The Goal Setting Workshop (Video)

Did you miss the goal setting workshop last night? No worries – I have the recordings right here.

Goal settings is a serious thing. It can mean the difference between wasting another year, getting to 2017 and not knowing where the time went and having the best year of life.

This is why yesterdays ‘Goal Setting’ workshop was free, and why i’m sharing the recording here for everyone to enjoy and learn from.

I was actually not a 100% sure I will be able to do the workshop, as I am still sick. But at the last minute I decided that a sore throat and some fever won’t hold me down. But will cause me to have a wired voice during the session.

I’m sorry for the low quality, It was my first time using Google Hangout on air to do a workshop, but the content still looks good and is super valuable.

Enjoy the session!

Update: You can find the workshop slides here

Have any thoughts you’d like to share? That’s what the comments are for

My reading challenge

I have so many things I want to achieve this year, it’s crazy.

One of the things i’v love doing most but haven’t done so much in 2015 was to read books. Yes full books. Not posts, status updates or “the complete guide to” but actual books.

I’m planning to change that in 2016.

How? by committing to reading 2 books a month.

The goal is to read a book in 2 weeks but I’m hoping it will have a side effect as well.

I’m a ‘bed reader’, I love reading books before going to sleep. This means that for me to be able to lay in bed and have sufficient energy to read, I will have to go to bed at a decent time.

What will I be Reading

You know I’m a sharer, right? So of course I’ve set up this page that will allow you to track what I’m reading and also give me some recommendations.

I’m also hoping it will become a good resource for other book lovers who are just thinking about what book they should read next. So it’s wide open to everyone.

What books can you expect to find there? The usual suspects I guess:

Growth hacking
Entrepreneurship
Marketing
Biography’s
Business
Zen
Productivity

So jump in – Here’s what i’ve read in 2016.

Current stat

Any book you think I MUST read? Let me know in the comments.

5 Quick tips for creating a great presentation

I’ve just finished creating the presentation for tomorrow’s ‘Goal setting workshop’ (feel free to join us) and was inspired to share some tips on creating an engaging presentation.

There have been so many posts written about it that I’m guessing you already have your best practices set, but I’ll share mine anyway. You might find something here that is right for you.

Before I start, I highly recommend reading ‘ The presentation secrets of Steve Jobs’. This is be far the best book I’ve read on the matter.

5 Quick tips to create great presentations

Outline your story before you even open your Keynote (or PowerPoint):

The biggest mistake you can make when creating your presentation is starting right off with creating the presentation itself.

Great presentations are all about great storytelling, and like any good story, you first need to understand what is the main point you want get across, outline your story and organizing it in a way your audience will really get it.

A simple A4 or notepad will do.

Write your story, its milestones, it main points – and only then ‘translate’ it to a presentation.

One point per slide

There’s nothing worst then an over- crowded slide.

Each slide should make only one point. Forget millions of bullet points, forget about cramming 200 words per slide. Simplify it.

Make sure each slide is focuses on delivering only one idea that your audience can easily understand and follow.

The slides accompany you, not the other way around

This is the most common mistakes I see speakers do.

You are the main event, not your slide deck.

You want your audience to focus on you, and what you are saying. If your slides are telling all the story, your audience will just read it quickly and stop paying attention to you.

Your slides should focus on one idea, emphasising what you are saying, not replacing it.

Use high quality images

Images and pictures will always grab more attention than text. But choosing the right image isn’t easy.

Make sure you are using pictures that are relevant to what you are talking about (at least in topic at atmosphere) but most of all – make sure you are using a high quality image and not just a crappy one you got online.

You can use websites such as Pexels on Unsplash to get free high resolution photos.

Watching a presentation with pixelated images, or a louse stock photo is a totally let down. Doesn’t matter how interesting you are or how important the topic is, your presentation just lost major points with your audience.

Frame your talk

At the beginning of your talk, give your audience a summary of what you’ll be talking about. So it’ll be easier for them to keep track of the talk’s progress, what to expect and even create anticipation,

Within your talk, make sure you are opening and closing topics in a way your audience can follow. Create a headline slide when starting a new topic, a summary slide at the end of the topic, and always try and leave room for questions.

If you don’t frame segment of your talk, or give context to what you’re going to talk about, you are making it hard for your audience to follow you.

If your audience looses interest for a second, it will be very hard to get their attention back.

In conclusion:

There are so many component of a good presentation, but I think this 5 will easily make your presentation better than over 90% of the presentations out there.

Are you using Slideshare to post your presentations? Share it in the comments.

Match your marketing channel to your energy levels

If you’ve been a fan of Cesar Milan (you might know him from his show ‘The Dog Whisperer‘) you know that understanding energy is crucial in our daily life.

While Milan talks about communicating with your dog, he makes a very important point about how we behave and choices we make as humans in general.

What does communicating with your dog has to do with content marketing you ask? I promise there’s a valid answer. Just hang in there with me.

In his many episodes, books, seminars (and in whatever other profitable channel he found I guess) the dog whisperer preaches about the importance of energy in two crucial aspects:

When choosing the right dog for you
When communicating with your dog

I will focus on the first point in this post.

Also you will understand what this has to do with marketing (including examples).

Choosing content format is a lot like choosing the right dog

We have two dogs, so I’ve read quite a lot Cesar’s content and watched his show.

One of the things that really made an impression on me was Cesar’s approach to choosing the dog that is right for you and your family.

Cesar categories dogs by level of energy: Low, Mid and High.

A Low energy dog is usually a little slower, more relaxed, while a high level energy dog is one that needs to run a round a lot, is over excited and over curious about things.

It’s important to understand that it’s not that one is good and one is bad, they’re just different.

Cesar suggests that when you adopt a dog don’t do the common mistake of choosing the first dog that runs straights towards you or just the one that seems the cutest. You’re choosing a long term partner, you have to be more serious about it than that.

Choosing the right dog means finding a dog that matches your energy levels. If you’re always tired, don’t like going out of the house or do walks – don’t pick the dog that is crazily wagging its tail and can’t wait to go out on a run. Your energies wouldn’t match and you will either be frustrated (a high energy level dog that doesn’t releases its energy outside is most likely to trash your place) or the dog will become depressed.

Same goes with content format.

Wait.. what?! Yup, you heard me.

Think about the different energy levels different content format requires.

For example – If you’re not a super high energy guy, Video and podcasts are probably not for you. If you are Video is a great channel for you.

Think about Gary Vaynerchuk (I’ve become a huge fan recently), he is the master of video. Why? Because he bring so much energy to his Ask Gary Vee show and the DailyVee. No wonder Wine Library TV was such a huge hit.

Gary has super high energy and video works for him. Text on the other hand, is not a forte’ of his. He writes blog posts, and they are good, but not as nearly exciting or inspiring as his video content.

Take Tim Ferriss on the other hand. His posts, books and podcast are amazing. They are super interesting and insightful. Tim is a mid-level energy guy. His is passionate, but he’s not crazy energized as Gary. So text and long-form audio work great for him. His TV show on the other hand, doesn’t work as well.

Now to you

Yes, i know, there are all kinds of marketing trends to follow – ‘2016 is the year of video’ bla bla. But as someone once said – it’s not the tactic that gets you noticed, but your quality.

So when planning your 2016 marketing channels, budgets and where to place your efforts, don’t just follow the trends blindly.

Look deep inside you and ask yourself – What level of energy type am I? Will video work for me? Will I be able to keep up an Instagram account? Am I lower energy level kind of guy and writing text is the best way for me to go?

Match the formats you’ll use to your energy levels. If not, you will be putting double the effort and get half the results.

Trust me.

P.S Did you sign up for my special goal setting workshop this Sunday? If not, sign up here

Goal setting workshop

Day 4: I want to invite you to a ‘Goal Setting Workshop’ (it’s free)

Since January 1st, i’ve been working on setting my goals for 2016.

You see, 2015 was great for me, but not as great as it could’ve been. Why? Because I didn’t plan my goals right.

Every year I do goal settings and I have a pretty solid record in keeping most of them. But last year, I just didn’t set them right and didn’t follow through .

That resulted in some progress, but not the progress I was hoping for. This year i’m doing it right.

The Goal Setting Workshop

At the beginning of the week, I posted to my Facebook and Twitter account an offering for people to join me for a goal setting workshop. The responses we’re quite amazing, so i’ve decided to follow through and do one.

You can register to the workshop here

I should warn you that i’m planning on limiting the workshop to up to 30 people max.

I want it to feel as intimate as an online workshop can feel – and try to stay away from that ‘webinar’ kind of feeling. So it will be limited to up 30 people.

In the workshop you will learn:

Tips from top performers on setting up their years goals.
How to choose goals that are right for you.
How to define goals in a way you can actually achieve them.
How to plan your goals to keep you on track.
Why most people fail in reaching their goals, and why you’d be different.

Be quick to save your spot here.

Make a friend’s 2016 that much better

We all have that friend that is just isn’t happy about their position in life.

A friend that feels lost, isn’t happy or just need some good guidance to get them going and out of a slump.

We always want to help the people we care about, but don’t always get the time, or even know how to help.

I urge you to choose 1 friend, and send them this invitation (even if you’re not registered).

This is the link to the sign up page: https://goalsettingworkshop2016.splashthat.com.

Just send it to them, tell them it’s free and you think this can really help them win 2016.

Eventually, doing good and helping others, is what it is all about.

Hope to see you in the workshop.

Day 3: How to have a good day, every day

The Morning is the most important part of your day.

Starting your day with a good or bad mood can change the way you’ll perceive your day’s events.

Most of us start our morning by rushing out to work, taking your kid to school, panically answering emails from the day before or even with a wake up call from your boss that started their day 2 hours before you and is now stressing you out.

If you start your day stressed, you’re going to have a shitty day. Guaranteed.

If you’ll start your day in peace and in a positive state – your days, decisions and perception of reality will improve and be more optimistic. Leading you to have better days, make better decisions and better enjoy your life. Everyday.

If you could choose between having a good day and a bad day, what would you choose?

Set yourself up for a good day

Block email for the first hour

Checking emails first thing in the morning is one of the worst thing you can do to yourself.

Do you know what’s waiting for you in your inbox? Work. You are basically setting the tone for your day to be stressful.

When you check your email first thing in the morning you are automatically putting yourself in a reactive mode, meaning you lose control over your day right at the start.

Gain control over you day just by not checking your inbox for the first 60 minutes.

Get up, focus on yourself or your family, and only then check your email. The fact that your phone is right next to your bed, doesn’t mean you have to enslave yourself to it.

Meditate

Meditation is one of the best things you can do for yourself. It’s a great way to balance your thoughts, clear your mind, prioritise what really matters and just be present in the moment.

At the beginning of the meditation session you will be overwhelmed with thoughts, worries and assignments you need to take care of in the day. As you progress all that stressful noise will become a still, calm water. In you will gain clarity and perspective, giving you more control over how you start your day.

Don’t start your day in panic and feeling of being overwhelmed. Meditate and clear your mind. Get yourself ready for the day, don’t just drown in it.

Get inspired

Another good practice to set your day to be positive and controlling your morning mood, is to get inspired as early as you can.

Getting inspired will fill you with energy to tackle the different challenge throughout the day.

You can get inspire by watching TED talks, listening to a podcast you like (Gary Vaynerchuck is a really good listen in the mornings), or just listen to upbeat music.

Give your brain something to work with and you will see how you become more positive within seconds.

The 5 minute journal

Writing is also a great way to start your morning. You can just scribble some stuff in your journal, pouring thoughts out just to clear your mind (I use Day One for that).

You can also use something like ‘The 5 minute journal’, which will take only 5 minutes of your morning routine and will set you up for a positive mood.

The logic behind it is very simple – you have a structured format of questions that you need to answer on, that are all positive and will help you focus on the good things you have going on in life.

Starting your day by being reminded of all the good things you have to cherish will boost your energy for sure.

Drink water

When you wake up from sleep, your body is dehydrated. It’s a fact. And it doesn’t matter how much water you drank in the previous night.

While most people do the mistake of drinking coffee to wake up, water is actually the better solution.

By drinking 2-3 cups of water as soon as you wake up, you will ditch that sleepy feeling right away and bring energy to your body.

No one can promises your day will be filled with only good news and all your problems will go away, but follow this 5 simple tricks and I can promise your quality of life and amount of good days a year, will increase already on day one.

Day 2: Go from survival mode to active mode in 60 mins a day

As an entrepreneur, finding extra time in your day to do nothing but think is a must.

Honestly, I think it’s necessary for anyone’s happiness, but for entrepreneurs, it’s a matter of life or death.

That extra head space is where you plan ahead, it’s where you get inspired, deal with issues in your business, your relationships and more.

Having no extra headspace or time to think distraction free will leave you in a reactive mode. Meaning survival mode

Survival mode VS. Active mode

You know what survival mode is. You’ve been,

You wake up every morning, you face the routine, answer the emails, put down fires in your business, growing slowly (or actually even staying in the same place), stuff don’t work but you don’t really fix them just kind of handle them. You’re never really happy. might not be depressed, but you’re not happy.

Things happen to you and you react mostly.

Active mode on the other hand is when you usually feel as if you’re in control of the situation. I wouldn’t say you’re stress free, but you are in control, you feel like you can plan ahead, make smart decisions, really work towards your goals.

Going from one mode to another can require no more than 30-60 mins a day.

It’s not about place – it’s about time and what you do

A lot of people believe that to get that “time to plan” you have to take a special vacation, or save time over the weekend.

While sometime it’s better if you can get away for a couple of days (like when planning your yearly goals) it’s basically about securing up to 60 minutes of your day. You can also do pretty well with 30-60 mins.

You need to secure some time in the day when you’re not going to sit next to your computer answering emails, not playing / watching over your kid, not answering your employees answers.

It’s all about you.

It’s about clearing your head enough to deal with you need to deal with and reach a level where you can actually see the bigger picture.

How I used to do it

I used to have a morning routine where I would wake up, drink water, do some stretches and then do a short workout and a 30 min session meditation.

If you don’t have a lot of time, I think meditating is the best way to spend the time you have.

If you are new to meditation you can try using an app like Headspace or any kind of guided meditation app.

I actually use Tara Brach guided meditation podcast and meditate using her episodes on the show.

The reason I’d suggest spending most of that time meditating and not just writing endlessly, is because I believe meditation can take you from a crowded mind to empty clear sky within 30 minutes or so. So if you have 45 minutes and 60 minutes overall, that remaining time will be put to good use and not just you fighting to clear your thoughts.

Admittedly, since Emily (my 7 months old daughter) was born, I wasn’t able to hold my morning routing and lost that quiet time.

7 months later, and I feel the need for it badly.

That’s how I learn to appreciate that time so much and find harming impact of not having.

As part of my 2016 goals is to set up a new routing that can cope with the new family status.

The way it seems right now – I will either use the nighttime or dedicate a room in our office for it.

Are you setting time apart for your self to think daily? When do you do it on your day?

Day 1: My writing challenge for 2016

I can’t believe it’s already 2016.

It sneaked upon me so crazy fast that I still feel like it’s February 2015.

2015 was crazy for me, but not enough. Not nearly enough, but 2016 will be different.

Want to know why? I’ll tell you in the next couple of days as I’m writing a special post about 2015 and setting goals for 2016 (and tracking them).

My biggest miss in 2015 was that I almost stopped writing Altogether. That’s not good, but going to change starting TODAY.

Writing every day for the next 365 days .

In 2015 I started secretly growing a new business (more on that soon) and it took most of my time and attention span.

I spent most time training employees and managing them that I almost lost my writing game.

Then, just in time, I saw this Facebook post by the awesome David Spinks.

David Spinks announcing the writing challenge

Besides being the founder of CMX, David is a true inspiration.

I got to meet him when he was visiting Israel last year (thank you Ben Lang for the introduction) – and this guy is so truly passionate and pure about his mission with CMX that you can not be taken away by it.

Getting sidetracked here.

On January 1st, David announced his personal challenge for 2016: ‘Writing 365 Posts in 2016… One Post Every Day’ .

Since I’m not good with doing balanced efforts, but only going too extreme, that was the exact kind of push I needed to get me motivated on writing again.

He got my “I’m in” message within minutes.

What to expect

In 2016 I will write something every day.

It might be a piece of content for this blog, the more professional blog, or a script, chapter on my book etc. But something will be written every day.

What I will write about?

The usual:

Growth hacking
Content Marketing
Inspirational stuff
Entrepreneurial experiences
Who knows?!

Scary shit.

Want to follow what I write every day? Everything I write will be linked to in here.

2/3 Comfort Zone Challenges – Done!

I’m writing this update only seconds after completing my second ‘Out of my comfort zone challenge’ – Live streaming.

Originally the idea was to live-stream the launch of the Twitter email course, but I was not able to complete it on the due date, so I’ve decided to live-stream something else, and fail only 1 of my goals.

Instead, I turned to my Facebook and Twitter profiles and asked my followers to ask me growth questions they want me to answer on.

I got 12 questions in general. Out of those I picked 3:

1. How would you promote a new podcast

2. How would you start with a new product

3. How to improve conversions from blog.

My main worries were:

1. Would people actually tune in to watch it?

2. Will I look good talking while in that ‘selfie” position.

3. Would it feel natural once I started.

Results:

1. In overall, 37 people watched the 20 minutes broadcast

2. No. Next time I need to find a stand for the iPhone or something like that

3. It actually did. Reminded me of the webinar experience.

What’s the verdict:

I actually quite enjoyed it – and my team and I are thinking about turning it into a weekly thing.

Would you ask questions and watch us every week?

Out Of My Comfort Zone: Progress Report

So last week, I wrote a post about stepping out of my comfort zone.

In a short summary: Nothing good will happen in your comfort zone, and being limited to what you feel comfortable with is the holding back your progress.

In order to start stepping out of my comfort zone, I chose three simple and small tasks, so I won’t have a good excuse not to do them.

My challenges were:

1. Take 3 selfies (i’ve never taken and uploaded a selfie before. Yes I know, every 15 year old kid does it this days).

2. Launch a digital product (an email Twitter course for startups to be precise) and charge for it.

3. Do a live streaming (Basically stream the launch of the Twitter course).

I had 14 days to complete all tasks.

Progress Report

1. Selfies challenge: Mission accomplished!

I took 3 selfies: two i’ve already posted online:

1. Me, writing a blog post with the emotional support of my 1 month old baby girl.

2. We’ve recently moved to a new office space, and as we were going to get some coffee to start our day, we discovered that Nimrod, who was the owner of a coffee shop I started my business in (It was my office for 3 years) is now managing this coffee place. We were supper excited about it. Great selfie opportunity.

The third one, i’m posting online right now with this Tumblr post. Thank you Alan Weinkrantz (from Rackspace, they are awesome, you should check them out right now!) for joining me for my final selfie in the challenge.

My other two challenges on the other hand are far from being complete.

2. The Twitter course – I’ve outlined most of the content I need, started doing some of the research and thinking about some promotion tactics when launching. In terms of readiness to launch, I would say i’m 15% there. I will need to really put an effort into it this week if I want to do it on time.

In terms of pricing: It will cost 4.99$

3. Live streaming – this actually depends on the course progress.

Because I don’t want to lose 2/3 of the challenge if the course isn’t ready, I already have a backup plan of what I’ll stream instead – It will probably a growth tip, or presenting our next webinar.

This is the update for now. I’ve finished 1/3.

BTW, i’m actually doing an Instagram challenge for growing my following using specific tactics. Are you big on Instagram? Please let me know in the comments here.

The Journey

This is a public private journal. Feel free to say hi on Twitter or Instagram (@roypovar on both)