Go back to the target date you picked on day 1 and envision the business you want to create by that date.
Remember to write about your business in present tense (for example, write “My business has” or “I work on” instead of “My business will have” or “I plan to work on”).
How to Make it Happen
Today, your goal is to go to page 13 of your Vision Challenge workbook and fill in the five boxes that sketch out what your business will look like on the target date you picked on day 1. If you want to envision beyond those five boxes, there’s blank space on page 14 to help you do that.
Kickstarter Questions
Today’s goal comes with its own set of questions on page 13 of your Vision Challenge workbook that you can answer with words. In addition to writing things out, have a suggestion the involves pictures.
Once you’ve answered all of the questions, go to Google images or Pinterest and search for some of the terms you’ve written + “business.”
Look for images that inspire you or have the spirit of what you’d like to create.
Create a folder on your phone or laptop and save those images.
Even if you plan to operate a business completely online, you can do this part too. Search for websites, social media accounts and other information of people and companies that do what your business will do.
For example, try searching Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn for common industry hashtags and look at some of the pages. You could also search your favorite podcast app for some of the key phrases you wrote. For the people and companies you really like, click follow, like or subscribe.
Then, save the stuff that resonates with you. Screenshot the pages. Bookmark the websites. Download the podcast episodes.
This will help you visualize what your own business will look like, no matter what kind of business you start. And, when it’s time to move forward, you will have tangible examples to refer back to.
My story
I use a combination of Evernote, my phone, and social media to keep track of inspirational designs, websites, and photos.
Firstly, when I’m on my phone, I screenshot photos, videos, and websites and save them in an album specifically called “Biz inspiration.”
Secondly, I save websites in an Evernote notebook, which syncs on my phone, laptop and the cloud. When I want to go back and visit websites for inspiration, I can find the links on any device.
Thirdly, when I’m looking at these examples online, I make note of what is missing from these social media pages and websites. If no one else is doing X, I can set myself apart from the competition this way.
One note: DO NOT GET INTIMIDATED by what you see others doing. The goal here is inspiration, not intimidation. You are on your path, not anyone else’s.
I hope you enjoy this Day 4 goal! It is one of my favorites because I love to daydream about what the future of my business will look and feel like. Seeing examples makes it feel that much more real for me.
If you’d like to share your vision with me on social media, tag me @shontaviajesq (on all platforms) and use the #VisionChallenge hashtag so that I can see it.
If nothing else, take a picture of your completed workbook page and post it so that I know you’re alive out there.
See you tomorrow!
Join my support network
Download the app
Studies show that you’re more likely to meet your goals when you have accountability partners! To work together with a supportive community of other side-hustlers, creatives and entrepreneurs, you can join my private group by clicking this link or via the Mighty Networks App.
Download the Mighty Network app by clicking here.
Once it downloads, click “Find a Mighty Network” and search for
Shontavia Johnson. You’ll find accountability partners and other content
there that I may not share elsewhere.
New to the #VisionChallenge? You can learn more about it, and sign up to take the challenge, by clicking here.
Sometimes I will refer you to other books, products or services.
While I may be an affiliate of these companies, creators, or authors,
these are all things I have used and trust. I would not recommend these
things to you if I hadn’t experienced them myself.
With your target date from Day 1 in mind, create your professional reputation.
Remember to write about your professional reputation in present tense (for example, write “I am” or “I have” instead of “I will be” or “I plan to have”).
How to Make it Happen
Without customers, you have no business, right? As you build your business, it is absolutely necessary that you develop and maintain a reputation that attracts people and opportunities to you. This is what many people call a “personal brand.”
Whether you know it or not, you have a personal brand. People who come into contact with you regularly have opinions about you. Your social media followers get a vibe for you based on your online activities. In sum, all of this is part of your reputation and brand.
We will go deeper into your personal brand later on in the challenge, but the point is that, no matter what you’re doing or not doing, it is all part of your reputation.
Today, I’ll help you envision the reputation you want so that you can later create a strategy for getting it.
For now, your job is to write and brainstorm about your reputation on your target date.
If you need some help getting started, answer at least two of the below questions. Feel free to answer more if you’d like.
Kickstarter Questions
On your target date from Day 1:
what do people know you for?
what do other people say about you?
why do clients/customers come to you?
what is your specialty and/or expertise?
if you use LinkedIn or other social media platforms for business, what do your bios on those platforms say?
It is okay to have multiple answers to these questions. This is often the case if you’re thinking about more than one business idea. For now, write down whatever comes to mind.
Furthermore, for those of you who have no clue what kind of business you’d like to start, you can approach today’s goal by identifying 3 ways you want people to describe you.
My story
The first time I wrote my Vision statement, I didn’t know what kind of business I wanted. But, I knew that I wanted to be known as smart, fearless and inspirational.
These three qualities resonated with me because they would attract the kind of people I wanted to be around and work with. I already had these qualities in me, but I wasn’t always letting others know it.
However, once these three qualities became part of my vision for my personal brand and reputation, I started working backwards to more clearly exhibit them.
Notably, taking this approach did not always look like a “business move” for me. For example, being “fearless” sometimes looked like me doing things like this:
or this:
Still hard to believe I did this. Had plenty of fear but walked myself right on out anyway. Had to see what Toronto looked like from up there. What a metaphor for entrepreneurship. 😂 #VisionChallengepic.twitter.com/OxIwfky7l1
To be clear, I definitely have fear. What I want my professional reputation to communicate is that I tackle my fears head on and can help others do the same. Whether it’s bungee jumping from the highest jump on the planet, or starting a business, I will make it happen no matter how scary things are.
In addition, I wanted to give myself permission to take on opportunities and projects that scared me. For whatever reason, writing my Vision gave me the confidence to say yes to things I might have declined before.
Now, I understand that this may be scary for you. Writing your dreams down and sharing them is scary, particularly when you don’t really know what to do with them.
However, what is even more scary to me is living a life directed by someone else.
You can create your future reputation and make it reality. So, what will your reputation look like on your target date?
Finally, if you’d like to share your vision with me on social media, tag me @shontaviajesq (on all platforms) and use the #VisionChallenge hashtag so that I can see it.
If nothing else, take a picture of your completed workbook page and post it so that I know you’re alive out there.
See you tomorrow!
Join my support network
Download the app
Studies show that you’re more likely to meet your goals when you have accountability partners! To work together with a supportive community of other side-hustlers, creatives and entrepreneurs, you can join my private group by clicking this link or via the Mighty Networks App.
Download the Mighty Network app by clicking here.
Once it downloads, click “Find a Mighty Network” and search for
Shontavia Johnson. You’ll find accountability partners and other content
there that I may not share elsewhere.
New to the #VisionChallenge? You can learn more about it, and sign up to take the challenge, by clicking here.
Sometimes I will refer you to other books, products or services.
While I may be an affiliate of these companies, creators, or authors,
these are all things I have used and trust. I would not recommend these
things to you if I hadn’t experienced them myself.
“Vision is your why. Vision gives something direction. It’s your desired future. Your vision includes what you believe in (your core values) and what you want in your future (what you want to be). It’s the powerful reason why you want to do something; your overarching purpose.” Natalie Bacon
Day 1 Goal
Pick an actual date between one and three years from today. Write what your life looks like on this date. This includes your family, your day-to-day, and your health.
How to Make it Happen
Congratulations on getting started with the Vision Challenge! I’m incredibly excited for you. This week, we are going to focus on your dreams for your life. You get to create the future life you want!
We get one go around the earth–what are you going to do with your ride? I love today’s exercise because it starts with you, and not with what anyone else thinks about what your life should look like.
In today’s video, I walk you through my own experience with doing this part of the challenge and provide some tips and suggestions to help you get started.
Please, please block at least thirty minutes of quiet time each day to do these daily exercises. You owe it to yourself to give your vision, and your life, your undivided attention.
After you have time to watch the video, write down your future life’s vision in pages 8 and 9 of your workbook.
If you’d like to share your vision with me on social media, tag me @shontaviajesq (on all platforms) and use the #VisionChallenge hashtag so that I can see it.
If nothing else, take a picture of your completed workbook page so that I know you’re doing the homework! 😀
Join my support network
Download the app
In addition, studies show that you’re more likely to meet your goals when you have accountability partners! To work together with a supportive community of other side-hustlers, creatives and entrepreneurs, you can join my private group by clicking this link or via the Mighty Networks App.
Download the Mighty Network app by clicking here. Once it downloads, click “Find a Mighty Network” and search for Shontavia Johnson. You’ll find accountability partners and other content there that I may not share elsewhere.
New to the #VisionChallenge? You can learn more about it, and sign up to take the challenge, by clicking here.
Sometimes I will refer you to other books, products or services. While I may be an affiliate of these companies, creators, or authors, these are all things I have used and trust. I would not recommend these things to you if I hadn’t experienced them myself.
In 2012, I was in New York when Hurricane Sandy landed in the state. Hurricane Sandy was one the deadliest, strongest, and most damaging hurricanes in the region that year. When all was said and done, more than 50 people died in New York alone because of the hurricane.
I was visiting the city for a conference and had flown there from my home, which was about 1,100 miles away. Once we learned how serious Hurricane Sandy would be, the conference ended early. I panicked, because I was staying in a hotel and had heard that flights would be canceled for several days and that MTA was shutting down train service.
Thankfully, I successfully evacuated to a relative’s house in northern New Jersey on the last train out of the area. Ultimately, I had an extended visit with family and multiple flight cancellations, but nothing worse.
Two things were on my mind that entire time. Of course, the hurricane was top of mind. Secondly, however, was my first-ever Vision, which I had written as part of a conference exercise.
On the first day of the conference, several speakers had talked about planning for the life you want to have. At some point, attendees received a homework assignment to write a “painted picture” of the lives we wanted five years into the future. I believe this exercise came from the book Double Double by Cameron Herald.
I thought the homework was a little silly, but I had pledged to keep an open mind. So, less than 48 hours before Hurricane Sandy hit, I sat in my hotel room and wrote my painted picture.
This exercise got me excited. I allowed myself to dream, unhindered by money, preparation, or anything else. It was literally my opportunity to say, in a perfect world, what would I be doing with myself? I got to create a vision for myself, and it felt amazing.
On that train ride to New Jersey, my written Vision was the only thing that kept me calm. I read it over and over again until I got to my relative’s house.
And, I continued to read it regularly over the next five years. Before I accepted any new opportunity, I’d consult with my written Vision to make sure things aligned. When things got rough, I read my Vision to remind myself that better was coming. And, I used my Vision to decide which projects to pursue and decline.
Interestingly enough, all but one of the things I wrote about happened within the next five years.
Writing that Vision was one of the most important things I’ve ever done in my life. And, I’ve done the exercise every few years since 2012. It has transformed the way I show up in the world and served me well.
Because of this, I want to share the Vision exercise with you. I’ve since tweaked it to focus not just on my life, but specifically on my personal brand and business.
In this week’s episode of the Shontavia Show, I break down my Vision exercise and provide some tools and strategies on how you can create your own. If you’d like to see the current Vision I’ve written for my own business, you can check it out by clicking here.
Question & Action: Create a Vision
After you’ve had a chance to watch the video and starting writing your own vision, I’d love to hear from you in the comments section! Please answer these questions for me:
What was the hardest part about writing your own Vision?
As you create a Vision, are you allowing yourself to dream? Did you feel doubt creeping in?
Please give as much information as you can in response to these questions. I’d be happy to share more tools and resources that help you get what you want. And, I know the other folks reading this can learn from your experiences! We are all in this together.
If you’d like even more strategies to create a vision for your brand and business, please take my Vision Challenge! It is a one-month support session where I walk you step-by-step through the process.
Finally, I always say that I’m on a mission to help people build the brands, businesses and lives that they love. We can learn from each other on this journey, particularly when we have accountability partners. This is why I am building a whole nation of side-hustlers, creatives and business owners who keep each other-and me–accountable.
Download the app
You can join my support network online and via app. Check us out at programs.shontavia.com or via the Mighty Networks App.
First, download the Mighty Network app by clicking here. Second, once it downloads, click “Find a Mighty Network” and search for Shontavia Johnson. You’ll find content there that I may not share elsewhere.
Thank you so much for joining me on this roller coaster of an experience.
I am eternally grateful that I get to do this work with wonderful people like you each day.
This article is going to be a little embarrassing for me, because I have to pull back the veil a bit. In this new year, one thing I definitely, definitely have to work on is my social media strategy. To grow my brand and my business, I have to improve my social media engagement. This article outlines my plan to both create and engage with content.
Thus far, I have not been strategic at all with using social media to grow my brand and business. I’ve always felt a little like a fish out of water with social media strategy. But, this is important for me and I’m going to get it together.
Basically what my social media accounts are saying to me right now.
There are a few reasons why this is a priority for me.
Firstly, I want to be of service to others. I am deeply committed to helping people start businesses and build strong personal brands. I can help people for free by sharing information online. If I have more engagement, I can help more people.
Secondly, I want to build my brand. Dynamic content on social media displays my expertise and knowledge for people who don’t know me. Highlighting my knowledge will build my reputation and build connections with people who follow me. Which leads to my third point….
Thirdly, I want to grow my business. Connections on social media can turn into customers. A business needs customers to stay alive, and mine ain’t trying to die young.
Therefore, I need a social media plan that allows me to focus on these priorities. I was going to keep this plan to myself, but I’ve gotten a lot of questions recently about what to do on social media, so I’m going to share my plan here.
Hopefully, this can help both me and other people looking for more social media engagement in 2020 and beyond.
The Strategy
First, here’s a breakdown of my social media strategy for 2020. There are two ways to build social media engagement: (1) create content, and (2) engage with content. I’m going to break my strategy down into these two components.
Creating Content
I’ve created this content strategy using a combination of suggestions from Brendon Burchard and Jasmine Star, two very successful entrepreneurs who have built amazing brands and businesses online.
Create long form content once per week. For me, “long form content” will be a blog post that features an episode of my new web series and podcast, The Shontavia Show. I’ll publish a blog post at the beginning of each week.
Break up long form content for social media. I’ll use each blog post as social media content for one week. I’ll break the blog post up multiple ways so that I get a long runway of posts for each week. This way, I won’t be struggling to come up with social media posts each day. And, I’ve already basically written it in the blog post.
Email my list once per week. I already capture email addresses for my #MakeItHappenMonday newsletter and send out an email each Monday. I’ll start using the newsletter to direct readers to my long form content.
Engage with Content
Secondly, I will engage with other people’s content on social media using Gary Vaynerchuk’s $1.80 method, which he breaks down in the below video.
Gary’s basic advice is to leave your “two cents” on 9 different posts for the top 10 hashtags in your field each day.
Social Media Calendar
One of the hardest things for me has been figuring out what to talk about on social media. So, this year, I’m going to make a plan that tells me what to talk about.
First, I’ve created a social media calendar that outlines a theme for each week. My long form content, social media posts, and weekly emails will revolve around these weekly themes.
Tik Tok (whew, pray for me on this one, because I have no clue how Tik Tok works yet!)
1 time per day
Twitter
10 times per day
This schedule is very aggressive for me, but I am committed to growing my business with social media so I’ve gotta figure out how to make it happen!
Do any of these strategies resonate with you? Can you use any of them in your world? If so, please steal them!
I’d love to hear how things go with you as your build and grow your own social media engagement. Tag me on any of the below platforms to let me know how things go for you.
