Take Flight Weekly | Jim Miller

On this episode , I want to help you understand different 3 areas where "less is more" in your business and in your life. You should start the "12 Week process" by detoxifying off annualized thinking which can create the agonizing feeling that you have to "start over" every year. By breaking down your year into 4 deadlines instead of 1, you rid your psyche of that painful (for some) transition every year. By concentrating on "less" in a shorter period of time, you will actually help create significantly "more" of what you want. As you are building out your quarterly goals, consider the following areas to focus on for a 12 week initiative:

Today, on this Monday before Thanksgiving, I want to discuss the importance of GRATITUDE in our daily lives and its impact on our overall performance and level of happiness.I wanted to ask everyone a question: Are you grateful for what you have? The people in your life? The opportunities that are in front of you? How often do you take the time to really take a deep dive into gratitude? Unfortunately, most of us don't spend near enough time in gratitude for everything that we have right in front of us. I use this call right before Thanksgiving each year to remind myself and you the simple and profound power of gratitude. Gratitude is a feeling that penetrates the deepest sections of our DNA and makes an immediate impact on energy field. The brain waves created by gratitude and forgiveness have been proven to emit the most positive changes in brain wave activities of any other actions or emotions. It's been proven but it doesn't answer the question for why a mindset championed by gratitude is not one of our most focused strategies.

In this episode, we will wrap up our "Championships are Won in the 4th Quarter" fall business planning process by doing a complete book review of "The 12 Week Year" by Brian Moran and take some of the highlights out of my recent MMPTs to pull together the operating strategy that I will use moving forward. Why? Because it is a proven strategy. Every successful business owner picks a planning and operating strategy that provides a consistent, proven and effective approach to goal attainment.

Today, as we dive further into this "Championships are Won in the 4th Quarter", I want to tackle into the relationship between your Vision and its relationship with your Ego.First, let me explain my thoughts on this topic. I look at #vision as the promises you've made to yourself while #ego is the positive and negative external drivers that motivate you. I want to make it clear that I will not try to define ego as something that is bad. In fact, I think if you are going to be a highly productive and evolved ELP (Elite Level Producer), you need to have some ego to give you that extra fuel needed to meet your vision. What I will try to do is help define ego and put it in it's proper place.

Today, I want to take you through the process of building out your "Goal Board", an essential step in achieving your #3YearVision. First I want to answer some of the questions I've been getting regularly as I've discussed this part of the #12weekyear process.What is a #goalboard, Jim? A #goalboard, similar to a vision board, is used to document your goals and guiding principles so that you can review them daily. I made mine out of out a 17 x 21 foam board that I can easily pull out in the morning and review. I review it every morning during my first cup of coffee. It primes my brain for the steps I need to take to meet all of my goals I've set for myself for the upcoming 3 Year Vision cycle. I took all of my goals and using a Microsoft Word's appropriate sized font, printed them out and posted them towards the outer sides of the board. I use written word instead of pictures because it's more effective for me. If you use pictures, you would refer to it as a vision board and that's a perfectly proven method for some people. I leave the middle section open so I can post my "quarterly Initiative" which I will switch out each 12 week cycle. You can use other methods to post your goals for daily review but for me personally, this method is effective and works for me.

I've talked a lot this year about the importance of creating a vision and a plan and today I want to discuss the GCI formula that will drive the financial segments of your vision and give you ideas for quarterly initiatives. It's simple really. It goes like this:The Value You Create x The Number of People You Provide Value = Your Compensation (GCI)So let's break down some ways that you can impact both sides of this formula. The areas we will discuss can be the starting points for your quarterly initiatives

Today, I want to take you inside the conversation I've been having with many agents 18 months into a pandemic and 15 months into a raging real estate market that is starting to make them question: "What is enough?" A question only each of you can answer for yourself.I think what has made me an effective manager, leader and coach, is that "I speak agent". Yes, it is a language that is a combination of work ethic, drive, focus and psychology. In most cases, the only people that understand brokers are other brokers. For competitive reasons, agents don't or can't talk too much to other brokers because of confidentiality reasons. This can and does lead to a life and business that is lonely if that business is not managed and built the right way. Those that live with us and know us think we are freaking crazy half the time. In some cases, our friends stop inviting us to dinners and days out because we always "have to take a call" or "I'm in the middle of a negotiation". Sound familiar? So this leads to a deepening issue that I am hearing more and more from agents and am trying to help them navigate. For many, this 15 month run, with no end in sight, is starting to have significant impact on marriages, partnerships, relationships, family and friendships forcing agents to ask themselves "What is enough?"

Today, as part of my "Championships are Won in the 4th Quarter", I want to take you into my personal Q4 planning session for the first time. I've changed it over the years but for the most part, I've followed some key areas where I intentionally put effort towards planning process. Now, as a reminder, I work off of the "12 Week Year" strategy process which includes a 3 year vision and quarterly initiatives to support that vision over 12 quarters. What makes my Q4 planning session different is that in addition to planning my 3YV and reviewing my quarterly progress on my current 12WY, I also dive into other key, important areas. Before I go into my 10 Step process, we should review why we plan. Everyone's desire is to create flow, that feeling that everything is under control and that you're moving in the right direction with intention. If you are taking the time to listen to me today, I have no doubt that you are pursuing ways that you can live the way you want to live and be they type of person you want to become. To do that, you have to take time to "meet with yourself". That's where the "Ideal Planning Session" plays a big role in my life. It is imperative for me that I schedule ample time away from distraction to review where I am at, fine tune my vision for where I want to go and create the next steps for how I am going to there.

So as you sit here in the first full week of Q4, 2021, do you have your initiatives outlined for the next 12 weeks? Let me give you some additional insight to my goal setting strategy that I have been implementing personally. I want to introduce you to "Leading vs Lagging" indicators. "Lagging Indicators" are the end result of your effort. "Leading Indicators" are the activities that you do impact the final result. As brokers, almost all of you focus on production and GCI goals. Previously, your annual goal statement might go something like this:"By the end of 2022, I want to produce $25,000,000 in production with an average sales price of $1,000,000."You need to ask yourself: Why is $25,000,000 with an average sales price of $1,000,000 important to you? What does that level of production do for you, your business and your family. Find the reason internally why $25M in production is important and build that into your "3 Year Vision". A 3YV should your long range goal that is really powerful to you. It should be vivid. You should be able to feel it. It should be personal to you and only shared with those close to you. When you have this 3YV, it will literally be the fuel that drives you every day.So please, join me and stop worrying about external factors and move your goals to areas that live in your DNA. If you make this switch, you will finally find the gear needed to get up every morning and execute with enthusiasm. But how? Enter the "Leading Indicator" model. You ask yourself each quarter for 12 quarters. "What do I need to do this quarter in order to meet my 3 year vision"? (not what my manager thinks, not what the industry thinks, not what my competition is doing).

Many use the S.M.A.R.T goal setting strategy. It's an acronym that stands for is the goal Simple? Is it Measurable? Is it Achievable? Is it Realistic? and is it Timely? So in this scenario you might say "I would like to build my Top 100 database from 49 to 55 people between October 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021". In this scenario, that goal meets all of the criteria of a S.M.A.R.T goal. It is real enough that you can get up every morning and track your progress.In that goal statement, was a length of time that I feel is the best approach based on my research and experience. In my opinion, QUARTERLY goals are the best approach for one major reason: you increase the number of goal deadlines you have in any given year from 1 deadline to 4