Marc Guberti

The last month of the year is always a fast sprint to the finish line. No matter how productive I felt for the rest of the year, December is always a sprint…and I like it that way.

Before we go into this Performance Report, here are two cool facts about this Performance Report:

I wrote this report on New Year’s Eve. I did this on purpose so this is a true reflection of my year. Again, with the way I sprinted in December, there’s a lot I did during the final week.

I wrote this Performance Report as a teen entrepreneur. I published the Performance Report on my birthday. I’m 20. If that feels weird for anyone who’s known me as a teen entrepreneur, think of how weird it felt for me to write that while I was still 19 (and using the word was).

Without any further adieu, let’s jump into this month’s Performance Report.

 

My Content Calendar Is PACKED!

I’ve been promising more content for several months, and I’m finally living up to that promise in a big way. At the end of the year, I had daily blog posts scheduled up to January 20th. That number continues to grow since I’m committed to writing a blog post every day.

With that said, I am experimenting with having more contributors and even a ghostwriter. Right now, I am talking as a full-time entrepreneur, and I may need some additional help when I return to part-time.

Plus, I go into more detail with each of my blog posts. I include at least three pictures per blog post and do more research than usual. You’ll see more blog posts from me when I mention at least five other articles. I plan on telling everyone I mention that I mentioned them to boost social shares for my content.

And the podcast is even more packed. I have episodes done past February and enough interviews scheduled in advance to get me past mid-March. One of my assistants takes care of audio editing while another assistant writes show notes and schedules the episodes.

All I do for the post-production stage is send my audio files to my audio editor. He puts the finished episodes into a DropBox folder which my other assistant uses to write show notes. A Google Doc displays a show notes rubric and lists publication times and dates for each episode.

By the end of the first quarter, my blogging process will run as smoothly as that.

 

Content Marketing Plaza Gets Buffed

I’ve added dozens of new videos to the Content Marketing Plaza. I have more plans for 2018 as my students ask me more questions. I initially had an imaginary barrier that prevented me from doing videos.

It was much harder to start than it was to actually do the videos. Once I got more comfortable with starting, the video output flowed and expanded with ease. I now aim to do at least one video every day for the Plaza or one of my other training courses.

 

Building The Team

I am a big fan of delegation. It’s a topic that comes up in almost every Performance Report. Combine that with the fact I recently (finally) read The 4 Hour Workweek, and now I’m more supportive of delegation than ever.

I welcomed two new people to the team and am about to welcome a third member into the mix.

One of my assistants now contacts potential guests and books appointments. This takes off the responsibility of writing so many emails.

In last month’s Performance Report, I said I’d try to commit an hour a day to sending emails to build new relationships. I’m no longer about that life. I would rather have assistants help me with this task so I can focus on other areas in my business.

 

I Will Use Facebook Ads Very Soon

I might have used Facebook ads earlier, but my subscriber numbers were very sketchy towards the end of the year.

My landing pages didn’t work for at least a month (yes, you read that right), and several people told me about it. I can finally say with confidence that the problem is over.

Sometimes my landing pages would work for just one day and then not work for several days or even weeks. With that problem finally over, I can now pursue Facebook ads. My brother is an absolute wizard with Facebook ads, so we’ll have a quick meeting to set up the ad and roll it out.

 

Marketing Is At The Forefront

With all of the extra content I’m creating, marketing is still at the forefront of 2018. I’ve always seen marketing as critical, but most of my time goes towards content creation. I’ve successfully optimized and delegated some marketing platforms (i.e. Twitter) but need to expand.

This is one of the reasons I’m doing more research for each blog post and mentioning more people. I may even outsource more of my content creation so I can focus more of my time on marketing what I create.

I may start with one delegated blog post and one contributor every week to lighten the workload. This is especially important when school starts again and I don’t have as much time.

My blog and podcast showed more growth towards the end of the year. I will ride this positive trend into 2018 and beyond by placing marketing at the forefront of my business related actions.

 

I’m Organizing Meet-Ups

This is the most out-of-left-field goal of the year. During my interview with Austin Iuliano, we talked about finding, landing, and getting paid to speak. One of the tactics was to start Meet-Up Groups to get more speaking gigs.

Now I’m in the process of planning my first Meet-Up. I want 2018 to be a big year for the public speaking part of my business, and Meet-Ups will help me get there. They will also give me some practice if I decide to host and organize a large scale event later on.

If you want to listen to that episode, it will come out on February 19th at 9 am eastern. It’s Episode 97 of the Breakthrough Success Podcast.

 

Books I Read

I have to get better at tracking the books I read. I was really good at this in past Performance Reports, but I’ll commit to improving this part of the report in 2018. Now I go for about 10 books per month instead of getting as close to 30 as possible.

I studied for finals during this month so The 4-Hour Workweek is the only book I remember reading. I’ve read many Kindle books but it’s been harder for me to keep track of those.

 

Review Of December 2017 Goals

I did not do enough to land clients for my coaching program. I’ll put this on the back burner in January and get back to it in February.

Breakthrough Success is now a weekday podcast, and I am very proud of that. At the pace we’re going, Breakthrough Success may become a daily podcast soon (yay!)

I didn’t do anything this month to make CMSS evergreen. I do have a sequence in place for the Plaza which will allow me to capitalize on my profit maximizer.

 

January 2018 Goals

#1: Get Consistent CMP Sales: This goal seems more likely when I first stated it. I created a landing page and plan on changing old sequences to promote the Plaza.

#2: Plan A Meet-Up: The meet-up will focus on content marketing. I have a few locations in mind but no confirmed time and date yet.

#3: Schedule All Content Past March: For the podcast, this goal is honestly sitting on my lap. My assistants handle this part. I’ve have completed episodes past February, and by the end of the month, I would have completed episodes past mid-March. The blog is more of a challenge since I’d have to write an additional 60-70 blog posts. I want to get this goal accomplished in January so this isn’t an issue after the winter break.

 

In Conclusion

2017 had some ups and downs, but this was a strong end to the year. I sprint strong towards the finish line as I see it getting closer. I not one to procrastinate often, but when I look at my December sprint and the rest of my year, I wondered how I could extend that sprint.

With a new year in front of us, now is the perfect time to expand on that end-of-the-year sprint. Most people are great at extending that sprint for the first few weeks of the year.

Make sure you can extend that sprint for the long haul. 2018 and beyond.

What are your thoughts on this performance report? What were your key takeaways? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.