PLAN IT. Sean's Success Formula Step 4
“I always think of this phase in terms of if I were going to take an actual road trip. Once you understand where you want to go and where you are, then you can start mapping your route. ”
Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Podcast! Are you ready to start taking your American Dream to the next level through passive investing? The hosts, Sean and Abigail, are a father-daughter duo, trying to accomplish their goal of financial freedom through multifamily real estate. Over the next month, we will be discussing Sean’s ‘Success Formula’. Each week, we will break down one of the 5 phases of this formula: Dream It, Believe It, Learn It, Plan It, and Do It. We are very excited to share this insightful information and hope to help you integrate this Success Formula into your life and business.
Takeaways
This is your path to success, what does that look like
Just like planning a road trip, you're going to do the same thing
There are so many resources to execute this step to its greatest capacity
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
business, phase, plan, map, goals, dream, step, people, destination, execute, processes, resources, success, learn, american dream, visionary, formula, talk, accomplish, struggle
SPEAKERS
Abigail Thomson
Abigail Thomson 00:01
Welcome to the next level American Dream podcast brought to you by Thomson Multifamily Group. Your hosts, Abigail and Sean will discuss how you can take your American dream to the next level through real estate investing, business practices, and personal development. Join us as we share our experiences as a father daughter duo who are trying to accomplish their goal of financial freedom. We hope you learn more about how to define and achieve your American dream. Here's another episode of Next Level American Dream. This month we are doing something special. First, please subscribe if you have not already. We also love getting your feedback through likes, comments, ratings and reviews. Over the next month we will be discussing Sean's success formula. Each week, we'll break down one of the five phases of this formula, dream it, believe it, learn it, plan it and do it. We are very excited to share this insightful information and hopefully help you integrate this success formula into your life and business. If you found any value from today's episode, then please share it with a friend and help us grow. For more information on our sponsor, visit thomsonmultifamilygroup.com to start taking your American dream to the next level through passive investing. Welcome back, everyone. We are here today again talking about the success formula. And today's episode is going to be on the planet phase. So so far, we've talked about the dream it the believe it in the learning phases. And if you haven't gone and listen to those episodes, I highly recommend and highly encourage you go listen to those before hearing about today's. But Hi Dad, how are you? Good. How are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm excited to talk about the Plan It. phase, this is my my favorite little step. And our formula aligns with my skills pretty well. But tell us about how you came up with this being the next step after the learning phase? Well, each phase sort of builds on itself, right. So you you have a dream, the dream has to you have to believe that dream come true, then you have to learn about how to make it happen. And then once you've learned sort of some of the basics of what it will take to make it happen. If you don't have a plan, a clear plan, that's that's getting you on a path to your dream, you're just going to be running around doing stuff, right. So without a plan, you're going to find yourself just with no direction wasting time doing things you shouldn't be doing, it's going to be inefficient, it's going to take you longer, and you're just going to be off track, right? So the whole idea with this phase is to find the fastest path from your dream to success. So what does that look like? And then how can you get there? That's kind of the idea. And if you don't have a plan, there's, it's just that you're all over the place most of the time. Yeah. So speaking of what does that look like? What is the plan that you're supposed to create in this step? What would that look like? Is it a step by step process? Is it just understanding the next phases in which you need to create those tasks or like a more of a system? Is there a type of structure to the plan that needs to happen within this step, or even just a structure of a plan that you recommend doing? Well, that's what you're doing, you are creating the structure, right? So the plan is to create the structure with which you're going to go after your dreams, I'm, I'm probably the worst one related to advise people on the planet face because I'm the worst at doing this part of it, I can see it in my mind. But for me to get it down on paper and to kind of start to, to iron it out is difficult. And so I struggle with the planet face probably the most of all the phases that we have. I know, I know, it's your favorite, but it's for me, it's the hardest to kind of execute. And so for me, it's more about just creating a path to success and how you get there. The way I think about it is what are the steps are going to be necessary for me to get to where I need to be do I need to make this many phone calls? Do I need to make this advertising posts I need to do whatever it is that I need to do, right? So what are those tasks that are going to get me to my my ultimate goal on a sort of a smaller scale? And I just start to roadmap those out, right? So what what am I going to try to accomplish that's going to help me move the needle towards my ultimate dream of being successful, right? And it's a multitude of things. It's your whole business, you have to build everything out, you know, how many phone calls am I going to make? How many whatever you're going to do how many trips am I going to do you know how many people don't have to talk to you today and just kind of map those steps out to there that's getting you in the direction of your of your dream so that you can achieve that success. And for me, it's hard to articulate because like I said, I see it in my mind, but I struggled to kind of to kind of map it out. So maybe even you can give me some because you're very good at it. Maybe you can give me some help on how to describe it. Yeah, I think is just I Identifying My best advice at least would be identifying the processes and systems that you're wanting to create and what needs to end up happening. And then going and doing those processes. Once you've done that a few times you realize what that's going to look like and how you want that to go about, because a lot of times you learn so much more in the actual duet phase. We'll talk more about that in the next episode. But you learned so much more by doing the plan A, so it's really kind of going between those two phases is what I would most likely recommend is identifying first what you're wanting to do, and then doing it and then writing it down. Yeah, one of the things that we that we'll do, too, I just thought of is we'll break it into breaking into time segments, right? So you can you can look at, well, what do I want to accomplish in five years? And then what do I want to accomplish in three years, and then one year, and then you can start to break down your quarterly goals, your monthly goals, your daily goals, as you can start, you can sort of start with the big stuff that's far out in time, and then set those processes and stuff down for your five year goals and your three year goals, and then start working towards those things. Once you once you have the big goal. You want to start bracketing it down into more manageable steps every day, right. And so that's one of the ways we do it. Actually, since I was hearing you talk, I was starting to think about, you know, what that looks like. And so if you could start with five years, and then maybe do a three year, a one year, and then do quarterly goals, monthly goals, and then daily, weekly activities and daily activities. If you think of it in that sort of that succession that helps kind of map things out for sure. Yeah, so the planet phases, almost a in correct me if I'm getting this wrong, but the planet phases almost essentially just mapping out and goal setting. Really exactly that can be on a broad scale and a very, very micro level. Both you're doing the you're doing the broad scale stuff, and that that'll get you down to what you got to do every every day, if you want to, if you want to dial it in that much. Yeah, yeah. And there's people out there, you know, I mentioned Gary early on in one of our previous episodes of this particular series, and his entire business is built on helping people do this exact thing, right. So we we go to his conferences every now and then and get refreshers on how to do these things. And they have a step by step, setup and system for how to identify these things in your business, how to get them down on paper, how to execute them, how to train them, all those different things for staff. And so there's, there's people out there, and there's resources out there for people, I mean, I'm not the right one, to teach people how to do this. I mean, it's something that I that I know has to be done. It's something that we do in our business in our lives. But I'm, I'm a terrible one to teach this part. But there are people out there that are excellent at it, you know, and Gary, the Harper's are amazing. And this is what they do across the country, they have, you know, hundreds of very successful high level in real estate investors that they that they work with in their businesses, and they're successful, you know, a ton of ton of successful businesses. And so, those guys, you just go to someone like that and say, Hey, I need to map this out. And like I said, they have events that you can go to that you can you can bring them in as coaches you can they have books, all kinds of resources that you can use. So there's there's ways out there to learn how to do this more proficiently than I can explain. But it's a critical step in that. Like I said before, if you don't have a roadmap to where you want to go, your destination trip is going to be horrible. You know, if you think about it in terms of, I always think of this phase in terms of like, if I were going to take an actual road trip, the first thing you want to do is determine where you want to go right. Now once you once you understand where you want to go and where you are, then you can start mapping your your route, right, you can say, Okay, I want to go this road. And I want to stop by here. And I want to get gas here. And I want to say you can kind of think of it in terms of a roadmap for your business or for whatever you're trying to accomplish. And it makes it much easier to kind of see where you're headed. And I think if you you know your dream, and you're where you are right now you just it's just a matter of how do I bridge that gap, right? How do I get to my destination? Right? I really like that analogy. Just a quick backtrack for a second though. We mentioned Gary Harper and his programs. He has a massive business with a ton of absolutely incredible resources and his empire program that he just launched the last few months. We've been through it and loved it. It was incredibly helpful for the building of our personal business, but their business is actually called a sharper business solutions. So you can find him and what he does, and he's actually been on the podcast a couple of times, so we'll link his episodes as well to get more information from him. But it's sharper business solutions. If you're listening and you're like this is an amazing resource, but what is it that's his business? But back to the road trip analogy that's an incredible visualization for Where this planet phase is like, your goal is or your destination is really your dream, right? And you're using this, this trip and this plan in order to actually get there and make that come to fruition, right? Yes, I really liked that it's a, it's a little bit more of a visual example. Yeah. And that's just, that's how I kind of think of it in my mind is we've got to, we've got to get someplace, how do we get there, right. And it's just essentially, it's essentially the same as, as plotting out a trip on a on a map, you know, you do the same thing with your business, it's gotta get, I've got to get to this next location. So what does that mean, I've got to make these phone calls to get there, I've got to go to these places. To meet these people to get there, I've got to make this much money, I've got to make this, you know, this many sales, whatever those sorts of waypoints along your your journey are, you have to sort of map those out, set your goals. And then you can set the processes for those different things, right, like we said, we start with five year goals, and then threes, and you know, kind of segment those down to where you're like, Okay, every day, I have to make five phone calls, in order to hit my 50 phone calls that I've got to make in order to get my to sales, I need, you know, once you start to break your business down, and the journey down to that level, it'll start to make sense to you. And there's exercises and things you can go through. And that's really why I was referring back to the Harper's Store for Business Solutions. And, like you'd like you said, the Empire system is that they, they kind of map that out for you on very detailed level. So they just start doing those exercises, and it'll break your business down. And you can set that road back course for your your map, you know, for your destination. Absolutely. And there's a ton of business coaches that are doing really similar things out there to so many people, this is a really a phase that has a lot of, I think, a lot of resources to help guide you through this one attraction, the book traction, there's Lencioni has a book, it's called the advantage. There's there's a few different ones, and they're kind of they're just they're other called Entrepreneurial Operating Systems, they're just operating systems for your life and your business. So I help you kind of move, move the needle for your plan. Absolutely. And there's so many entrepreneurs out there that are very similar to you where they're more of the visionary and more of the idea person instead of the true like, sit down and write out the process kind of entrepreneur. And so it's really helpful to have resources and a team around you as well to help build that I know people that are good at both of them, it's wonderful, because they can they can see the vision, but they can also see the path as well. Yeah, but they can see the details too. I can see all of it. My problem is I struggled to get it sort of mapped out on paper and, and executed on paper and then trained and things like that. So the that part of it, I struggle with it for me, I can clearly see my goal and where I want to go and how to get there. But it takes that additional talent. So sometimes you have to go to another resource to get this sort of this part of the process down, right? Like you helped me and you know, we have our own system in our business, where I don't do the process maps or map all this stuff out. But I create, I create the idea of that vision, that dream and where we're going and then and then you guys helped me execute it. And that's what you're talking about is if you can't, if you struggle with this part of it, or if you excel at it even you can help someone else maybe, right, yeah, if you struggle with it, you need to find someone that that is excellent at it. And that'll make it to where you can work together and then get to that destination together. Yeah, those complementary roles of visionary and integrator, that's those two terms are very common. When it comes to those entrepreneurship, business operating systems is having both of those types of people or someone that embodies both skills. That's a very rare person. I know a few guys like that. And it's their their exceptional. But most most of the time, if you look at entrepreneurial businesses, there's a visionary and an integrator, like you said, and they have those two roles. And they work together to achieve a common goal, which is which is excellent. And so if you'd like I said, if someone would listen to me talk now, they may be like, I just can't do that. Well, you just need to go find the right resource for that for the right person that wants to help you and they can help you get through that process. Yeah, so we talked a little bit in the last few episodes how believe it and learn it are a couple hurdles that some people can really encounter and those are probably the two that people get the most stuck in however, is that something people should be aware of when in this phase? Or is this phase an easier one to kind of just sail through and get straight to the action step? What does that look like in reality so where someone could get stuck in learning and thinking that they're producing effort and energy and success with just because they're learning right so it feels like you're producing work? Right planet most people just skip this face completely. They either over plan They're trying to they're trying to plan too much. Or they like for me, I see it in my mind and I just start running right? Ultimately, it's it can be detrimental if you don't have a clear path while use the road trip analogy again, if you just jumped in your car and started driving and didn't have any, any destination in mind, or just, you know, went the wrong way, it wouldn't, you know, you can drive 100 miles an hour in the wrong direction, and it's not helping you get anywhere, right? Yeah, absolutely. It's actually worse. Or it can just take longer, or whatever it is. Yeah, exactly. So if you don't have a plan, it can, it can actually be detrimental to your business. And so but I think the tendency for a lot of people, especially guys, like me, are visionaries, is to be like, Okay, I have this dream, I believe I can do it, I've learned enough about it, I think I'm confident, and then they just go, right. And it might work out sometimes. But you might also find that you're just doing a lot of stuff that is really absolutely unnecessary. The bigger your goals and dreams are, the more precise and efficient you have to be with your time. If you're spending energy and time on things that are useless. You don't get that back, you know, you've got to, you've got to make that up somewhere else. And so if you can be efficient with what you're trying to execute, as opposed to just executing on whatever comes up, you're going to get much farther, much faster and much higher with with whatever you're trying to achieve. For sure. So I plan. While it's annoying for guys guys like me, it's unnecessary thing. And I think you know what, while I have it in my brain, and I want it, I want to do it, if you don't have it down, if you don't have it, if you don't have it sort of mapped out in your business, and you're adhering to it, you'll deviate, right? You'll you'll just start beat, you'll start to be a firefighter and you're putting out whatever fire comes up. And then you'll you'll you'll start to get off plan. And you know, it confuses things right. And so you're just being inefficient. Yeah, having that having that plan mapped out is a great way to you know, you can go back to it all the time and say, Hey, are we heading in the right direction? Are we are we hitting our steps? are we hitting the plan? are we hitting our goals? You know, and that sort of thing. So I think this is this, while this phase is easy to skip, I think it shouldn't be taken very lightly, I think it should be executed fully before you really kind of take off, you know, your plans can change. And they they'll they'll so you have to review those things. But once you kind of get up course out Yeah. You know, so you might get a month in and you're and you're you're off course and you have to readjust your plan, right? But that's okay, at least you have something to adjust. And you're not just going any direction, anytime, for sure. And there's there's two things I want to actually add to that. So it's really great. The first one is so frequently, I don't know if anyone's read the book. But I think it's I Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki. But he talks a lot about how you're either working in your business or on your business. And if there's no plan, and there's no direction, there's no way for you to get into higher roles within your business. And so you're always constantly in more of like a grind, or a hustle phase that's really commonly used in entrepreneurship, where you're, you're doing the menial tasks of your business instead of okay, here's the plan of how to do that task. Now I'm gonna go find somebody that can assist me to do those things so I can continue to grow and progress and improve my business, everything we're talking about is really the startup phase, right? So there's in the empire system that sharper has, they have five phases of business? My the my five steps are really just for starting how to get started in something, right. So once you started something, it's a whole other game. Once you have your plan in your in your your actions are happening, you've got all these other other phases that you'll go through in your business, we're really just talking about how to get how to get from dream to day one as fast as possible, and to give yourself as much potential to win and be successful at your dream as possible. Right, that's, that's kind of what we're talking about. The more advanced stuff, the next phases and things are going to be someone else is gonna have to teach. Right? That's beyond me, you know, I do it in my life and my business, but I don't know if I'm qualified to teach anybody but but anyway, so the plan, if you have the right plan, and you can execute, you know, gives you gives you the best, the best chance to win. Really, yeah. And you want to set yourself up for success as much as possible. And that's what you can do within that that planning phase and through setting goals and writing down processes and identifying even those processes, maybe not even putting them pen to paper or typing them out or whatever. But just understanding what those processes are going to be eventually in strategizing how to really accomplish those so that you can go and take some action, which will be our next episode. So stay tuned for the last phase of our startup success formula and that'll be do it and we hope that you took some out of this plan phase and we'll have all of these resources that we talked about today in the show notes so you guys can really utilize those as much as you need for your business but we We'll see you on the next series episode for the Do It. phase. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level American Dream. If you would like to learn more about what we talked about today want to contact the team directly or interested in passively investing and being a part of our deal room. Head over to our website at www.thomsonmultifamilygroup.com Before you go please leave a review your comments help us create more episodes for you to enjoy.