Donald Deibler, business manager of All Stars Ice Cream and Cafe Bakery and supporter of his wife's ownership of Dead Horse Beer and Burritos, has formalized a personal policy: no goal counts unless it is written down first. The policy, which Deibler applies to both his businesses and community commitments, underscores a structured approach to goal-setting that could serve as a model for business leaders navigating complex operations.
Deibler sets yearly goals every January 1 and monthly goals at the beginning of each month. "I like to set yearly goals every January 1st and monthly goals at the beginning of every month," Deibler said. "I keep these in the back of my mind daily." The discipline lies in the follow-through, with both lists kept visible enough to shape decisions rather than buried in a notebook.
Running a bakery and cafe alongside supporting a second food and beverage business means Deibler's days rarely look the same twice. A written goal provides a constant reference point when schedules get noisy. He describes handling moments of doubt by "taking everything one task at a time," and applies the same approach to goals, breaking a big yearly target into monthly pieces so it never feels overwhelming.
The monthly goal isn't a smaller copy of the yearly one; it's a specific step toward it. On January 1, the year's goal gets written down in full. On the first of each month, a smaller, specific goal is added underneath it. Daily, both stay visible enough to guide decisions. When asked what continued growth looks like, Deibler answers, "By setting new goals," indicating that the process is continuous, with one goal closing and another opening.
The policy extends beyond one business. Deibler manages All Stars Ice Cream and Cafe Bakery and supports his wife's ownership of Dead Horse Beer and Burritos, meaning two sets of goals run at once, sometimes overlapping. He credits his family, including his parents and siblings, as his biggest influence. Growing up with five siblings in Donaldson, Pennsylvania, taught him early how to divide attention across multiple priorities without losing track of any.
Outside the businesses, the same habit shows up in community commitments. Deibler has stayed involved with local youth sports donations and volunteer coaching, work that also runs on a calendar rather than good intentions alone. He emphasizes that "hard work and a positive attitude" are the qualities he considers most important, neither of which appears on a to-do list but both determine whether the list gets finished.
Deibler measures success by his own standards. "By accomplishing your goals and exceeding past that," is his definition of success, with no external scorecard involved. He checks his own list against his own results. This self-directed accountability is central to the policy's effectiveness.
For leaders interested in business and technology, Deibler's approach offers a low-tech but high-impact method for managing multiple ventures. In an era of digital tools and AI-driven project management, the simple act of writing down goals and reviewing them daily remains a powerful discipline. It ensures that strategic objectives are not lost amid daily operations and provides a clear framework for measuring progress. As businesses increasingly adopt sophisticated software to track key performance indicators, Deibler's policy reminds us that the foundation of execution is personal commitment and clarity, something that technology can support but not replace.
Deibler graduated from Pine Grove High School in 2011 and from Albright College in 2015 with a degree in Music Business. His written-goal habit isn't a marketing device; it's the same operating rhythm he has used across both businesses for years, now made explicit for anyone who asks how he keeps two food and beverage operations moving in the same direction without losing sight of either one.
