As you know, everything is changing at lightning speed right now and that includes the way we do business.

So, here’s what I want you to do…

I want you to sit down and create a 1-year plan AND a 10-year plan for your business.

Yep, you read that right! I said 10-year plan 🙂

So, you’re probably going, “Marisa why in the world do I need a 1-year plan AND a 10-year plan? It’s hard enough to see into next month, much less 10 years into the future and isn’t the world moving faster than ever before?”

Here’s the thing…

If you only focus on 1 year at a time, you may be thinking too small.

As Bill Gates famously said, “Most people overestimate what they can do in 1 year and underestimate what they can do in 10 years.”

If you’re only focused on 1 year at a time, you may over-consider the problems of this current moment in time (and there are a lot of them!) rather than the possibilities for the future.

You can’t let your current circumstances limit your future success or you’ll never fully realize your greatness.

The truth is, if you don’t have that longer-term, decade-level thinking when it comes to your business, you’re probably going to go in a direction that doesn’t support the life that you ultimately want to live.

And I recently found myself doing exactly that. 

Creating Possibilities

So, I’ve been building my business online since 2011 and after almost a decade of doing this work, I started to wonder, “Is this all there is? Will I still want to be doing this 10 years in the future?”

And the truth is, I don’t know.

Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do. I love helping people grow their businesses but when I really think about what I want to do 10 years from now, there’s only one thing I know for sure…

I want to give myself options. I want the freedom to create new possibilities for myself.

So even though I have this mid 7-figure business that serves tens of thousands of people now, I started to wonder what would it look like to have an 8-figure business that serves hundreds of thousands? 

What would it look like to have a whole team of world-class coaches and facilitators to support our students and make a bigger difference? 

If I had all of that in place, I would have the freedom to choose to coach, choose to train, choose to facilitate live events… 

Or the freedom to choose to pursue other things. 

Living the Same Year 30 Times

“You can live 30 years or you can live the same year 30 times.”

Bob Proctor said that and if you’re anything like me, I know you don’t want to live the same year 30 times! 

But when you focus only on looking at your life and your business 1 year at a time, it’s easy to end up doing just that. Where each year you’re just incrementally growing what you did the year before, just walking the ball a couple more yards down the field. 

So, let’s get down to it. Let’s look at how to create a 10-year business plan.

First thing’s first…

Get clear and specific on the vision of where you want to be 12 months from now. Ask questions like:

How much money do you want to be making?
What do you want your business to look like?
How much balance do you want to have with your business and personal life?

You can expand these questions out to other things like:

Are you traveling?
What does your daily routine look like?
Who are you serving?
How much money are you making?
What were your biggest successes over the last 12 months?

The trick is not to get caught up with next steps and how you’re going to get where you want to go.

I want you to look beyond the how and get to the what and the why.

Because once you have a clearly defined “what” and “why” you’ve found the clarity you need to get to the “how” of transforming your vision into your reality.

This is more about creating a vision than a plan.

Absolutely Liberating

So, let me ask you right here, right now…

What’s possible for you, 10 years from now? 

Here’s what I know is possible for me…

I believe I can be a household name, and I can have a business like Mindvalley or Tony Robbins. 

I believe I can change way more lives than I am today which helps me live my message of turning everyday people into online superheroes so they can change the world from their living room. 

Simply by tuning in to this “what” and “why” I start feeling the power and energy behind my vision.

I know, “Yes! I want that 10-year vision. Yes! My message deserves a MUCH bigger audience because I can help SO many people.”

I’m energized, motivated and excited… and I’m ready to start looking at the how — at how to change what I’m doing today to reach not just my 1 year vision but my 10 year vision.

When I do that, I can clearly see that I need to step out of the center of the business. I have to leverage my time more. I have to build my Dream Team. I have to let other people teach my content. 

And that realization is absolutely liberating.

So even if I feel some grief because I love doing what I do in exactly the way I do it now, I know that expanding out and doing things differently — like letting other people teach my content — is the perfect next step towards this 10-year journey that I’m on. 

And that’s the power of having both a 1-year vision and a 10-year vision.

When you’ve got both, you’ve got the next steps for the short-term AND you have that bigger plan and vision for your future that goes so much farther than where you are today, and where you can imagine being next year.

And that’s when it starts sinking in. That’s when you think… 

“I don’t want to live the same year 30 times. I want to live 30 years. I want to live each year. I want to be growing and evolving each and every year.”  

Beyond What’s Possible… 

So, don’t let this be just another video that you listen to and do nothing about!

Take the time — as soon as this video is over — to write that 1-year vision, and to write that 10-year vision.

Here are real examples from when I did this exercise (you can find more examples in the worksheet):

12-Months from Now (Sept 1, 2020)

We have a solid leadership team built out with a COO, CMO and Director of Fulfillment. We also have a strong Sales Manager, Customer Support Manager, and Technology Manager. Our organizational culture is coming alive and Live Your Message is a desired place to work.

We’ve grown our audience base on all social platforms, relaunched LYM.com and integrated conversational messaging into all our pages and funnels.

We’ve cracked the nut on our evergreen funnels and regularly bring in 3x or more ROAS. We now have all our payroll and operating expenses covered from evergreen revenue. While we still do events and launches, the extra income is Optional.

We’ve also dialed in our bookkeeping, accounting and receivables, so we’re collecting 90-95% of what we’re owed. We easily reach $6M and we have the team and systems we need to support all core functions. The growing pains are Over.

Heroic is well in the black and we’re preparing it to sell for at least $2M, if not $5-10M, so we can shift our attention to Xperiencify.

We have the pipeline we need to move to a 2-fulfillment event a year model and the team we need for Marisa to just step on stage and do her thing. Our Mentorship fulfillment events are also dialed in. We host 6 Labs/Accelerators a year and one big partner event. We’ve grown our facilitation team so 3 of our coaches are now also leading events, so Marisa can focus on dreaming up higherlevel events. We’re now easily able to sustain 12 events a year without burning Marisa out.

We finally feel like we have the team, systems and stability needed to free our mind and free our time. Marisa and Murray are able to have real life balance and we have the time, space, freedom and abundance to make choices that are fully aligned with our real desires — and enjoy life outside of business.

We’re considering ways to grow the business in 2021 by finding new outlets — a book, a membership program and a high-end Mastermind. We now feel comfortable adding a new revenue stream without stressing or destabilizing the Team.

Marisa has a daily exercise and meditation practice. We have a real social network (not the FB kind). We’ve paid off our second mortgage. Marisa and Murray are closer than ever.

10-Years from Now (Sept 1, 2029) 

We’ve hit our freedom goal! We never have to work another day again if we don’t want to.

We now have properties in Europe and Asia or Australia and spend our time between 3 countries.

Live Your Message is like Peak Potentials — it’s a truly global online education company with multiple programs and facilitators. Marisa has been replaced as a speaker and facilitator and only comes in when she wants to make a special appearance.

She has the freedom to focus her time on special projects and thought leadership. Murray has sold all his companies and is focused on investing and advising in other businesses.

We’ve either sold or are considering selling Live Your Message and making a difference in the world in other ways. We’re ready to enjoy our lives first and foremost and do business on the side.

Really allow yourself to look beyond what you think is possible for you. 

When you dare to have a vision and when you dare to clarify the “what” and the “why”, I promise the “how” will present itself 🙂

And remember, your business plan does not have to be pages and pages and pages long. Sometimes just a few paragraphs or even a single page will do.

And if you need a few examples and models to create your 1-year and 10-year business plan, I’m sharing downloads for my 1-year and 10-year vision, and that of a few of my students as well. 

Get your free worksheets here 

So promise me you’ll do this and remember, you can do SO much more over the next 10 years than you ever imagined.

But right now, all you need to do is Live Your Message and take it one step at a time. Keep going.

You’ve got this!

Over to you…

What’s ONE thing you’d like to change in your life or business a year from now? How about 10 years from now?

Share your dreams, visions and a-has in the comments below. I read and reply to each one 🙂