How Setting Meaningful Goals Can Help You Market Your Business with Sheena Yap Chan | Ep 17

Having a big goal inspires not only you but people around you. You’ll be surprised how it’s easier to market your business and connect with people even influential when you have the purpose to help others in one way or another.

Even for you, you may have an idea to have a business for extra income, but one day when everything will get hard you will want to leave it, and then you get back to your “Why?”. What is this all about? And why you started it.

In this episode, Sheena Yap Chan shares how setting meaningful goals can help you market your business.

Sheena is a blogger and speaker whose sole purpose, drive and passion is to help women become more confident to live the life their true selves.

Sheena is the founder & host of The Tao Of Self Confidence podcast. It’s a daily show that helps women building up their self-confidence.

In this episode, we will cover:

• [00:21] About the episode and Sheena Yap Chan
• [01:55] What The Tao of Self Confidence podcast is about and why Sheena loves every minute
• [03:19] How it affects you and your life if you have a meaningful goal
• [05:34] Learning how to let go of what people may think or say about your journey
• [07:12] How Sheena’s work changed when she decided to keep to her purpose instead of following metrics or money
• [08:55] What happens if you force yourself to do something that is not in line with your mission
• [10:07] Why a business needs a meaningful goal
• [12:17] Where to begin when you market your business with meaningful goals
• [13:13] How we can reach more clients or more people to get involved in our businesses
• [15:27] After setting your mission statement, what to do next
• [18:32] What self-confidence really is and how it applies to introverts
• [21:28] How to organize your actionable steps in order to build capacity to share and market your work
• [22:20] Sheena gives an example of laying out a plan to create an online course
• [23:08] Top tip for when you feel like quitting
• [24:30] Where to find and connect with Sheena
• [25:13] For the show notes go to marinabarayeva.com and subscribe to the Marketing for Creatives show

2 Main Things to Follow After Setting Meaningful Goal

• Do one small actionable steps every single day
• If you get the feeling that you want to quit go back to the question: Why did you start all of this?

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Download podcast transcript [PDF] here:

• How Setting Meaningful Goals Can Help You Market Your Business

Resources from this interview:

• Learn more about Sheena Yap Chan on thetaoofselfconfidence.com
• Listen to her podcast on iTunes and Stitcher
• Follow Sheena on Twitter, Facebook

Connect with Marina Barayeva:

• marinabarayeva.com
• Follow Marina on Instagram
• Follow Marina on Twitter

How Setting Meaningful Goals Can Help You Market Your Business – Interview Transcription

Marina Barayeva:

Please tell us a little bit about yourself, tell us your story.

Sheena Yap Chan:

My name is Sheena Yap Chan and I have a podcast, it’s called The Tao of Self Confidence, where I interview women about their struggles with self-confidence and how they’re able to overcome it to live the life that they want.

It’s been something that I’ve been passionate about because it’s something that I also used to deal with and still deal with from time to time, self-confidence and having the courage to speak your truth, be your true self, live the life that you choose.

It’s a mission that I’ve always wanted to do and something that I’ve always wanted to put out there and never really had an idea until I stumbled into the podcast industry and I’m loving every minute.

Marina Barayeva:

That’s fantastic. I like your podcast and recommend everyone to listen to it. Women share amazing stories there, amazing tips.

Here we talk about business and marketing for people who are creative entrepreneurs and they also often have a lack of confidence. Some people start a business for money, some want to have fulfillment in their work, art, whatever, and some have other purposes.

How does it change the game if you have the meaningful goal, something, not just regular money or doing your art?

Sheena Yap Chan:

For me, I think, having a mission or a purpose, something that goes beyond you is important.

For me, my purpose is to help more women become more self-confident, have a representation of being able to do things on your own and do the things that you want to do, live your life by your design. I think that’s huge because then you have the confidence to go out there and take action because it’s something bigger than you.

I always believe when you go out there and do something good, you’ll get it back in return. The law of Karma and the law of the Universe: what you put out into the world, you’ll get it back.

A lot of entrepreneurs, when they first start out their business they’re so worried about the money and the metrics, the numbers. I used to be like that too and I realize when I focus on that, I forget what my vision’s all about or what my mission’s all about and it doesn’t work out the way that I want to.

When I switched my focus into creating a more meaningful purpose, it really changed the way I see things and I do things with the intention of helping people. I always believe what you put out you get back into the world.

You have to do something that feeds your soul because if not, you’re not going to keep on doing it. Doing it for the money is great but it can only last for so long. You’re going to get bored, you’re going to get tired, and you’re going to get wiped out.

You have to do something that you love to do, something that feeds your soul, something that makes you wake up in the morning and get excited. That’s why I believe that you should start with having a big purpose, having something that you can have fun with or having something that can create an impact on the world, a positive impact.

Marina Barayeva:

For many people to stand out with their voice, with their purpose as something bigger, it’s so scary because from this what comes up, what will your friend think about it or what other people will say like, “Why are you doing all of this?”

What would you recommend to those people? How would you inspire them?

Sheena Yap Chan:

For me, I know it’s sometimes easier said than done but you have to learn that this is your journey.

Sometimes people will tell you things, and sometimes they do it out of the goodness of their heart, they don’t want you to get hurt, they don’t want you to stumble upon road blocks. But when you’re doing something bigger than yourself, you’re going to run into these things. You’re going to have to learn to overcome them.

When you have a purpose that’s bigger than you, it’s not going to be as a big of a deal as you think it is. It’s amazing, when I tell people what I do and what my purpose is, they actually gravitate to it more.

I always lead in with that. Whether it’s to ask somebody to interview on my podcast or whether someone wants me to write an article, they know me through my purpose. When they can see what you’re all about, it makes things a lot better. Not everyone’s going to agree with you but the right people will come to you.

It’s just learning to push through and keep going. Some of the most successful people, they’ve been through the same roadblocks as you have: self-doubt, fear of what other people might think of them, but they push through it because they knew they had something to offer, something that was bigger than them. 

Marina Barayeva:

You said before that you also in the beginning started doing business for money or for metrics. When you decided that you wanted to make a difference in the world, how did you start spreading the word about it and what happened in your life and work?

Sheena Yap Chan:

For me, it started out when I started asking women to be a guest on my show. I never said, “My podcast is this. I have this many downloads. It’s been featured, whatever, whatever, whatever.”

It really was a simple message like, “I just want to know if you’re open to be interviewed about helping women with their self-confidence.” Most of the time, I get a yes. I didn’t realize how easy a simple line like that was. It had nothing to do with me. It just had everything to do with the purpose.

When people ask me what my podcast is about, I just lead in with the purpose. I never talk about metrics or where it’s featured. Sometimes I share it to inspire people but other than that it’s always been my purpose, it’s always leading in with that.

If they ask other questions like metrics and stuff, then I’ll share it with them. Before, I used to be afraid of sharing it because I thought I wasn’t good enough but now it’s like, “This is my own success. This is my own journey. I should be happy for every little success that I have no matter how big or small because the more we celebrate it, the more we can attract it and have it in our lives.”

Marina Barayeva:

Exactly. It’s so similar to me. I have my ideas to share this podcast with people to help creative entrepreneurs and when I was preparing that, people asked me, “Okay, Marina. It’s good but where’s the money and what will we get out of this?”

I have my answer on this question but what is your answer on this question for your podcast, for your mission, especially in the beginning?

Sheena Yap Chan:

Yes, a lot of people are like, “You should be doing something by now, you should be doing something by now.” When I force things, it doesn’t work out well (laughter). It just turns out really bad.

This is a lesson that I’ve learned about my own journey, that if I force something, if it doesn’t work the way that I want to, if it doesn’t have my purpose, it’s not going to work out. No matter how many times you try to force it, it just won’t work.

For me, it’s not about a race to making the most money. For me, it’s just learning to create something with the intention of helping someone. I want to be able to create a win-win situation, and if I can’t create that win-win situation, then I won’t put it out there.

It’s better to put something that feels good versus putting something just for the sake of someone’s maybe pressuring you to put something out there because you have to make money.

Marina Barayeva:

For our listeners who are thinking about their goals, why does a business need a meaningful goal, not just a simple money or metrics one?

Sheena Yap Chan:

I think having a mission statement is huge because it’s what fuels you to take action, because there are going to be days when you feel like you don’t want to do anything.

When I first started podcasting, it took me two hours to edit a five-minute audio clip and I thought I was dead. I was like, “I’m done. I don’t think I can do this.” (Laughter)

It was so frustrating at first but I go back to what is this podcast about and why am I putting it up there? It’s because I want to help women become more self-confident, so little things like that didn’t matter as much. And it gets easier the more you keep doing it.

It’s not always going to be a walk in the park. I’m sure you’ve had your stories about podcasting and what you had to go through.

You’re going to have days where you’re going to throw this laptop across the wall because you’re so frustrated but you’ve got to remember what your intention is and if you have good intentions.

I always believe what you put out into the world you get it back. And it’s amazing the surprises you can get back, who might contact you or who you might be in contact with.

I think podcasting is the greatest way to connect with people, especially if you’re looking for people with a bigger influence. I didn’t realize how simple and easy it was. I always thought it was so hard because when you look at someone with a million followers you’re like, “They’re not going to listen to you.” But it’s because you have a big purpose, they see it and they want to be a part of it. It’s great. I’m grateful for it.

There were days when I just wanted to quit everything but I remind myself every time why I’m doing this.

Marina Barayeva:

That’s amazing how people open to help you when you have some of these types of goals when you also want to help other people.

Our listeners want to grow their businesses and they need to market themselves somehow. Can you give us a piece of advice on how to market your business with meaningful goals?

Sheena Yap Chan:

You start out with your mission statement. Have a mission statement. Figure out what is your business about.

If it’s, let’s say, a recording company, maybe you want to help music artists get the word out there. If you’re a podcaster, maybe you have a comedy podcast, your intention is to make people laugh.

Whatever it is, make sure you have a reason why. You’ve got to dig deep and figure out why you’re doing this because if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re just going to be all over the place. You’re going to be busy doing work that you don’t what you’re doing instead of being productive.

Marina Barayeva:

Are there the ways that we can reach more clients or more people to get involved in our businesses? What is your experience on that?

Sheena Yap Chan:

For me, sometimes it’s just taking the action, taking the first step to reach out to a client and tell them what you have to offer. If they say yes or no, it’s great. If they say no, then you move on.

I know sometimes it’s easier said than done but you’re going to get some nos. Sometimes you’ll get some yeses, and that’s great. Sometimes no doesn’t always mean no forever, it’s just no for now. But if you follow up with them, you keep following up, it’ll happen.

Sometimes when you have a message, people actually come to you. They ask you what you have to offer, what are you doing right now. I never had that before, people asking me versus me going after them. It’s because of the message that I have.

Marina Barayeva:

How did you start spreading that message so that people started to come to you instead of you following people?

Sheena Yap Chan:

The interviews that I have, I always ask my guest to share it with their audience if they can.

I’m in a community of podcasters and we help each other out, which is great. I think having a huge community, especially the podcasting community… It’s a really great community. They’re always there to help you out. You get to see who they truly are, their true self.

I also learned a couple of things in marketing, like on the Internet, trying to set some tools to have it on autopilot. So, I set it once and maintain it here every so often so that I’m not constantly on my computer trying to check things out.

Marina Barayeva:

Sheena, you set your goals, you set your purposes, and you started reaching out to people, telling them about those goals. For your business, what was next, or what would you recommend to our listeners to do with that next?

How would you grow or how would you suggest to grow a business with that?

Sheena Yap Chan:

For me, I need to write things down, see what I want to do. I do research. I check out who my audience is. I have an accountability partner that I talk to and we feed off of each other. I will lay out a plan on what I want to do or where I want to go.

Sometimes I even ask the Universe what’s the next step that I should take. I like to do things that come out naturally versus trying to force things because from the past I’ve learned my lesson; trying to force something just never works out for me, and doing things naturally is when things fall into place.

Sometimes you might think you’re doing the wrong action but the wrong action might lead you to the right action.

I might do a training and just take action on that, whether I just make a mistake or not. I check out my results and I see where I go right or wrong and I course correct along the way.

Marina Barayeva:

How do you make people believe in what you do, how to make them support you, follow you in that big purpose?

Sheena Yap Chan:

I don’t know if I’ve made people follow me, I think the more I speak about it and the more I…

I believe in my mission, so when people see that belief in you, then they believe in it too. If you love what you do, people can feel it. People can see through if you’re being fake or real or genuine or not. It’s really how you feel about your purpose, if it gets you excited, if it makes you happy.

One of the best things about my podcast is getting messages from women telling me how it’s helped them deal with depression, make them feel like they’re not alone in this journey and they can relate to the women that I’ve interviewed from before. It has to come from you.

It’s like how you treat yourself. If you’re nice to yourself, you’re going to attract the same thing; people are going to start being nice to you. But if you’re mean to yourself, you’re shameful, then you’ll get treated that way. You have to treat your business like that. You have to love what you do because when you love it, you get that love back in return. 

Marina Barayeva:

It’s easier for you. You have the confidence already, or if someone is an extrovert, but what about the introverts?

I have several friends, they really love their creative, not business yet, but what they do and they would like to turn it into a business. They want to spread the word about their art or photography or what they do, but when it comes to the big deal, big clients or something bigger than they’re used to, they just lose their voice.

No matter how much they love what they do, they’re afraid of rejection or just to show this love to more people who can potentially reject them.

Sheena Yap Chan:

A lot of people think self-confidence means you have to be an extrovert. It’s not. I’ve met a lot of women who are self-confident and are introverts at the same time. Sometimes when you see me, I still get really shy (laughter). I still kind of hide in the corner. It’s weird.

I’ve interviewed a lot of women who are actually confident in what they do but are also introverts at the same time. I think it’s learning to take baby steps. You don’t have to make huge steps but if you take small actionable steps, it leads to big results.

Maybe today you tell one person about what you do and you take the result as feedback. You can learn from it, you can study from what their responses are and maybe that can help you course correct or take things from a different perspective.

Don’t take rejection as the end of all. It’s just feedback. It’s all feedback. It’s learning to get to know who your audience is.

Maybe you need to be in a group where there are a lot of confident people who are introverts and that can help you push through whatever it is that you want to do because then these people can understand what you’re going through and they can relate to you. Maybe they have tips for you to go out there and do what it is that you want to do, whether it is you want to dance or sing.

It’s not always easy. The first time I did a video on YouTube was hard. I fumbled, I had sweaty palms, it took two hours to record a five-minute video. But I did it because I situated myself with a group of women who are doing the same thing, who had the same fears that I did but they pushed through it.

If you see one person doing it and know what they’re going through, it gives you more ammo to go out there and do the same thing knowing that you’re not the only person doing it.

So, don’t always think that you’re the only person who’s shy, who can’t go out there and do the things that you want because there are other people out there and maybe it’s just trying to find the right support group or maybe listening to podcasts like Marina’s or mine to help you go out there and give you that extra boost or extra push to go out there.

Marina Barayeva:

That’s awesome, Sheena. I like that you said it’s important to take even baby steps and surround yourself with people, either online or offline. That’s so great.

What so you think, if you would put that into a strategy or give some direction to our listeners, what are the three steps our audience could begin with to market their businesses with a meaningful goal or how they can set this goal and move forward with it?

Sheena Yap Chan:

Right now, I started doing this 30-day ab challenge. It’s 30 days of ab workouts. The first day you do 20 sit-ups. Then the next day they add two more. They keep adding two more on top of every single day so it’s small actionable steps.

Maybe today you want to share a picture on Instagram and write something meaningful about it. Maybe the next day you can share it on another platform with the same message.

It’s learning to take, like I mentioned, small, actionable steps. You do the things that scare you because it’s not as scary as you think once you do them.

Say you wanted to create a course. Maybe you should research on what you want to write on your course, or maybe you can go on websites and see how other people are doing it and put your own spin to it.

Maybe the next day you can write down what modules you want to do or what your modules are going to be able. Then the day after that maybe you can start writing your script on your online course, start recording it, start packaging it.

Take it day by day, one step at a time or one day at a time. It’s amazing what you can do. Even if you set an hour a day, that can go a long way.

Marina Barayeva:

What’s your trick for not quitting? One day a person wants to quit?

Sheena Yap Chan:

I go back to why I’m doing this. When it’s time for me to record guests on my podcast or when I try to create a new resource or product, sometimes I get so frustrated that I just want to quit, stop everything and be like, “Forget it. I’m going to move to an island so that nobody bothers me.”

But I go back to the reason as to why I’m doing this. What is my purpose? Why am I doing all this work? It’s because I really want to help women be more self-confident.

Coming from an Asian culture and family, we’ve been told to live a certain way, be a certain person, and that really hurts our confidence. It hurts how we see ourselves. It hurts our self-worth. We feel like we’re not adequate. We feel like we always have to do more. But you have to remind yourself that you’re more than enough and you are put in this world for a reason.

There’s a reason why you’re here. Maybe you’re here to inspire people, maybe you’re here to live your dreams. Whatever it is, if you start asking the right questions, the right answers will appear.

Marina Barayeva:

That’s fantastic, Sheena. Share with us how can we connect with you and find more about you and your podcasts and all of this amazing work that you do now?

Sheena Yap Chan:

Sure. If you search my name Sheena Yap Chan, I’m the only Sheena Yap Chan on the Internet so I’m not hard to find.

Marina Barayeva:

You’re the special one.

Sheena Yap Chan:

Yes (laughter). You can also check out my podcast, which is called The Tao of Self Confidence on iTunes and Stitcher, or you can go to the website, which is thetaoofselfconfidence.com. You can check out past episodes, free resources, some courses, free membership, and you can listen to past interviews that can help you out in your own journey.

Marina Barayeva:

Thank you so much. That was fantastic to have you on the show today, Sheena.

Sheena Yap Chan:

Thanks again for having me. It was really great being here and chatting with you.

Marina Barayeva

Marina Barayeva is an international speaker and coach who helps women entrepreneurs become recognized experts and confidently sell their services. She is also a TEDx speaker, has presented to audiences in Asia and North America, and has been featured in such media as ArtPeople, CCTV, China Radio International, and others.