Setting Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Big Bold Goals Setting For Professional Speakers

This episode is with my co-host, Maria Franzoni. Enjoy the episode. This week we’re going to be talking about goals big bold goals goal setting, a topic I’m actually really passionate about. And our guest today is Casper Craven, who is a leading authority and achieving big, bold goals through high-performance teamwork, a serial entrepreneur, he has built and sold a tech business for seven figures, some worked as a CFO, and at KPMG. He has twice sailed around the world, the first time as a team leader on a trophy-winning racing yacht in the BT global challenge. And the second time as captain and Team Leader of his family team, with his wife, and three young children, all aged under 10 years of age. So he’s going to share with us how we can be more audacious and bold and achieve big, bold goals for 2021 and beyond. And it’s my great pleasure for us to have him with us today. – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

 

In this episode:

• What Is Goal
• Why Big Bold Goals
• Bridging the Gap
• Goal VS Process
• Stretch What You Believed Is Possible

 

Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

Below is a machine-generated transcript and therefore the transcript may contain errors.

James Taylor  0:00  

Hi, I’m James Taylor and you’re listening to the SpeakersU podcast a show for aspiring and professional speakers. This episode is with my co-host, Maria Franzoni. Enjoy the episode. This week we’re going to be talking about goals big bold goals goal setting, a topic I’m actually really passionate about. And our guest today is Casper Craven, who is a leading authority and achieving big, bold goals through high-performance teamwork, a serial entrepreneur, he has built and sold a tech business for seven figures, some worked as a CFO, and at KPMG. He has twice sailed around the world, the first time as a team leader on a trophy-winning racing yacht in the BT global challenge. And the second time as captain and Team Leader of his family team, with his wife, and three young children, all aged under 10 years of age. So he’s going to share with us how we can be more audacious and bold and achieve big, bold goals for 2021 and beyond. And it’s my great pleasure for us to have him with us today. – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Casper Craven  1:06  

Hello, Caspar.

Maria Franzoni  1:06  

Let me see if I can make you bigger. Let me have a go. See, I was that always happens to me.

There you go.

Hello to the stage.

Casper Craven  1:14  

Hello, hello. Hello. Lovely to be with you both this afternoon.

Maria Franzoni  1:18  

Lovely, lovely that you’re talking to us from the beach. How lovely. So listen, why, why? And how big bold goals?

Why Big Bold Goals

Casper Craven  1:29  

Yeah, so why big bold goals raise the funny a lot of the conversations that I have with, with leaders, CEOs, and so on. And, you know, I’m hearing the sort of questions that we’re not adapting well, to all the challenges that we’ve got, again, in the marketplace, we’re being disrupted the whole time. And I hear things like we’re not agile enough, we’re not resilient enough, we need to do digital transformation, we need more innovation, all these different things, right. And all of those things are what I would describe as existential threats or businesses, unless you adapt to that you’re gonna have some problems. And here’s the thing that all your competitors are thinking big. And they are thinking about how can they disrupt your marketplace. So unless you are thinking big and bold, you’re going to be left behind. So that’s very much the way I think that you know, we have to set those audacious goals and also know that they’re more exciting to go after that they you can go after 5% a year, where you can say what would it take to totally transform our organization, and what we’re doing. So that’s basically why I think we need to go and do that. And you know, once we start to come up with those more exciting stories of the future, then that creates the space for that creativity, that innovation. And then we start to believe that you know, bigger and bolder things are possible. But the crux of it, you know, your question about how do we go about doing those? For me, that’s all about teamwork, because it can be hard to get all of our team aligned and looking in the same direction looking towards the future. And for me, that is really sort of understanding your core team of people where they are looking and say I have this, this simple question which I ask people, it’s called past present future. And it’s like, where do you spend most of your time looking at it to the past as the present or the future? And you ask people, and they’ve all got different arts actually reject? What do you what are your past, present future numbers, how much of your time you spend on past, present, and future when you end up looking? – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Maria Franzoni  3:27  

Oh, my goodness, it depends on how upset I am about something that I might have done. Because this is quite timely. I’m a bit upset about something I’ve done this week. So I’m sitting, I’m staying in the past and unraveling. And I’ve got to let go of it and be in the presence I can think about the future. So this is an interesting time having I feel like I’m having therapy. James, James, what

James Taylor  3:46  

are your numbers? I’m terrible for being reflective and looking back, which is good in a way because I don’t carry grudges because I can never remember them. I never look back. I’m always looking forward. And actually, that causes a bit of a problem because sometimes you have to take that time to actually in the here and now. And I know where I feel a little bit disconnected at some things just because I’m in like in it now like the present, present, present, present. And sometimes I just need to take a breath to, as you say, kind of look forward to what some of those goals are. But I’m probably not on that looking back person too. I didn’t do that too. Well,

Maria Franzoni  4:22  

we therapy cast out both,

Casper Craven  4:26  

then we can do that today. But it’s interesting because we’re all different than when I was asked people and sort of talk to someone where you will focus. And it’s really interesting to understand different people in your team because you know when you’re thinking about a big goal, the big bold goal in the future, you almost need to detach a little bit from reality. And you need to go to that future place and say what does a more exciting place in the future look like? And you will need to go there together and say, Okay, let’s sort of think about what does this looks like? What does it sound like? What does this feel like? And you do that reality detachment that bit of that blue sky thinking right? You’re going to come back after that, and you’re going to build the goal, build a plan that grounded in reality after that. But if you’re trying to answer, how do you do it at the same time as What is it? You’ll never get very far because that how do you do it question will keep tripping you up over and over again. So it’s really important to get your core team together. Because it is a teamwork thing. And I say that because I’ve tried doing big bold goals on my own in the past, and they never work because you need a team of people that can make them happen. So yeah, a little bit of detachment from reality goes out there. Imagine it paint that picture of the future, working together in that future place. And then after that, come back and say, Okay, how are we actually going to make this happen, and build it from there. – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

James Taylor  5:43  

So to talk about that, then we set those goals, we paint that vision of the future, but often there’s that there’s a bit of a disconnect between that big bold goal and our daily activities. How do we, how do we bridge those?

Bridging the Gap

Casper Craven  5:57  

Yeah, that’s a great question. So that takes me back to 2009. When my wife and I, came up with our plan to go off and do our sailing around the world. And back then we didn’t have the money didn’t ever boat, my wife couldn’t sail got seasick and all sorts of good reasons why should sail around the world, really, we set this five-year goal. And I was very much in that sort of place back then, of let’s paint this amazing story. And that will just miraculously happen on its own. And of course, it doesn’t do it. And because we set that, so that five-year timescale, we said, first of all, was 2014, we’re gonna get Kevin the boat and head off. And we got three years, three years away from it. So in our 2011, and like that thing that I was just like dreaming of, it wasn’t any closer, because actually, you’ve got to do the work in the presence. And you’ve got to think backward from that endpoint. What are the practical steps that I need to take in order to get there? And you got to ask yourself the tough questions, right? What are the reasons that this will fail? What are the reasons that this will fall over? And, you know, for us, it was all things, you know, we didn’t have the money, you know, didn’t know how to be a doctor. And then many kids when they got broken and stuff like that, and how do you do homeschooling, something we’re all quite familiar with now. So it’s taking all those reasons why not, and then building those, those individual plants and breaking it down into those bite-sized chunks, and then making sure you’re being accountable and moving forward through that. So it’s, yeah, starting their endpoints and then breaking it down into those chunks, holding yourself accountable. And but all the time, you know, making sure that you know, you keep focused on what that end thing is. That’s exciting, that’s powerful. It’s emotional, that thing that’s pulling you into the future. So shuttling between the future view, and then, you know, what are you actually going to do today? Because the future only happens in the present when you actually do stuff today, there’s no such thing. – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

James Taylor  7:52  

I just think that reminders a Warren Buffett’s business partner, Charlie Munger had a quote, which was invert, always invert, it was just kind of what you talked about there, like going to that plate and then saying, Okay, what needs to happen just before that one is having just before that one exam just before that. So in the case of sailing, when you’re talking about around the world, how did you visually represent that? Was it all spreadsheets? Or did you have big, like mood boards? or what have you kind of like, take this from just being an intellectual idea to something that you can track?

Casper Craven  8:25  

Yeah, no, it’s, it’s a great question. So initially, so for the first little part of the that five-year plan being I’m a former accountant, right, so I had all the spreadsheets, and then other exciting, so well, actually exciting for me, but they’re not really exciting for anybody else. It’s funny. I remember, actually, when, because we had to turn my business around to make things happen is when I came up with this goal, and I said, we’re gonna create 100 million quid business. And I was super excited about that. And I told my team all about that sort of thing again, too. And I laminated it off on cards, and I put them on everyone’s desks. And I said that’s what we’re gonna go and do. I remember about three months after that. I said to everyone, it’s like, Can anyone tell me what our vision is? And everyone, like shifted uncomfortably, and said, I think it’s something to do with a number. And I realized that you know, 100 million quid was huge to me, but nothing to them. So it’s, yeah, you’ve got to find that emotional thing. But the, for the sailing plants, we actually had in our kitchen, this huge, great big map of the world, which we, which we literally have printed it off and on principle, ordered it. And then we sketched out our route around the world. And then we had next to it, a family vision statement. So our story of what we were going to go and do and how we were going to go and do it. And it was literally no kind of like a company vision statement. But we took that idea and applied that to our family thing. And yeah, it was those two things, then everybody would come into the kitchen say, what’s this? And they said You’re crazy. It’s like, yeah, we know, we know, and to deal with all of that. But what’s interesting, actually, that map we actually went through the Panama Canal on Valentine’s Day, too. 2014. And that was three days difference to when we actually went through it when we had actually marked on the map. So it’s really interesting that power is sort of actually, you know, imagining the future, and then how it actually comes to pass when you make it happen. So – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Maria Franzoni  10:14  

brilliant, brilliant. So, um, you’ve sort of touched on this about getting buy-in from the team, but how did you get buy-in from your team, when you gave them this target of 100? million? Did you have to have them involved in the actual vision? And then see it too? Or do you have to lead them to, to want to? So I’m trying to find out? Do I need to evolve my team, when I say, I want to make 100 million in the next 10 years? Or do I say, this is what we’re going to do and just lead them? 

Casper Craven  10:43  

So look, so here’s my experience, like the 100 million quid, this is what we can do, it didn’t really engage with anyone. And it led me to that crushing realization that people only do things for their reasons, not for your reasons. And it’s why it’s important to have, you know, a big bold goal, which means something that’s anchored in emotion. And that’s why this process, you’ve really got to take the time to do it. And to discuss as a team, why is this important? Why do you want to go and do this? So after that, that that failure with my team, and that that crushing realization that we were not on the same page, we then sat down, we asked ourselves questions, like, what is the business that would make us feel proud if we went there and achieved it, and we focused on the emotion? What is it we’re gonna go and do together? And when say, also, our business was in, in the field of data analytics. And we came up with the story that our mission was, we wanted to be the world’s best data, treasure hunters. So we used to work with banks and law firms and so on, we used to go inside their data and look for the stories what the data was telling us. But it was the team that came up with that thing about being the world’s best data, treasure hunters. And they came up with a dream client list. And these are the top 20 clients in the world that we want to go and work with. And it was powerful because it came from the team. Whereas in my reverse thing of sort of like, this is what we’re going to go into. And it’s a number it was just like everyone’s like, yeah, and so what? So I think it’s super important to spend time with your, with your core team, and say, you know, why is this important? Why are we on this journey together? – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Maria Franzoni  12:19  

I like that. And I like the idea of identifying the 20 clients that you wanted to work with, did you achieve the 20 clients? Did you achieve the 100 million?

Casper Craven  12:28  

So we didn’t achieve 100 million, and we didn’t achieve the 20 clients, but we went an awfully long way in that direction. So it’s, yeah, had to know, a lot further than if we hadn’t done that. So yeah,

Maria Franzoni  12:39  

so like with that like to say, if you shoot for the moon, you’ll hit the stars. If you shoot for the stars, you hit the lamppost or something, I don’t remember what the saying is, but you have to see, you need to have that big bold goal in order for in order to get further than you would otherwise. I like that. I like that.

Stretch What You Believed Is Possible

Casper Craven  12:53  

Exactly. Because that thing, stretches what you believe is possible. So you know, back in the day, when we started off, you know, we were selling sort of software for 300 quid a month. And then we sort of grew that saying, Okay, well, how do we sell million-pound contracts? And it was only because we stretched our belief in what was possible. Hmm. – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Maria Franzoni  13:10  

I’m making notes. Do you make notes, James?

James Taylor  13:13  

I am, I’m thinking even as you’re saying this, and he’s talking about interesting, like, some people are there very connected to that kind of visual thing, or the emotion or some of the spreadsheets I got to cycling with, with a friend and amazes me just how different we think he’s a chairman of a company, which is really waiting to be successful. He does. But he likes every single thing he’s logging in he has a spreadsheet for the number of miles that week. And he’s got he’s mapped out for his annual. And for me, I just got to throw up a bourbon data, you know, of a cycle if we ended up doing 40 miles. That’s right. That’s right. That’s fantastic. So it’s interesting, like how, like, for me, it’s the emotion of being out connecting with someone. for him. It’s kind of hitting those numbers. And wondering, like, Is there a, it’s almost like, how many goals should we be setting? Is there a, like a Goldilocks? I guess a Goldilocks? Like, is it like too few or too many? Yeah. – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Maria Franzoni  14:17  

Casper,

James Taylor  14:19  

but should we be setting in order to really have a good chance of achieving them?

Goldilocks Number.

Casper Craven  14:25  

Yeah, they could question I’m trying to think, you know, just right, not too hot, not too cold, and all that sort of stuff. So I think that I think I think the just right amount. I said too, and I think you need to have one business goal and one personal goal, and that that’s how I approached anyway. And it’s all about having that Pollstar story. Nothing out there that everybody understands that it’s so clear, and it’s running through everyone like the stick of rock. That’s the thing that we are at getting together as a team. You know, I’ve heard in the military, the court the commander’s intent. And once everybody knows what the commander’s intent is, then you don’t have to go and manage people, because everybody is really clear. That’s the direction that we’re heading in. So in a work context, one one pole star story was Omar Bradley, former chief of staff for the VA in America. There’s basically saying, it’s like, once you know what your pole star is, you’re not going to get distracted by the lights of all the passing ships. And if we have too many different goals and things that are going on, it’s so easy. And you and I have chatted about this before. It’s like a shiny object here, the shiny object here, right? And you get pulled in all sorts of directions. But it’s, yeah, so yeah, in any work since one big bold goal. And as I think in personal life having that as well. And the reason I was thinking I haven’t had most tea together, is there will be times when you get stuck with one of them. And it’s just like, nothing is moving forward, nothing makes sense. And actually to go and shift to something. And actually, that’s kind of what I did on my journey. So don’t get stuck in the business sense. Okay, well, how do I move the family goal forward? And actually, then I get a brainwave, I get some ideas, and I get some energy. And then I can take that back to the workplace. So is this interflow? between the two different things are working on sort of those two big bold goals? But I wouldn’t recommend any more than that. That would be my Goldilocks number. – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

James Taylor  16:25  

Maria, what about you? I don’t know how everyone else feels is watching this just now let’s think, Maria, for you, what are your goals, you have a number of goals that you’re focused on at one point.

Maria Franzoni  16:37  

What’s interesting is actually I work with Casper and I did talk about this because I actually had to, you know, to, I was running two businesses up until very recently. And that, for me was very difficult. And it’s one of the things I say to speakers, you have to focus on one thing, and one of our favorite books is the one thing for all of us already. And there was I work in running two businesses, one aimed, you know, speakers, one aimed at corporates and businesses trying to do too, and I’m thinking, you know, I’m teaching this and I’m doing the opposite. I’m doing the opposite. So my focus is totally on speakers. And our goal is really to help. We’d like to help 1000 speakers to really grow their speaking businesses and have huge success. So that’s a huge number of people, we want to work much more closely and deeply with, with speakers through, you know, one-to-one and small groups, and, and hopefully a nice retreat somewhere, maybe in 2022, and we’re allowed to travel again. So, James, you’ll be you’ll be coming along once you so so yes, that’s our goal is to really help change speakers’ lives by giving them the tools that we know and understanding the bureau world. I haven’t got my my personal goal, and I wrote that down, I thought I need to have a personal goal. So thank you for that. Casper.

What about you, James singers, you’ve  – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Casper Craven  17:54  

made me?

Maria Franzoni  17:55  

Do you feel like I’m having therapy, I feel

James Taylor  17:56  

like I’m on the couch watching this podcast, it was interesting, you know, I remember I remember can start off doing goal setting new and having like, I mean, like, I remember I said, I still have a list 101 goals that they can have had. And then I remember sitting rain, then this list, and thinking, I’m really excited by this list. And then just feeling overwhelmed by the list as well. And then thinking, Okay, it’s, it’s, this is really a matter of sequencing. And the one thing about this is dominoes. And so I’ve been thinking much more like for me, now I just have one main one goal for my business and one goal from my personal life. And that’s just an N, but the I’m always thinking in terms of sequential, like, okay, that needs to be this one, because that’s gonna help me knock over that one in a year’s time, that’s gonna help me Not that one. So that’s so I wasn’t good at that at the start. And I’m only just getting better at it now. – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Casper Craven  18:56  

It can be hard content with all those different competing priorities. I keep coming back to that phrase, isn’t it? I think I think this was mentioned in the one thing, right? If you chase two rabbits, you’ll catch neither one. Right? And so it’s, you know, just be really clear on what you want to go after. So – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Maria Franzoni  19:08  

that’s true. And so I think more or less covered this that, you know, by having one main goal, it’s a lot easier. Is that how you keep up? You know, how do you keep it front and center? Because obviously, you know, your goal might be a three-year target. And you’ve broken it down and you come back, but how do you always keep your eye on the prize? And do you change it based on what’s happening if you’re not on schedule, or? Or is does that goal? remain there? I don’t really know. I’m asking that. Do you understand that?

Casper Craven  19:40  

Yeah, I think I think I understood that. You’re asking it’s like how do you stay focused? Right? I mean, I think Yeah, yeah. How do you change it? – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Maria Franzoni  19:47  

Yeah, and not sort of just this illusion if you’re not quite where you should be because COVID has hit for example.

Goal VS Process

Casper Craven  19:54  

So two questions there. So I think the first thing is the instinct focused on it comes down to the process of how you go about creating it in the first place. So it takes time, I think, to really craft that out to grapple with it, to debate it to argue over it, you know, what is this thing we are going to go and do this formula, the process plus the outcome is greater than the outcome. And it’s all about the process of how you go about doing that. So it’s, you know, with whoever is, you know, is on the bus, on the boat, who’s going to go and make that thing happen with you together to have that. I mean, literally, when we created our big bulk, it took us about six months, most weekends sitting down. And because we kind of like held it up, and we looked at it from every single angle, and we debated it and sort of really explored it clearly not going to spend that long in a company sense. But it’s it’s really investing proper time. And by doing that, that process, you cement, why it’s important to you? And you think about what’s the emotion attached to that? Why do I care about this? How do you sauce, my team? It’s like you say things like, why are you here? Why do you care? What is it about what we’re doing in this business that actually really resonates with you, you get some amazing answers, because people are amazing, when you ask them, you know, sort of their views and ideas? And that’s what this is all about. And so I think it’s part of it is investing that process together as a team. And then you clearly sort of, you know, you write it out and sort of having it in, in simple language. I was thinking about telling a story as well, by the way. And it’s like, you know, we’ve all seen companies I’ve worked in at several of them, where you have these sort of big, long convoluted vision statements, which have clearly been created by a committee. And I remember working with the big four accountancy firms, which I won’t name and their visions, they were so complicated, I couldn’t even remember what the first part of it was, by the time I got the second part of it. And so, therefore, I was thinking you’ve got to have it sort of captured in a really simple story. That means something that storytellers that way things are telling a story to you and the rest of your team. It’s funny, it makes me think of that Steve Jobs story when he brought on board john Sculley from Pepsi when he said, You don’t sell sugared water for the rest of your life, or you want to come and change the world with me. And it’s about creating something exciting, isn’t it that people can really sort of engaging with and buy into. So I think that’s the first part is that that creation of it, and, and spending that time creating it together. And then going I for me, personally, I was doing this exercise, I call theater of the mind, I’ll take a few minutes every day. And I just imagined in my mind, the visualization is that story of seeing that thing coming to life and happening. And so it’s, it’s living inside that vision, because the more you do that, the more real it becomes. That’s kind of what I do. – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Maria Franzoni  22:55  

Fantastic. I’ve made so many notes Casper is brilliant. You have to watch this again. It’s fabulous. Thank you, James. – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

James Taylor  23:02  

I’m going to take a bit of a contrarian position. Now when we say well, it will go so well.

Casper Craven  23:11  

I’ll leave now.

James Taylor  23:12  

Yeah, Yeah, me too. I’ve just been reading this book. It’s called a journey without a goal. And it’s actually based on Buddhist philosophy, Eastern philosophy. And it really just talks about how we can become overly attached to our goals. And that actually kind of really works against us. And we become less happy is that less happiness in the world sometimes when that happens. So I’ve heard that other people like Scott Adams, who wrote the Dilbert comics, said, instead of being goal orientated, we should be process orientated. So instead of like, say, I’m going to lose I know, a stone. Every day being process-oriented. Every day, I’m going to do something that moves I’m getting moving every day. So just like there’s is there’s a little I can go versus process. One of your views on that. – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Casper Craven  24:01  

Yeah, that’s a great question. I like it, you’re gonna face you’re gonna have the goals and the process. And yeah, and one without the other, it’s not going to happen. So it’s funny. I mean, it’s a huge philosophy that’s been around for a while, it’s marginal gains theory, which is, you know, just doing that sort of focusing on the process, you know, 1% better every day. And I totally subscribe to that. But you’ve got to start with, what’s that goal you’re pointing towards? What’s that direction you’re going in? Because if you don’t have that, when it’s kind of like, you know, what’s the most metaphor? So you’re climbing up the ladder, but it might be against the wrong house? It’s going in that in that in that right direction? For the Yeah, the processes are fundamentally important. And I think it’s the I think one of the myths that I used to fall into, was back in my accounting days, I was always told you’re either a detail person, or you’re a big picture person. And I think that lens is really unhelpful because I think you’ve got to be both and For me, what I’ve had to learn the ability to do is to be able to look at the big picture, the 30,000-foot view, and then to shuttle into what am I going to do today, the three feet view, and then to be able to come back out again. So it’s being able to lift your eyes up and see where you’re going, and then put your head back down and get into what you’re doing. And it’s neither one nor the other. It’s both I think it’s a skill set to be able to shuttle between those two different things. So I’ve had to work quite hard doing that because I naturally sort of what’s that big thing in the future. But clearly, the future only happens by stuff you’re doing today. So it’s that flexibility between the two things. So it’s both changed, – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

James Taylor  25:41  

I guess it’s almost like there was almost kind of going almost a nonbinary in that sense. There’s not that or that. There was someone I remember saying a while ago, he had a T-shirt, and he would go to any if there was any demonstration happening, whether it was political, whether it’s t shirts just said, I think you’re going to find this a little bit more complicated than that. And he would stand next to him is like just saying something really, like it has to be this way. And he said I think you’ll find it a little bit more complicated. Great, isn’t that often in those middle areas, isn’t it?

Casper Craven  26:17  

It’s so true. You know, my favorite word recently is nuance. And it’s like, everything is so nuanced. And we all want like, you know, simple answers. But it’s more complicated than that. And you have to get into the detail. It’s not this thing or that thing. It’s both but it’s just getting it in the right proportion. – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

James Taylor  26:35  

They use the word complicated, which I think is interesting, as a word because I’m filming in Scotland, Scotch whisky is complex, not complicated. So so there’s a lot of complexity. There’s like, it’s not it’s nuanced in that way. But it’s actually not complicated. There’s still the same Bali and I do actually what how you make whiskey, but he does the same things as well. So there are the same two most core ingredients that when we’re goal setting, but there are nuances you can you were saying?

Casper Craven  27:08  

Yeah, no, definitely I don’t I don’t know how to break down the difference between complex and complicated. But it’s nuanced. Isn’t that? I – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Maria Franzoni  27:14  

mean, that’s the point. Yeah, absolutely. This is we’ve run out of time that we’ve gone over. It’s fantastic. I’ve really enjoyed this. So Casper, how can people get in touch with you? And also, I think he might have something to share as well?

Casper Craven  27:26  

We do? I do? I think so. Yes, Casper Craven, quite easy to find Casper, craven.com, LinkedIn, all those sorts of things. So actually, I just, I’m just writing my next book, big bold goals. And there, like 20 principles, how you’re going to achieve people goals, with the leadership and the team what needed to do that. So if anyone would like the early draft of that, I’ve given that away that tell too many people, but just to your listeners want to say so you can so there’s a link, you’re gonna put a URL down – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Maria Franzoni  27:58  

for it. We’ll put it on this week on the men culture website. Absolutely, we do. That’s fantastic. It’s really generous of your Casper. Thank you. – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

James Taylor  28:06  

Casper Thank you. And what we’re gonna do is as Casper just mentioning that the link to the book, and we’re going to have if people go to this weekend, event.com just enter your details there. It’s gonna take you through to a page where you’re going to find that link to that. And also, you’re gonna have links to both Casper’s website, also the big bold goals website as well. So head over there just now. So Caspar, thank you so

Casper Craven  28:26  

much for coming on the show today. Pleasure, lovely chatting to you both.

Casper Craven  28:30  

Thank you, we’ll

Maria Franzoni  28:30  

let you get back to the beach.

James Taylor  28:33  

Hi, I’m James Taylor, keynote speaker, and speaker business coach and this is the SpeakerU podcast. If you enjoy listening to conversations that will help you launch and grow your speaking business fast new thought possible, then you’ve come to the right place. Each week we discussed marketing strategies, sales techniques, as well as ideas to increase the profitability of your speaking business and develop your craft. You’ll find show notes for today’s episode as well as free speaker business training at speakersu.com. This week’s episode is sponsored by SpeakersU the online community for international speakers, SpeakersU helped you launch, grow, and monetize your speaking business faster than you thought possible. If you want to share your message as a highly paid speaker, then speakers will teach you how just go to speak as you don’t come to access their free speaker business training. – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Casper Craven  29:21  

So it was fabulous. I

James Taylor  29:23  

am sorry. I’m thinking this week I’m gonna sit down and do some goals setting and kind of review my goals after it’s kind of inspired me to kind of just take a look at that. So, goals before we can talk about our goals and what we’re doing in speaking business. Take a moment just to thank our wonderful, wonderful sponsors, the London speaker Bureau. London Speaker Bureau is a global resource for corporations and governments for keynote speakers, executive learning masterclasses, and boardroom advisors, representing some of the most influential business leaders and politicians in the world if you need help. In choosing a speaker like Casper, for your next event, go to London speaker bureau.com. So I just – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Maria Franzoni  30:08  

realized I match the background, my shirt, my shirt matches the

Casper Craven  30:13  

my arms kick

James Taylor  30:14  

continues, it’s camouflage. It’s modern camouflage. Very strange. Let’s talk about goals. And because you’re working, we were just talking earlier, then you’re saying your goal is to, is to help other speakers now and kind of build their careers as well. But talk a little bit more about, you know, the context of goals for speakers goals that maybe speaker should be thinking about for their business. Yeah. – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Maria Franzoni  30:41  

Well, I tell you what, I think a lot of speakers don’t actually have sort of set detailed plans and goals, they might have a goal to say I want to earn so much per year, but then they don’t break it down and create a detailed plan. It’s quite fascinating. You know, in doing training, I’ll say to speakers have you got a business plan for your speaking, and they’ll say no, but you need that business plan, that breakdown that takes you to whatever it is you want to achieve. If you want to be achieving half a million a year, you do need to have a plan of how you’re going to get that and, and it’s I suppose the strategic thinking that’s really important, you know, behind how you’re going to achieve it. So for me, there’s a couple of things. One is actually having that plan. But then also, you know, as Kasper said, that you break it down, and so that you’ve got it in the present, but it’s having the right indicators to track because a lot of speakers will track, maybe the number of bookings or the revenue, and you’ve got not necessarily the control of when that booking going to come in. You know, when that things gonna confirm, and so you have to have something that’s a new contract on a daily basis. So you know, you’re going in the right direction. So I think indicators are really important and what you’re tracking? And I’m sure that cash flow going, yes, I agree, because he’s a former accountant. So he’ll be saying, Yeah, yeah. So and that can be things that you are in control needs to be things you’re in control of. And it could be as simple as the number of speakers, you know, potential clients, you’ve spoken to today, the number of calls you’ve made with that kind of thing, where you’re actually going towards that target. And then reviewing it and saying, you know, am I on track? Do what do I need to tweak what’s going on, so that I don’t have to change that goal. So that’s, that’s my thinking for speakers Really? I don’t know what would you say? – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

James Taylor  32:25  

Yeah, I mean, just, I echo that, we do a process. Also, every month, we have a spreadsheet that my sister actually fills in. And we have this whole battery of metrics that they have to measure. But I have the idiots version, next to me on a big whiteboard, cuz I’m going to old school. So I have to write it down as well as give us the fancy version. But I’m just looking at just now I’ll be total transparency here. These are the numbers, you know, to break in that goal, we have a goal in terms of the number of speeches but say the keynote, the speaking part of what we do. And I’m looking at it just now. And on one side you have. So you have the month, you have the opportunity. So this is like you mentioned that kind of lead and lag types of indicators. So we have got we have goals here around the number of pitches that we’re doing every single month, then we have another goal around and we track the monthly numbers of the how many visits to our speaking page, on our website, on my website, the visits to those speaking pages. Because that’s a really, really key metric I can track totally, how many gigs are coming in just from tracking visits to those pages. And then we can ask that we called suspects and then prospects, number of inquiries received direct number of inquiries received from bureaus, number of homes, number of gigs won that month, number of gigs lost, because you have to lose things in order to win things. And then finally, the results. So that’s like number of paid speeches and amount invoiced. So that’s, I just kind of write that up at the end of every month as well. My assistant has all the other things within that. And then we’ll basically it looks at Well, why is that happening? And then we usually we can find it somewhere in those in those numbers. But then I do it’s not. That bit isn’t inspiring to me looking at those numbers. For me personally, I know for other people that might be seen as dumb. I’m not particularly don’t get inspired by numbers. But as he just as Cass was talking about the map, when I put a physical map up, and I’m putting pins in and I’m seeing

Maria Franzoni  34:32  

clashes that are presentations,

James Taylor  34:35  

even especially if this client is in New York or this guy is so even if it’s a virtual you’re doing that, for me that is a stronger virtual kind of virtual way of showing me my progress, rather than numbers and dollars and cents, but that is I guess it’s just different for everyone. Yeah,

Maria Franzoni  34:53   

I would say that a month is too long to wait for you to see if you’re on track though because by the end of the month you’ve lost that month. So I think it needs to be much shorter and much tighter. Set weekly as you know, would be the longest I would leave it to look at where you’re at. I mean, I want to know the date I want to know daily, am I progressing, but then again, I’m an ex-management consultant. So I’m obsessed with these things – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

James Taylor  35:15  

you let you like, although I find it overwhelms me after a while I just kept

Maria Franzoni  35:19  

track of you tracks a lot of stuff you see. So I track it, I track a bit less than, and I and my team are all involved in tracking it too. And they can influence our indicators, which is lovely, and

James Taylor  35:28  

they can have effects. I love that because of his background in finance, you know, the other thing that we track so we track that’s just a speaking part. But we also look at the ratios. Yes. So important. A danger I’ve seen and maybe some people fall into this is you build a speaking business like putting your ladder against the wrong wall, you build an entire business is based on giving keynotes. I went in that business changes. You don’t have any continuity, your membership subscription, online courses, consultant coach, other things that just kind of fill out that. So the thing I’m almost more interested in is that the also the time allocation or the asset allocation is 40% of my business coming in from keynote. That’s about as much as I would want to be bringing in from that because it’s quite a volatile business, just a keynote speaking side. – Big Bold Goals For Speakers

Maria Franzoni  36:18  

You are so wise. Absolutely. You need a top folio, a portfolio

James Taylor  36:23  

approach. That’s the word that’s where

Maria Franzoni  36:24  

you that’s where you’re at. You’re Fantastic. Well, listen, I think the time has come to an end and because I want to go and celebrate it’s our five year anniversary. I want to go get the champagne. And I would thank everybody for having attended and and thank you James, for Thank you Maria.

James Taylor  36:39  

Thank you to our wonderful guest today. You can subscribe to the speakers you podcast on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts while you’re there. leave us a review. I really appreciate it. I’m James Taylor, and you’ve been listening to the SpeakersU Podcast.

– Big Bold Goals For Speakers