Episdode 026 - Top 5 Ways to Implement Execution Strategies to Grow Your Business with Brian Moran of The 12 Week Year

And man, what a great, what a great feeling that was. And I got trained on that as an intern at the Houston Chronicle back in the late 90s. And then flash forward probably 10, 12 years, I got to see the 12-week year before it was the 12-week year in a book form. And I remember sitting there and I go, they're like, you have to come to this training class with this guy who's going to talk about this idea of periodization. And I'm like, what the hell is that? I sat there that day and honestly, flash forward now, probably close to 15 years since that day, I'm still using everything you taught me in that class. It just works. So can we take a minute and talk a little bit about periodization and how you got to building this philosophy?

Yeah, yeah. Happy to. That's a great story, by the way. Love it. So we were young men back then. We were. I had hair. Yeah, there you go. That's why I didn't recognize you. Right, yeah. So what happened with this chance is that my background had been really in leadership and performance from a consulting standpoint. And I've always been intrigued on what it takes to perform at your best. So when I went out on my own, started to think about, you know, what value was I going to bring to the people I worked with? And initially thought I was going to give them techniques and ideas and things like that. And I quickly realized that, you know what, they have plenty of great ideas. They have plenty of resources. There's all kinds of programs that the fundamental breakdown holding most people back from achieving what they're capable of wasn't knowing it was doing.

And so that's when I began to really focus on what's it take to execute at a high level. And so everything we do at the 12-week year is designed to help you achieve more in less time through more consistent and effective execution. And so Michael Lennington is my partner here. He joined me. And, you know, we started to work with the fundamentals that drive execution. But one of the things that was happening for us is we were, like most people do, we were working in the context of an annual environment, an annual execution cycle, if you will. So even with big companies that, you know, have to make numbers quarterly, it's still this annual focus, right? A quarter is a part of a whole. And so we were getting good results, but we felt like they were capable of more.

And one of our clients came up and said, hey, are you guys familiar with periodization? He was into cycling. The postal team at the time was using it. And I remember it from weightlifting, bodybuilding days in college. And so Michael and I took a look at that, and it had some applicability for what we were doing. And so we took that out of sports and adapted it to a business setting, adapted it to a personal setting. And that's really where the 12-week year was born. So our clients work in the context of every 12 weeks as a year, as you know, Chance, where there's – and there aren't four of those in the year, right? That's annualized. It's just this 12-week year followed by the next. And the power of that is, you know, in an annual cycle, there's just too much time to put things off, right?

In January, December looks a long way off. So we put things off through the year. Then we get near – the end of the year starts to approach, and that panic sets in, and we go crazy. And sometimes we hit the goal, sometimes we don't. But either way, we've left all this opportunity and capacity on the table in the earlier months. And I remember – I distinctly remember when you came and did that training, that was the part that probably hit me the hardest. Because I think that that's a trap that most salespeople, whether you're a real estate agent or not, most salespeople fall in is, I'm going to set this goal that I'm going to sell X this year, right? And the first quarter goes by, and maybe you've gotten 10% of that. But it's okay. I've got nine more months to make up. That's it.

The second quarter goes by, and maybe you're at 30% or 40% of it. Oh, I just need to buckle down in the third quarter, and I can get there. And then you get to that fourth quarter, and you're like, holy crap, I really need to work my butt off in order to try to get this next 60% that I'm still missing out of the bank. And you do, and you're like, well, what if I just worked that hard all four of those quarters? What could I have done? Yeah, and you don't even need to work that hard, right? The 12-week year isn't about taking everything you do in 12 months and trying to cram it into 12 weeks. It's about being more consistent with the things that really matter. Because what I like to say is that the person making 10 times as much as you isn't working 10 times as hard or as long. They're probably working less, but they're working different, and that's the key to it. Awesome. Awesome. All right, so let's jump in for our Top 5.

The very first one, when we talk about the five disciplines that are built around really defining, I think, those key we've got to do these things is. Yeah, so when we talk about Top 5, most people tend to think of techniques, right? There's a new talk track I'm going to use on prospecting calls or something like that. And those are important. But what matters most is the execution. You've got to implement, right? You can have the greatest ideas in the world. If you don't implement them, they're worthless. And so we look at the fundamentals, the disciplines that it takes to execute at a high level, whether it's with your health and your personal life, your relationships, your spiritual life, or your business, they're the same, and it starts with vision.

And I know your people have heard that, so there's a tendency to check out on that. But it really is the cornerstone of all high performance. If you don't have a compelling vision of the future that's bigger than the present, then moment by moment, it's too easy to give in to what's comfortable and what's familiar. That vision needs to call forth from us the best of what we have, cause us to be willing to do things differently and do different things. Otherwise, we keep going to what we've always done, which eventually produces diminishing returns because the marketplace moves on. And so what's it going to take for me to do these certain activities, whatever they are in the industry? So in sales, it's making calls, for instance, right? If I don't connect that activity to my vision, when it's time to make those calls on Tuesday, it's easy for me to find something else to do.

It's easy for me to go check my email, my voicemail, and go, boy, I've got to get on social media and post some stuff. I haven't been on there in a couple of days. So that vision is what causes us to take the action that may be uncomfortable or do the things we haven't done before. It's the why. It's why I'm willing to step out and do that stuff in spite of the fact that there's some discomfort with it, in spite of the fact there's some uncertainty around it. When we look at vision from a planning standpoint, we kind of say, okay, this is the destination of – if I'm drawing a map, this is the destination where I want to go. We'll fill in the step-by-step driving directions later, but this is the destination that I want to go. But I think that you hit on a really big point, which is it's got to be like a greater good, right? It can't just be I want to sell X.

Right. So here's the thing about that. You know, where most people, if they've done any vision work, it's typically in their business. As you know, because you've been through this, that's not where we start with the 12-week year. We start with your life because business is part of life. What do you want your life to look like three years from now, five years from now, ten years from now? And what would great look like? Right. And then we say, okay, what do I need to do in my business or with my career to line and enable that so that there's this connection between the things I do Monday through Friday and this life I want to live? And so the GCI or the sales or however you're measuring it is just a bridge to me getting to that vision. It's part of me funding my vision, right? If I have a big vision, I can make a lot of money. Right. If I've got a tiny vision, I don't need a lot of money.

And so the finances fund a lot of the vision. It's the bridge to living that, whether it's that dream vacation with the family, whether it's that sports car I want or whatever it is that is compelling. It's the gas in the car. Yeah. It's the fuel for sure. Right. Awesome. All right. So we've started with the vision. And then next on our list is we get to the actual plan. Planning. Yeah. And now here's the thing about that. Most people plan. Most people don't execute. Right. And the reason is, is that there's some pitfalls in traditional planning. The first is it's annualized. And it's really hard to know what I should be doing nine, 10 months from now, because I don't know what's going to be happening in the marketplace. Who knows?

You know, if you ever doubted that COVID brought that front and center a year ago. Absolutely. Everybody's plan was blown out of the water. For people that are on the 12-week year, it wasn't nearly as much. Right. Because every 12 weeks is a new year. Every 12 weeks is a chance to learn from the past and lock and load for the future. So with 12-week planning, it's a much more fluid process. But also, 12-week planning departs from traditional planning in that it's tactical. It's not conceptual. And there's a lot to that, probably not enough time to explain that, but a conception would be get referrals. Tactical is ask for two referrals a day. Right. There's a big difference there. You can't execute concepts. You've got to get tactical. And so with the 12-week year, you know, we're all about let's be great at a few things versus mediocre at many.

So it's focusing on one or two goals with a critical few tactics and really nailing it. Yeah, I think if you look at last year, I mean, from our standpoint, in the real estate industry, I think our year got blown up twice. I think there was this huge ball of uncertainty as things kind of started to shut down in April. Yeah. Nobody knew. I mean, there were people who were saying, well, the year is over. I mean, just, you know, pack it up and start planning for next year. Go flash forward to June and July. And the world opens back up and the market just goes insane. And now we're busier than we've ever been in history. And so being able to adjust quickly because you didn't have to worry about hitting an annual life goal, but a shorter term made a lot of difference.

And it's going to change again, right? With the spending and everything else. I mean, inflation's coming. It has to come when McDonald's is paying 20 bucks for part timers. You know, inflation's coming, which means interest rates are going to go up, which means it's going to affect the market again. Right. At some point. So, so the, the real estate market is constantly in flux. And so when you, when you create an annual plan, it's just not, it's not, it's not all that helpful on it. I mean, it's better than no plan, but there's a lot of pitfalls with annual planning. You know, one of the things that for me, and you can't see this obviously, but I guess you could probably see part of it. So I've got this big blackboard up here on the wall and right in front of me, I've got three screens. I'm a super visual person.

And so with a shorter plan, I can kind of put that right in front of me. And it's always there. As opposed to if I've got 10 pages of planning material, I'm never going to look at it again. I'm going to do it. And I, maybe I share it with a couple of people. Maybe I'd talk to my business coach or whatever that looks like. But if I don't have something that's just really succinct and kind of right in front of me. And as a constant reminder of these are the things I have to do. That just, it's not going to get done. Yeah. That annual plan, when you do look at it, it's overwhelming. And when you try and act on it, it's diffusing. So it creates stress, creates overwhelm. It creates shutdown because it's just, it's conceptual, which means there's a lot more work in the plan than what it looks like.

Right. That's the problem with planning conceptually. And one of the problems, it masks the amount of work. And so it doesn't look like I have much in there until I start to work on it. And then it just becomes overwhelming and diffusing. Yeah. Awesome. All right. So the third bullet point we have here is process control. And I think between number three and number four, which I won't, you know, give away just yet, I think this is where most people have a hard time because it's kind of where the rubber meets the road, right? I agree. Process control is our term for just tools and events that help you work the plan, right? It's, you need a compelling vision. You need a tactical focus plan, but that's not enough. You know, it's like Mike Tyson, the boxer said, everyone has a plan until they get hit in the mouth, right?

And so you're going to get hit in the mouth. And so process control are things, there's tools and events that we insert in the environment because without it, what happens is, is you have to rely on personal discipline. And I'm a very disciplined guy, but some days I'm more disciplined than others. And so I don't want to have to rely on that. And so we're going to insert some things in the environment that you can lean on. And so that even on the days or weeks you don't feel like doing it, it gets done. And that's the key, right? Because again, having a plan is one thing, executing the plans, a whole nother thing. But the first thing you have to have is you have to have that plan structured where it enables execution. That's the tactical plan. And then process control is about helping you act on it consistently, not perfectly, just consistently.

So I'm going to ask a little bit of a loaded question here. And I know that the answer varies based on who you're talking to. But when it comes to process control, how much of that can be automated given it's 2020, almost 2022 as we record this, and we have so much tech in our lives? How much of the tech in our life becomes a distraction to execution? And how much of it actually becomes part of it? Yeah, I think a lot of it is a distraction. You know, if you think about execution, it's really doing the heavy lifting. Right. And because we're having to do things we haven't done before, right? If you want to create any kind of result you haven't gotten before, you're going to have to do things you haven't done before. Amen? Amen. Yeah, 100%. So every time you do that, as I alluded to, the vision, there's discomfort, there's uncertainty, there's anxiety around that, right?

That's the heavy lifting in our business. It's not physical, it's emotional. And so, you know, technology isn't going to do a lot for that, to be honest with you. You've got to carve out time. You've got to do those activities, whatever they are. Now, you might use technology to complete the activity, but you've got to carve out the time and be willing to do the activity. And so often technology can be a distraction in that we're looking for a way around doing the heavy lifting. Yeah, an easy way out. Right, right. So I'm just going to go post on social media instead of getting on the phone and connecting with people one-on-one and doing the things that fundamentally drive the business and probably won't change. Because real estate is a people business, if you do it well.

Absolutely. And technology can assist that. But if I'm looking at just my experience, my opinion, if I'm looking at that as my primary driver, there's some real breakdowns. Yeah. Good. That's what I was hoping you'd say. Well, it's just, it's true. And it can become avoidance activity for us. Right. It's time for me to do some heavy lifting. So, boy, I'd better go check my emails or, like I said, I'd better go check social media and see what's happening and all that kind of stuff. And listen, we don't beat ourselves up for that because we all do it, but I want to recognize, I want your people to recognize when they do that so they're conscious of it because they'll do less of it then. Yeah. And that's where part of the, when I confront, you know, when I do that avoidance activity, it builds my courage then to step into the action, recognizing that I don't need to be perfect with it.

I don't control outcomes. All I control is the actions that I take. I'm going to take these actions, even if they're clumsy, even if they're not very effective initially, I'm just going to start to exercise that muscle and get some reps with it because I know it's fundamental to building the business. Yeah. I know in our industry, there's a bit of a saying that, you know, if you want to get rich in real estate, find something you can sell to Realtors. And, you know, a lot of that are these, it's the shiny new penny. It's the new this, new that. And it, at the end of the day, if you really want to be successful, it's the not very sexy stuff that really gets you there. Yeah. I talk about the daily mundane. Yeah. I like to channel Justin Timberlake. And so I call it, you know, bringing not very sexy back.

Well, you kind of remind me of Justin there a little bit. Yeah. You don't want to see me dance. No, I'm pretty sure I don't. All right. So we've got these, these process controls in place. Number four takes us to where I think most people struggle because it just lays bare the ugly truth. And that's the scorekeeping element, right? The tracking. Yeah. And it ties in closely to number three, right? Right. But the scorekeeping. So there's so much head trash around measurement. You know, people shy away from it for all kinds of different reasons. But the truth is, it's just feedback. Yeah. What we need to understand is that we don't control the outcomes.

We control the actions. Goals are outcomes. Tactics are actions. And so from a measurement standpoint, we need to measure both of those. And your folks have probably heard about lead and lag indicators. You know, there's probably a handful of those you need to track. And some of them are meaningful in the moment. Some as you look at trends over time, but you have to have the courage to track it. And as you said, sometimes it's going to, it's going to look really good and you're going to feel good about it. Other times it's not going to feel good, but you have to have the courage to track it so that we can understand what's happening in the business. So if you're not measuring, you're handicapping yourself. Right. And as people shy away from that, I'm going, you are just, you're holding yourself back because you don't have the information you need to make better decisions.

And so think of it this way. The oil light goes on in your car. You don't automatically go, oh, I'm a terrible car owner. I can't believe they let me own a car. I'm just awful. No, it's just a signal that says, hey, you've got to do something different. Right. You can't keep going this way. That's what measurement is. Some of it says, hey, you're right on pace. It's looking good. Others like the little warning light that says, okay, you've got, you've got to adjust here. Right. And, you know, as I mentioned, we have to, we have to measure both the outcomes and the execution. And for the people that do measure, typically all they measure are outcomes, lead and lag indicators. The most powerful measure we have is a measure of our execution. Because as I've already stated, we don't control the outcomes.

We control the actions. So with the 12-week year, we're going to track the lead and lags. We're going to score the execution. So as the CEO of your practice, you're going to know how you're performing week in and week out, whether you're 90 percentile or the 30 percentile. And as you've already alluded to, there's weeks when that hurts. But that's okay. That's okay, right? 12-week year is a guilt-free zone. We can't change the past. But I want to learn from it. Right. Because I can, if I can, if I had a bad week last week and I can make the adjustment now versus weeks or months into the future, then the results come online quicker. And that is honestly how our clients accomplish more in 12 weeks than most in 12 months. That's not just a fancy tagline. We have thousands, tens of thousands of people that are doing that.

And it's because they're making smaller adjustments more frequently. But we're tracking the outcomes. We're scoring the execution. Yeah. I think we struggle from two things in the real estate industry. And I don't think it's exclusive to the real estate industry. But, you know, that's the world I live in. So I am able to relate to it a little bit more. But one of them is I think we've built something of a stigma around the word accountability. Yeah. I believe that accountability ought to be something that we're helping somebody achieve because we care enough about them to pour that effort into it. Right. It's not a punishment. But I think a lot of times that word gets misconstrued as this is accountability is a punishment. Well, that's how we experience it. Right. That's why a couple of chapters in our book on that.

That's why Michael and I just turned in the manuscript for our new book coming out before the end of the year, which is Uncommon Accountability, to help demystify that. Because the way we experience accountability is as consequences, as negative consequences when we don't do what we're supposed to do. And yet, intuitively, I think we know that to be successful, we have to be accountable. So how do you reconcile that? Well, the fact is accountability isn't consequences. It's ownership. It's based on free will choice. And so being willing to take ownership of my vision and do the work, taking ownership of my plan and my goals, taking ownership of executing those tactics on a daily, weekly basis to score. And you'll see that that's kind of built into the 12-week year because it's a fundamental principle of being successful in life.

Yeah. I think, you know, in our industry, the second thing that's part of the issue with tracking for a lot of people is I think we measure the wrong things sometimes. I think in real estate training that we have, and whether it's from a coaching company or it's just through your brokerage training or whatever, it's really, it revolves around, did you get a referral? Did you get an appointment? Did you get a referral? Did you get an appointment? And to me, that sets people up to, like you said, easily push that off to the side if they can find something else to do. Yeah. Because you're not going to get that very often. For me, what it ought to be is did we actually have a conversation and build on a relationship?

Did we actually have a conversation that moved the ball down the field to where we can get an appointment or we can get a referral later? Yeah. See, to me, the difference here would be that we're going to track the ultimate goal, which is probably GCI. I don't know if that's how you guys measure it. I think that's how the industry does it. I like NCI better. Okay. Either way, we're going to track that. We're going to keep score on that. Are we getting closer to that goal? So we've got a 12-week goal around NCI, whatever that is, right? Whether I'm brand new and it's smaller or whether I've been in a business a while and I've got a million-dollar practice, it's a bigger number. But there's a 12-week goal that I've set. The actions you're talking about are part of the execution, which I'm going to score.

Did I do those things this week? Right. And really, around the critical few, not everything I can think of, but what are the things that really are going to drive the accomplishment of that goal? And so it's really tracking, you know, the goal and then measuring the execution. It's the combination of the two chance that provides you with everything you need to know where to make adjustments. Because if there's a breakdown, if I'm not hitting the goal, the breakdown's in one of two places. It can't be anywhere else. It's either in the plan. I don't have the right tactical plan. Or it's in the execution. I'm just not doing it. Right. And 80%, 90% of the time, it's the latter. I'm not doing it. But you need to be able to pinpoint where the breakdown is.

Because what happens for most people is when they're not hitting the goal, they go change the plan. Right. Because it's easier. And because they don't have a way to pinpoint the breakdown. And the fact of the matter is, is you may have a great plan. You don't know because you haven't executed it. Yeah. And so it's that combination of those measures that really provide you with the information to make timely, intelligent, adjustments. So last on our list here, in our Top 5, is the actual use of your time. Like, how are you using your time? Yeah. So that's critical. But if you think about this, I love to ask this at workshops. I'll ask people. So what's the first thing you need to know to be effective with your time? And I get different answers, right?

I don't know what you would say. I would say if I'm going to be effective with my time, I need to know these things ahead of time, which is, what's the vision that I'm trying to reach? And what are the activities that are going to help me reach those? Focus on those activities. So the first thing isn't what matters most. The first thing isn't how I'm using it. The first thing isn't how much I have of it. Because we all have the same. The first thing I need to know is, what do I want? That's the vision question. Right. The next thing is, what matters most? That's the planning question. Next thing is, am I doing it? That's the execution process control question. The next thing is, is it producing? That's the measurement question. So there's a sequencing to these disciplines. And if you don't have those first four in place, then I would argue that it's really virtually impossible for you to be effective with your time. Because you might get, you're going to get more efficient at the stuff that doesn't matter.

Yeah. Right. If I don't know what matters most, and I don't know what I want, and all those things, then it's, you know, that's why we talk about applying them as a system. Because when you have those other four things in place, now you know where to carve out time, and what to carve out time for. Yeah. Because I know what matters most. What's in my plan is what matters most. Right. And because I'm on a 12-week year, I've got due dates by week. So that translates to a weekly plan. That's part of process control. That's the thing that's in front of you every day. You're not overwhelmed by the 12-week plan. It's just, here's what's due for my 12-week plan this particular week, which by default has the most important stuff. So now I go to my calendar and I carve out time for those things, that heavy lifting that we talked about.

And let the rest of the day fill in around it, knowing that there will always be more to do than I have time to do. And so I'm going to start with what matters most. That's how I win the week. I execute my weekly plan this week, knowing that there's a bunch of stuff that isn't going to be done. But that's okay. Because if I do this consistently for 12 weeks, I'm going to be where I want to be. And so it lowers the stress. It improves the performance. Yeah. And it just gets rid of the distractions, right? The stuff that doesn't matter. Yeah. I think we spend a lot of time on those items because, like you said earlier, they're easy. Right. And some of them are urgent, right? And so they're calling your name. And yeah, go ahead. Say that again. I say it makes us feel like we did something.

Right. We really didn't do anything that moved us. No. We did something. And so we felt like, oh, I was busy today. Right. And what you are is you're the hamster on the wheel. Right. Trying to keep up with the inbox and all that stuff, which isn't moving the needle. Exactly. It's not the stuff that's going to create the success you're after in your business or in your personal life. Yeah, exactly. Can we talk about my favorite part of the time use? Okay. So I'm not a mathematician by any means, but I know that there are 52 weeks in a year. And I know that four times 12 is 48. So here I've got an entire mathematician of the year that isn't happening. So I've reached my goals in 12 weeks.

What do I do? Well, what would you do in an annual environment if you hit your annual goal at the end of the year? I would celebrate. There you go. That's what you do. Same process, man. That 13th week is a flex week. So, you know, if I need it to get it over the finish line, I'm working. But regardless of what happened, I'm celebrating. If I can't celebrate the outcomes of success, I'm celebrating the progress. Right. Because what you celebrate matters. It creates focus. It creates energy. It builds confidence. It builds rhythm. And so with the 12-week year, you have a lot more opportunities to celebrate that. And so it might be you take a day off. It might be you take the whole week off. You know, we're pretty big about going somewhere every 12 weeks to celebrate success and take time off so that you're fresh, you're excited about it.

But it's really critical that you do that. That 13th week also is when we look back and we learn from the previous 12 weeks and we lock and load for the next 12. Awesome. I love it. All right. So before we go, you have the new book. You talked a little bit about it. What do we need to know about the new book? When's it coming out? Where can we get it? They're trying to get it out for the end of the year. We're going to probably do some advanced sales if you're on our house list and offer a workshop with it as a bonus because we'd like to see what we can do with that. It's called Uncommon Accountability. If you're not on our house list, probably the easiest way to do is go to 12agear.com forward slash WST, weekly success tips.

Just sign up for those every week. You'll get a tip from me on how to be more effective in your business and your personal life. And then you'll be on the list. You'll get notification of that. But I can also, if you're willing to get the information to you and you can promote it with your folks when the time comes, would be very appreciative of that. Sure. Yeah. It's rare when you read it. You know, well, I always talk about if I'm reading a book, I can take one thing and put it into my life or one or two things and put it into my life that are going to move the needle. But it's pretty rare when you read a book that 15 years later is still really directing a lot of what you're doing, both in your life and in your business when it comes to time management, which I think is something a lot of people, a lot of people struggle with. Yeah, for sure. For sure. 12weekgear.com is where you can find us.

We have everything from online training to one-on-one performance coaching. We do a lot of work with Realtors, understand that business pretty well. But then maybe, maybe we get a chance to work with some of your groups in a group setting one-on-one. We'll see. That'd be great. Awesome. All right. Thank you so much for coming on Top 5 and sharing your expertise. This is perfect stuff. Go pick up a copy, if you haven't already read it, of 12-week year. It is one of my favorite books to refer out to people. When we do book club and things like that inside the brokerage, it's always one of the books that we look at just because it's good stuff that's simple to put into your life and business and really execute on. That's going to move the needle. It works. You know, we've worked in every industry at every level.

So you don't have to worry, does it work? Just get it and apply it as a system. Don't pick different pieces. Just apply it as a system and you'll get better. Yep. Thank you, sir. We sure do appreciate it. My pleasure. If you're watching, thank you for stopping by for another episode of Top 5. We'll see you next week.