Welcome back to Your Most Aligned Year. This is episode two, my friend. Check out episode one here.

I am so excited you're joining me because today we're talking about the vision alignment. We're taking what we talked about in episode one and expanding on it to start thinking about the revenue you want to generate from your business.

Because here's the thing: your business and your life absolutely coexist. Many of us have businesses so we can create an impact in the lives of others AND better our own life and the life of our family. And that requires cash. That requires money.

But this isn't a number we can just pick out of thin air.

This isn't something we can look at Susie online who has a similar business, or someone we admire and go, "Oh, she did this. So that's the number I'm gonna use."

Because if we're not aligned and connected to that number, then it truly is just a number. And just a number is not gonna motivate you at the end of the day.

I remember my first six figure year. It was also my first year in business. I was so obsessed with that number that I felt with 100% confidence I was gonna make it happen because it was so connected to my identity and I was so crystal clear on what I needed to do to get there.

I want you to feel the same way.

But plot twist: We're not gonna pick just one number. We're gonna pick three numbers.

That's what we're gonna focus on today. It's the Good, Better, and Best Framework, my friend, and it's what you're gonna walk away with after today's episode.

Listen to the full episode below:

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Every Dollar Has a Purpose

Today is all about setting business goals that match your identity. The first thing we need to strip away are any preconceived ideas of numbers or goals we might be carrying that are not ours.

This goes back to the shoulds. Who we should be, how much money we should be making, all those things we talked about in episode one.

One of my first accountants said something that changed everything for me: Every dollar has a purpose.

That was her methodology. Every dollar was either going into savings, paying off debt, paying team members, or going to my personal paycheck. Whatever it was, it had a purpose.

And I started implementing this in my actual revenue planning. Not just "the money is in, now what?" but "I'm gonna hit this number because these are the things I actually want to fund, and this is the money required to fund those things."

Because then you're not just choosing a number that sounds impressive, or something someone else did, or something you feel like you should be making.

It's a more emotional and grounded decision.

And I personally believe that when we are more rooted, when we are grounded (yes, I'm hinting at all the woo, we talked about burning things in episode one, and now we're talking about walking barefoot outside), that's when the magic happens.

Money can feel very fluffy. It's like it's imaginary. I don't see that dollar bill, that physical thing coming through. But when we can root it and ground it and feel more connected to it? That's where the magic really happens.

The Connection That Changed Everything

I still remember that first six figure year. I've done six figures continuously since then, and I've done $300,000 as my highest year. But the connection I had that first year has not been matched.

And I'm really wanting and hoping to match that feeling in this new year. Because that certainty I had, at a time when I should NOT have been certain (I did not know what the fuck I was doing in year one, I was throwing spaghetti at the wall), that feeling came from doing the identity work.

I wanted to say I was a six figure business owner, and I was crystal clear on what I was gonna be able to do with that money.

When we connect every dollar to your actual life priorities, that's when the shift happens.

Your business revenue isn't just about the business. It's about your life. YOUR life. And that's where these goals should be coming from.

The Good/Better/Best Framework

So instead of one magic number (air quotes, you can't see them, but I'm making them), you're setting three goals. Three of them.

This is called the Good/Better/Best Framework. I did not make it up, I don't know who did, but I've been doing it for years and teaching my clients how to do this.

Here's how it works:

Your GOOD is your baseline.
If I hit this, I'm good. For a lot of my clients, this could be what you've hit previously.

And I want to pause here because we don't talk about this enough. I remember Vanessa Lau (a fantastic entrepreneur I've followed for years) mentioned something before she took her sabbatical. She said one of the things we're constantly taught is that we have to be growing, and every year we have to have a new revenue goal. Every year it has to be different, more. It always has to be more.

But no one talks about the fact that you start over from zero at the beginning of the year. Not in your bank account, but the goal starts at zero. The year starts over. So you not only have to replicate what you did the year before, but also add to that.

Is that something you have the capacity to do?

When I heard her say this, I was like, holy crap. I've never thought about that before. Some of you might hear this and be like "duh," and some of you might be having that moment I had.

We're constantly just focused on more and growth, and this sent me into a whole spiral. But I digress.

The idea is that your good goal is GOOD. In fact, I'd argue it's great.

This is your baseline. This keeps your life running. It pays your bills, it covers your life. If you're a business owner, it's most likely what you've achieved this past year or in a recent year.

If you're not a full-time business owner, maybe it's what you need to make so you can take a step, maybe cut hours at your full-time job. (And by the way, not everyone needs to leave their nine to five. Entrepreneurship is hard as shit, and I know a lot of people who do it for years and then go back to a nine to five or get side jobs. There's absolutely no judgment there.)

Your BETTER goal is your growth goal.
Your good is what you've done, you can repeat this. Your better is the growth area. This allows for expansion, some breathing room. Maybe this is where you get to pay off some debt. Maybe you want to pay off your house or your cars. Maybe this is taking a trip you've been wanting to take. Maybe this just allows you to pay yourself more so you can do X, Y, and Z.

Your BEST goal is your stretch goal.
This is the dream scenario. This is the holy shit moment. BUT it is YOUR holy shit moment, not someone else's. Please don't do what I did.

That year I talked about in the last episode? In reality, based on how I was feeling and what I needed most in my life, I should have gone for my good goal being what I'd already achieved, and then incrementally raised from there.

Why This Framework Works

Here's what Good/Better/Best does:

It takes the pressure off having one perfect number.
You're not staking everything on hitting one specific target.

It gives you flexibility as the year unfolds.
And let's be clear, these numbers are NOT set in stone. You can adjust them. I highly recommend (and this is built into Brand New Plan) that you check in every 90 days to see if you need to adjust your goals.

These might shift. These might change. Because we don't know what's happening in Q3 of 2026. It could be something we didn't plan for. You could hit your goal in June. Then you better raise it.

It allows you to celebrate progress at multiple levels.
All three goals are actually wins. You don't "settle" for good. They're all winning numbers.

A Planning Hack I Love

Here's something I tell my clients in the Academy: When you're mapping out the nitty gritty (which we'll talk about more in episode three), when you're thinking about your offers and launches and revenue per product, plan for your best scenario.

Plan for the holy shit goal.

Because guess what? If you go for that and maybe don't hit it (because it's the "this will be crazy" goal), you're still on track for good and better.

And that's a cool mindset shift you can take. You're planning for the best, and if you hit it? Whoa. And if you don't? That's great too. We're still growing, we're still making progress, we're still doing amazing things.

Where Is Your Money Actually Going?

Now that we've thought about Good/Better/Best, let's talk about the "every dollar has a purpose" piece.

We get to connect the money to your actual life.

Don't skip these questions. You're probably already thinking of numbers. I can't keep you from doing that (that's your intuition going "this feels good, this feels exciting"), but this process really helps you feel grounded and rooted in that number.

Here's what I want you to consider:

Your personal salary: What are you gonna pay yourself from your business? If you haven't done that already, that's a fantastic goal for this next year. And not just what you're paying yourself, but break that down too.

If you're paying yourself $5,000 every single month, where does that $5,000 go? Some goes to taxes (hate to break it to you), but where does the rest go?

I'm really going to encourage you to think about these things from a best perspective. You could do this for all the numbers (feel free to do it for good, better, AND best, I actually love that because then you're very connected to each of them).

But for that best one? This is the part where you get to really dream.

Are you going on a family trip to Europe? Are you buying a new home or getting a new car? Does your kid really want to do some sort of trip or class that you can now get for them? Think about how that personal salary translates into everyday expenses and those goals.

Your business needs:

Business savings fund
Are you getting ready for maternity leave? Do you need a cushion?
Do you need to take a sabbatical for three months in the summertime?
Hiring support?
New programs or certifications?
Building an emergency fund (I recommend this for both business and personal life)?

I want you to do this for each of your goals, but bare minimum for your best.

How much is gonna stay in the business and what is that going to fund? How much is gonna be your personal salary and what is that funding? What are you saving for? What are you investing in?

Think about all these different areas so you can look at that number and it's not just a number anymore. It's a vacation. It's a new couch. It's investments. It's being able to take time off from work.

This is how revenue goals become more motivating, because they're connected to your real desires. They're not just a number you picked out of thin air.

The Alignment Check

As we go through these numbers, it's really important that we do a little alignment check with our future self, what we talked about in episode one.

As you're going through this, ask yourself:

Does this revenue goal support the person I'm becoming?
Do I have the capacity? Not "are there small things I need to shift" (that's gonna happen), not "are there challenges I'm going to face" (that's gonna happen), but am I READY for this? Do I have the capacity for this?

Do the priorities I'm funding match my values?
The things I'm not willing to compromise on?

How does hitting this goal make me actually feel?
Not just as an entrepreneur, but as a parent, as a caregiver, as a spouse, as a partner, as a human being?

This is all connected. We talked about feelings in episode one. If something feels off or one of the numbers just doesn't feel quite aligned, now's the time to dig deeper and shift that a bit.

This isn't about being perfect. This is about alignment.

Your intuition is already guiding you through this process. Listen to that. Trust that. And also know that this is an evolution. Just like your identity will slowly shift throughout the year, your goals can also be adjusted, especially this revenue goal.

How My Goals Have Evolved

My revenue goals have shifted SO much as my identity has evolved.

After that debacle (you know, where I realized I was going for a monetary goal that did not and was not aligned), I purposely took it back. I was like, "I'm gonna go back to six figures. I'm gonna make less, actually, because I need to do some inner work, and I know I don't have the capacity to be there for my clients and my family with everything we're going through."

I gave myself permission. And that was hard. It was very hard.

But if I wouldn't have done that, if I would've set these crazy goals and then not even come close to hitting them, not even been able to make a plan to hit them? I would have felt horrible.

That's not alignment.

The Mission Beyond the Money

As you've probably picked up on, I'm a very mission-driven individual. If you've followed any of my work, you know I have a background in nonprofit management. I worked for nonprofits for years, and my family actually had a nonprofit when my brother was really sick with cancer.

I believe that in order to build not only powerful and impactful businesses, but also sustainable businesses that you actually believe in and stick with, you need to have the mission behind it all.

So I'm gonna challenge you to think about the mission behind the money.

Revenue is important, but it's not our only goal here. And if you're only building your goals for the next year based on your revenue, and you are in fact someone who wants to make an impact, it's not gonna feel good.

What else matters to you as a business owner?

The type of community you want to build?
The lives you want to impact? (Does a number come up there, the number of people you want to serve?)
Freedom in your schedule? (What can you do with that freedom?)
Creative fulfillment?

These non-revenue goals matter too.

One of my big ones for the next year is to become an author. I have a book sitting in my drafts. I've had this conversation with some amazing individuals. I'm ready to share it. (I have to finish it first, obviously.)

That is one of my goals. It will most likely result in revenue for my business, but that's not the main goal. The main goal is that I publish a book. That's creative fulfillment for me.

What are those things for you?

Even just one to two non-revenue priorities for your business will be incredibly impactful.

When you have both the money and the mission? That is some beautiful alignment, my friend.

Your Action Steps for This Week

This week you are on a mission to:

Set your Good/Better/Best revenue goals
Map out where the money is going (specific life priorities and business priorities for each dollar)
Check your alignment (Does this feel aligned with the person you visualized in episode one?)
Identify your non-revenue goals (What are those other priorities you want to carry into your planning process?)

Next week in episode three, we're creating your adaptable roadmap. Another signature thing I love to teach. We're going to talk about monthly themes instead of rigid monthly goals, and you're gonna map out your entire Q1.

Yes, because I want you to start the year really strong. We can map out the next 90 days. I don't know what you're doing in September, I don't know who you're gonna be in September of next year, but the first 90 days? We can absolutely do that.

We're also going to cover the quarterly evaluation so you can recalibrate every 90 days without abandoning your plan. This is how we stay on track.

Want to go deeper? Brand New Plan is my signature planning course, and it's still available for a limited time. This is where we go even deeper into this work. There's an entire workbook, about eight additional audio trainings that break it all down. You're gonna get templates for breaking down your revenue priorities, putting actual dollar amounts on everything.

Everything we're talking about here is super actionable inside Brand New Plan. It's where the magic really happens, and it's only available one time every year.

You can get yours for just $67, one payment, lifetime access, all updates. Go to brandmerry.com/newplan.

Happy planning! If you're listening to this in real time, happy new year!

I'll be back with episode three.

Michelle

Tune in now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube Podcasts to hear the full episode and all the tips.

P.S. Ready to build a revenue-generating brand? One that not only stands out online but also makes it easier than ever to create high-value content? Tune in to my free brand class and learn my Build a Better Brand Method. Watch now at brandmerry.com/class.

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