Goal Getting Secrets With Deb Eckerling

Chris Stone [00:00:01]:
Ladies and gentlemen, get ready to get inspired as we welcome the visionary goal strategist, mastermind, and media personality behind The Dev Method, Deb Eckerling. Thanks for joining us, Deb.

Deb Eckerling [00:00:15]:
Okay. I'll wait. Gold star for each and every one of us because we managed to be live and actually communicate.

Chris Stone [00:00:22]:
So Deb, I can't wait to get into this. This is your

Jim Fuhs [00:00:26]:
is this book number two for you? It

Deb Eckerling [00:00:30]:
I it's my second traditionally published book. I Okay. Published two before. And the your goal guide, a roadmap for setting planning and achieving your goals, which came out in January 2020, you know, six weeks before the world got changed by circumstance. Originally, I was gonna self publish that one, and then I'm an agent. And he said, Deb, what is your goal? And I said to be the first person people think of when they hear the word goal. And he said, well, send me your book proposal. Let's get it out in the world.

Deb Eckerling [00:01:04]:
So that's when I I went from being I love my first two books, but, but and, I really love that that to be in a position where goals are way more accessible because we were talking about this before. You can't change the world, but you can change yourself. You can set goals and move forward on your project. So I am actually, believe it or not, the solution to all of the angst in the world. Because when you set goals and you work on things that you love, you can let that joy leak into the other parts of your life.

Chris Stone [00:01:44]:
You know what's great is that that if if you were to have read that, if anybody else would read that statement that you just made, they would go, wow. She really thinks a lot about herself. But coming from you and hearing that and hearing and seeing you say that, it's like, I believe you. I believe you're the you're the key to all of this. It's true. It's it's like so many people, they they want to change these things that they don't have any control over, and it's and all they're doing is frustrating themselves. And so so talk talk to us about what the DEB method is. Right? Is how does it differ from, like, other maybe goal setting, techniques?

Deb Eckerling [00:02:19]:
Well, it is better. No. I mean, yes.

Chris Stone [00:02:22]:
Okay. Well, we do know that. Okay.

Deb Eckerling [00:02:24]:
I well, and this is the thing, really. So I've been leading goal groups and helping people with goal strategy and projects for years, but the difference between what I do and perhaps other goal setting experts is they're all about the end of the end, you know, the carrot.

Chris Stone [00:02:42]:
Right.

Deb Eckerling [00:02:43]:
Right? I believe you can't get what you want unless you know what that is. So it's for me, Deb, it's all about setting the foundation for your goals. So dev stands for determine your mission, explore your options, brainstorm your path. So determine your mission. You can't get what you want, unless you know what that is. When you think about that life you want, what does that look like? Explore your option is great. You know that this is who you are and what you have to offer the world, but what does that look like? What are you gonna create to put that out in the world? What are you going to do? So that's all about exploring what your goals mean for you. And then brainstorming path is kind of putting everything out there and dividing and conquering and turning that life you desire into reality.

Deb Eckerling [00:03:34]:
So dub. And it is goal setting simplified because changing your life is challenging enough. I made the instructions really, really easy.

Chris Stone [00:03:45]:
We love a good acronym. And when you keep stuff simple for knuckleheads like Gemini, like, we just we just slurp it up. That's that's amazing. So it's d, determine your mission, e, explore your options, and b, brainstorm your path. Okay. I can tell you I have problems with all three of these right now, Deb, so this is gonna this is gonna be amazing for me.

Deb Eckerling [00:04:05]:
Excellent.

Chris Stone [00:04:06]:
Because I'm just gonna make it all about myself. No. A lot of times, especially with someone whose mind goes all over the place. Right? They they are like, gosh, I just can't get anything done. I have all you know? And and so what they do is they sit down and they make a to do list. Right? And so they're like, oh, that's a good idea. Let me just make a to do list.

Jim Fuhs [00:04:26]:
Right? Well, that never

Chris Stone [00:04:27]:
worked out didn't work out for me because, you know, then then you end up multitasking and you get nothing done. You get a little bit of everything done. Right? You you just end up just not really organizing yourself. And then I read this book called The One Thing. Have you read this book?

Deb Eckerling [00:04:41]:
I have not. Oh, okay.

Chris Stone [00:04:43]:
So it's it's a total anti yeah. It's a total anti multitasker kind of thing where you just really you have to you have to focus on on this one thing. And I was like, okay. This is this is me. Right? I'm this is life changing. Then I then I felt like I I didn't get enough done.

Jim Fuhs [00:04:59]:
So because you only did one thing.

Deb Eckerling [00:05:01]:
Right.

Chris Stone [00:05:01]:
Yeah. I mean, I don't even know if I got that one thing done. What So so for someone like myself that does that, and I know our audience has a lot of these people, that that do that. How can they even just hit pause and everything to do this, to to set themselves this this this goal of of of what they want to achieve?

Deb Eckerling [00:05:22]:
Okay. So the first thing before you do any dev stuff is think about your wins. So and and and we're still the beginning of the year ish. Right? What win are you celebrating from last year? What is that thing that you accomplished? It could be personal, professional, a little bit of both, but start with that bit of joy. You know, amp yourself up, get excited about what you've accomplished, because then you could use that energy in figuring out your next steps.

Chris Stone [00:05:55]:
Mhmm. I love that. I I don't think I do that enough. I think that that that's, like, the the perfect ambiance because you're just, like, once you get those wins, it's like, you're not you don't pause to celebrate. Right? And so you so it's almost like you forget about them.

Deb Eckerling [00:06:08]:
Right. And so Deb is you start with, when you think about that life you want, what does that look like? We'll start with what you've already accomplished and use that energy. And then even if you wanna skip ahead, think about this time next year, What do you wanna be celebrating? Because that can really help you get into that visualization. So I've accomplished this. Yay. Wow. Go me. A year from now, I'm excited because I'm going to be celebrating whatever that next thing is.

Deb Eckerling [00:06:42]:
And and and Did you use

Chris Stone [00:06:43]:
the dev method?

Deb Eckerling [00:06:43]:
And Chris is thinking of, like okay, Chris. So what was your big win from last year?

Chris Stone [00:06:52]:
My big win see, I don't I'm this is this is my thing. I mean, I think I have I don't it's hard for me to actually, to go, this is my big win. Like, I have a a you know, like, I I I got a couple of clients that I enjoy, right, that I use for my, video and and podcasting production business. So I don't know if we call them big. Right? But, I mean, those are those are wins that I I should have celebrated maybe a little bit more as opposed to just, like, let's race to onboard them and and then just keep muscling through, muscling through everything. I Well, Chris, I think I think your

Jim Fuhs [00:07:26]:
big win one of your big wins was your website completely revamped that.

Deb Eckerling [00:07:31]:
Okay?

Chris Stone [00:07:32]:
Okay. See if they seemed to remind me of my big wins here, Dallas.

Jim Fuhs [00:07:35]:
And I think a win for us as as a team was our YouTube channel got monetized. You know, we didn't expect that. Right? And I don't know to your point that we necessarily celebrated it much, so maybe we'll do that tomorrow.

Deb Eckerling [00:07:53]:
So next question. A year from now, what do you plan to be celebrating? These are not difficult questions, guys.

Chris Stone [00:08:04]:
I yeah. I know. I I okay. I I let's okay. So we're almost at 2,000 subscribers, so 5,000 subscribers.

Deb Eckerling [00:08:12]:
Excellent. I

Chris Stone [00:08:12]:
know that's that. That seems like a lot, though. I mean I

Deb Eckerling [00:08:15]:
love it, though.

Jim Fuhs [00:08:16]:
That's a good I like it, Chris.

Deb Eckerling [00:08:17]:
That's a

Chris Stone [00:08:17]:
good goal.

Deb Eckerling [00:08:18]:
Okay.

Chris Stone [00:08:18]:
Actual subscribers, not the

Deb Eckerling [00:08:22]:
goal. Jim, are you in tune with that goal, or do you wanna add?

Jim Fuhs [00:08:25]:
I I am. No. I and I think we have we have a second channel, Met About the House. We'd like to see that one get to,

Chris Stone [00:08:33]:
That's a goal. Yeah. To get that monetized.

Jim Fuhs [00:08:35]:
Get that monetized. Let's see. What what is some some good goals?

Chris Stone [00:08:40]:
I think it's really become a consultation call for you, Deb.

Deb Eckerling [00:08:44]:
I I can't turn it off, so it's fine.

Jim Fuhs [00:08:47]:
No. But it's good because

Chris Stone [00:08:48]:
the the viewers and listeners, this is this this exercise that we're going through through the the Deb method is what is laid out in these books. And so, you know, you're seeing it live, and happening, and you're seeing, like, the steam coming out of my ears as I as I try to think of of it.

Jim Fuhs [00:09:07]:
But, you know, you know, I rinse You you think too. I mean, we didn't necessarily put it as a goal, but something that it's kinda like we got back on the horses is the show itself. Right? We've been much more consistent. We're starting to see because of that, we're getting more guests. We're, you know, we're getting more, awareness. Outgoing. Yes. You know, but I think some you know, sometimes it's like we kind of I won't say we forgot about it, but we let other things get in the way.

Jim Fuhs [00:09:36]:
And so I think, you know, the goal of, like, hey. We gotta we gotta stick to this. You know? Otherwise, it's kinda like, why have a show if you're not going to actually have guests and do things? I think that's been good for both of us. I think we, you know, we definitely have been a lot more active in that. We've had some great guests, Deb, you know, as well. Being here is is great, and we've got, you know, we've got some other ones coming down the pike already. So, I mean, we actually have to work with our calendar. Right? We have to, like, wait.

Jim Fuhs [00:10:06]:
We gotta make sure we don't have five people show up in the same week or the same day.

Deb Eckerling [00:10:10]:
Yeah. No. That would be my show when I bring in three people at once. So but that Yeah.

Chris Stone [00:10:16]:
But but that So so, Deb, yeah, go ahead.

Deb Eckerling [00:10:18]:
Go ahead. I was gonna say that but that's the thing. It's, and this is the thing about goals. Right? Especially with things that are your passion projects or additional things that you're you're doing to build your business or your persona, your thought leadership, whatever. They're great and they're fun. We cannot do everything. We like to think we can, but we also it it's important to be realistic. So when you're thinking about what you wanna accomplish, you really need to look at your calendar.

Deb Eckerling [00:10:48]:
Because if you've got a big, heavy client week, you're not gonna have as much time to work on the book that you wanna write or developing future podcast episodes or whatever. But the following week, maybe you've got more time. And then what you wanna do is look at your calendar, schedule what you can accomplish without overwhelming yourself, and just keep moving forward.

Chris Stone [00:11:14]:
So are you a are you a fan of of time blocking?

Deb Eckerling [00:11:17]:
I am. But even more than time blocking, I'm a fan of dragging. So you look at your calendar and say like, okay, I've got a busy week, but I think I can do, like, three half an hour sessions to work on whatever. Right? So you put those things in your calendar, and then the trick is if you have to move them, you can move them, but you cannot delete that. And then after you've done that work time, write down what you accomplished. So at the end of the week or the month when you're like, I'm not getting anywhere, you can go into your calendar and say, oh, I did this, this, and this. I'm doing pretty well. So, it's important to to block time, but it's really important to figure out what works for you because you're going to do more of that.

Deb Eckerling [00:12:10]:
And that's really, leads into the new book, which is 52 secrets for goal setting and goal getting, how to stay focused, grow your network, and get more done in less time. And the whole premise of the book is the secret to success is there is no one secret. But what you can do is learn from others and take their different ideas out for test drive as it were. And it's fifty two secondrets, but for the book, I interviewed 60 achievers in the areas of business, tech, entertainment Oh. Food and creative realms asking this question, what is your secret for setting goals and or getting goals? And so the book is divided. It's in seven chapters. Let me see if I can get them right in order. Focus, well-being, action, networking, communication, productivity, and leadership and teamwork.

Deb Eckerling [00:13:08]:
So I took and like I said, it's 52, but I got too many in and I didn't have the heart. I these are all people I interviewed. Most of them, actually interviewed by the two through email, and I didn't have the heart Mhmm. To, turn anybody down. So we got bonus chapters. And then

Jim Fuhs [00:13:29]:
Everybody made the team.

Deb Eckerling [00:13:30]:
Everybody made the team. I am all about the participation trophy.

Chris Stone [00:13:35]:
But you only asked the all stars. So it's all all it's all great content. It's not like, oh, I gotta let I gotta let this Jim Fuze guy in here. Oh, come on. That's fun.

Deb Eckerling [00:13:44]:
You know, it is just in my mind, you know, it is a series, like, a la chicken soup for the soul. Right? Because there's secrets to everything. And everybody in the book is either someone I know, someone I've interviewed, someone I'm friends with, which actually makes them, like, all the above, or some of the people said, oh, you really need to talk to someone so because I wanna know what they do. Or, Ah. Or in the kids so Guy Kawasaki wrote the afterword, and I went on this mission because I really wanted him for my book. And I asked somebody, Brynn Tillman. I said, okay, Brynn. Who else needs to be in this book? And she said, well, Larry Levine, who actually was

Chris Stone [00:14:33]:
Selling from the heart.

Deb Eckerling [00:14:34]:
Yeah. He he was on Gold Tap with Jim recently. And Yep. And Jim and Larry made, like, an oh, we know each other. And then I believe he was on your show as well, which is just because the world's tiny. But what Britney said was you need Larry for your book, and Larry just interviewed Guy Kawasaki. So after you interview Larry, see if he can make an intro, which he gave me the right contact. They responded within like twelve hours, for, for me to interview Guy and his tip ended up being the afterward for the book.

Deb Eckerling [00:15:07]:
So it's a lot of fun.

Chris Stone [00:15:09]:
Awesome.

Deb Eckerling [00:15:10]:
But I love that I know everybody in the book and they're all like, friends of Deb of the giving and I was saying, okay.

Chris Stone [00:15:19]:
If you

Deb Eckerling [00:15:19]:
have an intro for me, they need to have two things.

Jim Fuhs [00:15:23]:
They need to be someone I'd be

Deb Eckerling [00:15:24]:
friends with, and they need to have a giving spirit. But it was also kind of redundant because those are the people that I'm friends with. Anyway, it it just evolved into this wonderful project. So Mondays, I host the gold chat live show, which I was just talking about, where I bring in three people, and unless it's on purpose, they don't know each other before they get into the conversation. So this book is 60 people. Some know each other, some don't. Other people are reading the book and are like, Deb, I didn't realize you knew this person too. So that part is fun as well.

Deb Eckerling [00:15:59]:
But the idea is, okay, this worked for me, and here's an example, or here's a bit of instruction. And it's like choose your own adventure. What advice do I need? Is it for this particular category? Or just go through the content to be like, oh, this sounds like something I need to know right now and then read it, take it for a spin and see if it works for you.

Jim Fuhs [00:16:24]:
And Deb, you came up with a name for that stack of books behind you. We we gotta we gotta share that with that

Deb Eckerling [00:16:29]:
Oh, the tower of dough? Yes. It is the tower

Chris Stone [00:16:32]:
of dough.

Deb Eckerling [00:16:35]:
It's awesome. That's because, you know, why not name everything after me? You know, if I'm doing a webinar Absolutely. It's a webinar.

Chris Stone [00:16:41]:
Well, you are a media personality. So that's, you know, you that you need things like Towers of Deb. That's that's Yeah. I love the concept for the book, Deb. And it's not, I think it's one thing to to write a book and just sit down and and do that. It's something that sure. Call it a goal of mine maybe at at some point. But there's been a number of people that have created these compilation books or whatever that and, really, it's kind of

Deb Eckerling [00:17:08]:
Mine's different.

Chris Stone [00:17:09]:
Kinda feels, yeah, it kinda it well, I'm I'm getting there. It it kinda feels all over the place. This sounds to me like it's this is incredibly tact tactical, where it's like, I'm I'm struggling with this in particular, and they can go right to it. They can go right to, particular chapters that address these types of things. So it's it's feels like it's not just a I mean, you can read it cover to cover, you know, but it's like earmark this because I've got this issue, and then let's come back to this. Is that how it's is that how it's intended to do almost like a like, it's a reference

Deb Eckerling [00:17:45]:
Yes. Book for people? Yes. Okay. In one of the people who gave me an early endorsement said, you could read this book. You could, pick up the book and put it down, but I couldn't put it down. I kept wanting to read one more tip, learn one more thing. So I I love that. I think the intention of the book really is the premise.

Deb Eckerling [00:18:11]:
There's no secret to success. You know, what works for one person may work for you may not. And, and I think, Jim, you and I have known each other for years, and I'm sure you you're very familiar with, oh, do this thing and you're gonna make lots of money. That drives me crazy. Right? You see these gurus who are like Yep. No. You need to do this thing. No.

Deb Eckerling [00:18:35]:
We are all in this together. We all have things to offer. And wouldn't it be great to put a bunch of coal mines in one place? And for these I have my opinions on compilation books. If it is something that you're involved with, if you wanna be published, if that's something if that business model works for you, go ahead. This is not that. This was very targeted. And one of the other things is the live show really came as a result of your goal guide, and then it evolved into this book. So your goal guide came out in January 2020, as I said, six weeks before the world imploded.

Deb Eckerling [00:19:20]:
Oh, and then this one comes out in January 2025 when we're probably the most, angsty that we've ever been. That's a good one. Is that a nice way to put it where, where everybody's facing challenges? So great. No, I'm not gonna stop writing books just because there are things happen when my books go out. Anyway, my point being your gold guide came out. I was doing a book tour, a lot of events, and then bam, everything shut down. And my publisher, Mango, has said, do you wanna start a live show based on at the time I'd been doing the gold chat, Twitter chat for a few years. It has since been sunsetted, but every Sunday night, I would go on Twitter and check-in with people, and then we would do a chat about the topic of the week.

Deb Eckerling [00:20:10]:
And my publisher said, have you thought about doing a live show? And actually I had. So it was a really easy yes. And Gulch had started out the first two episodes were just me talking. They went, like, ten or fifteen minutes. That it was not a good, podcast model for me. And so I started doing interviews. And then the end of twenty twenty, I'm like, okay. Great.

Deb Eckerling [00:20:35]:
I want I wanna do, like, a holiday party. But, how do you do a holiday party when you can't leave the house? You bring together people who don't know each other. So that's when I started playing with the panel format and I loved it so much. I kept, you know, every few episodes I would do a panel and then by spring, that was my show. And again, it was bringing people together who, unless it was on purpose, did not know each other to chime in, the topic of the week. So every Monday at four, I go live on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And it's, like I said, it's so much fun. Not just for me, obviously, because I like talking, but the people, the people in, in the conversations and for January and February, all the panels are all people who are featured in the book.

Deb Eckerling [00:21:28]:
And some of them I did bring together. I will do recurring panels if one is, really like they have so much more to say together. I will do a repeat. And I've I've been doing this. I do, December, New Year's because I do I told you I did that.

Jim Fuhs [00:21:46]:
Because of course you do. Of course

Deb Eckerling [00:21:48]:
I do. Yes.

Jim Fuhs [00:21:48]:
Because you can.

Deb Eckerling [00:21:49]:
So I I start the new year twice. So I start in December and then the traditional way. And I always do say for me, goals this year round, only talk about goals in January because it would be really odd if I didn't because everybody else is doing it. Right? It's like, okay. Right. Right. Anyways, so even the panel I did yesterday, which was on it was on well-being. And in it, I had Heather Eckhart, who is a an artist and a synthesis, alcohol or expert, Elaine Hall, who's, an activist and founder of the Miracle Project, which is based in LA, but it is, she's a advocate for neurodivergent individuals.

Deb Eckerling [00:22:36]:
She started this theater program. It's amazing. I could tangent about that for twenty minutes. I will not. And doctor Michael Lennox, who is an astrologer and dream expert in all sorts of things. And these four people and two of them are in the well-being chapter. So Elaine and Michael, and then Heather is in focus. And I'm like, these are just the people you wanna bring together to talk about well-being and taking care of yourself when the world is imploding.

Deb Eckerling [00:23:03]:
And it was great. They're they're like, and I love when I get these responses. It was really nice sharing time with you, which is the point of the show. It's not just well, it's, of course, to inform people, but to make connections within the group. And I love it Yes. When I see people on each other's shows. So that It's

Chris Stone [00:23:24]:
so it's such an underrated part of doing a show, of doing a podcast is the networking aspect

Deb Eckerling [00:23:30]:
of it. Mhmm.

Chris Stone [00:23:31]:
And and people don't talk about how much fun it is or can be. Right? If it if you wanna do a boring show, then just get in line with every with all these other people. But if you wanna do a fun show like Deb's show, or this one, I would hope is is fun. But you you just have to you gotta in order for you to use everyone wants to talk about community, you're actually building one because you're you're, you know, building on top of one that you already have because you're, like, you're interested in in bringing these interesting people together that have these common goals, no pun intended there, but have these common goals. And you're not there's there's nothing divisive about it. Right? It doesn't feel like like it's like you people don't know each other. Right? So let's let's come together and get to know each other live in this in this kind of situation. And then who knows what that sparks and and where, where things grow.

Chris Stone [00:24:22]:
Jim, I know you had a question.

Jim Fuhs [00:24:24]:
Yeah. And and I think what you talk about, segue as well into this, Chris. So, Deb, part of what you talked about in this in the book is about networking. And, you know, even when you look at how we've gotten to know each other, we've we've known each other, like you said, since back in the days of Twitter smarter and GoldChat and and I you've been on,

Chris Stone [00:24:46]:
you know, you've been on

Jim Fuhs [00:24:47]:
the Tim and Jim show. I've been on GoldChat as well. But, you know, when the world kinda went, you know, crazy back in 2020, to me, it changed how I network. And so what did you take from these folks in the book about how has networking changed? Because I think to Chris's point, you're bringing people together virtually. You really are. And, you know, you're on the opposite coast from us. You know, we're on the East Coast. You're on the West Coast, but yet we still are able to connect.

Jim Fuhs [00:25:17]:
And I think I think Chris and I both sometimes talk about, like, it's a it's a struggle to go out and network because you feel like, am I really and I mean, in person networking, because sometimes it's like, how much effort do I have to to go? Or I mean, am I in the wrong room for that, for that?

Deb Eckerling [00:25:36]:
I think we, we also need to like take back the word networking. I mean, it's the word we all use, but it's relationship development. And the people that you meet, they're not necessarily your audience or your clients or whatever, but everybody knows people. So the more people you know, the more people you know. The more people in your tribe, they're in your tribe as well. You can't reach your goals on your own. You need your people. The the main thing that happened with the pandemic is this, which was natural for for the three of us even before became a necessity for everybody else.

Deb Eckerling [00:26:15]:
So people needed to learn to communicate over the computer, and now it's second nature. And even though there are in person events of plenty now, we get to talk from two sides of the country like it's nothing, and that that can't be discounted. It used to be you would meet people in real life and then continue conversations online. Now I think it's more the other way around because you meet people online. And then maybe if you're fortunate, you'll meet them in person. I think in the book and I I wrote it down exactly, but maybe a quarter of the people are people that I've met in real life in person. Wow. But the rest are all conversations developed from people.

Deb Eckerling [00:27:03]:
I also do a food podcast, TasteBuds with Deb, so that's why we have chefs in here as well. So you can get to yeah. So you have to get a little bit of a little bit of everything and different types of personalities. I've got, actors, TV executives. I've got, influencers galore in this, consultants and they're all, well, they're all good people or else they not be in my book. They all have a different perspective on things. And in, in some, and for me, one of the most fun things was when I got the proof to read the book in December, it was the first Deb summer. It was the first time I had run it cover to cover because when I put the book together, it it was a puzzle, which is what goals are, which is what I excel at.

Deb Eckerling [00:27:57]:
But putting, you know, writing the intro, your goal guide is the dev method. So the first half of the book goes through the process. And the second half of the book is strategies for success. And then there are worksheets and resources for 52 secrets for goal setting and goal getting. It's an append it's like the last appendix in the book. The second appendix is dev method one zero one. But the crux of the book is giving people relatable stories and relatable individuals who share what works for them, which was everything from be able to look yourself in the mirror to, always dream or harder to dream, never dream harder than you work. Right.

Deb Eckerling [00:28:44]:
Because you need to back up who you are with what you do. Both of those came from chefs, by the way. Chef Rossi, who's based in New York, is the one who said, be able to look yourself in the mirror. And chef Katie Jin is the one who said, never dream harder than you work because you need you want this life? Great. Do the things, and you get to have this life. And, no, we don't have control over everything, but

Chris Stone [00:29:10]:
Right.

Deb Eckerling [00:29:10]:
We can find something that we love, that we enjoy, and it could be a hobby. It can be an extension of the business. Do that a little bit each day and let that joy leak over to the parts of your life that don't bring you as much happiness. And guess what? It's gonna be a lot better. Right?

Chris Stone [00:29:30]:
Yeah. Speaking of happiness, you're bringing lots of happiness to the show here, Deb. This is, this is fun. Let's, let's pause for a second and let everybody know that the book is available here on Amazon. It's called 52 secrets for goal setting and goal getting. And you you too can have a tower of dev behind you with, with as many books as you'd like to purchase on Amazon, unlock your path to success for professional and personal goals. I, I wanna get a little tactical if we could, and we could use some of these, things that are that are either in the book. We'll we'll let you kinda go wherever on this.

Chris Stone [00:30:08]:
But you started talking about the calendar and, you know, let let's you know, some things you know are attainable. Right? And, you know, you you you can move them, but you can't delete the, you know, sort of the time blocking, all that calendar things. Do you or maybe someone in the book have any sort of strategies incorporating a lot I mean, there's tons of AI stuff out there. There's tons of of of software programs and things like that that can help. And and I like to lean on those things to kind of like, oh, I I struggle with this, but if I do this particular thing with chat g p t or this particular program allows me to do some of these things a little bit more easily. How, what is your take on, you know, incorporating AI into, into goal setting?

Deb Eckerling [00:30:56]:
I think of AI the same way I think of smart goals. Some people love smart goals. They are a tool. They are not a destination. AI is the same thing. They are a tool. If you've got, if you wanna say to chat g I I am not opposed to this. If you wanna say to chat g p t, I need to build a website.

Deb Eckerling [00:31:21]:
What are the steps I need to take? I'm okay with that. If you wanna brainstorm that yourself, that works too. So as long as you look at it as something that's a helper, because you're not gonna say, hey. Patch EPT, build me a website. Doesn't work that way. Then, you know, you can't do that. But if you need a little bit of a help figuring out the steps you need to take to do certain things, yeah, I'm I am definitely okay with that.

Chris Stone [00:31:58]:
Yeah. I think I think utilizing it is like an assistant. Right? And and and and, you know, you know you have to do it, but I mean, I I feel sometimes, especially since it you know, every day you wake up and there's 16 new, you know, AI things that help you, you know, do your laundry and walk your dog and everything else. Right? And so you could kind of get stuck in that mire too, of, you know, you have things to do and let, but you spent hours. Playing with all of this stuff that it, you know, you really just have to, at some point, you know, pull the plug on on this and really hunker down, roll up the sleeves, and do the do the stuff that's necessary in order for you to to attain these goals. So that's a struggle, I think, for a lot of entrepreneurs is, not just, you know, understanding what one AI tool is about, whether it's chat g p t or or aggregators like Magi or something like that. But, like, you you have to you have to know you know, you can't spend all this time in here and not actively start doing, doing these things and ending and and and attaining these goals.

Deb Eckerling [00:33:05]:
So the publisher for mango, Chris McKinney, also gives a tip in the book, and he comes from Silicon Valley world, the tech tech land. And his secret in the book is using paper for productivity. Just as a tech guy, so, of course, I had to use paper for his secret. And apps are great. But because as you're talking about, they have all the bells and whistles, you could spend hours just customizing something and you get nothing done. Whereas if you have paper and a pen, write your to do list, gets done in, like, two minutes. Easy peasy.

Chris Stone [00:33:45]:
That's true. That's true. And I think there's just something about it too. There's just something about having this this notepad in front of you, whether it's, you know, whether you're you're using an Apple Pen on an iPad or whatever, but there's just something more intentional about it, something more functional, for the brain as opposed to just if you know, I I spend most of my time when I'm at work, you know, in front of a computer, you know, with devices in front of me and screens. Now if I'm going to really set myself, you know, a goal, I feel like I need to separate myself from that. Right? And maybe that's where I grab the notebook and the pen and start to start to do something, get some other neurons firing, in in this, you know, squirrel brain of mine. I don't know.

Deb Eckerling [00:34:27]:
Well, I am a and I think Jim knows this about me. We've had enough conversations. I am the huge fan of journaling and journaling and brainstorming. It it's all over your goal guide. I I mentioned before the lot of exercises and the purpose is to get you to, like, pause for a second, really think about who you are, what you want, what you wanna create. In the first draft of everything, why not put it on paper? And if you are not the type of person who is comfortable writing things down, apparently, there are people like that, then type it. If that's the only way you're gonna get those words out of your head is using a keyboard, that's fine as well. But we try so hard to figure things out in our head.

Deb Eckerling [00:35:14]:
We try rearrange the furniture in our brains unless we're a cartoon. In my case, I guess we could. But what we but when you write things down, you could have an objective look at what you need to put together and make a plan. It's much easier.

Chris Stone [00:35:33]:
Yeah. Yeah. I think, I have to know this. This is just you are just so you're just so, passionate about this. What what is you know, years ago when you started doing this, like, what sparked what sparked the passion in you to to to be, you know, to be Deb, the the goddess of goals here?

Deb Eckerling [00:35:54]:
I love that question so much. So years ago, and I've lived in LA for over twenty five years, so do whatever math you want. Back when I lived in Chicago, I was doing events for Barnes and Noble in Tom Burke. And whenever I needed to fill my calendar, I would hang out in the cafe because I really wanted it to be a community bookstore. And one day, one of my regulars said it, hey, Deb, will you start a writer support group? And I said, if you think people will show up, yeah, let's give it a try. And for me, that meant, okay, everybody, what did you accomplish? What are you working on? How can we support you? And what are your goals for next time? And it was a hit, but, and it also showed me the power of goals because I would never ask them to do something that I wasn't prepared to do myself. So I would set a goal for each meeting. So fast forward, move to LA, restarted the group here, and then people would say, Deb, you're good at this.

Deb Eckerling [00:36:53]:
I've been trying to write my book for years. Can I hire you to help me get it done? We get it done in three months. Or Deb, you're good at this. Will you come speak at my event? So that was really how it evolved from this fun group into something I did. And my business background is communications and project management, so everything's kind of in alignment there. And then in two so I've been leading workshops and, you know, being on my little goal soapbox for a while. And then, in 02/2018, my main communications client was going away. And, to me, that felt like an opportunity.

Deb Eckerling [00:37:33]:
And my mom said to me, you hate smart goals. Why don't you create debt goals? And it turned out that my name Mhmm. Worked the same, was perfect for the system that I had been teaching. And so that that's that is how I became me.

Chris Stone [00:37:51]:
Oh, wow. The yeah. Thank you for that. Yeah. And it's yeah. Because, I mean, I just I had to pause there and been like, she you are just, like, smoking. I mean, I was like, like because typically, it's like, you know, you gotta you've done hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of podcasts and talked about this. And you are just as excited as this was the first time.

Chris Stone [00:38:09]:
And and it's you know, and that that just shines through. I thought that was awesome. And I think something you touched there on that I that I'd love to kinda get your insight on is, you know, when it comes to goals, accountability is is huge. You know? Like, when you're when you're you know, Jim and I work together on this thing. Right? And we set goals together. Right? But you there's masterminds and there's and, you know, there's other people on your team or whatever. And when you're setting a goal and you know that the meeting's coming up, right, and you're gonna Deb's gonna ask you where you're at with with this. It's almost like a little, like, okay.

Chris Stone [00:38:43]:
This is coming. I've got I'm I'm accountable, for this. Can can you talk a little bit about accountability?

Deb Eckerling [00:38:49]:
Well and I have had clients who email me two minutes before our meetings with our deliverables. So yes, that that is a thing. So I also have on Facebook, I've got the write on online Facebook group and every day I post a new thread. So money is what are your plans to network this week? Yes. I mentioned this. Tuesday, what are your goals for the week? Thursday is to go on Thursday. What's your biggest win? Photo Friday and weekend plans. So these are all opportunities to share what you're working on and or what you've accomplished.

Deb Eckerling [00:39:25]:
I remember in the early days, so it was a group and then Facebook made everything become a page. And then years later, I did another group. But I remember, at the beginning, a lot of times people would either say what their goals were or say what they accomplished, but rarely did the same person do both, but that's fine as well. Right? So you can, and you can vague book all you want. You know, I wanna work an hour on my project this week, or I'm gonna get these synopsis done for my book or write, you know, write this section of the book proposal or, I'm gonna cook something new. You know, they could be personal goals as well. Or at the end of the week, it's like, oh, I did this or I did that. And what's great is it gives this forum in particular gives people an opportunity.

Deb Eckerling [00:40:18]:
Oh, that's so cool. They do this. Or, oh, you just published a book on this. I'm really interested to learn more. So not only does it give you an opportunity to share what you're working on, it gives you opportunities to make connections with others in the group.

Chris Stone [00:40:33]:
I love that. And and so, speaking of the group, and you did this at the beginning when you were introduced, you held up some gold stars. You held up a gold star. Like, so so there's something about these gold stars in your group. Is is that is that a motivational, technique? Is is there

Deb Eckerling [00:40:50]:
What What

Chris Stone [00:40:50]:
do you got?

Deb Eckerling [00:40:51]:
When I had that first group in when I was Mhmm. At the bookstore, one day someone said, where's my gold star? They were kidding, but I thought it was a great idea. So I brought these packets of stars and I think you can buy all gold stars, but the ones that I found were different colors. So you can get a gold star for accomplishing what you set out, but you could pick whatever color gold star. I know it's the color is not gold, but whatever. You could take whatever color star you want for effort. So when I lead, workshops in person, I always start out, like, bypassing the stars around the room because they've chosen themselves. They're they're they're being present.

Deb Eckerling [00:41:39]:
They're choosing their goals. They get a gold star because that is a an accomplishment. And when the pandemic hit, those stars are tiny. And I found that I had these sticky notes. So crap. That's a story.

Jim Fuhs [00:41:56]:
Wow. So, so Deb, what, what do you see? What, what is your next goal now that you've had these two books?

Deb Eckerling [00:42:03]:
Oh my goodness. It's the same goal is to be the first person to think of when they hear the word goal. You know, if you, if you Google goal setting expert, and I mean, no disrespect, it is like the old guard of men, which is fine. Mhmm. But there's room for me. So I'm working on that mantle. And so that and just spreading the word about the book. As I said before, I would love for this to be a series.

Deb Eckerling [00:42:33]:
So if you have a secret that works for you, please reach out. You never know. Could end up in a future book. But right now I think my main goal is to keep spreading this word. Goal is not just a four letter word. You know, people think four letter words and they think, but it's a magical word. You know, when you set goals, you are taking control of your life. You're saying this is a priority.

Deb Eckerling [00:43:02]:
This is what I'm going to do to work towards it. So I get to this reality that I want. And why shouldn't we all live this life we desire? We we've got the control. I mean, we can't we can sit in doom scroll. We could be depressed about what's going on around us and, you know, it's okay. I also have this thing, the two minute rule. So I am a big fan of two minute dance breaks. If you're going through a rough day, you get two minutes and you could freak out and then, you know, a dance break and then move back to normal.

Deb Eckerling [00:43:38]:
Whatever configuration of it is. Right? Sometimes the two minute time blocking gives you a lot of power, but with everything that's going on in the world, guess, if you need a couple minutes to freak out, take your couple minutes, but then say, okay. Great. What am I gonna do now that I can celebrate this moving me forward to achieving that life that I want.

Jim Fuhs [00:44:05]:
Chris, do you do two minute music breaks? I know you like music as part of your life.

Chris Stone [00:44:10]:
Well, I like to it's a creative juice for me. So, like when I have something that I'm I know I've got to power down a word, like a presentation or something like that, I actually would put on John Coltrane Love Supreme, or I'll put on something that I know kinda get like, again, it gets the neurons, firing. You know, it isn't my sixteenth cup of coffee. You know, it's it's something that's that's going like, it gives me my my creative energy. You know, and and I and I run to that, you know, that's a way for me to just get out and, you know, get into something and listen to something that's more entertaining than than informative, I guess, in terms of podcasting when I when I go for for a run. And so those are things that kinda keep me, you know, because I know when I get back in and, you know, get out of the shower and sit and sit down, it's like, you know, it's hunker down time. You know? So it it's but, you know, how do you keep someone like like, you know, like, in in the case of me and probably other people, like, I'm saying that, but I don't do it every day. You know? And and and if things get busy and things start to pile on you, you're doing less and less and less and less of that.

Chris Stone [00:45:21]:
Do you recommend things like the Pomodoro timers or or anything that that might work for them? I know you said it, you know, things depend on on people differently, but maybe what are some some, you know, some methods or or success stories you've heard from maybe people that have contributed to the book or or other people you've worked with?

Deb Eckerling [00:45:39]:
I have something I call the five of seven rule because I don't think it's realistic to work towards your goals every day. And, and we've all seen, you know, don't break the chain. You wanna do these things every day. We have life going on. It is not realistic. So even if you say, I'm gonna work do this every day for fifteen minutes, you skip Sundays, so then you're like, okay. Half an hour on Monday, forty five minutes on Tuesday. If you did not have fifteen minutes on Sunday, you do not have an hour on Wednesday.

Deb Eckerling [00:46:12]:
That's why I say, look at your calendar and see if if it's a three fifteen minute appointments a week. You just put it in the thing. And and I know I talked about tracking before. Something else that I think is also helpful is to keep a win list. So at the end of the day, write down one to three wins. And I Yeah. I have, developed I used to say, oh, just do a Google Sheet or do a this or write in your journal or whatever it is. The the methodology I like for tracking wins now is like at the beginning of the month, I will set an appointment for 6PM that says, you know, January 2025 wins or February 2025 wins, obviously, adapt to whatever month it is.

Deb Eckerling [00:46:57]:
Right? So you get a reminder when the alert goes off that it's your win appointment. You write down your one to three things, and then you save it as the next day, and then you get the reminder again. And that way you've got all your wins at a glance. So on those days where you need that lift, you can look and say, oh, I did these things. Go meet. Let me keep going.

Chris Stone [00:47:21]:
I love it. I I love the inspiration that that that that doing that, the you you've done you mentioned this a couple of times, just celebrating these wins and and doing that. So, Deb, I have three goals for every day.

Deb Eckerling [00:47:32]:
Okay.

Jim Fuhs [00:47:33]:
You ready?

Chris Stone [00:47:33]:
Yes. This is this is the okay. Here we go. Jim already kinda mentioned one. Listen to music is is definitely, a a big one, for me. It's just in my DNA. It's just I just I love it. Number two is to create more than I consume.

Chris Stone [00:47:54]:
And for me, I think that you talked about doom scrolling. Right? And I think a lot and and a lot of that, let's let's learn how to do this video editing thing, or let's learn how to do this thing in AI. Let's learn how to do these, and you're watching and you're consuming all of this stuff, but what are you doing? Like, what are you creating with it? And so so I I I that's another thing for me. So I have to figure out a way, well, can I when I get to the end of the day, did I consume more than I created, or did I create more than I consume? And the third one is I have to make my wife laugh. That's the third one. That's a that's a goal. If I get to the end of the day and I haven't made my wife laugh, I'm and I'm I'm resorting to tickling, that's that's not a good day. I got you know, you got I gotta make her laugh.

Deb Eckerling [00:48:35]:
First of all, I thank you for sharing that, and I love that. And this is really, like, the genesis of how the book came about. So I was talking to my editor, Brenda, and we always would say, you know, what what are the thing what are your rules? You know, what are the things that you do that enable you to be more productive? And I do this when working with clients as well. It's like, you got your goals. Great. What are the things that you're going to do to make sure you get them done? Write them down, put them on the wall, look at them. So you're you're making progress. So it's kinda I wanna say in your face.

Deb Eckerling [00:49:11]:
That sounds so negative and non dev, but you can't get what you want unless you know what that is. And when you see it, it it's it's a reminder of what you're trying to create. The other thing, because you were talking about music that I wanted to add. So the d is determine your mission. So it's visualize, write your current bio, write your future bio, write your mission statement, and then distill it into a model. So I mentioned before, mine is goal setting simplified. So everything I do is in alignment with that, but it can be a phrase. It could be a tagline.

Deb Eckerling [00:49:48]:
It could be a theme song, something that gives you energy It reminds you about what you're creating, and these are the things you need to surround yourself with. So you're keeping your eye on the prize, whatever you can to help you move forward. Do more of that, because that's what's gonna get you where you wanna go.

Chris Stone [00:50:09]:
Deb, you're awesome. This is, this has been a great conversation. And, I wanted to make mention one more time, folks that are listening either on the replay or currently alive. The book on Amazon is called 52 secrets for goal getting and I'm sorry. Goal setting. Yeah. I talk for a living. And goal getting.

Chris Stone [00:50:29]:
I'm not immediate personality yet, Dane. Unlock your path to success for professional and personal goals. And we never even touched it. We talked about nothing but professional for the most part, but, like, this is this applies to personal goals. And what the other thing I love about this, Deb, is, it really applies to so many people in so many different industries. Like, the whole time you're talking, I'm like, well, our audience is a lot of content creators, a lot of entrepreneurs, small business owners, and and so it it applies. And then I'm thinking, well, this applies to my wife. This and she doesn't care about any of this stuff.

Chris Stone [00:51:04]:
And and it it really works and is is evergreen for, for a lot of people. Congratulations, on on this. We can't wait for the next one.

Deb Eckerling [00:51:14]:
Wait. And and and don't forget about the last one.

Chris Stone [00:51:18]:
Oh, dear goal guide. We are not gonna forget about that. Wow. I I I almost gotten in trouble. Did you see that, Jim? I almost got in trouble for that. Your goal guide, a road map for setting, planning, and achieving your goals written back in 2020 before the world ended, but still applies today.

Deb Eckerling [00:51:38]:
I I I love the fact that the the the work that I do is evergreen, and I really appreciate what you said before about how it applies to everybody, because we all know, the worst thing you can answer when someone says who is your audience, the worst answer is everyone. But unfortunately Yeah. That is me. So I say busy professionals, but it's everyone. Right? Because who is busy?

Chris Stone [00:52:02]:
Pretty much.

Deb Eckerling [00:52:03]:
But the personal goals are so important because they work hand in hand with the professional ones because we Yeah. Know, when your personal life's going great, it it's gonna reflect on your professional life and the vice versa is true. So if if you cannot change your professional situation, think about what you can do to make your personal life better so that makes you happier, and that's gonna leak over onto the other side. And maybe it's your personal life is is challenging. Making sure that it that you're doing the things that you love at least a little bit every day, because that energy is is going to help you deal with the other things that you have to in your life.

Jim Fuhs [00:52:47]:
Yep.

Chris Stone [00:52:48]:
Wow. Awesome. Great stuff, Deb. Thank you so much for, for joining. And we our show got better today because of you, and we do appreciate, that. And I hope you sell a gazillion books and, you know, and, just just great stuff. You are a joy, and, this has been a fantastic conversation. And I hope we have many more.

Chris Stone [00:53:09]:
And, anyway, so for those of you who, have not gotten the book yet, what are you waiting for? And, as always, don't fear the gear.

Jim Fuhs [00:53:21]:
Thanks for listening to Dealcasters. Congratulations. You've taken another step forward in your content creation journey. Please don't forget to hit the subscribe or follow button here in your favorite podcast player so you can be reminded every time we drop an episode.

Chris Stone [00:53:38]:
We love hearing from our listeners and viewers. And if you're wanting to watch our shows live on Amazon, feel free to follow Dealcasters Live as well at dealcasters.live. Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our YouTube channel where we also subscribe to our YouTube channel where we also included added content that you cannot find anywhere else. If you

Jim Fuhs [00:53:58]:
have questions about this episode or have something you want us to review, you can also email us at dealcasters@dealcasters.live. Thanks again for listening, and you know the deal. Don't fear the deal.