15 The Masterplan: goal setting

Indie business club with Barfield and McKinney

Hello, and welcome to our first full-length podcast episode of 2025 🙌🏻

If you enjoy the show, you can chip in on our production costs at ko-fi.com/indiebusinessclub please and thank you 💖

In episode 15 “The Masterplan”, we talk about…

how setting goals can help you to protect your boundaries

the power of writing your goals down

how setting a specific number as a target can have a limiting effect

Mel’s knowledge of the phonetic alphabet (what a treat)

how “vanity” goals can still influence your business positively

setting aside time for thinking about your goals*

the dog poo outside Ben’s house

how to say hello in American (howdy to our US listeners 👋🏻)

We (well, Mel) also set a goal for ten listeners to email in and let us know what they think of the show 👀 Just gonna leave this email address here… [email protected]

Always be improving

You might notice in this episode we had precisely zero accurate statistics to hand. No wonder producer Ant gave us this succinct but stern advice after he edited it.

Voicenoted

As always, a cracking voicenote on the topic. Janine Coombes is a Sales and Marketing coach for 1:1 coaches, consultants, mentors & strategists. She’s also an event speaker and very experienced brand marketer. You can find Janine on LinkedIn, and at janinecoombes.co.uk. Get on the waitlist for the book she’s writing for coaches at easy-yes.com.

Your friends and mine

Just to mix it up, we’re giving a shout out to two of our friends who have exciting stuff in the pipeline. Friend of the show Dave Harland is launching a course called Write The Funny, which is basically 20 years of Dave’s wordmessaboutery condensed and refined into a video course. Sign up at thewordman.co.uk/course for a healthy discount when it comes out.

And our first ever Your Friend And Mine back on episode 01, Ange Lyons has launched her very own podcast called Creatives Like Us.

The podcast is dedicated to opening up the conversation and amplifying the voices of underrepresented creatives, especially people of colour. Hosted by graphic designer Ange, this podcast is all about breaking down barriers and showing that a successful career in the creative industry is possible for everyone.

Creatives Like Us is here to empower and uplift the next generation of diverse talent, whether you're a student, graduate, or exploring a new career path. Ange’s dream guest is Idris Elba so if you know him, hook her up!

Ask us anything

Got a burning question about being a freelancer, founder, or independent business owner? Send them to in to [email protected] and we might feature you in our upcoming Q&A episode.

Cheers,

Mel & Ben*If you have a recommendation for a brilliant spa hotel in the Birmingham area for Ben and his business partner Dave to have a relaxing goalsetting day, let us know.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barfieldandmckinney.substack.com