goals

Rolling up my sleeves for 2021

December 29, 2020 By Rowell Leave a Comment

Now that the Christmas holiday is behind me, it’s time to create a strategy that will set me on a path to be better than 2020.

I take a big bold approach. If you’ve seen my 2020 Year in Review, there are objectives I have not met. Measuring how I’m doing is important but what I find more critical is the act of doing.

Using Todoist (affiliate link), I can see whether or not I’m being productive. And most of the time I understand I have to be a realist. But there’s no harm in being an opportunist

This is the second year in a row I am using Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). My goals are objectives. But to add substance there are key results for each objective that I have decided as a way to measure whether that objective was a success.

The areas in which I have built OKRs around are:

Packet6
This blog (rowelldionicio.com)
Clear To Send

Table Of Contents

Packet6
Rowell Dionicio Blog
Clear To Send
My Thoughts

Packet6

Increase Sales by 70%
Target $900k revenue
Target $450k hardware sales
Target $350k professional services
Remaining $100k in courses or other projects

It was obvious there was going to be a decrease in sales in 2020. With a vaccine being distributed, my hope was business would begin to pick up again. I still need to take precautions for health but 2021 would be a year for learning how to do sales.

To increase my revenue to $900k means I’ll need to build salesmanship and resell hardware. I’m a partner for Cisco, Meraki, Mist, Juniper, and Ruckus. I need to leverage my partnerships and technical knowledge with some form of selling. My target for hardware sales is $450k.

Professional services is how Packet6 got started in the first place and is really where the revenue comes in. If I could continue to leverage pro services + hardware, that could be a winning combination. My target for pro services is $350k.

The remaining $100k I would like to earn building training with courses or through other projects.

Produce Consistent Content

6 posts per quarter
1 video per quarter
6k page views per month

A sore spot on Packet6’s website is a lack of content. I’ve been producing content elsewhere but really neglected the business website. The highly technical content I used to write on Packet6 is now being done on my personal blog. My mind now needs to shift towards writing content for decision-makers like CIOs, IT Managers, and senior staff members within organizations. Writing to address pain points is very different from writing technical tutorials. But I can do it.

My key results for producing consistent content is publishing 6 blogs per quarter and 1 video per quarter. With consistency, I’d like to increase the Packet6 page views to 6k a month.

The end goal is to receive more visitors that may convert to clients.

Initiate a Marketing Plan

5 social media updates a week
Grow email list to 1500
Generate 36 MQLs

A little piece of me always thinks about why I started a business. In doing so that means spending less time on my core expertise – the technical aspect. Packet6 is a small company and doesn’t have enough resources to hire other technical people full time. In the meantime, I need to wear many hats.

One of those hats involves creating a marketing plan to help grow the business. I can probably outsource much of this but I am a person who loves to learn. I’ll at least take a stab at this and create a marketing plan. Then in the near future, have someone else take over this section.

To start, I’ll focus on keeping Packet6 social media updated with at least 5 posts a week. In previous years I was able to grow an email list of potential clients. I’m going to kick start that again with a key result of 1500 new email subscribers. With more eyes on Packet6, I can hopefully reach another key result of generating 36 marketing qualified leads.

Build Proficiency with Python

Automate C9800 tasks
Automate Mist installations
Build a reliability script

Distinguishing yourself from the competition means being uncomfortable. Network engineering is shifting towards network automation.

This creates an opportunity for me to learn Python and build a solution for companies that don’t have the expertise in-house.

Rowell Dionicio Blog

Build a Technical Presence

100 active members on the Discord server
5,000 Twitter followers
200 email subscribers
3,000 YouTube subscribers

My personal brand works alongside my side business, Packet6. The latter is B2B. My personal brand communicates with other technical people.

And lately, I’ve been sharing my business experiences such as this post.

Publish Content Consistently

6 published blogs per quarter
6 videos per quarter

Consistency is key. What helps keep chaos at bay is a system for productivity, healthy choices, and my eagerness to learn.

That’s why I’ve decided to aim for publishing 6 blog posts per quarter along with 6 videos on my personal YouTube channel.

Earn Certifications

CTT+
Mist AI
JNCIA DEVOPS
CCNP
CCNP Wireless

I’d like to call myself crazy for adding 5 certifications to my long list of objectives. But it is part of my learning progress in which I share with others. It helps fill a need on the vendor partner side and provides content for the blog.

Clear To Send

The podcast has been my favorite project and what I’m most proud of. There’s been a new episode every week (nearly) since August 2015.

For a few years we haven’t had any serious goals other than publishing better episodes.

As the podcast has developed, we have wanted to make it even better.

Build Exposure

1,500 email subscribers
25,000 monthly downloads
550 Slack members

Most of our listeners find us through social media. We don’t do any form of advertising.

We communicate with our listeners mostly through our website and our email list. More recently it has been our Slack workspace.

Increase Social Media Following

5,000 Twitter followers
3,000 LinkedIn followers

We will continue to use our Twitter account and would like to expand on LinkedIn. This involves giving value to those who follow and to prospective followers.

Create Three Courses

CWNA
CWDP
CWAP

As a way to sustain our podcasting efforts, we’ve decided to build courses. We were not keen to traditional sponsored episodes and wanted to keep the content highly valuable and easy to consume.

Naturally, the content we record lends itself to certification studies. This is why we will be working on more courses.

My Thoughts

In previous years I had not planned to this much detail. Goals were not written down. And on my second year of doing OKRs, I’m really shooting for the stars. When I look at the list, it looks daunting and unattainable. But I’d be really happy to achieve some of these goals.

Who really knows what 2021 will look like. I at least have a plan of attack and if things do not pan out during my quarterly check-ins with myself, then I can pivot.

3 Tips To Achieve More – 2020 Habits + Goals

December 30, 2019 By Rowell Leave a Comment

Goals are very hard to achieve. It takes a lot of work and commitment to achieve those goals. As we progress through the year, the motivation can dwindle and eventually those goals are forgotten.

But anything worth achieving will take specificity, accountability, and practice through habits.

Photo by S O C I A L . C U T on Unsplash

Be specific

The best way to reach a goal is to make it as specific as possible. Having a big audacious but vague goal will lead to inefficiency. Let’s take one of my goals as an example, which is to lose weight.

That’s pretty vague because I have no target to aim for. What is “lose weight”? Does that mean 5 lbs or 100 lbs? How long will it take? Not sure since there’s nothing to aim for.

When you break a goal down to the specifics, you have clarity. The target it clear.

The next step is breaking down the end goal into smaller steps to get you towards that finish line. If your goal is to get your CCNA by June 2020, an outline of baby steps towards the completion will further clarify what steps you need to take. That could mean reading a certain number of chapters per week, scoring 80% on practice exams by a certain week, and being able to do labs within a stricter timeline.

Remember to make your goals specific and break it down into smaller specific goals which help you get closer to your main objective.

Accountability

With the use of an accountability system, the odds are much higher of achieving goals. I’m not referring to publicly announcing your goals on Twitter or another social media platform. Not even on your blog either.

What’s really needed is feedback with a partner, mentor, or coach. This could be any person who genuinely wants you to succeed.

Ways to hold yourself accountable include having monthly or quarterly meetings with your mentor/coach or group of like-minded individuals. Providing updates on the progress of a goal and the challenges can lead towards a healthy discussion of breaking through the barriers. The feedback should be healthy.

One of my favorite quotes is from Jim Rohn:

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
Jim Rohn

Hold yourself accountable while seeking the support of others in your group.

Build Habits

Accomplishing big goals requires you to perform your best. What I’ve learned is this means building the habits that make you a high performer.

I’ve considered myself to be successful by my standards. But I know I wasn’t at my best. There’s nothing wrong with wanting more but to achieve more means building habits that put you on the next level.

That’s what I’ve learned from reading High-Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard.

For me, that means working on habits which focus on my health, nurturing relationships, and increasing productivity. The right habits in place will set a foundation towards long-term success.

My Goals for 2020

Live a healthier lifestyle by eating smarter and lose 20 pounds by September 2020.

I’ve been very tired lately. Tired of working. Tired of doing stuff. And more stuff. I had no energy with the kids. I wasn’t very present, mentally.

Additionally, I had been eating poorly with little to no exercise. My physical state was affecting my mental performance.

For 2020, I want to increase my mental and physical performance by making this my number one priority. Eating healthier is a lot harder than it sounds. It requires some planning but most of all, just smarter food choices. It’s the self-control that needs to kick in.

One physical activity I want to commit myself to is taking 4 spin classes per week at a minimum of 30 minutes per class. I need to put my all into it. Sweat it out and feel energized after each spin class.

By focusing on my health I can increase my energy and work on my mind and body.

Earn CompTIA CTT+ certification by February 2020

The purpose of obtaining a CompTIA CTT+ certification is to teach myself how to put on a good training session. I completed the CTT+ Essentials exam in Mid-December 2019.

My next steps are to submit a performance evaluation. This requires me to hold a recorded training with at least 5 people and I must meet all the requirements of the certification in a short recording period.

I would like to aim towards creating training courses and I needed the knowledge of creating the content.

Earn Cisco DevNet Associate certification by March 2020

The possibilities of learning how to use network automation and scripting in your network environment are limitless. I have a few ideas with network monitoring that I’d like to develop, especially when it comes to wireless.

But studying for the DevNet Associate helps force myself to learn some of these concepts. I’ve had learning Python as a goal for 2019 and I didn’t really start until September/October – later on in the year.

One other reason for getting the DevNet Associate is the possibility of adding these skills as a service for my business. Again, many possibilities there. Overall, I’d like to be efficient with installs and monitoring through the use of Python and other ways of network automation.

Increase Professional Services revenue by 15% for Packet6

I was very happy with what I achieved in 2019. You can read about it in my 2019 Review – Income Report. When you work alone, there are some physical limitations to what you can do. I can’t be in multiple places at the same time. I’m also limited with vacation time at my full-time job.

But I’m not going to let that stop me from increasing my professional services revenue by 15%. My goal is to be more efficient and smart with my work.

By identifying what’s slowing me down from my full potential and eliminating the inefficiencies I should see some growth. Time will tell!

Decrease business expenses by 20% for Packet6

If there’s one thing that will kill a business, it’s the business expenses! I spent way too much money in 2019. Obviously, I need to watch the spending or else I’ll go broke. So it looks like Packet6 will go on a diet in 2020 😉

I’ve already created a budget, allocated the major expenses and predicted how much I’d bring in to make sure I can fund these expenses.

Decrease expenses, increase net income and that means more money in my pocket!

Your Turn

What is the ONE goal you’re focusing on for 2020? Let me know in the comments below.

Keeping Up With The Resolutions

January 7, 2019 By Rowell Leave a Comment

Every year we go through the same old motions. We recap the previous year, add up all our wins and compare it to our losses and think, what happened to my resolutions? There aren’t many people who set resolutions and there’s an even smaller percentage of people who are successful in achieving them.

Resolutions Need to be S.M.A.R.T.

Resolutions should not be vague. I’m sure you’ve heard of S.M.A.R.T. It’s a good place to start when talking about resolutions and goals. Defining resolutions should begin with the following:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Timely

Make Them Specific

I used to make vague resolutions every year. It was rarely successful in reaching them. One reason: my resolutions were too vague. There was no meat to my resolutions and I forgot about them 2 months into the year.

The first step in defining your resolution this year is to make it specific.

Here’s an example:

I’m going to get into networking

Better:

I will get my CCNA by studying every day for the next 6 months so I can be ready to take the exam and pass in June 2019 so I can be prepared to get into networking.

Make it Measurable

Goals that aren’t written down are nothing but a dream. With the example above, I started with a vague statement. It wasn’t measurable at all. When I further defined it I added a pass date of June 2019. That makes it measurable. It’s precise.

We can go further to say that each practice exam you take you want to score 80% and higher. That’s measurable success to your CCNA studies.

Is It Attainable

With a resolution now written down, read it over again and ask yourself, is this attainable? Can you commit the time and resources to achieving your resolution?

We often times make unattainable resolutions in the beginning of the year. One time I said “I’m going to get my CCIE”. Realistically, that just wasn’t going to be possible for me to do within one year. I had two young kids and was working long hours. It was far out of reach. Unattainable. Also, most people study more than a year for the CCIE.

Take another look at your resolutions to identify which ones are truly attainable this year. Can they be done in a reasonable time frame.

Is It Relevant?

Why did you make that resolution? Are you going for a certification to help you get a new job? Is it to get a raise at work? Or maybe you want to increase your technical knowledge. Whatever the reason may be, it must be relevant. You should know why you’re going after this goal to begin with. The relevance of the goal will help put your mind in the right place.

Make It Timely

A resolution should not be made without a plan. Simply saying the resolution out loud will not help you achieve success. Create a plan which outlines the steps to get to the end result.

This is where you can make an actionable step to your resolution. If we take the earlier example, getting a CCNA, what steps should be taken to get it? There’s reading, practice labs, and practice exams. Those steps can be broken down to even smaller actionable steps.

Get Going

Resolutions may be a temporary start to the new year. But it’s possible to tackle even the smallest resolutions. It takes focus and prioritization.

I’ve modified Warren Buffett’s 5/25 rule. His rule is simple: You write down your top 25 goals. Circle your top 5 goals out of the list of 25. You then focus only on the top 5.

The way I’ve done my resolutions for 2019 was to select the top 5 goals I can complete within 6 months. Now I can achieve more faster in a shorter period of time. Of course, looking at these goals they have to be S.M.A.R.T.

I have them written down and tracked. I’ll look at them regularly to see where my status is.

Here are my resolutions for the first 6 months of 2019:

~~Pass my CCNA Wireless with over 90% by February 1st.~~ (Completed a little after Feb 1st)
Maintain a healthy eating lifestyle and lose 20 lbs by June 1st. (Didn’t make the date and didn’t lose any weight ☹️)
Create a CWNA email course on Clear To Send by March 15th. (Didn’t get around to making this yet ☹️)

UPDATE 12/22/19: What did I manage to achieve in 2019 that prevented me from reaching two other goals above? I worked pretty hard on my business to increase clients and revenue. There was a lot of research done for the Clear To Send podcast so we could publish weekly episodes. And at the end of the year, I completed one out of two assessments for the CompTIA CTT+ certification.

To be honest, you won’t hit all your goals. We’re not perfect. Life happens. But with a process we can be one step closer to achieving them.

Or you can keep a simple resolution which works well for me:

Be Better Than You Were Yesterday