if you're a big dreamer, can envision the outcome they want and they can get highly motivated to achieve that outcome. But where most people, not all, where most people lack in goal achieving is breaking it down into the monotonous mundane, what do I need to do each week to get me there?
We either think it'll happen magically or we think if we just throw money at it, AKA even hiring a coach like me, it'll solve it. I can help you get there faster and a myriad of other things. But at the end of the day, the only way you accomplish anything is doing something intentional that gets you there every single week. Goals, big outcomes are literally just the stacking of weeks.
And every week is the same, pretty much.
I think that's an encouraging message. Like for example, I've generated over $10 million online, but I've done that over 15 years. No, I've generated over $15 million over the last 15 years. It wasn't one million a year, I'll tell you that. It started out at 10,000 in year one, but we ramped it up and I'm not making up for lost time. I'm a little slower than some of y'all.
Graham (18:49.987)
But how did I generate over 15 million in the last 15 years? Okay, doing functionally the same thing every single week. I don't think about I'm gonna get here in 10 years. I reverse engineer and say, well, what do I need to do every single week? And not five things, not 10 things, three max. So I know my weekly content, putting offers in front of my audience. And then for me, it's learning and growing.
Those are the three things. If I had to drop everything else and do only three things to drive my businesses, it would be putting out my content each week, organic free content, putting offers in front of my audience, and investing in myself, growth, personal development, learning, looks like reading books, taking courses, hiring coaches and mentors, being a part of masterminds, going to events, constantly learning, constantly.
Because it's not just learning, it's your gathering inspiration. It's unlocking new ways of thinking things, perspective shifts. Like, this isn't a knowledge problem half the time, it's a perspective problem. So when I read a book, I get a whole different perspective. When I work with a coach, I get a whole different perspective. I get my perspective challenged, right? Which is what a good coach should do. That's why, yeah, I'm a coach, I have coaches, right? Because I can only see the way I see, right? So anyway.
Those are the three things I would do. What are the one to three things you need to do every single week that are gonna get you to that one big goal? And here's a bonus question if you're a triple A student, A plus plus plus student, extra credit, when in your schedule will you do those one to three things?
Do you have a schedule? Like I know my Mondays are my thinking days. I come in, I don't do any work, I invest in myself. So this is what it looks like. I read books, I take courses, I sit down and think thoughts. I consider myself a thought leader. So to be a thought leader, I gotta have thoughts. So I gotta think up some thoughts. So that's what I do on Mondays. It's my thinking day, right? Read, watch.
Graham (21:07.628)
Learn, get coaching, have journal out, think thoughts, come up with framework, come up with ideas, innovate, be creative. It's my favorite day of week. I have it in my schedule. Do you have that in your schedule? Tuesdays, I film this show, specifically Tuesday mornings at 10.30. Okay? Tuesdays and Wednesdays are when I coach my private clients and I have very specific call times.
when I do those calls.
Do you see how I know what my goals are? Am I one big goal? I know who I'm speaking to. The way I'm going to make that manifest as it were, are doing these one to three things at these specific times every single week, except for when I'm on vacation of course. But like in your typical week, what are you doing and when are you doing it? That's it friend. Where are you going this year? Who are you speaking to this year? What one person, what one goal?
And what are the one to three things you need to do each week to get there? You know what's crazy? Most business owners don't know the answers to those questions. And here's what's crazier. They think things are gonna be different this year. They're not. You're only gonna make more or less based off of luck, the economy, or the algorithm. Like, that's not a plan. You want a plan? Answer those three questions. And then implement those one to three things.
and have the secret power of discipline to show up and just do the darn thing every single week. That's what makes people successful. They know where they're going, they know who they're speaking to, and they know what they gotta do each week to get there, and they're willing to just stack week on top of week on top of week. They're not hoping for something magic. They're not rubbing crystals together. They're not scripting it in a journal and saying, I wrote it down, I think it's just gonna happen. No.
Graham (23:06.552)
They're disciplined and they're not disciplined on pointless stuff, diluted focus. They're doing the one to three things that really are gonna move the needle every single week. And they do that week after week after week, even when nothing changes, even when people make fun of them, even when they doubt that it's even working because they know that stacking the right things week upon week upon week, focused on going in one direction, speaking to one person will lead to success eventually.
Trust me, I've done it in two businesses and I coach really, really successful people all the time. And you want to doing half the time with them, we're stripping everything down. We're stripping down their offers, we're stripping down their strategy, we're stripping down their content, they're stripping, they're going in too many directions. And when they're done working with me, they know exactly what to do. They feel light as a feather. They have insane confidence and clarity and conviction and they're back to being excited about the thing that they do.
which creates this charisma that's infectious because they're going back to the conviction piece. They're like, this is what's going to help you. And they can't say that to the whole world, but they can say it to the one person because they know who they can help. They know what one problem that person has. They know what one big dream they want. So they can speak to it with power and conviction. It's hard to measure, but that's what leads to success in business. This is how you're going to double your businesses here. It's the only way. It's the only way.
So which of those, like if you haven't done any of those three, you need to do all three. Which of those three is like, dude, this was for me? Put it in the comment below on YouTube. Please take time this week. Don't just listen to this or watch this and go, wow, that was a great thought, Graham. I'm not helping you unless you take this and run with it. So at least take time to journal those three questions. Before we go, I promised you, this is the best quote, I just read it today. The best quote I've seen on how to accomplish impossible, wonderful goals.
And it comes from Leonard Bernstein, the famed composer. He did the music for West Side Story. He's a conductor. He's done a lot of different stuff. the musical West Side Story, which I love. Fun fact, in high school, I played Tony, the lead guy, the love interest of Maria, in my high school's rendition of West Side Story. Yeah. And fun fact here is at the end, spoiler alert, it's basically Romeo and Juliet, but in New York City.
Graham (25:33.935)
right, the turn of the century. When Tony gets shot at the end and I'm dead and my gang picks me up and I'm dangling there and they carry me off stage and it's the saddest part of this tragic romance and the whole thing. The last night of the show when I did it, my punk little kid brother, Wes, was sitting in the front row. As I'm laying there limp, I heard him
bust out laughing because I looked like a dead fish. And I was so mad, but I had to just pretend like I was dead till they got me off stage. And I was like, I'm going to strangle that kid. He took the saddest, most somber, most poignant moment of the whole love story and he laughed. That's something my brother would do. And now he's a military officer. Good luck, America. Just joking. He's the best guy I know. All right. So that was a long rant.
West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein, here we go. Freaking love this quote because there's something beautiful planted inside. He says, achieve great things, two things are needed, a plan and not quite enough time. Leonard, my man. What I just gave you today is a plan, a simple but beautiful plan. If you answer those three questions, you will have a plan for the year.
Bonus though. The not quite enough time piece is a spot on retelling of Parkinson's Law. Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion. Meaning, if you give yourself a year to double your income, it will take a year. If you give yourself five years, it will take five years. If you give yourself six months, somehow, someway, you'll make it happen in six months.
Don't believe me? Try it out on something smaller. Parkinson's law is all about the power of focus. We fill, just let, if you give yourself more time, you will find more crap to fiddle with. If you reduce the amount of time, give yourself an impossibly short deadline, you just don't have the time for the extraneous stuff. So you get incredibly focused. It's a focusing agent. Short deadlines, AKA not quite enough time to quote Leonard Bernstein,
Graham (27:59.531)
are focusing agents for you and for me. They instantly clarify what's necessary and what's not necessary to accomplish the goal. I absolutely love it. I love the deadlines because they force great work out of me and they force me to just do what matters. So there you go, a little bonus for you. To achieve great things, two things are needed, a plan and not quite enough time. All right, I hope this episode was helpful for you and served you powerfully. Today, if so, let me know.
Like the video, leave a comment on YouTube and if you're listening to the audio podcast version of this, then rate the show, let me know, man. Let me know that you really enjoyed this or just message me on Instagram at TheGrahamCochran and let me know which episode you listened to and how it impacted you and what you're gonna do with it. And please, that's where we'll end. Do something with it. Let this year be your best year yet. It's not gonna happen magically. Put those crystals down for, stop rubbing the crystals. Crystals can't do it for you.
I wouldn't trust my business to the crystals. I would trust my business to me putting in the hard work and doing what I can do. There's a lot of things I can't control, but I'm responsible for myself and what I can control. And focus and clarity in these three questions being answered will get you there. All right, my friend, have an amazing week. Happy New Year if I haven't already said that to you. I'm super excited for 2025. I got a lot of big news to share with you, big stuff coming your way. I'm gonna be here in a powerful way to support you.
more and more as the year goes on. So buckle up, let's have fun together, let's grow our businesses, impact more people and have more fun. Talk to you soon.
