Shownotes
- In this episode, we discuss the significance of setting resolutions and goals for the new year. We share our personal experiences and the challenges we face when setting resolutions for the upcoming year. We talk about the importance of being more organized, increasing content output, finishing personal projects, and utilizing tools effectively.
- Consistency and authenticity in content creation are emphasized throughout the episode. We stress the importance of documenting our processes and experiences to build an authentic personal brand.
- Leveraging tools and resources effectively is a key theme in this discussion. We highlight the need to utilize tools and resources effectively, especially in content creation and organization, to maximize our impact and productivity.
- We also discuss aligning our resolutions with our overall brand growth and personal development. We clarify that resolutions are more about behavior change, repeating actions consistently to achieve ongoing improvement, rather than hitting a goal once.
- Lastly, we encourage our listeners to engage with us and share their own New Year's resolutions, fostering a sense of community and interaction. We emphasize the value of connecting with our listeners through social media and the podcast platform.
Transcripts
What is happening, everybody? I'm Larry Roberts.
Sara Lohse [:And I'm Sara Lohse, and this is Branded, your comprehensive guide to creative branding.
Larry Roberts [:And on this amazing 2024 episode, we're gonna be talking about New Year's resolutions.
Sara Lohse [:I cannot believe it's already 2024. I know I'm a broken record, and I'm not the 1st or Lohse person to say that, but, how?
Larry Roberts [:Man, it's like this. In the blink of an eye, we went from doing podcasting in 2023. Man, it seems like we're just at Podfest. We're getting ready to be there again in a couple of weeks, and it just 23 just poof. It just Evaporated. It was just gone.
Sara Lohse [:Seriously. I feel like ever since 2020, like, time isn't real.
Larry Roberts [:You know, there's times where it just feels like it drags, or you're just sitting there, and you're trying to figure out what are the next steps you're gonna take in your business, and and, you know, what is, I don't know, what are we gonna do tomorrow? And it seems like clock just kinda drags. But from an overall perspective, once you get down to November, December, and you hit those holidays, you're like, oh my gosh. It just disappeared.
Sara Lohse [:Seriously. Did you have any resolutions for 2023?
Larry Roberts [:I don't know. I have no I don't. I have no idea, man. I've never really been big on resolutions. Yeah. And, honestly, I was sitting here, even though that's what we're talking about on this episode, I was sitting here, I don't know, maybe a week ago. It might have been longer. Again, time poof just gone.
Larry Roberts [:Yeah. I might have started thinking about it around, Turkey Day. And I'm like, do I even vocalize resolutions? I mean, there's definitely things I wanna do in 20 that I didn't do in 23 or things I wanna do different in 24, as compared to the way I did them in 23. But do I want to make that public? Do I wanna say it? Or is it just too cheesy?
Sara Lohse [:I mean, that makes it I feel like there's, like, a piece of, like, public accountability When you say it out loud or you tell the people about it, it kind of holds you accountable and makes you more driven to do it. But, also, I announced my book was coming out, like, I don't know. A year ago.
Larry Roberts [:Do
Sara Lohse [:I have a book out? No. So it doesn't always work. I think my My resolution for 2023 was to pet more dogs. I definitely think I reached that goal.
Larry Roberts [:Okay. Very cool. Very cool. Mhmm. No. I I did it really well. In direct contrast, I think I decided I was gonna write a book when? In August?
Sara Lohse [:And yours is already.
Larry Roberts [:Maybe August or September, and it's already published. It's done.
Sara Lohse [:Thanks for that.
Larry Roberts [:Printed. It's it's available.
Sara Lohse [:Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks for that.
Larry Roberts [:Climb up under the red hat.
Sara Lohse [:Pretty sure there's only room for 1.
Larry Roberts [:There is. It's a big hit. It's a big ego underneath his head. I'll tell you that right now. But, but, anyways, no. You know, it's it's it is. I I do know that Some of the resolutions that I have for 24 are the same that I had for 23. And I I think that didn't reach them.
Larry Roberts [:Because either I didn't, you know, even establish them as we were talking about there, or I knew I needed to do them but always found an excuse not to or a reason or something more important or something, you know so and that's why I lose confidence or I've lost confidence in making resolutions, and I feel cheesy making them because it's almost, know, it's like the gym. You know, you you don't wanna go to the gym in January. There's
Sara Lohse [:there's more. Packed, but then go February 1st, and it's empty. And
Larry Roberts [:you can Oh, finally, my gym is back to be in my gym again. This is nice. But it's the same thing, you know, and I think in building our brands and especially as As content creators, as people that are out there that are, like speaking and with you writing your book and writing my book and just Being creators, overall, it it it's easy to know that we need to do certain things and even commit to doing certain things this time of year, but That follow through, that's where the challenge lies.
Sara Lohse [:It really does. Well, that brings me to my 1st resolution.
Larry Roberts [:Oh, okay. Let's let's throw it out there.
Sara Lohse [:And that is to actually finish my book.
Larry Roberts [:Oh, I love that. That's a great one.
Sara Lohse [:I I started working on it, I wanna say back in April, and I got it to the point that I thought it was finished. I read it again, decided that is definitely not finished, and It's I wanna say it's, like, 80% done.
Larry Roberts [:That's fair.
Sara Lohse [:But I put that so, I mean, I feel like we set kind of business resolutions and brand resolutions, then we set personal. And I put that under my brand resolutions because I really think that having A book is so important to your personal brand and to being a thought leader, and it's really out of all of the different Ways that you can establish authority, a book is number 1.
Larry Roberts [:You know, I I learned the lesson the hard way, and that's why I even wrote the book that I wrote. Was you know, if you recall, I went to San Diego. Yeah. It was San Diego Branded did a talk out there. And after the talk, everybody's coming up going, oh, dude. Love to buy your book. I'd love to buy your book, and I didn't have a book.
Sara Lohse [:Yeah.
Larry Roberts [:Like, oh my god. This is this is not good.
Sara Lohse [:So ever told me they'd love to buy my book, so maybe I shouldn't even be writing 1.
Larry Roberts [:And I'll tell you that really that I was taken aback because I had never had that happen either.
Sara Lohse [:Yeah. You
Larry Roberts [:know, in in conversations and in masterminds and in group settings, people go, oh, do you happen to have a book or something? But I've never had I've never given a talk and then had people come up after and go, I'd love to buy your book. And I'm like, oh oh, wow.
Sara Lohse [:In this last year, I have had moments of people saying, oh, I've heard of you, or I know who you are. And that's been really weird for me. It's like I feel like a Kardashian. But I have not had the, like, I would love to buy your book. So maybe that's my next resolution is that people actually wanna buy my book.
Larry Roberts [:You know, I think the more you put yourself out there because you're doing that a lot now. You're you're getting on more and more stages, and you're actively pursuing speaking. And
Sara Lohse [:like it or not.
Larry Roberts [:Yeah. I mean, it's just something you have to do, man. You have to put yourself out there that way. And as you continue to get on these stages, you're gonna have more and more opportunities to do that, And I think you will have people I don't think I know. Eventually, you will have people coming up going, oh, I'd love to buy your book. It it just I think it's a byproduct of putting yourself in the right environment and carrying yourself properly on stage that opens up those opportunities. So think that's an excellent New Year's resolution for you.
Sara Lohse [:Your turn. What's one of yours?
Larry Roberts [:You know, I gotta cheat. I gotta look at my phone here because I didn't memorize my resolutions. But the first one, and, again, this is one that I know that whether I expressed it or not, was One of the ones that I had for 23, and that was increase my content output. Mhmm. You know? Man, no matter who you listen to, You hear over and over and over and over that you need to produce more content. More content, more eyes, more ears, more content, more awareness, more brand recognition, more everything, and it all comes from posting more content. So Being the AI guy, I've done a little bit of research, and I've got a plan in place where I can produce content consistently And ideally, daily we'll see how that goes. There there look.
Larry Roberts [:I left myself I left myself an outlet there. I said, we'll see how that goes. So, You know, look for me in February. You'll probably see me going on hard and strong in January, but come February, you might not find me at the gym. So we'll see how it goes, but that's the resolution. I do have a plan in place to make that happen, and, that's my goal is I wanna do Reels, TikToks, shorts, 1 a day.
Sara Lohse [:See, I love that because it's on mine too, is post more often. And I like that you said consistently too because Yeah. That is super Key. And I was actually researching the algorithms for social media and what to plan for for 2024 so that I Can create a social media calendar and a content calendar and actually, hopefully, reach this goal at least in the 1st week. We'll see what happens after that. But I was looking at, like, what platforms, like, want how how often they want you to post.
Larry Roberts [:K.
Sara Lohse [:And it was interesting. So Facebook, you should post 1 to 2 times a day. Twitter or x is 3 tweets per day. LinkedIn, 2 to 5 per week, so that's not that hard. That's a little easier.
Larry Roberts [:Easy there. Yeah.
Sara Lohse [:Yeah. Instagram was the one that I thought was really interesting thing because it's 1 to 2 reels per day plus 1 image or carousel post per day. So they want you changing up what you're posting.
Larry Roberts [:That's 3 times a day.
Sara Lohse [:That's 3 times a day.
Larry Roberts [:A day, and that's insane. I mean, it sounds insane, but No matter who you listen to, they're all gonna tell you the same thing, to post more and more and more and more and more and more. I I I just don't think you can post enough.
Sara Lohse [:Yeah. But you also I think it's important too, and I think some people get this wrong, Is don't post for the sake of posting. Don't just throw something up because it's, oh, I need content. Make sure what you're posting is actually valuable, is actually on brand is supporting your mission, supporting your message. Don't just put something up because, oh, I haven't posted today.
Larry Roberts [:Right.
Sara Lohse [:I feel like if you're putting things up that are low quality that clearly you didn't put much heart into it, that's actually gonna hurt you more than just not posting at all. So that's something that we really need to remember. It's more opportunities to reengage your audience. It's more opportunities for to find you. And it's more opportunities for you to come off as an authentic person.
Larry Roberts [:Well, I think that too
Sara Lohse [:is those, like, heartfelt stuff, not just, like, posting for the sake of posting.
Larry Roberts [:I think too because one of the things that Gary v says a lot that I love is he says don't create But document. I mean, how much more authentic can it be if you're just documenting what you do, if you're documenting how you're building your brand, if you're documenting your processes? You you're not sitting here creating. You're not staring at a camera and trying to follow a script and say no. You're just documenting what you do. You're demonstrating your brand each and every day. And if you document that process, you've got your content, you've got your authenticity, you've got your brand exposure, you've got everything you need, and post that.
Sara Lohse [:Yeah. That's interesting.
Larry Roberts [:Alright. So what's your next one, Sarah?
Sara Lohse [:My next one is a little bit vague because I mean it in multiple ways, I guess. And it's just to be more organized. If anyone that has met me like, you know I am the least organized person in the world. But my, like, My chaos makes sense to me. Like, I'm one of those people that if you ask me, like, where's my chapter? Like, I could tell you it's, like, about 2 foot to the left of, like, the my Bed, frame, leg. Like, I know exactly where it is, but it's not anywhere it should be. Like, that is how I am organized. Like, I know which pile of nonsense Everything is in, but I feel like I need to be more, like, actually organized.
Larry Roberts [:And But, you know, it's interesting because you say that, but at the same time, man, when when I see Your work, it's very organized. It's very structured. So I see it there, but I've seen some of your chaos as well. So
Sara Lohse [:That's so I'm organized in like, I'm more organized professionally than personally for sure. Like, you I I have my camera angled very specifically so that you can't see the chaos in my office.
Larry Roberts [:Yeah. If you just go to the right or left right now, I guarantee you, It is a a tornado disaster by the time. Yeah. As soon
Sara Lohse [:as I get to a hotel room, it looks like a tornado hit it. Like, I am not an organized person, But I do work organ like, in a way that's organized. Like, I make sure that my clients get a very cohesive, very clean product from me and experience. But on the back end, I'm not organized, and I've been trying to fix that. I've been trying out all of these different, like, websites and Softwares and really trying, but my ADHD doesn't let me be organized. It doesn't let me commit to schedules. It doesn't let me, like, actually form habits. So it's really like, I struggle with this.
Sara Lohse [:But 2024, I'm gonna get more organized. I'm going to Figure out a CRM that I like. I'm going to use Metricool to post consistently on social, which I've been paying for for a year and barely ever use. Like, all of these tools that I pay for, I need to consolidate them. I need to figure out what they do and how to use them well, and that will put me on track to be more organized moving forward, I think.
Larry Roberts [:That's awesome. And it it it it's awesome, but it's funny at the same time because Although I had this as my 3rd resolution, I'm gonna bump it up to spot 2 since we're already on the topic of using the tools that I have at my disposal to post this content, to post my daily reels, TikTok shorts, etcetera. So it's funny because and this was really driven home. I think it was a month ago. I I was looking at my bank account, and I saw a $650 charge on there, and I'm like, what in the heck is this? And so I dug into it, and what was it? Oh, It was my yearly renewal of ActiveCampaign. So I have, obviously, a subscription to ActiveCampaign, And I didn't even know I had the subscription. So, apparently, this was a probably another resolution I And a year or maybe a year more ago, to start sending out my own personal emails, my own personal newsletter, and start building that that that email list. And on top of that, after I started digging into this $650 charge and realized it was active campaign, I also realized I had a fairly significant email list.
Larry Roberts [:I was like, oh my god. I didn't even know I had this. So it's it's just ridiculous the that we invest, quote, unquote, and sometimes just throw money At a problem
Sara Lohse [:More oxygen truck on here.
Larry Roberts [:Well, at least for me, and I get in trouble for that all the time. Yes. You do. And you don't even realize you have it. So and you mentioned MetraCool, and, you know, you've been gracious enough to give me one of the licenses on your MetraCool account. I've had that now for what? Probably all year long. And yeah. At Lohse.
Larry Roberts [:So so, yeah, I'm I'm gonna start leveraging some of these tools, and I'm actually going to do an audit of the tools that I have subscriptions to and see if I'm even using those tools and maybe eliminate some of those tools or start leveraging them to allow me to follow through on my 1st resolution of creating daily video content.
Sara Lohse [:Was this your 2nd or your 3rd? Because I gave 3.
Larry Roberts [:Well, that was originally going to be my 3rd, but it got bumped up to the 2nd because you were talking about using tools. I thought you only gave 2.
Sara Lohse [:I gave 3 because I said be more organized, finish my book, and then post more often.
Larry Roberts [:Oh, I think that just kind of bled into mine, so I didn't realize you were giving that that post more often. Because along the same lines and I'll just go ahead and wrap this up with my 3rd since we we skipped your 2nd or you consolidated or I missed it or I might have fell asleep. I need another monster. I don't know. My last resolution is to mix up the content type that I'm posting. Although I'm committing To doing 1 vertical video short real TikTok a day, I also need to diversify those contributions. And, Thankfully, my book is done, and that's gonna be one way is I'm gonna be leveraging that all year long, so I'm pretty excited about that. But also want to start contributing to a blog, wanna start contributing on LinkedIn with actual articles, just, again, diversifying that content that I'm putting out there.
Larry Roberts [:That's gonna play right into the post more often, post on different platforms. So everything that I'm doing, it's all about all 3 of my resolutions, all about content creation, being more consistent, being more efficient, being more effective, and just being more.
Sara Lohse [:Wow. Like, I'm curious. So we Set these resolutions, but I feel like we need to really know why we're setting them. So what is what is your why? Like, why are you committing to this? What, like, what impact are you trying to create from that?
Larry Roberts [:Yeah. I mean, obviously, the impact that I'm trying to make is more growth, More awareness. I want people to recognize the red hat on a bigger scale, on a larger scale, in more industries. You know, one of the things that I did in 23 right here at the end of the year, actually, too, and I think we talked about it. I know we did. We talked about mind maps, and I we blew out that mind map to look at our brands and see exactly what Umbrella covered everything that we did. And I don't know if I talked about this in the podcast, but I finally secured larry roberts.com. So now yay.
Larry Roberts [:That's pretty awesome. Pretty stoked about that. We're building that out right now. Ideally, there's another resolution. Boom. There's number 4.
Sara Lohse [:So Yeah.
Larry Roberts [:Finish Larry rovers.com and get that out there before Podfest. So that's a big goal. But interesting that I didn't consider that a resolution because it's just a goal. So that's
Sara Lohse [:I feel like resolutions are more, like like, ongoing, but, I mean, I said I said finish my book. So
Larry Roberts [:But that's a goal too. So I wonder Yeah. Is it? And and this is an interesting little epiphany. Do we not consider resolutions goals? Do we not weight resolutions the same as goals?
Sara Lohse [:I feel like Goals are, like, you hit it once. Resolutions are more behavior change, like, repeatedly.
Larry Roberts [:Okay.
Sara Lohse [:So then I get I I Messed up then. I said finish my book. I'll replace it. I want to improve my bookkeeping.
Larry Roberts [:There you go.
Sara Lohse [:That kind of goes along with being more organized, but it's specific. I probably need to do
Larry Roberts [:that too so I know what I'm paying for.
Sara Lohse [:Oh my god. You you definitely do. I'm better than you at it. Know that, but I'm still not very good. And I even I pay for QuickBooks. It has a spot that you can put in all of your receipts. I don't do that because that's takes too much time. I literally have a basket up on a shelf of all the receipts from this year, and I'm like, yeah.
Sara Lohse [:That's a problem for next Dear me, I'll do that at tax time, and I'm gonna hate myself at tax time.
Larry Roberts [:See, that's why I can't go on no reality shows because I never bring receipts. Oh, so with that
Sara Lohse [:So lame.
Larry Roberts [:We would love to hear about your New Year's resolutions. So if you found some value in this and you've got some resolutions you'd love to share with us, do us a and reach out to us, man. Reach out to us on social media. Comment on on our Lohse on YouTube. And speaking of YouTube, do us a favor and subscribe to the show. That would be amazing. Love to have you as a subscriber over our YouTube channel. But other than that, man, subscribe to the podcast.
Larry Roberts [:We love having these conversations with each and every week, and we look forward to doing it again next week. So with that, I'm Larry Roberts.
Sara Lohse [:I'm Sara Lohse, and happy New Year.
