THE PATH TO PROFITS PODCAST with Michelle Jacobik

Why do so many entrepreneurs set ambitious business goals and still fail to reach them? In this episode of The Path To Profits Podcast , Michelle Jacobik breaks down seven common goal-setting mistakes entrepreneurs make and explains how to turn arbitrary revenue targets, business metrics and wish-list goals into results that actually support the life you want to build. Because a goal shouldn't simply be a number you picked because another entrepreneur hit it. Your goals should close the gap between where you are today and where you actually want your life and business to go. Michelle walks through her Path To Profits approach to goal setting, beginning with a simple framework: Where are you now? Where do you want to be? What's the gap between the two? What results will close that gap? Inside this episode, Michelle shares the seven mistakes she sees entrepreneurs make when setting and pursuing goals , including mindset and belief, failing to create a roadmap, not making goals written and visual, ignoring the financial cost of a goal, failing to create leverage, delaying action and not looking at your goals every day. She also shares a personal example from becoming a grandmother. Michelle wanted being a present grandparent to be part of the life she was building, which meant traveling to see her grandchildren every four to five weeks. Instead of simply writing “visit my grandchildren more” on a vision board, she put the trips on the calendar and calculated what that goal would actually cost, including approximately $6,500 annually for regular airfare versus roughly $12,000 if she wanted to fly first class. That's where business goal setting and financial planning intersect. If the life you're designing costs money, those numbers eventually need to find their way into the revenue your business is being asked to produce. Why arbitrary revenue goals can create pressure instead of progress The difference between your vision and the goals that support it How to identify the gap between where you are and where you want to be The seven goal-setting mistakes entrepreneurs commonly make Why every meaningful goal should have a financial number attached to it How your calendar reveals whether your goals are actually priorities Why leverage, delegation and AI can help you stay in your zone of brilliance Why Michelle recommends focusing 80% of your time on your top five goals Why looking at your goals daily matters How goals help you keep the promises you made to yourself Ask yourself: What promise did I make to myself earlier this year that, if someone looked at my calendar today, they would see I'm not keeping? Then identify which of the seven mistakes might be getting in your way. As Michelle says in this episode: “Goals are actually how you keep the promises that you make to yourself to build the life that you would love.” Website: michellejacobik.com LinkedIn: Michelle Jacobik Instagram: @michellejacobik Substack: @michellejacobik 📘 Read or Listen to The Path To Profits https://a.co/d/0imlGFFf 💰 The 7 Financial Mistakes Entrepreneurs Can't Afford to Make https://michellejacobik.kartra.com/page/7-financial-mistakes 🐝 Join Michelle at the Next Thrive Hive Mastermind in Naples, Florida https://bit.ly/OctoberHive THE PATH TO PROFITS PODCAST Clarity. Cash Flow. Freedom. Build the business AND life you want. IN THIS EPISODE:MICHELLE'S CHALLENGE FOR YOUCONNECT WITH MICHELLERESOURCES FROM MICHELLE

Before you set another revenue goal, business growth target or annual plan, ask yourself a more important question: What do I actually want? In this episode of The Path To Profits , Michelle Jacobik explains why your vision, personal core values and WHY should come before business goal setting, and how to build a business that aligns with the life you actually want. We entrepreneurs are really good at setting goals. Revenue goals. Growth goals. Annual plans. Quarterly targets. Bigger numbers. But we're not always as good at stopping long enough to ask: Where am I actually trying to go? Michelle shares what she calls her Freedom Year . After selling her share of the insurance business she'd spent years building, she woke up on January 1, 2014 with something she'd spent decades chasing: Financial freedom. Time freedom. And absolutely nothing on her calendar. No clients. No staff meetings. No nonprofit meetings. And instead of immediately feeling free, she found herself facing a much deeper question: Who am I outside of what I do? That season led Michelle to understand the difference between vision and goals . Think about progressive reading glasses. Look down at what's directly in front of you: those are your goals. Look out toward the horizon: that's your vision. Try to focus on both at the same time and everything gets blurry. That's exactly what happens when entrepreneurs start setting business goals without first getting clear about the vision those goals are supposed to support. • Why entrepreneurs jump into revenue goals before asking what they actually want • The difference between vision and goals • Michelle's Freedom Year after selling her business • Why personal core values should become a compass for business decisions • Michelle's core values, including financial security, friends, fun, God and growth • The story of a client who started five businesses in ten years without first identifying what mattered most to her • How your season of life affects the business model that actually makes sense for you • Why your WHY matters alongside your vision and values • What your gifts, talents and desired legacy can tell you about your next chapter • Why alignment sometimes requires radical change • How clarifying her ideal workday helped Michelle make the decision to sell her share of her business Before you set another goal, give yourself the space to answer: How do I want my life to look and feel? What are my personal core values? What makes me come alive? What gifts and talents do I want to share with the world? What have I learned that I can pass on to someone else? What legacy do I want to leave? Then look at the business you're building and ask: Does this business actually support those answers? Sometimes you don't need another goal. You need to reset the GPS and remember where you were trying to go in the first place. Connect with Michelle Website: michellejacobik.com LinkedIn: Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn Instagram: Follow Michelle on Instagram Substack: Follow Michelle on Substack RESOURES: 📘 Read or Listen to The Path To Profits Grab the book or audiobook 💰 The 7 Financial Mistakes Entrepreneurs Can't Afford to Make Grab Michelle's free guide 🐝 Join Michelle at the Next Thrive Hive Mastermind in Naples, Florida Learn more and reserve your seat THE PATH TO PROFITS PODCAST Clarity. Cash Flow. Freedom. Build the business AND life you want.

Your Business Is Winning. But Is Your Life Losing? Most entrepreneurs start a business because they want freedom. More money. More time. More choices. More control over how they live their lives. But somewhere along the way, many of us build the exact opposite. In this first episode of The Path To Profits Podcast , I'm taking you back to a moment in my first business that forced me to confront a question I wasn't prepared to answer: What if the business is winning, but your life is losing? I had built a growing business. We hit our growth goals every single year. I had an incredible team, hundreds of clients and all the outward signs that said things were working. But I was also the mom whose family was always waiting. Waiting for me to finish the call. Waiting for me to solve the crisis. Waiting for me to be present. One of those moments happened at the beginning of a family vacation in Florida. My phone rang before we'd even checked into the hotel. A nearly $100,000 account I'd just landed was suddenly in jeopardy. What I thought would be a quick call turned into nearly an hour of crisis management while my husband and kids sat in the lobby waiting for me. I looked over at my little boy's feet swinging from the chair and had a realization I couldn't shake: They're always waiting for me. That moment started a much bigger conversation about the business model I had created and the life model I had completely forgotten to build alongside it. In this episode, we're talking about the entrepreneurial addiction to high performance , why financial freedom doesn't automatically create time freedom, the hidden cost of constantly being the person who handles everything, and why sometimes the business itself needs to be redesigned around the life you actually want. And I'm giving you a challenge. Write down three things you originally wanted your business to create for you. Was it time? Money? Travel? Impact? Freedom with your family? Better health? The ability to choose when and how you work? Then look at the business you've built today. Is it actually delivering what you started it to create? Because here's what I know now that I didn't understand then: If the business is winning and your life is losing, that isn't profit. This is where your Path To Profits begins. In this episode: • Why entrepreneurs can accidentally turn freedom into another job • The financial pressure I carried when buying my first business • The vacation phone call that forced me to look differently at success • How high performance became part of my identity • Financial freedom vs. actually claiming time freedom • The difference between building a business model and building a life model • Three questions to help you determine whether your business still supports the life you want • Why sometimes the next stage of growth requires realignment, not more hustle Your challenge: What are the three things your business is supposed to create for your life? Write them down. Then ask yourself whether the business you're running today is moving you closer to them or further away. Because we're not here just to build profitable businesses. We're here to build businesses that fund lives worth living. CONNECT WITH MICHELLE Website: https://michellejacobik.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellejacobik/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michellejacobik/ Substack: https://substack.com/@michellejacobik RESOURCES FROM MICHELLE 📘 Read or Listen to The Path To Profits Grab the book or listen to the audiobook: https://a.co/d/0imlGFFf 💰 The 7 Financial Mistakes Entrepreneurs Can't Afford to Make Grab Michelle's free guide: https://michellejacobik.kartra.com/page/7-financial-mistakes 🐝 Join Michelle at the Next Thrive Hive Mastermind in Naples, Florida Learn more and reserve your seat: https://bit.ly/OctoberHive THE PATH TO PROFITS PODCAST Clarity. Cash Flow. Freedom. Build the business AND life you want.

Revenue Isn’t Wealth. And That Changes Everything. In the launch episode of The Path To Profits Podcast, Michelle Jacobik shares why she spent three years thinking about starting this show, why she finally hit record, and the financial philosophy at the heart of everything she teaches: Revenue isn't wealth. IN THIS EPISODE: • Why revenue and wealth are two very different things• The $600K → $12M journey• What Michelle learned building and exiting her insurance agency• Why your business should fund your life, not consume it• The question Michelle wants every listener asking CONNECT WITH MICHELLE: Website: https://michellejacobik.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellejacobik/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michellejacobik/ Substack: https://substack.com/@michellejacobik Listen to the Path To Profits Audiobook or Grab the book Want to know the top 7 Financial Mistakes To Avoid As An Entrepreneur? GRAB IT FREE HERE Join Michelle at the next Thrive Hive in Naples Florida: https://bit.ly/OctoberHive THE PATH TO PROFITS PODCAST Clarity. Cash Flow. Freedom. Build the business AND life you want.