E243: 2019 Goals – Q1 Recap

Before I hop on a plane to Asia, I thought it would be a good time to do a review of those goals I made for myself at the start of the year.

* Sell a brand. We already did this. ColorIt is officially no longer ours. We’ll be discussing the sale in a series of separate podcasts which is definitely something I’m looking forward to.

* Position another brand for sale in late 2020. All of our brands now have their own LLCs. I don’t know which brand it will be, but we plan to figure this out in the middle of this year. We’ll start thinking about this now in anticipation that we will be in a better spot with whatever brand we’ll be letting go of next year.

* Getting back to location independence. Now that ColorIt’s off our plate, it’s allowed us to move everything to a 3PL and shut down our California warehouse. It’s also allowed me to start filming episodes of EcomCrew Roadshow.

* Reducing debt to zero dollars. We have completed the first step of this. ColorIt’s sale has allowed us to pay all of our business debt. We are working on clearing our mortgage by the end of this year.

* Hike the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island. This will be happening in August and I’ve already started training for it and doing 5-mile walks.

* Take at least 10 weeks of personal travel. We’ll be going to Japan and I’m super looking forward to going to Tokyo. We’ll have three full days to spend there. That comes after going to Hong Kong for the Mastermind and Global Sources Summit and the Philippines to visit my team. 

* Record 6 or more episodes of the EcomCrew Roadshow. Two of those are already done. We’re planning to do at least four more.

* Invest in at least 1 ecommerce business. This is either going to be investing in something that can be a great story for EcomCrew or starting something new. Whatever it is, it will be a transparent case study for all of us to learn from.

* Lose 10 more pounds. The plan is to lose about a pound a month. I’m pretty convinced that I’ve lost some weight, although I would need to confirm that with a weighing scale.

* Visit the Philippines office in 2019. I’m gonna be there for two full weeks at the end of the month and at the beginning of May.

* Start selling our services for EcomCrew. We haven’t started on this yet as staff members working for ColorIt were transferred as part of the sale. But the plan is to offer extra services to EcomCrew Premium members to give them the push they need to grow their businesses, at a minimal cost.  The hope is to launch it this year.

* Significantly improve the quality of the podcast. Abby is doing pre-interview stuff to send over to me so I’m more prepared to do each episode. We also have a job offer out for a full-time video and audio editor.

* Film season 2 of 5 Minute Pitch. This will be happening in August. We’ll be filming in Austin for a week. We’re planning to change the format for this new season based on the things we’ve learned from the first one.

* Break each of our brands out into different companies. This is done but we’re still in the middle of the repercussions of this move. We are still working on making things as organized as they can be.

* Start hosting in-person events for EcomCrew. This year, we’re going to do at least two. We’ll then do another one in Vancouver in the summer.

* Speak at 6 industry events. I think I’m already signed up for maybe 8 events at this point.

* Shift to doing things that only bring me immense personal fulfillment. This is a continuing journey but I am particularly enjoying the things I’m currently doing for EcomCrew. With Under the Hood and now with the Roadshow, I’ve had the chance to do this from a more personal level.