A year ago, in the first newsletter issue of 2021 (at that point still called the Listen Up Newsletter) I talked about the value of setting process-oriented goals as opposed to the typical outcome-oriented goals.

A quick recap.

Outcome-oriented goals reflect specific milestones (ie. make X dollars, or grow my podcast by Y subscribers), whereas process-oriented goals focus on the day-to-day actions that lead to your desired outcomes when repeated over the long term.

As I said in that issue related to my prior habit of setting only outcome-oriented goals:Sometimes I met those goals, but if I’m honest, when I did, it was almost entirely due to chance and external factors beyond my control.So for 2021, after years of setting outcome-oriented goals that I failed to meet, I’ve decided to take the year off from aiming for outcomes entirely.Instead, this year I’m investing 100% of my focus and energy into process-oriented goals, free of expectation about the results.

Now, with a year of process-oriented goals now in the books, it feels like a good time to look back and examine the impact (if any) switching to process-oriented goals has had on my work and life.

We’ll start by revisiting the specific goals themselves, look at whether I was able to maintain them or not, and then take stock of the the impact they had

Finally, I’ll share my verdict on the concept of process-oriented goals and whether or not I’ll be sticking with them in 2022, moving back to outcome-oriented goals, or adopting some other approach to goal setting entirely.

Recapping My 2021 Process-Oriented Goals

At the start of 2021 I had outlined the following set of process-oriented goals for myself:

• Publish a new blog post every weekday
• Publish this newsletter every Sunday
• Publish a new podcast episode every week
• Send pitches to 30 podcast hosts every month to be featured as a guest
• Walk 10k steps/day

These processes were designed to lead to the following outcome-related goals, intentionally kept somewhat vague and without a timeframe:

• Grow this newsletter
• Grow my podcast
• Double revenue and triple profitability for my agency, Counterweight Creative
• Feel healthy & energetic

Sooooo how did the goals hold up?

Well, it turns out there were a few wrinkles in my year (maybe you can relate?) that drastically reorganized both the outcomes I was working toward and the processes I employed to work toward them.

The most major of those wrinkles happened almost immediately at the start of January.

Almost no sooner had I finished setting my goals for the year, than, through the course of a brand-strategy workshop, I realized I was working toward the wrong things entirely.

The workshop made me realize that my big goals in life were not related to growing my agency but to writing, teaching, and creating.

What’s more, I realized that I had already systematized the agency to the point where I actually had the bandwidth to dedicate the majority of my time to working towards the things I really wanted for myself and my life over the long term.

This realization lead to what shall henceforth be known as The Great Reorientation of ‘21, which featured an overhaul of my priorities for the new year (and well beyond), just a few days into it.

This meant the plan I had just spent the previous few weeks meticulously crafting was in need of some revision.

Pruning Unhelpful Goals

The first to go was my podcast, Build A Better Wellness Biz.

I was proud of the show I had spent the past 6 months developing and launching, but it had always been a strategic content offering designed to grow the agency and had little relation to the questions and ideas I personally wanted to explore.

This meant that two weeks into the new year, two of my process-oriented goals (sending 30 pitches/month to potential podcast guests and publishing a new episode every week) had already hit the cutting room floor.

A few months later, the next to go was the goal around publishing daily blog posts.

At its core, the desired outcomes behind this particular process-oriented goal were two-fold:

1. Become a better writer
2. Serve as a forcing function for idea generation

What I realized in March of 2021, however, having written well over 300 daily blog posts to that point, was that this goal was actually keeping me from becoming a better writer in some ways.

Like many writers, one of my goals is to one day publish books.

While short daily blog posts were a good way (maybe the best) to find and develop your voice and perspective, they don’t provide any practice in developing larger ideas, making use of narrative and storytelling, or practicing structuring larger, more complex ideas in a digestible way.

And so I abandoned the goal of publishing every weekday.

I continued to write every day, but now every day’s writing went toward this weekly newsletter, a decision which we’ll explore the impact of shortly.

So here I was, a quarter into the year having already discarded three of my five initial process-oriented goals.

Far from defeat, however, the decision to set these goals aside was the best decision I could have made.

Goals of any kind (although perhaps process-oriented goals specifically) are intended to help us move closer to an intended destination. When our desired destination changes, however, it makes sense to reorient ourselves and our process as quickly as possible to begin moving toward that new destination.

It’s easy to get mired in sunk cost analysis over goals our past selves have committed to and worked towards, but if they don’t help our future selves get where they’re trying to go, it’s best to cut the goals quickly and reset.

Adopting New Process-Oriented Goals

While I had cut three of the five process-oriented goals I started the year, I was still all-in on the concept of process-oriented goals.

This meant that gradually, over the course of the year, I adopted a series of new goals to replace the ones I’d cut loose.

Some of these goals were short-lived experiments, some were tied to specific projects, such as my Podcast Marketing Academy launch strategies, and some ended up sticking around for the long haul.

Over the course of the year, some of the short-lived, or project-specific process-oriented goals I adopted at various times were:

• Send 10 podcast guesting pitches per week to podcast hosts
• Send 10 pitches to potential PMA affiliates per week
• Publish a daily blog post on podcast marketing in the 3 weeks leading up to the PMA3 launch
• Publish one post/wk on Instagram

In addition to these short-run (or subsequently abandoned) goals, I also adopted a number of new process-oriented goals which I maintained through the end of the year, including:

• Spend 1 hour/day writing (I was already doing this, but it removed the goal of publishing daily)
• Publish the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter every Wednesday
• Publish a new Quick Podcast Tip on Twitter every weekday
• Spend 30 minutes a day engaging with other people’s content on Twitter
• Reach out to every new follower on Twitter to establish a connection and share my newsletter
• Connect via Zoom with one new person per week via Lunchclub, Twitter, or other communities

As you might be able to tell, my process-oriented goals are heavily weighted toward writing and network growth, which I believe to be two of the practices that lead to the most serendipity for online creators when done consistently.

It’s also worth noting, that when I type this list out… HOLY **** that’s like a lot of process-oriented goals!!!

I’ll be honest, I’ve struggled to maintain the bottom three processes at times throughout the year since adopting them.

That said, at this point, maintaining the top three requires almost zero effort (in the motivational sense) to the point where I don’t even really need to write them out as defined goals.

The reason is that these process-oriented goals have become deeply ingrained habits, and fulfilling them on a daily or weekly basis has now become my default setting.

This is precisely the magic of process-oriented goals once you get over the initial hump of establishing the habit in the first place.

Knowing this, and recognizing my inconsistency with the newer additions to my list of goals, I’ve made an effort recently to put systems in place to help support me in building up similar habits around the new goals.

Ok, so we’ve looked at some of the goals I had in place over the past year, but they’re all for naught if they don’t actually move the needle, right?

The Impact & Outcomes of My 2021 Process-Oriented Goals

Before we dive into the results let’s revisit the target goal outcomes I had defined for myself.

After The Great Reorientation, the goals of growing the podcast and increasing the revenue and profitability of Counterweight Creative were no longer relevant.

Post-reorientation, that left me with three primary goal outcomes I was working toward in 2021:

1. Growing the Creative Wayfinding Newsletter
2. Growing Podcast Marketing Academy to the point where it could become a full-time, self-sustaining business
3. Feeling generally fit and healthy

So how did my process-oriented goals contribute to each of these three goal outcomes?

1. Growing The Creative Wayfinding Newsletter

I view this newsletter as the most important long-term asset in my business.

For one, it’s just easier to make a living as a creator online when you have an email list of people who care about what you have to say, and are occasionally (or regularly) interested (or even excited) to buy from you.

But second, the topics I write about help me clarify my own thinking and help me explore the ideas that will become the future foundation of my work.

I think of this newsletter as a window looking a year or two into the future. Almost my entire motivation behind writing this newsletter every week is to uncover and explore the tiny seeds of ideas that will become projects, products, and maybe even entire businesses in the future.

For this reason, it’s maybe the most valuable thing I do, regardless of how many people read it.

That said, growing it was, is, and likely always will be a major goal.

To look at the impact of my process-oriented goals on the newsletter in 2021, let’s look at two types of outcomes.

1. Non-Measurable Outcomes

Since I started the newsletter in April 2020, I’ve been aware of one major issue, keeping the newsletter from more growth.

Lack of clarity.

I started the newsletter (and continue to publish it) essentially by writing what I need to hear as a creator on a given week.

I got lucky and it turns out other people appreciate reading those notes as well.

But without a clear idea of the through-line tying my articles together, it’s been almost impossible to come up with clear messaging and a compelling promise that would entice people to sign up.

Until this year.

Probably the biggest win for me across all categories of my life this year was finally (after writing 400+ blog posts and newsletters) beginning to grasp that thread that runs through my writing and my work.

This clarity led to the rebrand this year from the Listen Up Newsletter (a name I picked when I thought I was going to be writing about podcasting… which never happened for even one issue) to the Creative Wayfinding Newsletter.

There’s still a lot more work to be done on refining the messaging and focus of the newsletter, but I feel confident and excited about the direction of the newsletter, and feel like I’ve found my voice and the beginnings of a personal monopoly.

This clarity, I think, could not have been achieved without non-time-bound process-oriented goals that kept my focus on writing my way through the uncertainty.

In addition to the clarity, I’ve felt my writing improve in a major way this year, especially in my ability to work narrative elements into my articles.

This in turn has led to better writing in other areas of my work, including copywriting, workshop and course presenting, speaking, and a whole lot more.

I certainly dedicated a significant of time to learning more about good writing, but as is always the case, without the daily practice, that learning wouldn’t have amounted to much.

2. Measurable Outcomes

In addition to the less-tangible outcomes, things also grew on the measurable front.

This growth was centered on two key metrics.

The first is total subscriber count, where the newsletter grew by 79% over the course of the year to now go be sent out to more than 1350 of you wonderful humans who choose to receive it every week.

But what I’m even more excited about is the improvement in the average open rate.

Since January 2021, the average open rate of the newsletter doubled(!), to the point where the past 4 issues of the year all boasted open rates of well over 50%.

Overall, I think it’s safe to say that on the newsletter side of things, the process-oriented goals I set for myself were hugely successful.

2. Growing Podcast Marketing Academy

To be honest, for most of the year, my process-oriented goals for growing PMA were somewhat fuzzier than the goals for growing my newsletter, improving as a writer, and keeping fit and healthy.

This is probably due to the fact that this wasn’t one of the primary goals on my radar when I was initially planning out my 2021 and was instead part of the Great Reorientation.

That said, process-oriented goals played a big part in each of my two launches.

After two small, low-key launches in 2020 which were primarily directed toward my existing email community and network, in 2021, I stepped things up with two bigger, more public launches, each of which featured free multi-day workshops leading up to the launch and a number of affiliate partners.

It was around these affiliate partners that the bulk of my PMA process-oriented goals were focused.

Specifically, I had clearly defined process-oriented goals around affiliate outreach, with a commitment to send a certain number of pitches and follow-ups every week leading up to the promotion window.

The good news is that in both launches, I was able to hit my target number of affiliates, which resulted both in additional sales, but also significant email list growth, which, in the long term, that list growth is much more valuable than sales totals during any one launch.

The news was less rosy when it came to the course finances.

Going into the year, I had high hopes that PMA could generate ~$50K over the course of the year.

While I might not have admitted it out loud, I secretly hoped that it could even become a six-figure course.

As is so often the case when looking back at goals from the start of a year, I now realize young Jeremy’s naïveté.

In the end, course revenue grew by only 16% compared to 2020. And yet, in hindsight, I now realize that this was never going to be a year of explosive growth for the course.

Ultimately, this was a year of continuing to build out the groundwork of the course which had initially be laid in 2020.

Over the course of the year I overhauled the course’s format, supplemental content, and tech stack to the point where PMA is now hardly recognizable as the same course it was at this time a year ago.

As a result, it’s now in a much better position to achieve sustainable growth going forward.

In addition, through the course of the year’s launches, I leveled up my knowledge, skill, and maybe most importantly, confidence when it comes to product launches in a massive way.

This was a big step for me, as I had a big launch flop a few years ago that left me filled with fear, doubt, and impostor syndrome related to launching products ever since.

I’d call getting past that meaningful progress for sure.

As the year progressed, I was also able to get much clearer on the additional processes that would lead to the growth of PMA in the future. Namely:

1. Creating more free, easily-accessible podcast-related content
2. Regularly networking with potential partners and collaborators

With this in mind, I started the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter, started publishing a week-daily Quick Podcast Tip on Twitter, and started connecting with more people in the podcast (and podcast-adjacent) space on a consistent basis.

These processes are newer and have yet to show major results, but I’m confident that by the end of 2022 I’ll be extremely grateful I started and maintained them.

In the end, I feel like my goals around PMA this year perfectly highlight the power of process-oriented goals as a whole.

While I came nowhere even remotely close to meeting my financial outcome-based goals for the course, by sticking to the process, I’ve been able to set it up for greater future success.

Another tick in the process-oriented goals column.

3. Feeling Healthy & Energetic

From summer 2019 to spring 2020 I lost 50 lbs, getting myself down to a weight where I finally felt good.

My main goal for 2021, then, was not to lose more weight, but to maintain(ish) my current weight and continue the practices that got me there, specifically, eating mindfully and getting my 10k steps in every day.

While I probably relaxed more on the mindful eating part of the process than I might ideally like, gaining back 10 lbs in the process, those extra 10 lbs brought me up to what is actually probably a more natural and sustainable weight for me, and I feel good about it.

On the walking front, I fell slightly shy of my target of 10K steps/day, averaging 9500 steps/day throughout the year.

Overall, while I might have technically missed fulfilling both of my process-oriented goals to a tee, I did in fact feel healthy and energetic throughout the year, making this one a win.

Also, the walks had the (entirely intentional) side effect of helping me generate ideas.

In fact, I started tracking my idea generation this year and totalled 2087 new ideas through the end of 2021. Probably 85% of those were blog post or newsletter topics, with the remainder being product ideas, upgrades, or other potentially useful thoughts.

While I can’t say for certain, I know myself well enough to know that probably 80% of those came while walking, making this a process I’ll be continuing for the rest of my life, as long as I’m able.

Another win for the process.

Looking Ahead to 2022

If you haven’t guessed, the process-oriented goal experiment was a big success in my eyes.

While I knew in my gut beforehand that processes were likely a more effective form of goal-setting for me than outcomes, a full year’s worth of feedback and data confirm that feeling.

Going into 2022, I’ll be leaning even more heavily into process-oriented goals

Specifically, the process-oriented goals I’ll be focusing on this year include the following:

• Spend 1 hour/day writing
• Publish this Newsletter every Sunday
• Publish the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter every Wednesday
• Publish a new Quick Podcast Tip on Twitter every weekday
• Spend 30 minutes a day engaging with other people’s content on Twitter
• Reach out to every new follower on Twitter to establish a connection and share my newsletter
• Connect via Zoom with one new person per week via Lunchclub, Twitter, or other communities
• Walk 10K steps/day
• Have 1 coffee chat/wk with someone in the podcast industry
• Run one low-cost workshop per month on a different aspect of podcast marketing & growth

To me, the real beauty of process-oriented goals is that once you’re able to identify the processes that will lead you to success, and build small daily or weekly habits around them, they just kind of fade into the background of your routine and stop feeling like work.

I’m long past the point of having to decide whether or not to write in the morning. It’s just something I do naturally and (most days) I enjoy it.

The same goes for publishing this newsletter and going for my daily walks.

Sure, new processes will always require dedicated attention, focus, and effort. But I have enough feedback now to know that if I stick with them, they too will soon become effortless staples of my daily routine.

Then, it’s simply about maintaining the habits and watching the progress compound.

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This article originally appeared in my weekly Creative Wayfinding Newsletter. Each issue is the product of a week of work, and contains something not available for sale.

A fresh perspective, a shot of encouragement when you need it most, and maybe even some genuine wisdom from time to time.

Each week, we explore a different facet of the question “How do we navigate the wilds of creating work that matters?”

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