Hi everyone! For this session of Brilliant Talks, I want to talk about a topic that has been on my mind for the past couple of weeks: Planning. Now that we are moving into November, some of us feel the year-end buzz. A lot of us are beginning to plan for the coming year, setting our personal goals and business goals for 2023.

Planning is always exciting. There are many aspects of your life that you might have specific goals set—for the next month or the next year. For me, the top three are always Self, Family, and Business.

We get to look back on how our year went, see what progress we’ve made, and look forward to what’s next for our personal and business growth. While setting our goals and priorities is important, I want to challenge each of us to take it a step further.

One of the things I’ve seen over the years of being in the industry and leading a business is, a lot of people get discouraged or frustrated because they set goals, yet struggle to make them a reality. And for me, what has really helped is going through what I call “The Process.”

The Process

“The Process” is basically a system for me to be able to break down a big goal into smaller actionable strategies. This way, it doesn’t feel overwhelming, and I can focus on just putting one foot forward after the other to get closer to realizing those goals. 

The main goal of “The Process” is to get your goals and priorities for the future, be it a week, a month, or a year from now, out of just a list, and into actionable tasks in your calendars/planners. It is meant to give you more clarity on what you want to do or have to do and be able to do it consistently in order to realize your plans.

This is how I’ve planned my businesses in A Brilliant Tribe, Tristan & Associates, Drunk on Social, LabCoat Agents, and Success. This is also what I teach my team and other people I coach. It works for both business and personal planning, but I want to focus on business planning this time.

Mark helped me break it down so that everyone has a more concrete example of how it works. (You can watch the full replay here.)

Here’s how we do it:

After making a list of your goals and priorities, you take each of them and categorize what those goals are, then go through the process. It helps you get into the right direction and headspace to go for the goal in a more manageable and non-overwhelming way.

It helps if you write the answers down, so you can reference them when needed, and you can keep track of your progress.

 1. ONE goal/priority

What is one priority or goal that you have for your business for the next month/year/any time period you want?

Make it as specific and actionable as you can, and make it time-bound.

For example: “Help 4 families (one family a week) to buy/sell real estate for November.”

2. WHY?

The next step is to ask yourself, "Why is this priority or goal important to me? What are the key motivators behind this?”

You can be as selfish or altruistic as you want here, but be truthful. The why is important, because it helps you get clarity on what it is you value. Basically, you are asking yourself, “What does this goal do for me?”

Is it for financial gain? Is it to make you feel good? Is it to help you lay a strong foundation for the beginning of 2023?

Why did it matter so much that you made it your goal? A little clarity goes a long way when it comes to reminding yourself and motivating yourself to keep at it.

Going back to our example, “Help 4 families (one family a week) to buy/sell real estate for November,” it could be the following:

• To meet the quota
• Keep the pipeline strong
• Provide service to the clients

 3. The PROBLEM

For entrepreneurs, we are familiar with this: “What problem are you trying to solve with this goal?” In real estate, we can tweak that a bit and ask, “What solution are we providing?”

I interviewed Joe Polish recently for a Success podcast, and he wrote a book titled “What’s in it for them?” In chapter one, he talks about “How are they suffering and how can I help?”

It is important to ask this question, and I especially use this when coaching big companies, because it gets to the core of how we show up. Whether on social media or how we show up to help people in person.

Life is full of problem-solving. Often, the goals we set are meant to solve these problems that matter to us on a personal and professional level. That is why we want to try and achieve them. And by solving those problems, we feel satisfied with our success, which is also very important.

4. Three STRATEGIES

Time to break down the one goal/priority even further. What are three strategies that you can do, that help support this goal?

There are different strategies you can apply to get transactions in real estate, but it is important to play to your strengths here. For me, my strengths lie in social media, online leads (Google PPC and FB), and Past Clients/Sphere. It might be different for you.

Your strengths might be in cold-calling, door-knocking, circle prospecting, open houses, etc. The important thing is to pick three strategies that you are confident in and skilled at, because they can make this goal a reality. That way, you can commit to being consistent at doing it.

5. Three ACTIONS

Once you have your top three strategies, it is time to break them down even further into three actionable steps. 

There are several important things here: Make sure it is a task you can do, regularly if possible. Come up with a schedule where you can fit them into your calendar. And if you belong to a bigger team, or are leading a big team or business, who are the people responsible for these actions?

Remember, it doesn’t have to be you alone, who will be responsible for every single action that needs to take place in your business. The plan just comes from you. But it is also important to note who you delegate it to and how often you will follow up on the progress.

Also, these three actions for each strategy are not the only things you will do—you still have to do the other business stuff you don’t want to do, such as accounting, admin work, and all the other stuff most of us entrepreneurs don’t like. These are just the tasks you will leverage to get to your goal faster. In other words, they are priority action steps that you will focus on.

That way, you can streamline where you allocate most of your mental energy and other resources, and when you have time for others, you can fit them in.

The carrot and the stick, so to speak

There are two things that also belong in “The Process”—basically, what are the rewards and the consequences?

It is important to look forward to celebrating your successes. It is also important to know what is at stake—what do you get for achieving this 100% (or partially), and what happens if you fail?

Planning for what comes after is as important as how to get there. It helps you be accountable and gives you something enjoyable to look forward to—and we need all the motivation we can get.

How about you? How do you plan for your business and personal development?

As I’ve mentioned earlier, this process is something we also discuss in our one-on-one and group coaching sessions. We just go more in-depth and specific with them. If you want some hands-on guidance to come up with a plan for your real estate business, come join us and be a part of our Brilliant Tribe. You can click the link below to subscribe. And if you have any questions, or want to download our printable version of The Process, feel free to message me.