No-Numbers Goal Setting

We share a four-part, no-numbers plan to set direction for the year: pick a unifying theme, track clients served instead of dollars, block time for life buckets, and choose one skill or investment to grow. The goal is a people-first practice that stays profitable because systems and service make it inevitable.

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*Intro/outro song credit:
King Around Here by Alex Grohl

Chapters

• 0:00 Why Goals Without Numbers
• 1:03 Mission And Audience Of The Show
• 2:18 Four-Exercise Framework Overview
• 2:25 Choosing A Yearly Theme
• 5:17 Building Client Experience Systems
• 8:53 Shifting Next Year To Over-Deliver
• 10:59 Clients Served As The Core Metric
• 14:13 Teamwide Impact And Tracking
• 15:29 Designing Life Buckets That Lead
• 20:05 Calendar First For What Matters

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

As we step into the new year, a lot of us are using this time to set goals for the 12 months ahead. Now, if you're like me, a lot of times I set goals and I was like really specific about here's the dollar amount I'm trying to reach, here's these specific tangible targets. And while I think that's actually really valuable, I also know that sometimes it's not how we operate. And we can set those targets and those numbers and then just abandon them or forget about them a few months into the year. Today I'm going to guide you through a process that I go through every December where I'm looking ahead to the year, and this is what I call the no numbers goal setting. My name is Craig, and I'm the owner of DAC Financial Coaching. Our team is on a mission to make your therapy practice permanently profitable. If you own a solo or group practice, we're here to help you build a business that creates more time, makes more money, and serves more people. This is the Therapy Business Podcast. I know it's kind of weird to hear a profit coach say that he wants to set goals without numbers, right? So I do think that having revenue goals and monthly revenue targets are really valuable. However, I also know that we don't all operate in that mentality and that mindset. And so I'm not saying don't set those targets. In fact, I think you should. But today I'm going to walk you through four different exercises that I go through as I prep for the year ahead to reframe how we show up for our clients, for our team, to really set the tone for the year and also set the tone for myself as the business owner to make sure that I'm being prioritized in both life and business. So I want to walk you through these. Personally, I like to block at least a half day to do this. If you can go to a coffee shop or somewhere separate from where you normally work, that's really, really helpful. If you have a team, this could be a team exercise you do together and discuss these questions as a group of how do we want to show up in these areas? Because all of these, not only can your team have a voice into what's going to happen in the business and the company, but also some of these exercises they can turn and take into their own life and how they show up for clients and how they show up for their families and for work. And they're going to extract a lot of value out of it. And truthfully, this is a way that you can support and serve them without having to spend extra dollars into benefits packages or payroll. So let's jump into these four things. So uh, number one is I like to set a theme for the year. So this is a theme that we everything we do goes through this filter. So we started this back in 2024. Uh, we started that year with a theme of client experience. Everything we did was about client experience. When we had our team meetings, every quarter we would do a uh half day deep uh deep dive team meeting where we would dig into this concept of client experience. How can we improve the client experience? And I would get feedback from my team of the ones who are in the trenches with clients every day. What are you seeing? What could we improve on? And so we really revamped a lot of what we were doing and how we were showing up, how we were communicating with clients, how we were opening up our calendars to them, how we were sending them gifts and showing up for them in ways that wasn't just on the coaching side. So we looked at sending what we call wow kits when a client signs up, and that is this gift that we send them to just say, you know what, we recognize that you took a risk, both financially and in your time, to hire us. And we don't take that lightly. And so we want to just acknowledge that and celebrate the fact that you have decided to make a change in your business and to focus on yourself and your growth. So we like to send that when they sign up. We sat down as a team and talked about in their lives how can we show up and support them. I remember years ago, so my wife back in 2019 had to go through uh she had a brain tumor and she had to essentially have brain surgery to have it removed. And it was a scary time. You know, we had a two-year-old and a four-year-old at home. And one way that the Profit First organization showed up for me was they sent us gifts for our kids, acknowledging that this next season of life was going to be really tough on them, and they didn't want them to be overlooked and they wanted to love on them. And truthfully, the way they showed love toward my kids was tenfold love toward me because that's that's what I care about. And so we we talked about getting to know our clients on a better level of their family members. What are their what do their kids enjoy? What are their spouses enjoy? How can we celebrate them in life? How can we show up and really improve client experience? We overhauled our coaching program and talked about how can we ensure that clients are getting results and that we are tracking that and we're able to turn around and show them. So, as a team, that whole year, books we read, anytime we were reading books as a team, it was always through that filter of how can we improve client experience? It really changed what we do. I feel like it was it had a hand in the growth and success we had that year. And then, of course, even just a byproduct of that was how it unified our team, as we all kind of just had this common goal besides our our mission of serving people and helping them simplify their money. We now have this more short-term tangible goal. We discussed at the end of the year that just because we're changing the theme for the year doesn't mean that that goes away. We're always gonna focus on client experience. But then this next year, we're gonna, this is a new focal point to improve. And that was in 2025 was systems and processes. We wanted to improve those processes. And so that was for me, it was a lot of heavy lifting on my end because team feedback, what's working, what's not working. We ultimately discovered our CRM just wasn't working for us. It had it was putting a lot of things on our team's plate. So we found a new CRM that was going to automate, do a lot more things so that they could focus less on those things. We implemented this new CFO dashboard, so a new process and system for our clients that we deliver to our profit clients. So a lot of different ways that we looked into it. We invested in different softwares, just things we could do to make our coach's life easier so they could do their work and then improve client experience because they are then able to show up more for their clients because they're not having to spend time and hours doing this admin things, behind the scene things. As we're looking to 2026, and so, like I said, setting a theme for next year. I've already sat down and started toying with the idea that I think our theme next year is going to be over-deliver. How can we over-deliver for our clients? And by over-delivering, I'm not necessarily telling my coaches that they have to go uh give way more hours and for free. It's not, you know, hey, you should be over-delivering and and you know, I'm doing more than I ask and not be compensated for it, of course. No, it's how can we provide more than what we're promising? So promising on a sales call, as we tell somebody, ask somebody to come work with us, here's what we are going to deliver, here's what we can do for you. Those are the expectations. How can we go above and beyond that? And we've already come up with ways during our client experience year, but I want to continue to lean in that of how can we over-deliver for our clients? And then for myself, how can I show up and over-deliver for my team, for the people on my team, for their families, for their kids? How can I support them better and their expectation for what a boss should look like? How can I go above and beyond that so that they love and continue to love what they do and they continue to love working here? That's super important. Because once again, if they're happy with where they work and they feel supported and they feel valued, then that will roll over into client experience. So that's number one is setting a theme for the year. It can be one word, it can be a phrase, it can be uh something that maybe it's been on your mind, something you've read in a book, whatever. It does, there's no real rule around this. I just say find a theme for the year that you think is an area you want to improve on. If it's the finances, this could be your year of the finances, getting your finances in order, and that's okay. That's what we call a foundational year where you spend a year just laying the foundation on the business, putting in a system, getting everything solidified so that as you grow, the foundation is secure and things won't topple. So, what is your theme for the year going to be in 2026? Share it with me. I would love to hear about it. Shoot me an email, shoot me a message, let me know what you decided your theme for 2026 will be. All right, the second thing we do, or that I do for no numbers goal setting, uh, and this, I guess, technically kind of has a number associated with it, but it's it's not about revenue, but instead of setting revenue targets and dollar targets, what about clients served targets? So starting with what how many clients are we currently serving, whether it's on a weekly, monthly basis, how many would we like to serve? How can we extend our impact? Now, of course, this is going to turn into dollars. And, you know, honestly, sometimes the easiest way to set this is to start with dollars and say, you know, what do I want to make? How many clients does that mean? Or currently what am I making, or how many clients are we seeing, and then what would it look like to bump that up by 10, 20%? So setting that number of what how many clients do we want to serve? This shifts the mindset, especially for those of you who feel kind of icky when it comes to talking about money. You shouldn't feel icky about profitability and about paying yourself. But I get it. If it's uh if you struggle with the idea of sitting down and saying, I want to make an extra$100,000 this year, some of sometimes the just the connotation, the feeling is like, is that greedy that I'm just really only thinking about money? I'm a believer, and I know this again, this is a tangent because we're talking about the known numbers, but I said at the beginning, it's important to have dollar revenue goals, I think. And I think it's important, even if nothing else, to just remind yourself that it's okay to focus on making more money, to being more profitable. A profitable business means that you are going to stay in business, which means you're gonna serve and help more people. If we get too focused on profit is greed, I don't want to be greedy, your business won't last. And then you're not serving people. People are not getting the help they need. So it's important that we focus on that. However, I do think looking at the number of clients we take in is a great alternative to this. So if you want to look at how many clients we like to see, it can be on your team, making you can set it as an average. We want everyone on our team seeing an average of 15 clients per week. We want to see X number of clients for this. If you have different services, maybe you're trying to really raise a certain specific service that you're offering, whether it's a new one or whatever that is, you could say, okay, our goal is to um, we just implemented this new service last year. We want to reach X number of clients per month who are receiving that service. Targeting clients served is a great way for you to monitor and track impact. And the beauty of this is if you do have a team, if you can track how many clients you serve, and then even if you can, you know, expand it. So if you're saying, you know, we want to see 15 clients a week, what does that look like per year across your whole team? And then set that goal. And you can have a thermometer in the you know break room that you're filling in every month that's showing, okay, we we set a target to serve 5,000 clients this year, and you're just slowly filling it up, and then you can celebrate it at the end of the year as a team that you helped, you served that many people or had that many sessions, I should say, because I know uh setting session goals per week um is different because it's the same repeat people, but that's really the idea is how can we monitor? We had 5,000 therapy sessions this year. Uh that's an impact and that's something to celebrate as a team. It brings them into the bigger picture, not just their personal goals, but also as a team. What does the the big picture look like? And this is a great, like I said, you could sit down with your team and discuss your theme for the year, have them brainstorm ideas with you, and then also discuss what do we want to as a company, how many people do we want to serve this year? How many do each of you personally want to be working with and serving every week or every month? And work backward from there and set those targets and aim for it. All right. The next thing that we do uh for our no numbers goal setting is what I would call life buckets. Now, I got this from uh Michael Hyatt's book, Living Forward. And it's this idea of breaking our life into these key buckets of what is valuable and important to us. So that can be work, that can be your faith, that can be your spouse, your kids, uh, your hobbies, your friends. Uh, there's a lot of different buckets that you can have. Um, I have a bucket for music because music is important to me. I love to play music. Um, it's a passion of mine. Setting those buckets and then going through each one and highlighting just a key one, it could be a mission statement, a sentence of what do I want to focus on this year in this bucket? So, for example, for my kids last year and their bucket was no meetings, no meetings after 2.30 each day during the week. Why is that? My kids get out of school at 245. So if I stop taking meetings at 2:30, that means when I get home, when we they get from home from school, they get me. Now, sure, there's days where I might have to do some work, or while they're doing homework, I might be uh doing some behind the scenes things, but I'm available. I'm available that if they have something after school, we can do that. That if they had a rough day, uh we can go to the basketball courts or the pickleball courts. It's availability that was important to me. So just that one sentence, no meetings after 2:30 p.m. It didn't happen right away. Um, and you know, I do have some clients who I will sometimes sneak in after 2.30 here and there. But the key is it's not a every day or multiple times a week thing. Now it's a I can count, you know, maybe 10 times this whole year, once a month, maybe, that I have a meeting after 230. So that is super important. Finding that key phrase. How can you show up for your spouse? What do you want to do? And then tangible things are perfect. It could be even just a mindset shift, but maybe your spouse, it's monthly date nights for your faith, your church. It could be praying or meditating daily, whatever that is, setting those, finding those buckets. And here's why it's important is because, and why I tie it to the business is because where what role does your practice play in these things, in your hobbies and in your friendships and in your family? What role does that take? And we have to prioritize these things. Now, in Living Forward, he talks about putting them in order of what's most important to you. So if your faith is number one, put that at number one. And then if it's your spouse and your kids, whatever your order is, put it in order and then make sure you plug those things into the calendar. So if we talked about that date night, let's say you're going down that list and spouse, maybe spouse is number one. You're like, okay, once a month we're doing a date night. Sit down, go through your calendar, plug it in. Is it the first Friday of every month, date night? Schedule that first. And then you go to the next bucket. What's the next one for you? If it's the kids, again, uh, whatever that is, go in and schedule it in the calendar. Maybe it's bringing them lunch at school uh once a month. Find that. Plug that was one of mine a couple of years ago. Find out, plug it in. Going through mute for me, I had a music bucket. It's you know, blocking two hours every Thursday to sit down and improve my craft at playing the bass guitar or just enjoy playing some music for a while. Sitting down and blocking all those things, and so that when you do get to work and life gets busy and you have clients trying to schedule with you, or you have meetings or whatever it is, you've already blocked the important things. Whatever your work goal is, blocking that. If you want to write a book this year, go in and block time for that so that it doesn't get filled up with other things. Finding those life buckets is gonna be so important, and it's gonna really help you round out the business. Now, once again, this is something that you can do uh with your team. So sit down with your team, have them do this exercise, have them come up with their buckets, have them write one line. I do recommend reading the book Living Forward. There's a lot more in-depth work that he does for each of these that really fleshes out some action plans behind it and some thought. Uh, I think he even has you write your own eulogy, which will have you in tears by the end of it. It's how do I want people to remember me? Um, it was a really impactful book I read, I think, three or four years ago, and it has worked its way into my processes inside my business uh ever since. All right, and the last thing I like to do as I prep for the year is what do I want to invest in or learn about in the coming year? How do I want to improve myself? And by investing in it, yes, maybe setting aside some dollars in the business to do that. Maybe it's an investment of time, but what am I gonna focus on to grow? Now, here we are talking about the business. This can spread to any area of life. I'm gonna focus on the business side because you know, maybe you're trying to grow the business. Is there a craft you're wanting to learn more about? Is there a way that you are just wanting to grow your mind? Are you wanting to get better at sales? Are you wanting to get better at marketing? Are you wanting to get better at talking on video? Have you always wanted to launch a podcast, but you never knew how? Have you wanted to write a book? Have you wanted to revamp your finances and get a system in place and get all of that in order, but didn't know where to start? Now would be the time. So think about it. What do I want to reinvest in myself? How do I want to reinvest in myself this year? You could pick more than one, but I typically recommend just picking one focal point. What is something that's really important to me right now? It doesn't have to be break the bank expensive. It could be reading a business book or two this year. It could be taking some free uh classes uh either locally or online or wherever it is, or spending a few hundred dollars on a course. It doesn't have to break the bank. Or it could go as far as hiring somebody, hiring a consultant, hiring a coach, hiring a therapist of some kind, depending on what your goal is, to help you achieve what you're trying to achieve. What do you want to invest in yourself on? This is something that I'm still toying with right now. I have not, candidly, I haven't decided what I want to invest in for myself in 2026. I really do want to write a book that's been on my mind for a long time. In fact, my business coach uh a few weeks ago basically said, 2026, you're writing a book because he knows it's something I keep putting off. And so um, that could be how I want to invest in myself this year, whether it's self-published or finding those avenues. I don't know. I haven't researched it. It's something that's scared me to death for too long. And so I've started the process of scheduling some calls to learn more about what opportunities are there. So, in fact, here it is. I'm gonna, I told you I was undecided, probably because I'm still a little scared of the idea of writing a book, but I'm gonna put it out there. That's that's how I'm gonna reinvest in myself this year. I'm gonna finally write a book of some kind in my field. Um, I have ideas, I'm gonna take that step, whether it's self-published or I don't know what it's gonna look like. But that's how I'm gonna reinvest in myself. How are you gonna reinvest in yourself? I know it's gonna cost money, I know it's gonna cost time, I know it's gonna cost risk of failure, risk of looking down in December and saying, well, that didn't happen. But if we don't verbalize it, if we don't write it down, if we don't tell somebody, if we don't take at least a small step toward it, it's never gonna happen. So that's something that is super important. So those are the four things that I highly recommend doing. I'm gonna scan through them just quickly one more time. Having a theme for the year that you and your team can filter every decision through, that you guys can unite on, that you can be cohesive on, something that's gonna improve your business or your client experience or your team's experience. Number two is focusing on client served versus money earned. Then we're gonna look at life buckets. How can we show up? How can we set goals into different areas of our life besides just the business? And then finally, how are you gonna reinvest in yourself? How are you going to invest in your growth, in your learning, in just bettering yourself and achieving things that maybe have been on your list for far too long? I'm rooting for you this year. I know New Year's can be a time of just almost like a fresh start. It's a clean slate, which is funny because it changing from December to January really shouldn't be that different than any other month. But there's just something about it. It's a fresh start, the year's ahead of us. And so I'm rooting for you this year. We are here to support you however we can. So in the description is always a link to talk to us. If the finances, hiring someone to help you get that in order, get a money system in place, if that's how you're going to invest in yourself this year, we would love to help you with that. Whether it's working directly with us or connecting you with somebody who maybe is a better fit. Whatever that looks like, we want to support you because we're rooting for you. We want next year to be your best year ever in your business. Thanks for joining us on the Therapy Business Podcast. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a practice owner that you may know. If your practice needs help getting organized with its finances or just growing your practice, head to therapybusinesspod.com to learn how we can help.