In this episode...

Sophia Noreen: Hello, everyone. Welcome to another fantastic episode of the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen. If we have not met before, I am the host of the show and welcome to 2022. This is such a crazy start to the year where I am because our country, our province, Canada, Ontario is in lockdown again because of the pandemic. But regardless, we want to ensure that we are trying to be positive and we want to make sure that we still try to accomplish our goals in life and in our businesses. And I want to start the year off by talking about vision boards, dream boards, and action boards. What is the difference between these three different boards? I am also learning what the difference is. But I want to actually put these boards to use this year because having a dream board, having a vision board sometimes isn't enough. We really need to put our dreams and our visions into solid action. And you know that the slogan for Boss It Club is, "Make a plan and take action. And yes, you can have it all." And the reason we say that is because you cannot just dream it and visualize it and sit down and do nothing. You need to have an action plan and then you have to act. And I think that is where many people get stumped. They stumble. They decide that perhaps I'm not good enough. Or they second guess their action plan, and then they fail to act or they fail to plan and they act and they realize that, oh no, I've done it incorrectly. I think it's really important to have these three boards so you really can formulate your idea, your plan, and you can also then feel motivated. Because when it comes to planning, it's difficult. When it comes to acting, it's difficult. But if you have that audacious dream, that big dream, that big goal, and you have it on another board and you need to go to that board once in a while and look for inspiration, I think that is sometimes the best part of planning and executing is because you can eventually get to that big audacious goal. So let's break it down a little bit. Let's talk about the differences between a dream board, a vision board, and an action board. And I have a few examples of how I'm planning on using these three different boards.

I probably am going to make a digital board because cutting and pasting could be a good idea if I'm making an art project with my children. But I haven't really broken out the scissors and cut through magazines and pasted anything on a board for a long time. Although that is a traditional way of making these vision boards or these dream boards is by getting out your scissors, going through magazine clippings, and start cutting and pasting and making it a beautiful board that's sitting in front of you, not on your computer screen. But I feel that I know myself, I will be more likely to finish the activity if I make it a digital board. I am planning on using Canva.  

Okay, so let's start with a dream board. I look at a dream board is my big stretch goal. My big audacious, the big goals that I want to one day, perhaps, accomplish. And on that list, you could probably put your dream car. You could put a healthy family. You could put a plane. You could put a private island. I don't know. Whatever you feel is something that you want to have or something that you want to accomplish, you could have perhaps if you're building a business, perhaps you want to put it on the stock exchange. So you're going to have the ticker symbol is what the symbol is called for the stock of your business. So whatever that big goal is you would put it on this dream board. And perhaps, you'll have a timeline of 10 years. Ten to fifteen years, maybe 20 years for this dream board. And those are fantastic motivators. Those are the things that are going to keep you going. Those are the things that will help you push through when it seems that everything is crumbling. These are the big goals that you are playing towards, but it won't necessarily happen tomorrow. It may not happen next year. It may not even happen in five years. But those are the big goals, those are the big accomplishments that you want to get to eventually. That's a dream board, and I find many people actually confuse the dream board with the vision board. And then they put all these big goals on their vision board, and the vision board is supposed to be actualized in a shorter time period. And then they become frustrated when they cannot fulfill their division board goals within the 12 month period.  

You can aim to be exiting your company by selling it publicly on the stock exchange, for example. But that might not take you 12 months to actually do. That might take you 5 to 10 years. Some companies stay private until they're 20 years away. Perhaps your goal is to get a brand new house. I don't know about you, but houses in our area are very expensive. So if you are looking to get a house, that's an X amount of money and you are nowhere close to that amount of money and you want to ensure you have a good sizable down payment, or you want to pay it out on cash, whatever your goal is, we have to be realistic.  

So really those big goals, belong on the dream board. They don't belong on the vision board. So what is a vision board? A vision board is your shorter-term goal, I would say, between 6 to 12 months. Those vision board goals should be ones that you can reasonably accomplish within the year. I like to actually go even shorter to a three-month. So within 12 weeks, because it really then gets you into action when we speak about the action board.  

The action board then is your shorter-term goals. I would say the action board are visual images of what you need to be doing every single day to ensure that your vision board goals are actually accomplished within the 6 to 12 months. For me, it's three months. I'm going to give you some real examples now of how I'm dividing up my visions, my dreams, my big goals, and breaking them from a dream board down to the vision board, and then down to the actual action board. Okay, let's go with something that most of us are very well aware of. Let's go with something that most of us are very well in tune with as one of the new year's resolutions that are always popping up, and that is becoming fit and maintaining a fitness routine.  

It seems like everybody wants to have a brand new fitness routine at the beginning of the year. And that is when the gym memberships, perhaps not in my area at this time, this year because all of our gyms are shut down. That's a side note. As we are going to COVID, it seems that our gym facilities are getting hit. But this is the time when the gyms would have had their most enrollments and most participation in classes because everybody wants to get fit. Great. So if I was going to put this on my dream board, I would say that I want to maintain a good fitness routine and I want to look fit. So I might cut out a picture or find a picture of a successful fitness athlete perhaps, and put that on my dream board.  

So how am I going to take that image of a fit body and translate it over to my vision board? Perhaps what I will do is find a photo of myself at a fitness level that I felt was appropriate and put it on my vision board. For example, let's say I want to lose 10 pounds. So I will find a picture of me 10 pounds less and put it on that vision board. Now, how do I take that fitness routine, that fitness body, that fit the picture of myself and translate it to my action board? Well, I'm going to choose an activity that I like to do. So most people know this by now, but if you don't, I love yoga. Of course, if I love yoga, I am going to go ahead and take a picture of somebody practicing yoga. Perhaps that will be me, and I will put that on my action board. That will remind me every day when I look at my action board that perhaps I should practice my yoga today. Or if it's something else, for example, leisure walking. If you're a walker, you would take a picture of somebody walking or maybe it's you walking, and you'd put it on your action board. And that will remind you that these are the small actions that I need to do every single day in order to have my goal accomplished within 12 months or six months or three months. Whatever timeframe you want for your vision board to be accomplished. That is one example. 

Another great example that I have is many people want a big house, or they want to have a lake house, or they want to have a destination home, or they want to have something that is extravagant. You put that on the dream board. And that one item might be representing you being successful when it comes to monetary means, because you need money to, of course, go ahead and purchase that item. It could be a piece of jewelry. It could be a very nice car. Whatever it is, that would be a good example of an eventual goal when you're accomplished and you've been able to say, I have made it when it comes to my monetary accomplishments. That would go on your dream board. And then I can get that Lamborghini, for example, a very nice car in 12 months. My actions today will not equate to making the level of money that I need in the next 12 months to afford a Lamborghini. So I'm going to put another goal that hopefully eventually with persistence would allow me to make that money means to be able to buy those nice things.  

The example I have from my own life is perhaps I will put a picture of the Walmart display. So in 12 months' time, we expect that we would have a few Walmart displays up in the stores and I will take pictures of what we want to have up and put them on my vision board. I want to visualize that in three months I'm going to have this Walmart display. And three months after that I'll have another Walmart display. And I will put those pictures up. So for you, you need to think, what do I want to put on the vision board that I know I'll accomplish in a few months' time, or I'm going towards this item? I'm building my plan towards obtaining or accomplishing this item, what is that image in your mind, and put it on your board. And hopefully, that one image, that one goal that you're going for is going to eventually lead to a monetary means where you can buy your nicer items. That is an example of the vision board.  

So now, how am I going to take that goal of making more money and put it into action? It sounds strange because you're like, it's an action board. Just like the example with fitness, we had somebody doing a fitness routine in the photo like they were actions. They were doing some type of action. We're going to do something similar. For this example, what I'm going to do is have photo inspirations of different products that we have in development that will eventually go on the shelves at different retailers. Those into products will help me stay motivated to say, okay, I want to put that type of product on the shelf in that display. And that will keep me going to allow me, the motivation and inspiration to say, eventually, I'm putting stuff on the shelf as that store. These are the products that I'm using as inspiration.  

Take a minute now and think about the goal that you would like to accomplish in the next six months or twelve months or even three months that eventually will lead you to make more money. And how can you action that item, or what image do you need to see every day to put yourself in action? Now, it could be the big house. It could be. You may need to look at your dream board every day and say, okay, I need to cold call 10 people. Or perhaps you could go ahead and put a picture of a cell phone and say, I need to call my individuals. Or you are going ahead and making beautiful cakes for individuals. But you need to sell those cakes. You need to network with people to say, hey, I'm out there. I can bake, and I'm amazing at doing such a beautiful service for people for all of their events. What you need to do is do different levels of networking every day so people know that you have the service to provide. Maybe your networking right now is on social media, so you just need to put the word Instagram.

For example, let's say you need to touch base with 10 potential clients on Instagram. And that way people know that, hey, she's offering custom cookies for Valentine's day, for example, or for the next special location. Those are things that I would have in your mind as triggers on your action board. So it allows you to do that action every single day or at whatever frequency that you've decided to complete the action on a weekly basis. And then the last example I have of something that I might put on my dream board is a plane. It's not that I want to own the plane, it's that I want to have enough freedom in my time to travel anywhere at any time. It sounds a bit luxurious, but that is the eventual goal that I would have control of my time and I would be able to plan it in such a way that I could take off and go on vacation with my family or my friends maybe once a month. Just saying that is a big goal but hopefully, we can actually see it happen. 

So then on my vision board, what I likely put is a team. I'm going to take a picture of my existing team and maybe add a few other people on that team, pull some stock images perhaps and make my team look a little bit bigger. And that way, I can work when I want. But I can also have a team in the next six to twelve months that support that vision. And then eventually, with the growth of the team, I can eventually pass on all the work. Become the owner of the business and not have any daily tasks that I need to complete myself. Perhaps it's just supervision or perhaps it's just strategy here and there. But that is the goal.  

So on my vision board, I will help my vision realign to think, I don't have to do everything myself. I can hire team members to help me with that vision. Okay, and then on the action board, what am I going to do so that I'm prepared for a team? I'm going to write the words, delegate, and SOP. So I need to learn how to delegate off more tasks, and I need to learn how to write standard operating procedures so that way if a new team member comes on, they actually know what to do. And they know how to do it in such a way that it's not starting from scratch. They should have a process map or they should have some tutorial videos or have something there so they can lean on. And that way, it's much easier for them to feel like they're working collaboratively in a team. And then they can also, of course, lean on us and ask us questions. But they have all the processes and procedures, and it's not like I need to onboard them with so much difficulty.  

I'm shifting my mindset to allow room for my team to grow. But offering them those guidelines through SOPs and delegating their acts. But I need to remember that every day, or anytime that I sit down to work, that how can I make this easier for an eventual team member to take over this practice? And so by looking at my action board, I'll be like, okay, on the action board it says SOP and delegate. How am I going to make this task easier for my team member to do in the future? And perhaps I've may even put a little video recording symbol there beside my SOP, my delegates to say, hey, remember, you can perhaps screen capture and record what you're doing right now and put it in a little directory of tools for people to take over in the future or for people to learn from in the future. 

Okay, so those are three big examples of how I plan to create a dream board and move it from a vision board and an action board. And I hope you can take some of this away and perhaps create your own. I know it's the beginning of the year. I know there's a lot going on, especially if you're in the middle of a situation like we are where kids are now at home and they're learning online. If you are a parent, that can become quite difficult to take time away and really dream and visualize and plan your business. But do take the time, ask somebody to watch the kids if you're in that situation, and take a moment to sit down and really plan out what you're working towards. You obviously have it in you because you are listening to this podcast, you are constantly thinking about your business and you need to give yourself the time and energy to try to put it out there in the world as a service that you can provide.  

So take the time. Start with your dream board to get the momentum going to keep you motivated. Then think to yourself, how can my dreams happen? What do I need to do in the next 12 months to really see those big dreams? Like put a few ideas to the paper for your vision board and then move to your action board. What can you do daily to help move you forward towards your vision? I like the idea of the action board. I know it's not as common practice because let's face it, people don't really want to put pictures up of a sign that says delegate, or perhaps it's more difficult to capture the action in a photo. But what I would suggest is to take an image that will trigger your thought process to go into action. And if it's becoming more difficult, don't stress over it. I would say start with the dream board and eventually, you can just make notes under your dream board of what actions need to take place on a regular frequency for you to be able to see your vision board come into reality over the next six to twelve months.  

Okay, guys, that's all we got for today. I cannot wait to get on the task of making my dream board, vision board, and action board. And perhaps I will post it in the future either on my website at bossitclub.com so you can go check it out. And remember, we drop a new episode every Tuesday. So if you have not done so, go ahead and hit subscribe or follow wherever you are catching this. Or bookmark our website, if you're catching it from our website. And if you're absolutely loving this, share it with a friend. I know entrepreneurship is very lonely. And that is the reason we're putting out this great information to keep you motivated and going. And I think many other people could benefit. And I know you have friends or family members who may be in the same boat as you. Why not bring them along on the ride and invite them into your world of entrepreneurship and introduce them to this podcast as well. And remember, if you have any questions or concerns, you can follow us on Instagram @bossitclub, and send us a direct message through there. And remember guys, make a plan and take action. And yes, you can have it all. We'll talk to you guys again next week. Bye for now.