38. The 2024 Goals I Didn’t Hit - The Abigail Peugh Podcast

Podcast Summary: The Abigail Peugh Podcast – Episode 38: "The 2024 Goals I Didn’t Hit"

Host: Abigail Peugh
Episode: 38
Release Date: December 31, 2024

In Episode 38 of The Abigail Peugh Podcast, host Abigail Peugh takes a candid and introspective look back at her 2024 goals, sharing both successes and setbacks. This episode offers valuable insights into realistic goal-setting, balancing personal health with business ambitions, and the importance of flexibility in entrepreneurship. Here's a detailed breakdown of the key topics discussed:

1. Setting the Stage: Year of "No"

Abigail begins by contrasting her previous year, 2023, labeled as her "year of Yes," with 2024, her "year of No." This shift was intentional, allowing her more space to heal, grow, and prioritize sustainability in both her personal life and business amidst challenges like chronic illness and mold detoxing.

"2024 was just so much more sustainable for me in life, in business and everything. And I'm totally OK if it means that what I'm doing, what I'm building, is more sustainable for me and my family."
— Abigail Peugh [05:30]

2. Goal #1: Walking Every Day

Objective: Walk daily and track progress using a "big ass calendar."

Despite setting an ambitious goal to walk every single day, Abigail acknowledges the impact of her health challenges, which occasionally kept her bedridden. Ultimately, she achieved over 200 walks in 2024, demonstrating commendable dedication.

"Over 200 walks in 2024. Super proud of that. Didn't hit the goal, but again, the goal is not necessarily there to always hit it, but to reach for more and try to do more."
— Abigail Peugh [09:15]

3. Goal #2: 100,000 Instagram Followers

Objective: Reach 100k followers on Instagram.

Abigail fell slightly short, reaching 95.6k followers. She attributes this to a shift in her business model and messaging, which temporarily slowed growth. Moving forward, she plans to focus on controllable factors like posting frequency and engagement strategies rather than vanity metrics.

"In 2025, my goal isn't going to be 200k Instagram followers. My goal instead, which I haven't decided exactly on it yet, but it's going to be something more along the lines of how many times I want to post, do I want to go live once a week more."
— Abigail Peugh [12:45]

4. Goal #3: Weekly Date Nights

Objective: Maintain weekly date nights with her husband.

While Abigail didn’t achieve perfectly consistent weekly dates, she significantly increased their frequency. She shares a heartfelt story about a recent double date that had to be canceled due to her daughter’s distress, highlighting the challenges of balancing family and personal time.

"When you own a business, it's easy to pour everything you have into the business and the family time, and then the time with your spouse kind of gets forgotten."
— Abigail Peugh [14:30]

Moving forward, she aims to continue prioritizing date nights in 2025, ensuring her relationship remains a cornerstone amidst entrepreneurial demands.

5. Goal #4: Revenue Targets

Objective: Achieve specific revenue milestones through good, better, and best goals.

Abigail met her "good" revenue goal but fell short of the "better" and "best" targets. She reflects on the importance of decoupling self-worth from business success, a lesson that helped her maintain a healthy perspective despite not meeting all financial ambitions.

"Something else that I really had to learn this year was that my worth is not connected to how much money I make."
— Abigail Peugh [17:20]

6. Goal #5: Finding Property to Build a New Home

Objective: Purchase property to build a larger home with more land.

This goal remained unmet in 2024. Abigail discusses the complexities and emotional toll of house hunting, especially when planning for a long-term family home. However, she remains optimistic about achieving this goal in 2025.

"We didn't find it this year. So maybe 2025 we will. That is our goal."
— Abigail Peugh [18:40]

7. Goal #6: Podcast Downloads

Objective: Reach 100,000 podcast downloads.

Abigail set an optimistic target without a clear strategy, resulting in 55,845 downloads by the episode's recording. She acknowledges the challenge of setting realistic goals, especially when venturing into new territories like podcasting.

"I set that goal with just like, okay, cool, let's see what I can do. But I didn't necessarily, like, attach success to a hundred thousand downloads..."
— Abigail Peugh [20:10]

For 2025, she plans to aim higher, leveraging the lessons learned to better strategize her podcast growth.

8. Goal #7: Eliminate One-on-One Calls

Objective: Stop conducting one-on-one calls to reduce mental strain.

Despite her intention to avoid one-on-one interactions, Abigail ended up conducting 18 calls in 2024. She valued these interactions but recognized the unpredictability they introduced, especially when dealing with health issues.

"I'm not sure if I'm going to set that same goal again for 2025. I like the freedom of opening one on calls when I feel like it."
— Abigail Peugh [22:50]

She contemplates a more flexible approach for the coming year, balancing personal well-being with business commitments.

9. Reflections and Lessons Learned

Abigail emphasizes the importance of setting flexible and realistic goals, understanding that setbacks are part of the entrepreneurial journey. She highlights the value of writing down goals, citing a statistic that suggests written goals are 43% more likely to be achieved.

"Goals are not necessarily there to be set to say that if you don't hit them, you're not successful. It's just to have something to work towards and to inspire you."
— Abigail Peugh [25:30]

Her "big ass calendar" serves as a tangible tool to keep track of progress and maintain accountability.

10. Looking Ahead: 2025 Goals

Abigail teases upcoming plans for 2025, including:

Sharing 2025 goals in the next episode.
Focusing on one digital product for 90 days to sharpen messaging and audience clarity.
Enhanced community engagement within her Rich Girl Community.

"For 90 days, I'm going to have one product, one digital product that I talk about every single day... focusing on one product and really narrowing down the messaging."
— Abigail Peugh [26:50]

She encourages listeners to join her community to follow along and participate in these initiatives.

11. Conclusion

Abigail wraps up the episode by reiterating that missed goals do not equate to failure. Instead, they offer opportunities for growth and realignment. She expresses gratitude for her listeners' support and invites them to stay tuned for her 2025 aspirations.

"I'm so proud and happy that I still hit that good goal. Right. Would I have liked to hit my better or best goal? Absolutely."
— Abigail Peugh [19:30]

Final Thoughts:

Episode 38 is a heartfelt exploration of Abigail Peugh's entrepreneurial journey through the highs and lows of 2024. Her transparency about unmet goals, coupled with the wisdom gleaned from these experiences, provides listeners with relatable insights and actionable strategies for their own ventures. Whether you're navigating business challenges or personal growth, Abigail's reflections offer encouragement and practical advice to support your journey.

Notable Quotes:

"If you set a goal, it's to reach for more and try to do more." — Abigail Peugh [09:15]
"My worth is not connected to how much money I make." — Abigail Peugh [17:20]
"Goals are just something to work towards and inspire you." — Abigail Peugh [25:30]

Join the Conversation:

Stay connected with Abigail and her community by joining the Rich Girl Community, where she shares exclusive content and supports fellow entrepreneurs in their growth journeys.

Next Episode Teaser:
Look out for Episode 39, where Abigail will unveil her ambitious goals for 2025 and provide strategies to achieve them.

Transcript

A (0:00)

Foreign.

B (0:04)

You're listening to an episode of the Abigail Pugh podcast with, you guessed it, Abigail Pugh. I'm an introverted mama who took my online business from zero to seven figures in 15 months, selling my own digital products on social media. And guess what? I did it all with my 3 year old daughter no less than 3ft away from me at all times. Now I'm bringing you everything I've learned about building a wildly profitable online business that supports your life while allowing you.

A (0:30)

To truly live it.

B (0:31)

Get ready for raw, honest conversations with entrepreneurs making thousands per month selling their own digital products and people just like you who ditch self doubt to create the life they've always wanted. If you're ready to make more money, have more impact, and still have time for the things that matter most, you're in the right place. Grab your sneakers, head out on your hot girl walk, and let's dive in.

A (0:54)

Okay, so if you know me, you know that I'm a last minute girly. And it's honestly just how my brain works. Like if I don't have a deadline, like a hard deadline, it's not going to happen. So I was supposed to record this episode last week. Then it was, you know, absolute chaos with my sister and her two kids under two here for Christmas, everybody at one point or another was sick. Then I got hit with what feels like the plague, and it was awful. Like, I haven't been this sick in a long time and I know a lot of other people had the same experience and I lost my voice and it was. It was just awful. But I feel somewhat human today. And my podcast editor needs to edit this before this goes live on Tuesday, tomorrow when you're listening to it. So here we go. Talk about doing things messy and just going for it, even when it's not the perfect ideal situation. But today we're going to talk about my 2024 goals that. That I did not hit. Now, I polled y'all over on Instagram to see if you wanted me to share the goals I didn't hit in 2024 or to share my 2025 goals. And it was literally a one vote difference. So thanks for making that easy for me, guys. No, I'm just kidding. So I will share my 2025 goals on next week's podcast episode. I'm also going to share a reel this week talking through these goals that I have for 2025 so I can remix that at the end of the year when I do or don't hit those goals. That is one of my favorite types of content where you're just kind of sharing what you think you're gonna do. And then at the end of the year, you get to kind of side by side see if you hit those goals. And for me, I know that I. I know a lot of people feel this way, but I used to feel nervous to set goals. Cause I felt like, okay, if I set these and I don't hit them, then I'm gonna feel ashamed or embarrassed that I didn't hit them. But the way I look at goals now is totally different. Right. Like, I want something to work towards. Right. Does that mean I'm always gonna hit my goal? Exactly. No. But I'm more likely to do more and be better if I have goal that I am working towards. I also set good, better, and best goals for certain things that are kind of out of my control. And I'll talk about that a little bit later. And that really helps me not feel like I'm a failure if I don't hit my goal. Exactly. But now that we have all that outta the way, let's dive into the goals I didn't hit in 2024. Now, as a little reminder, 2023 was my year of. Yes. And 2024 was my year of. You guessed it. No. And it definitely affected my re. I'm perfectly okay with that. Cause I felt like I had so much more room in 2024 to heal and grow and really just take care of myself. Because no matter how many times I try to convince myself that I can just go, go, go, realistically, I can't pour from an empty cup. And going through chronic illness and mold, detoxing and just so many things, 2024 was just so much more sustainable for me in life, in business and everything. And I'm totally OK if it means that what I'm doing, what I'm building, is more sustainable for me and my family. So let's get into the goals I set and the ones I didn't hit. Okay. So the first goal that I set in 2024 that I did not hit and that was walking every single day. Now I have this really cool calendar in my office. It's called a big ass calendar. That's literally the name. And it shows you a little box for like the entire year so you can see your whole year in a glance. And I love using that to track things that I want to try and do every single day. So past year I bought little stickers that correspond with each thing. So walking every single day, if that happened, I would put a little red star sticker on there to show that I went on a walk that day. And it was really cool visually, just to see how I was doing. I knew, like I said going into this, that I wasn't going to be able to walk every single day. As someone that was dealing with a lot of chronic illness and chronic migraines and mold detoxing, which I'm still kind of dealing with some migraines, not as many anymore, definitely. It's so much less. It's so much better. But in the beginning of the year, you know, there were some days where I couldn't even get out of bed and it was really awful. So I knew I wasn't gonna be able to walk every single day. But I really wanted to set the intention to try and walk every single day. So I counted up all those little stars on my big ass calendar and I actually went on just over 200 walks in 2024, which I'm so proud of. Some of these walks I would listen to podcast episodes. Sometimes I would answer DMs if you guys got voice notes from me where I'm out of breath, probably because I was walking up a hill when I did it. And sometimes I would literally just go on a walk with nothing in my ear, just quiet. I find that when I do that, it's a little hard for me not to try and think about business ideas. And then I don't usually bring my phone and I have nowhere to store what I'm thinking of. So that's hard for me and something I'm working on. But over 200 walks in 2024. Super proud of that. Didn't hit the goal, but again, the goal is not necessarily there to always hit it, but there to reach for more and try to do more. My next goal was a hundred thousand Instagram followers, which I did not hit. I think I'm at 95.6 today. I want to say I checked earlier and then I totally forgot to write the number down, but I think I did really good and I'm super proud of that. Like, I'm so proud of my community. And in the beginning of the year I was really focused on growth and then, you know, few things in business changed and I completely changed my business model and, and completely changed where I wanted to take my business. So the followers stopped coming in for a little bit, or I should say the followers stopped coming in as frequently as they were before because I was in a place of where do I want to take my business. And you know, if your messaging slows down and you kind of don't know where you're trying to go, it is harder to grow. I tell people all the time, like when you know exactly who you want to serve and how you want to serve them. Growing on Instagram, I don't want to say easy, but it's easier to do when you know that. So when I had some unsure moments, it really felt hard to grow. But now I feel really good and I'm so proud of the community that I have built and moving forward when it comes to Instagram and goals for that, I'm really going to try and stay away from setting like numbers. So in 2025, my goal isn't going to be 200k Instagram followers. My goal instead, which I haven't decided exactly on it yet, but it's going to be something more alongs of how many times I want to post, do I want to go live once a week more? So things that I have control over. And when it comes to Instagram, I definitely recommend for you to set those goals as well. Because we have no control over how many followers we're going to get. Exactly right. What we do have control over is how often we're posting, if we're doing lives, if we're doing collaborations with other people. So that will be more of my focus for 2025. I believe I might just still throw out a number because I think it's kind of fun. But I don't want to set all my goals according to vanity metrics because it's so much more than that. But next up was weekly date nights with my husband. And again, we did not go every single week, but we went so much more this year on date nights because we were way more intentional about making these date nights happen. And actually a few weeks ago we went on a date night. How we always do, right? So I put my daughter to bed, I lay with her until she falls asleep and then my mother in law will come and stay at the house while we go out on a date. So my daughter Bean is always asleep when we're gone and she never wakes up anymore, right? Like when I put her to bed, she's four now, she stays asleep and we were 20 minutes away. We were going on a double date too. It's the first double date we had done. We were so excited and I get a call from my mother in law and she's like, oh my gosh, Charlie woke up, she's screaming, she's like, I don't know what to do. She's like, she won't listen. She didn't want to talk, right? Like she woke up and she was super flustered. Why is my mom not here? What's going on? So she was so upset, so we turned around immediately. We canceled the date night. I came home, I was talking with Charlie. We were just like talking it out. And she was like, mom, I, I really wish you would have just told me. And I was like, oh, okay, so can I put you to bed? And then grammy will be here and we'll go on a date night. And she said, no, no, like I don't, I don't feel comfortable with that. She's very, she's very good at expressing herself. And I said, okay, so how can papa and I go on date nights because we love each other and we need to prioritize our relationship and spend time together. And she was sad. She's like, well, I want to go too. But then we came up with a plan where she can stay home with either my mom or my mother in law, watch a movie while me and my husband Trevor go out on a date. And she was super felt comfortable with that. And I just felt really good knowing that now she's good staying with people when we're gone. She's almost four and I think that was, you know, recently, maybe five times total. She's stayed with my mom or my mother in law without me or my husband. She's always just been very close with both of us and didn't want to leave us. And I never wanted to force her to stay with someone until she was ready. That's very much her personality. Like when she's ready to do something, she's ready, but until then she ain't ready. And I don't push her. It was the same thing with potty training, which is so random. But when I potty trained her, it was like I didn't push it at all. And then one day she was, I think she had just turned three and she was like, I don't, I don't want to use my diaper. I'm ready to use the potty. And I think she had like three times where she didn't make it to the toilet and that was it. And she was, she was just done, right? So I've kind of always just when she's ready for something, she's ready. So all that to say in 2025. I'm taking this one into 2025 too. Trying to do weekly date nights now that she's able to, you know, have a movie night with while we go out. Because it's really easy when you own a business to pour everything you have into the business and the family time, and then the time with your spouse kind of gets forgotten sometimes, which I don't want that to happen. I love my husband so much. I love going on dates with him, and so I'm definitely taking that priority into 2025 as well. Now, this one, the one y'all have been waiting for, did I hit my revenue goal? Which, obviously, if I'm talking about it on this episode, I did not. And something I will say as well is that when I set revenue goals, especially, I always do a good, better, and best goal. And this year, I hit my good goal. Right? And obviously, I would love to hit my better or best goal. I did last year. I hit my best goal. It was insane. And this year, like I said, it was my year of no. But I'm so proud and happy that I still hit that good goal. Right. Would I have liked to hit my better or best goal? Absolutely right. It's. It's really fun to hit those goals, and it feels really good. But at the end of the day, this is why I set those good, better, or best goals when it comes to revenue. Because something else that I really had to learn this year was that my worth is not connected to how much money I make. And that was really hard for me because I was putting so much of my worth into how well my business was doing. So the fact that I hit my good revenue goal for the year, and I'm happy and I feel good. I'm just. I'm really proud of myself for doing that work and putting the work in, because it's really hard to disconnect those two things. It's hard to not feel like what you're doing is completely related to your worth, because like I said, the money you make has nothing to do with your self worth. So if you're struggling with that, just write that down. Okay? The next one that we didn't do this year that I was really hopeful that we would is find a property to build our home on. We need a little bit more space in our home. We knew that the house that we bought in 2020 would be our first home. Eventually, we'd love to turn it into a rental, but we need a little bit more room and we want more land. We love being outside, and right now we just have a really small backyard. So our goal this year was to find some Property to either build on or a property that was already being built. You know, we're not super picky about that part. Very picky about other things. My husband wants more space in the house. I want more land. And so I was super bummed we didn't find that. I'm still really hopeful. I know that because it didn't happen this year doesn't mean it's not going to happen at all. And again, this was something that I put on my goals and my vision board for 2024, but I was open to it. Not necessarily happening that year, but we did so much searching. And I think, I think, don't quote me on this. I think we found the neighborhood that we want to be in, which is amazing. It's really hard to make these types of decisions when you're thinking of, like, 10 years out, right? Because the house that we buy next, we would really love it to be the house that we're in for at least 10 years. And there's just like, so many things to consider, and it's just decision overload. Right? Like, I get so fatigued by these kinds of decisions. So while I'm so grateful that we are even in the position to look for something like this, we. We didn't find it this year. So maybe 2025 we will. That is our goal. And yeah, okay, Next goal that I didn't hit, and this one was, I don't like, there was no strategy behind this goal because I had never launched a podcast before. I didn't know what was normal for downloads or not. So I my podcast on April 30th. So in the eight months of 2024 that I had a podcast, my goal was to hit a hundred thousand downloads. Again, that was not really realistic for me, and I'm super proud of what I did hit. But it was almost half or a little bit more than half. So I ended up hitting 55,845 downloads as of today. So we still have one and a half days left. But didn't hit my goal for my podcast downloads. And again, I'm totally okay with that. I set that goal with just like, okay, cool, let's see what I can do. But I didn't necessarily, like, attach success to a hundred thousand downloads because I didn't even know if that was possible or not. But going into 2025, I think I am going to aim for that. I love this podcast. It's been so much fun just to get a little bit deeper with you guys and be able to, yap, a little bit more if you can't tell. I love to just chat things out and it's been so fun. So thank you for being here. Thank you for being one of those 55,845 downloads for my podcast this year. It's. It's wild. I'm. I'm so grateful. Okay, last but not least, the last goal that I did not hit. This is kind of a weird goal. I don't want to say weird, it's just different. But in 2024, my goal was to do no one on one calls because here's the deal. I love one on one calls. I recommend them in the beginning of your business if it's applies to what you're teaching. But they are very mentally hard for me. And especially since a lot of this year I was dealing with chronic migraines and detoxing and mold and all these things that like, I don't have control over how I feel and like how I wake up feeling. Right. If you're someone that deals with chronic pain or migraines, like, you know what I mean? Right. There are some days where I wake up and like I can't get out of bed. Like, I can't even function. And so one on one calls, when I book those, I'm always kind of living in fear that I'm going to wake up with a migraine on a day that I have a one on one call and not be able to function. So in 2024, my goal was to take zero one on one calls, which in 2023 I did over 80 one on one calls in the entire year, which is a lot for me. I'm. That's a lot of one on one calls for me. And so like I said, in 2024, my goal was to take none, which I didn't do it. I ended up doing. I think it was 18 one on one calls. And I loved them. I g myself a little, you know, a little grace. I said, hey, I really want to do these. And so I, I booked, I think it was two or three months where I did them and I had a lot of fun doing them and they were great. But I was also kind of reminded that like, I don't have as much, like I don't have as much power over my health as other people do just because of the mold and the chronic migraines and all these things that are very out of my control. And actually one day too, I got food poisoning and I had to reschedule. Three one on one calls. And I hate that feeling. I don't want to reschedul things with people. I want to be someone that they feel like they can, you know, trust and rely on. And obviously, like, I have the best customers. They were all amazing and so kind and totally understood. And I really, you know, was very clear with them and let them know, like, I'm so sorry, this is not like me. I hate rescheduling things. And I, I am a reliable person. So when I can't be reliable and it's out of my control, it kills me inside. So I don't, I don't know if I'm going to set that same goal again for 2025. I don't know. I like the freedom of opening one on calls when I feel like it and when I feel like diving in a little deeper with people. So we'll see. Okay, you guys, those are all the goals that I did not hit in 2024. Make sure you come back next week. I will tell you all of my 2025 goals. I'm so excited to share them and dream big with you guys. Something I love about goals, like I said earlier, is that they're not necessarily there to be set to say that if you don't hit them, you're not successful or you didn't, you know, do good things that year. It's just to have something to work towards and to have something to inspire you and keep you going. Because I can tell you this, 2025, it's going to have its hard moments. We all know that there's never a year where hard things aren't going to happen. But when you set these goals and when you get really strategic about, okay, what can I do every single day to try and work towards that goal? I can pretty much, I can't guarantee, but I can almost guarantee that you're more likely to hit them. And something else I will say, I think the stat is if you write down your goal, you're. I think it's for, don't quote me on this. 43% more likely to hit it if you write it down. Which is why I have my big ass calendar. I write down my goals, I get very specific with my goals so that every day I can take steps towards hitting those actual goals. And one last random thing, if you are in rich girl community, I am going to do something for the first 90 days of 2025 where for 90 days I'm going to have one product, one digital product that I talk about every single day. And I'm not going to do it in the same way. Like, some days it'll be an email, some days it'll be a story, some days it'll be a reel. But I'm going to focus on one product for 90 days because I think there's something to be said about focusing on one product and really narrowing down the messaging and really getting clear with your audience that this is what you can help them with. And it's a fun little goal that I'm doing, and I'm going to kind of be sharing what I do every single day inside of my community so that if they kind of want to follow along and do the same thing and try that and focus on one product, they totally can. So if you're not in Rich Girl Community, make sure you get in. It's the place to be. It's my favorite place to be and it's where most of my focus is going to be going in 2025. Love you, mean it, and I'll see you next week.