The 12 Week Year and The Danger of Long-Term Goal Setting with Brian Moran

Brandon:
This is the BiggerPockets Podcast show 427.

Brian:
You can’t sit here and think your way into feeling confident. It only comes through actions. When you’re feeling really down and you’re feeling boy, this is never going to happen, the best thing you can do is go out and do something that’s productive. If you’re in sales, it’s pick up the phone and make a call.

Brian:
Even if someone says, no, I’m not interested, internally you know that you’re more in control than if you’re just sitting, waiting or hoping something’s going to change.

Intro:
You’re listening to BiggerPockets radio, simplifying real estate for investors, large and small. If you’re here looking to learn about real estate investing, without all the hype, you’re in the right place. Stay tuned and be sure to join the millions of others who have benefited from biggerpockets.com, your home for real estate investing online.

Brandon:
What’s going on? Good morning. It’s Brandon Turner, host of the BiggerPockets podcast here with another phenomenal weekend show with my buddy, David Greene. David, it is good to have you here once again. Got some big goals lined up for next year?

David:
Oh, huge, this coming year. And I loved every single second of today’s podcast with our guest because I now have the framework in my mind for how I’m going to take those goals and add them into reality. This was absolutely fascinating talking to Brian today.

Brandon:
Yeah. So, our guest today is an author, Brian Moran, who wrote a book called The 12 Week Year, made a huge impact to me. I like to think of if my life was a cake, I like making everything in a cake analogy. But if my life was a cake, and then a lot of ingredients that go into said cake, the 12 Week Year was a massive that was like the flour that baked the cake of what I do today.

Brandon:
And a lot of that, for example, everything I do with The Intention Journal, the journal that I use every day that we have for sale at BiggerPockets, a lot of that is based on 12 Week Year philosophy and mentality. And so, we’ll really unpack it today on today’s show. And you’ll see why I love this so much. I feel this is everything me and David teaches what he talks about today.

Brandon:
But he goes into specifics on why annual goal planning might be a dangerous, might be causing you not to get as much out of life as you could. He talks about setting vision, about working with teams, all sorts of really great stuff today. And this applies so well to real estate investors, so well to real estate, everything we’re talking about today.

Brandon:
No, he’s not a real estate-specific guest. Everything today is how you should be running your real estate business. So, that is today’s show. We’re going to get to that in just a minute. But before we do, let’s get today’s Quick Tip.

Brandon:
All right, today’s quick tip is this. So, today we talked a lot about why the annual goal might not be such a good idea, why we should really have shorter sprints like 12 weeks.

Brandon:
Well, guess what? At BiggerPockets we have a journal. It’s called The Intention Journal. And guess what? It’s 90 days long, which is approximately 12 weeks. And so, the idea with The Intention Journal, which I said was based on this idea that don’t we think in a year down the road, be thinking what can I do this next 12 weeks, this next 90 days.

Brandon:
So, if you want help with that, pick up a copy of The Intention Journal from BiggerPockets. You get it at biggerpockets.com/store. And if you buy it today or tomorrow, you’re not going to get it by the first of the New Year if you’re watching the show when it comes out. You might, we’re close. We’ve got today that is, you may make it in time.

Brandon:
But if not, you’ll get it within the first week or two, it’s fine. But that is going to make a huge impact on you because it helps you do exactly what we’re about to talk about on today’s show. And you can get a discount on it. So, just go to biggerpockets.com/store. And I think it’s a 20%-off discount code. We’re going to call it podcast, that’s going to be your code, podcast.

Brandon:
And so, use the code, podcast, get 20% off the journal. And if you buy three of them, you get a fourth one for free. They’ll cover you the entire Gregorian calendar year. Now why did I say Gregorian calendar year? Well, you’ll find out here in a little bit on today’s show. All right, and that’s all I got.

Brandon:
So let’s jump into today’s show. I will say this, so the interview you’re about to hear, me and David just got finished recording it. It was phenomenal. But because it’s not a real estate-specific related show, and we’ll talk more about the process needed. After the show, David and I are going to spend a few minutes breaking down what this means to you as a real estate investor.

Brandon:
So, after Brian leaves during interview, after, listen for me and David’s breakdown. Anything you want to add David?

David:
No, just be prepared, because this is some good stuff.

Brandon:
Yeah, it is. All right, with that, let’s get to the interview with Brian Moran. Hi, Brian. Welcome to the BiggerPockets Podcast, man, super, super good to have you here.

Brian:
Yeah, great to be with you, guys.

Brandon:
Yeah. So, let’s jump into this. So, first of all, a little back story. So, I read the 12 Week Year several years ago now and I’ve gone through a pretty dramatic climb in terms of the number of real estate deals I’ve done and other business stuff I’ve worked on. And then, I reread it, actually, this morning, the entire book. I got up really early this morning.

Brandon:
We read the entire book this morning. And it was amazing how many things from that book have now… I’ve been teaching now for years and it stuck with me. It’s one of those books that, I don’t know, I want to say it’s a fine wine where it just ages so well. But it was such a solid information. So, anyway, I’m super stoked about this interview.

Brian:
Good to hear that. That’s awesome. So, that’s a couple more times that I’ve read it, actually.

Brandon:
Okay, there we go.

Brian:
Yeah.

Brandon:
All right. So, with that said, why don’t we start with who you are. Why don’t we start with who you are and how did you get into this whole world of writing, and what else do you do? What’s your story?

Brian:
Yeah. I didn’t set out to be a writer. My background has been, I started out in corporate America. I work in UPS to pay my way through college. They promoted me in to management. Moved to Southern Cal, got a job with PepsiCo in leadership. And then, I joined a consulting room, so one thing to another. And then, I had an opportunity to get involved with a startup back here in Michigan.

Brian:
I’d moved back. My wife and I came back to be closer to family. And then, in doing that, really figured out what I love was the consulting, teaching, training part. So, I started my own thing. And then, Michael joined me. I had worked with him at a consulting firm earlier. He joined me, and we are we’re actually headed to a conference.

Brian:
And we’re going to be a vendor. And we’re like, okay, what are we going to leave behind, what shiny stuff we’re going to leave behind? And I’ve been thinking about writing a book. So, I said, let’s just write a short format book. And we wrote the precursor to 12 Week Year called Periodization: 12 Weeks to Breakthrough.

Brian:
We wrote it in 12 weeks, went down to Kinko’s, printed up a hundred copies, and from that, sold 100,000 copies. It literally changed our business, changed our life. And so, it wasn’t that I set out to be a writer, but we just documented what we were doing with our clients.

Brian:
And I think that’s why the book is successful. We didn’t set out to write about theory or things we thought, we just documented what we had found out was working.

Brandon:
That’s cool. So, why don’t we begin with that before we dive into what it all means and how the different aspects work? I want to basically establish some credibility within the work for people never heard of you or heard of the book.

Brandon:
What kind of impact have you seen with clients you’ve worked with, from people you’ve seen implement the 12 Week Year systems? What kind of results or success have you seen from it?

Brian:
Yeah, it’s pretty phenomenal. I mean, we get e-mails every day from around the world, people we’ve never met. But clients we’ve worked with, I mean, from individuals, we have individuals that have quadrupled their income in a very short period of time. On the average, we work with a lot of sales folks. The average sales folks have 20% to 30% bump in their first 12 weeks.

Brian:
We have thousands that have 100%, 300%. We have the billion-dollar grow, double their outcome in six months. I mean, that’s crazy. And people use it in their personal life as well. So, we’ve worked in just about every industry. I know your guys are mostly investors, but we’ve worked with investors, we’ve worked in just about every industry.

Brian:
And when you apply it, it works really well. That’s a great news for your listeners. They don’t have to worry, hey, has this thing been vetted before? It’s been vetted in every industry, at every level and in every walk of life.

David:
I want to jump in really quick and just say, Brian, what you’re describing is exactly what I think everyone should look for. There’s a lot of books that are written. It’s easier to write a book right now than it ever has been in the history of man. And not every book that you read is actually trustworthy advice. Okay? It’s not hard to become a published author.

David:
And it’s actually ridiculously easy. And I was thinking about this on my car on the way to work. It’s so funny, you brought it up. How do you know to trust what you read in a book? When someone says go do this, just because it’s sold a lot of copies does not mean it’s good advice.

David:
Typically, the stuff that people like the most… like there’s more McDonald’s hamburgers sold than steak, okay? It’s not always the best advice. The best advice comes from people that did something very well for a long period of time, documented what they did, and maybe expanded on why that was different than others might be.

David:
So, this is the perfect example of the type of person that we should all be looking to learn from and trusting the advice that they’re giving.

Brian:
I’m with you there.

David:
I just wanted to say that, that’s all.

Brandon:
That’s good, man. It’s funny, actually, a side note, so a buddy of mine named Brent, he was actually on the BiggerPockets business podcast. But a while back, he went out to prove that not all books that say bestsellers are good books.

David:
That’s such a good story that you have a friend.

Brandon:
Yeah. He took it took a picture of his foot, right? He took a picture of his foot. I’ll turn into a PDF, upload it to Amazon some obscure category, had his friend buy two copies and it became the number one in that obscure category, right. And so, his book, which was called Picture of My Foot and it was a picture of his foot ended up being a bestseller.

Brandon:
He was just mocking the industry how easy it is to say that. Anyway, so I think the results speak for themselves. I mean, the impact it made on my business, my career, has been huge. So, let’s get into it. If you could summarize, we’re going to go into pieces of it honestly today, but what is the 12 Week Year and why is it so powerful?

Brian:
Yeah. It’s really a system to help you accomplish more of what you want faster. Thirty thousand-foot view, that’s what it is. And our focus through the 12 Week Year is always on the execution. People got great ideas. They’re connected. They’ve got all kinds of resources. In the end, the breakdown is never not knowing, it’s not doing.

Brian:
And so, the 12 Week Year is an execution system, which is… Brandon, this is the one system everybody lacks, right. They’ve got all these other systems, even big companies that we work with. They’ve got all kinds of systems, but they lack the one that drives everything, which is the execution system.

Brian:
And so, our focus is all about what you can control and what you can’t control, and really being more consistent with the things that you can control. And so, that’s really what the 12 Week Year is. It’s just the systematic approach to accomplishing more faster.

Brandon:
That’s cool. And the idea is from my understanding and my reading and implementation is the average… when you set an annual goal… maybe I’ll ask you, rather than trying to explain to myself, what’s wrong with annual goal planning? Most of the world just says, hey, this is my year goal. What’s challenging about that?

Brian:
Yeah, yeah, you’re right on because it’s never come into question, right? We’ve been taught, hey, you set goals, you do plans. And so, naturally, we’ve all done them in the context of an annual environment, which is what we did with our clients for years. And, we found that we weren’t getting what they were capable of.

Brian:
They were getting good results. Annual planning, annual goal setting is better than no goal setting. But there’s inherent barriers in it. And the biggest one is that there’s this illusion of lots of time. That January’s going to roll around. Everybody’s fired up. Everybody’s thinking. But everybody’s also thinking they got lots of time.

Brian:
So, with that annual goal, if you get to the end of January, most people are behind their goal, they’re behind plan, but nobody’s worried. And so, it’s that mindset-

Brandon:
Oh, we got all year. We got all year.

Brian:
… you got 11 more months to catch up. And it’s that mindset that permeates the year that holds people back. The 12 Week Year isn’t about taking what you would do in 12 months and cram it into 12 weeks. It starts with a different mindset. And we borrowed a concept from athletics called periodization, we adapted it.

Brian:
And that’s where the 12 Week Year was born. We recognize that we had to have a hard line in the sand that was close enough where you don’t lose the sense of urgency, but far enough where you can make profound progress. And 12 months is just way too much time. In fact, you can’t even plan accurately for 12 months.

Brian:
You might have been able to 90 years ago when it first came into boat, but with the rapid pace of change… and 2020 is a great example of that. January, everybody made plans, and then, COVID showed up and everybody’s figured out, hey, this annual planning stuff doesn’t work.

Brandon:
Yeah. So, it’s that, if you have a whole year to bury your goals, and it becomes so easy to lose the sense of urgency that it takes to accomplish them.

Brian:
Absolutely. Yeah.

Brandon:
Okay. So, why not just break it into quarterly planning?

Brian:
Well, so, quarter is what, it’s one fourth of a whole?

Brandon:
Yep.

Brian:
So, it’s still that mindset that says, it’s that mindset that says, I can catch up, that I got to get out of because, honestly, David, you might catch up on the goal. But you can’t go re-capture the capacity left on the table last week, last month. And that’s the difference between where people are at and what they’re capable of, without learning anything new, right?

Brian:
If you just did more of what you know consistently, you’d have better healthier, you’d have better relationship, you make a lot more money. And so, that annual environment really is just the snag that causes you to go, well, I got lots, I can put that on.

Brian:
I don’t have to do that today. In a 12-week year, you can’t do that very long before you realize, right, you’re hit right in the face with, wait a minute, if I’m never going to hit that goal, I got to get after it. And ultimately, that’s where execution happens. It doesn’t happen monthly and quarterly, and semiannually, it happens weekly, it happens daily.

Brian:
And so, with the 12-week year, that ineffective, that unproductive mindset is challenged right out of the gate.

Brandon:
Now that’s so good.

David:
That’s so beautiful. I mean, when you talk to people that are good at other things, Olympic athletes, people that excel in fitness, they never talk about what their goals are over the year. They say this is my habit for the day. And they really get granular with that.

David:
And Brandon, you’ve had some pretty big success with that as that something this book helped your mindset when it comes to some of your fitness goals and Open Door Capital’s progress?

Brandon:
Yeah, I mean even to the point of… I mean, yes, I mean almost everything I do is around that 90 days or the 12 weeks… we have a 90-day challenge at BiggerPockets, I did 75 Hard, which is a workout program. I like the entirety is in a short sprint, it’s to get it done, because, yeah, you don’t get lost in the year and make it up later. And what you just mentioned, Brian, I don’t want to gloss over because it’s so important is I notice people right now thinking, yeah, but I’ve been doing annual goals for a while now. It’s been fine.

Brandon:
We’ve been fine with annual goals. And I like you said, it’s not just about whether you’ve been fine, but what have you left on the table? What could you have done if your entire year, your goal planning sessions, all that, was a 12-week period, which is long enough to get it. I mean, long enough to get anything done pretty much, especially in this world.

Brandon:
Anybody listening to the show right now wants to get in to real estate, let’s say, you can find a property, get financing, build a team, fly in, check on a property, understand a market, meet a dozen things, make 50 offers, and then, close on a property all in 12 weeks, it’s entirely doable.

Brandon:
And if you give yourself a year to do that, like most people listening to the show or if they’re new, they’re going to be like, well, I want to buy a property next year. Great. You’ll probably do it. But if you give yourself 12 weeks, it’s short enough to be urgent, but not long enough. Yeah.

Brian:
Yeah. And so, we have tens of thousands of people that have accomplished more in 12 weeks than they did in 12 months. I mean, I was on the phone last week with a gentleman, he happens to be an advisor, an investment advisor. But the prior year, he did 7.2 million, the last 12 weeks, he did 8.3 million. And that’s in COVID, in the middle of COVID. Right?

Brian:
And that’s just an example. And it sounds crazy and magical, but it’s not. It’s the fact that when you bring that deadline near term, it creates an intense level of focus for you. Not a stressful level, but just a clarity around it that, like you said, I could take 12 months to buy this property or I could do it in 12 weeks. Let’s do it 12 weeks. Then, let’s do it five or six more times. That’s been the same 12 months.

Brandon:
You know, I’ve told this story before on the show, but I’ll share it again now because it’s so applicable here. There was, I don’t know, about six years ago now, maybe seven years ago. It’s been a while. But I set a goal at the beginning of the year, I had a year-long goal to buy 12 units. I said I’m going to buy 12 units this year.

Brandon:
And then, as goals go, I set the goal and I just didn’t think about it for a while. And then, the year went by. And here we are, it was on December 21st. I remembered, I saw a piece of paper somewhere, I remembered I had a goal of 12 units, and I’m adding up like, what did I buy, this one, this one, duplex, a single?

Brandon:
Oh, 11. I have about 11. I think, well, 11’s pretty good, 11 is great, right? I did 11. And I was like, nah, I’m not somebody who misses their goals that easily. I got 9 days or 10 days, and I did it. I found a property, put on a contract, got the financing, and close in 9 days. And so, this perfectly illustrates, one, I had a looming deadline, I made it happen.

Brandon:
Secondly, if that’s all it takes to buy a property, was 9 days, I could have bought a whole lot more during that year. Right? And if I would have had a 12-year plan, I would have set maybe a goal of, let’s say, four for the 12 weeks, and then I would have blown by that minute, oh, I can do double that and this.

Brandon:
I can do eight, I can do 12 units, I can do 20 in this next quarter at this next 12-week time. So, yeah, phenomenal.

Brian:
Yeah. Great example, love it. I love it.

Brandon:
Yes. So, let’s dive into the specifics of how this thing actually works. First of all, for those who are doing the math, you’re thinking 12-week year, 12 and 12 is 24, 48. Most people are thinking 52. So, why is it not the 13 week year, first of all, which would fit nicely into the Gregorian year?

Brian:
Yeah, so if you want to fit it into the Gregorian calendar, you’ll notice you get an extra week every year, that’s a week that we take seriously. We go off site as a team. We review the last 12 weeks. We plan. We lock and load for the next 12 weeks. And then, we celebrate. What you celebrate matters. It creates focus, it creates culture, it creates momentum.

Brian:
And so, that 13th week is part of the 12-week year, it’s a flex week. If I need to pull it out like you did to hit the number, right? If I need to work hard, then I’m working hard. But for the most part, that’s a week we’re also going to celebrate. And that’s an important thing. Because a lot of people, a lot of high performers in particular, the minute we get there, what do we want to do?

Brian:
We want to set the next there and the next there. And it’s important that we stop and we celebrate in the 12-week year, it gives you more opportunities to do that.

Brandon:
Yeah, that’s so good. Yeah, I just find that that time where you either accomplish your goal and you celebrate or if you didn’t accomplish it, you sit back and go, what could we have done differently? Let’s reflect on this, let’s learn from this, and so forth.

Brian:
And you certainly celebrate the progress because there’s always progress being made. One of the things we talked about with our clients a lot is you got to understand, you don’t control the outcomes. You control your actions. And so, the important thing in a 12-week year is did I do everything I could do to create the outcome.

Brian:
And if I didn’t create it, there’s a lot of learning in that. There’s confidence built in that, there’s momentum built in that, which allows me to crush it the next time. But if you get too fixated on the goal, it can actually stymie you.

Brandon:
Yeah. It makes a lot of sense. Yeah, actually, there’s a quote. I actually wrote down this quote here related with what you just said. It’s from the book, it says, “Consistent action on the critical tasks needed to reach your goal is the key to getting what you want life. Your current actions are creating your future. If you want to know what your future holds, look to your actions.

Brandon:
They’re the best predictor of your future.” And it’s that what you’re doing today, what you’re doing in this moment, like today, this week, that’s all that matters. So many people are big on going on Instagram or Facebook or wherever and they’re like, I’m going to buy this, this year. I’m going to run this marathon. And they love to talk about their plans and their goals.

Brandon:
That’s not what it gets there, right? It’s a daily action. So, how does that fit in? How do we work from this 12-week year. What does the process look like? I know it goes from 12 weeks to… what’s the weekly stuff look like? And I know there’s a vision component there, too. I’d love to dive into that.

Brian:
Yeah. So, Brandon, it starts with the longer term vision. Because in order to have an effective 12-week goal and 12-week plan, it has to be connected to something longer term, more aspirational. So, a lot of people have done vision work, they tend to do it around their career, their income, we start with your life.

Brian:
Because all that other stuff is part of life, what do you want your life to look like three years from now, five years from now, 10 years from now, by the way, what does great look like? God willing, you’re going to be here, that’s great. Then, we bring that near term, so we can set a 12-week goal that aligns with that and enables that, build out a tactical plan.

Brian:
And that’s one of the keys. In the book, we get into what’s different between a 12-week plan than a traditional plan. Most plans are conceptual. Concepts don’t execute, you’ve got to get tactical. And what that means is really granular. It means where the statements in the plan describe an action that you can take translates to daily, weekly.

Brian:
So, we build 12-week plans, we have software and whatnot. But whether use that or not, each action, we call them tactics, each tactic in the plan has a due date. That due date is a particular week, week one, week five, weeks one through 12, whatever the currency of it. If it’s a recurring activity or it’s a one-time activity.

Brian:
But that’s how you understand what it takes to win the week. Because that 12-week plan feeds into a weekly plan.

David:
Can you maybe give us an example of what that would look like for Brandon’s goal? Let’s say, he wants to buy a mobile home park? What would that plan look like that he’d set up, and what were the tactics involved be?

Brian:
Yeah, so that’s a little hard for me, because I don’t have a lot of experience there. But it would be really granular. It’d be, do you want to search for the mobile parts that are available, that exist within this geography. That might be one tactic, right?

Brian:
And then, it’d be reaching out to each mobile, finding out, searching for the owner of each one of those mobile parks would be a separate tactic. Reaching out to each of those owners would be another tactic. I mean, you got to get really granular and really break it down. So, let me give you an example.

Brian:
People can relate to a weight loss example, right, let’s say, I want to lose 185 pounds, 10% body fat, right? So, the first thing I’m going to do is probably download the Weight Watchers app. That’s going to happen week one. It’s a one-time tactic. The next tactic is I’m going to enter my food intake daily on that Weight Watchers app, that’s weeks one through 12.

Brian:
The next thing I’m going to do is I’m going order super foods, spirulina, wheat grass, oil. The next thing I’m going to do is take those daily. The next tactic is I’m going to work out four times a week with weights. The next tactic is I’m doing cardio twice a week. Now, if I haven’t worked out, I’ve got to hire a trainer. I got to join a gym.

Brian:
There’s a whole different set of tactics if I don’t know what I’m doing. But does that help David, do you get the feel for where I’m going with that?

David:
Absolutely. And what I like that you pointed out is if you get to a thing that you don’t know how to do, then it doesn’t mean, well, I guess I can’t do this. You say, well, who would I have to hire? Who would I have to partner with? What book would I have to read? And then you say, okay, I need to hire a personal trainer.

David:
And then, you have a new set of tasks. I’m going to interview X amount of trainers. I’m looking for someone that does this. What do I ask them? Well, that guy’s in shape. Let me go ask him what his trainer does. Oh, I like that. Now, I have a list of questions.

David:
What you’re really describing, Brian, is you’re taking the overall goal and you’re just systematically breaking it down into steps that are a bite-sized chunk that you can actually chew on to eat that elephant.

Brian:
Yep, individual discrete actions, so that when those things translate into my weekly plan, there’s no question about what I do.

David:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), yeah, that’s really good. Yeah. And that, really, as a business owner, I feel that’s what most of my time is spent doing, is saying, how do I take our goals and cut them up into small pieces so I can give them to employees, so they can say what am I doing today. Because most people like we’re mentioning here, they don’t do this naturally.

David:
They just sit down and say, man, it’s a big task. I don’t know what to do. Would you agree that that’s what a lot of the problem… this is why this is so needed is there’s so many people that don’t think this way on their own?

David:
Yeah. And we’ve been taught to plan where it is conceptual. The problem with a conceptual plan is that it really masks the work that’s involved. So, if I don’t have two tactics, there’s a lot more… I might have three items on the page that I might call them tactics, so it looks like I got three things to do and those three things might be 30 things when it comes down to it.

David:
And so, people create a plan that they start out the year overwhelmed, they go through the year diffused. That’s the other thing about the 12-week year is we talk a lot about less is more. One goal is better than two, two is better than three, because you have limited capacity.

David:
You have limited time capacity, you have limited energy, you have limited physical capacity, you have limited intellectual capacity. That’s not a slam on anyone. That’s the reality. And so, the more goals you try and pursue simultaneously, the greater the likelihood that you’re mediocre at everything.

Brandon:
Yeah, that’s so true. So, how do we take… what is the weekly stuff look like? You got your vision of where you want ahead in life, you got your 12-week year, is it a goal? And one, two, three goals, you have a number you specify?

Brian:
One’s better than two, two’s better than three. When you start to get over three, you’re stuck the odds against yourself.

Brandon:
Yeah, perfect. So, let’s say, you got your one goal or maybe it’s two. But let’s say, one goal for now.

Brian:
Yeah, it’s either you got a business goal or a personal goal.

Brandon:
Perfect. Perfect. So, where does that go from there to weekly? Do you review it every week, every month, how does that work? How do we break that down?

Brian:
So, the way it’ll happen is because you put due dates on those tactics. And remember, we got real granular. The weekly plan is created just by looking at what’s due in the 12-week plan this particular week. So, in a sense, the weekly plan is a 1/12th slice of the 12-week plan. I’m not worried about everything to do with the plan.

Brian:
It doesn’t contain everything I do in my life or my job. But the weekly plan just contains what’s due in the 12-week plan this particular week. But by default, it’s the stuff that matters most.

Brandon:
That’s really good.

Brian:
Because the way it was built. We said, look, we started with this longer term vision, we set a 12-week goal that aligns with that, that leans into that, and build out the tactical plan. That’s the most important stuff for me hitting that goal, which is my most important goal, for me living my vision.

Brian:
So, by default, everything else is secondary. Which is one of the benefits of the 12-week year is it reduces your stress. Why? Because you know what matters most each week. You know how to win the week. You get this stuff done, you win the week. You get all that other crap done, and you don’t do this, then all bets are off.

Brian:
So, the good news and bad news in that is it confronts you with what matters most each week. The challenge for people is, if you’re creating a new result, there’s stuff in there that you haven’t done before. So, there’s discomfort, there’s uncertainty, there’s… and so back to that mindset about really embracing and learning to lean into that stuff, and not being distracted by all the other stuff.

Brian:
By all the e-mails and the voicemails and all the stuff I could waste my time on, at least now I know what matters most for me this week. And I know that every week for the next 12 weeks. So, the game is, how do I get myself to do what’s in that plan? So, I pull that thing, I calendarize it? What am I doing Monday? What am I doing that?

Brian:
What am I doing Tuesday. What time are you doing those things? And that becomes my daily plan. So, when 20 minutes opens up in my calendar for some reason, I’m not checking my e-mail, I’m not checking my voicemail, I’m going to my weekly plan, because, again, if that stuff gets done, I win the week. If I went through all my e-mails and voicemails and the stuff doesn’t get done, I’ve lost a week.

Brandon:
Yeah, that’s what I love about identifying… I always call it my weekly objective, what’s the one thing that this week I have to get done and I’ll call it a win. Because that one objective, and again, I totally got this from your book, like I’ve been doing it for years now is, this objective for the week lines up with my 12-week goal, right, that lines up with my vision of where I want to be in life.

Brandon:
So, even if I didn’t get to any of the other stuff and I felt like, oh, man, I got 400 e-mails I didn’t get to this week and I got this messed up and I didn’t return that phone call. But you know what, I accomplished that thing. I did that thing that I said I was going to do, and I got it.

Brandon:
And now, I can feel good about myself and feel like, you know what, everything else can wait, that’s not the most important thing.

Brian:
Right. And the results are always laid. So, it’s like the farmer, right? If the farmer doesn’t work the field, doesn’t plow it, doesn’t plant it, doesn’t cultivate, there’s never a harvest. It’s the same for you and I and everywhere in our life. The work in the field is doing the heavy lifting about doing the activity that we might normally shy away from.

Brian:
And I would say normally shy away from, otherwise, we’d be having the results we’re looking to have. Right, anytime you take new ground, there’s new activities, things I haven’t done before. And so, there is uncertainty and discomfort with that.

Brian:
The game is really, how do I get myself to lean into that instead of away from it? And the 12-week year plan just puts it front and center for you so you can’t ignore it.

David:
Brandon, you have a really good quote about there’s nothing new, only processes you’re unfamiliar with. Can you remind me?

Brandon:
About my quote? No, I think it was like, nothing’s hard.

Brian:
So, David-

Brandon:
Yeah, yeah. It was something like, nothing’s hard, only steps undefined or process that are unpracticed. It just means you haven’t defined what it is or implied, but nothing’s hard. You could build a nuclear bomb if you knew the process and you’ve practiced it enough.

Brandon:
It’s not hard to a nuclear scientist probably to build a nuclear bomb because they’ve done it enough and they know the steps. Once we realize that nothing… I mean, cancer is hard, right, the passing of a loved one. Those things are hard, but business or trying to buy a rental property, is that hard or just you haven’t practiced the steps yet?

Brandon:
I think we should reserve words like hard for things that are actually hard in life and everything else just rephrase it to, I just don’t know the steps yet. And I haven’t practiced them enough. So, let’s figure them out.

David:
What’s so empowering about what… Brian, what I hear you saying is that… you use the word uncomfortable, it’s subconsciously, if you know I want to buy a mobile home park, but you don’t know it, you don’t feel confident taking progress, you don’t know what steps to take. So, you just wander around and hope you bump into success.

David:
And when you don’t find it, you beat yourself up and say that didn’t work. And then, you go on, and lick your wounds and come back with something else. But if you broken it down into these individual steps or lead indicators, maybe, from the 4DX principles and you know this is what I have to do, and there’s four key components that you’ve got to do to win the week to win that goal.

David:
Two of them you you’re comfortable with and two of them you’re uncomfortable with. You are in a position where you’re empowered to go practice what you need to get comfortable with them. And then, it doesn’t feel quote unquote, “hard.” That’s such a different mindset than, I don’t know, it just didn’t work out.

David:
I wasn’t really sure what to do, or I didn’t know how to analyze properties. But if you said, what is analyzing a property detail, boom, boom, boom, well, I only know how to do the first one, where can I get the information for the second one. It gets to the point where it doesn’t feel uncomfortable. It doesn’t feel hard. You don’t have that resistance against doing that task.

David:
And then, Brian, you mentioned the phrase, momentum, which I think that’s so underestimated in a business. When I look at what I’m doing while doing, it’s so much because of momentum that I built up from stuff I did before.

David:
Would you mind elaborating maybe a little bit on that concept and helping bring some encouragement that as you build momentum, what you find is things that used to seem uncomfortable or difficult, they just start going down a lot easier?

Brian:
Yeah. I mean, if you think about that, that’s how momentum and confidence go hand in glove. And it’s hard to be confident if you’re not competent. And competence comes through reps. Like what we’ve been talking about, right? You’ve got to have a process for doing it. And the first time you do it, you’re probably not very good at it.

Brian:
So, you got to do it again and again, and again. And as you do that, though, you build the confidence, you build the competence, and you start to build that momentum. The cool thing about the 12-week year is, let’s say you’re having a really bad year, the longest it’s going to go is 12 weeks, where you get a fresh start.

Brian:
In an annual event, in an annual calendar, people, in September have given up on the year, and they’re just passing the time till January rolls around them. That’s crazy. In our world, that’s two years. But part of that momentum comes because I’m not just focused on the goal, I’m focused on the activity. And as I take that activity, the marketplace always gives me feedback.

Brian:
So, when I break it down granular, I’m going to know specifically which actions worked and which ones didn’t. When I’m executing concepts or trying to execute concepts, I don’t get that same level of feedback. And so, the 12-week year is, look, there is no perfect plan. Every plan you ever write as flawed. So, the thing you got to do is go out in the marketplace and succeed or fail as fast as you can.

Brian:
And because we’re tactical, the 12-week year allows you to make smaller adjustments more frequently. And so, you’re able to dial it in versus trying to make these massive assumptions or corrections. You’re constantly adjusting because there is no perfect plan. And the marketplace is dynamic. It’s constantly changing. Right?

Brian:
What worked to buy a mobile home park a couple years ago is probably different today. Not completely different, but there’s some different aspects to it. And so, because it’s tactical, you’ll know specifically which ones worked and which ones didn’t, which is really powerful. So, you can focus on that, which then causes you to have some success.

Brian:
And just the fact that you’re taking the action builds confidence and builds momentum.

David:
Yeah, that’s awesome, man.

Brian:
You can’t sit here and think your way into feeling confident. It only comes through actions. When you’re feeling really down and you’re feeling this is never going to happen. The best thing you can do is go out and do something that’s productive. If you’re in sales, it’s pick up the phone and make a call.

Brian:
Even if someone says, no, I’m not interested, internally you know that you’re more in control than if you’re just sitting, waiting or hoping something’s going to change.

David:
Isn’t that funny that we see so often that people don’t want to take action until they feel confident. But you can’t build confidence until… that was such a great thing. Confidence comes from competence, competence comes from repetition. Repetition is daily action. And if you really think about it, it’s like saying, yeah, I don’t want to go to the gym until I feel strong.

Brian:
Right, right. I’m not going there till I look really [crosstalk 00:34:33]. Guess what? You ain’t never going.

Brandon:
You know it reminds me, I teach these webinars every week to BiggerPockets listeners, and David does as well. And we are constantly teaching people how to analyze deals. And one of the reasons why is for this exact concept of like, even if you’re not ready to buy yet, even if you don’t know what the market is going to look like a year from now or six months ago from now, you might not have the money, you might have not none of that.

Brandon:
If you sit down and analyze a real estate investment every single day for the next three months straight, and you get through 90, 100, 120 of these things, just knocked out, you’re going to feel so comfortable and competent because you’ve done the reps. And now, making an offer is not going to be that scary. Nothing’s going to be scary because you have the reps, you’ve done the work.

Brandon:
And people are like, well, I don’t know how to feel accomplished, just analyze deals, I don’t have money, analyze deals anyway. It’s not a horribly complicated thing.

Brian:
Yeah. Right. It’s the best time to learn. [crosstalk 00:35:24].

Brandon:
That’s like in real estate, too, is you could… it’s like mock stock, market stock. You can do a Mock Stock market game, an app where you’re not actually trading, but you pretend you are. Real estate is like that, too. You can literally just pretend all day long to practice to get really good at running the numbers. You could talk to a real investor and be like, hey, these are my numbers.

Brandon:
What does it take to agree that this look like it would work? And they’d be like, no, change this thing. And then, okay, go back and change that thing? And then. do better next time.

Brian:
Yeah, that’s just smart. That’s-

Brandon:
Yeah, it just works. All right, I want to shift a little bit here and talk about how this applies to those people here with a team. So, if you have a team of people working with you, I don’t know, maybe you have partners, maybe you’re just part of a big team. How do you apply the 12-week year to a team mentality?

Brian:
In some ways, it’s actually more powerful with a team, because it creates these structures. If you’re if you’re part of a team there, I would argue that there’s three underlying structures that you have to have for the team to perform at their highest level.

Brian:
And it doesn’t matter what you value. It doesn’t matter what your values are, whether they’re innovation or customer service, whatever it is, you have to have clarity, clarity of vision, clarity of goals, most importantly, clarity of actions, clarity of expectation. That’s why you got to get tactical. You need to have transparency with regard to what people are doing.

Brian:
So, are we actually doing the stuff or not? If you’re an individual, you know whether or not you’re doing it. If you’re on a team, that gets lost. And then, third is you need evidence if it is producing or not. And so, the 12-week year brings all that into play, and it forces the team to engage and interact differently.

Brian:
So, when we work with teams, the first thing we do is we start with vision, but we still start with their personal lives.

Brandon:
How so?

Brian:
We don’t start with the business, we start with their personal lives. Because we have to connect the dots, ultimately you have to connect the dots between what I’m doing Monday through Friday in the business and the life I want to live.

Brandon:
Oh, so good.

Brian:
And for so many people, those dots aren’t connected, especially on teams. And so, we start with everybody, even part-timers, we’ve worked with groups that they’ve got part-timers. They go, what else, people don’t care. And I go, I beg to differ, they care about their life. And so, we’re going to work on it.

Brian:
And then, we work at the company vision and say, okay, now, how does the succeeding year enable you to live the life you want to live. That’s how we connect those dots. And then, as a team, we set the goal, as a team, we build out the plan so that what’s happening in that is, if the leader does all, that now they’ve got to go sell it to the team.

Brian:
And there’s a chance that they don’t buy. We’re less opposed to anything we help create. So, the team creates the goals, creates the plan, gets tactical, argues back and forth about, this matters. No, this matters. And so, all that discussion is what creates the buy in. And then, at that point, we’re locked and loaded. Now, it’s moving forward.

Brian:
And everyone having a weekly plan, so there’s clarity about what matters most this week by individual. And there’s transparency that everybody can see who supposed to do what and what’s getting done. And then, we’re tracking it, we’re tracking the results. Is it moving the needle or not?

David:
When Brandon really saw… what looked to me, Brandon, when your business shot off was when you came up with that vivid vision poster you have in your shed, where he basically, Brian, spelled it out, here’s exactly what I want my life to look like. And here’s how my team plays a role in it. He created a very vivid description of what that would look like.

David:
He shared it with the team members, and then, he hired people to fit into that world. Is that in line with what you’re describing here?

Brian:
Yeah, so if you’ve never done the work, we do it as a team. Like in our organization, we go off-site every 13 weeks. We go back to the vision and making sure that we’re all bought in and is someone seeing something that we didn’t see before that we want to add to it or there’s a piece of it that doesn’t make sense for us anymore, because different opportunities opened up.

Brian:
And it’s really making sure, if you have a team, that everyone’s on the same page. And that ultimately… down to the part-timer. How does the part-timer succeeding there help them live the life they want to live? Otherwise, you’re just an employee.

Brandon:
That’s so cool.

David:
So, it’s using the carrot.

Brian:
Yeah, well, it’s a natural carrot, though, right? Because if I want my team empowered, the greatest empowerment comes from when I see how doing these things in the business helps me. I get how it helps you, David, it grows your revenue, it grows your income. How does that help me? When I see that, now it’s a different deal.

Brian:
Now, I play at a different level. Now, I’m playing a much bigger game. Because I can see how me doing these things not only benefits you or benefits me, more than I get to keep my job, because candidly, I can find another job.

David:
Right. Yeah, I guess, as you were talking, I was thinking how if you don’t do that, you have to make up for that with the stick. Whereas if you get to buy in people-

Brandon:
Nobody wants, nobody wants to do… You have to check in, punch a clock at this time. That’s why the companies they have to rely on things like punching the clock and you’ve got your three write-ups, you’re out the door, that stuff sucks. I don’t want to work for a company like that. That’s horrible.

Brian:
Most people don’t and even people managing them don’t want to manage that way. They just don’t know what they did. They haven’t brought in a better system.

Brandon:
Yeah, that’s really good, really good. All right. So, for those who want to implement the 12-week year in their business right now, obviously, read the book. We can tell people to read the book. But what if I’m tactical like, okay, do this first. And this is important. Do this, then do this. What are some of the key takeaways that people can walk away from this interview with?

Brian:
Yeah. Step one is do the vision work. Some of the people listen and go, oh, that’s bluff. It’s not bluff. It’s the cornerstone of all high performance. If you don’t know where you want to go, everything else doesn’t matter. So, do the vision work, then bring that near-term build out a 12-week plan. And then, the game on, it’s really about executing that plan.

Brian:
And listen, you’re going to have weeks when you stumble. I have weeks when I stumble. And I’ve been doing it for a while. You don’t beat yourself up for that. There’s a lot of grace in the 12-week year, because you can’t change anything you did last week. Right? But we can learn from them. And so, as we look at last week, it’s with an eye towards reality and candor.

Brian:
What actually happened? I’m not going to shy away from my stumblings or my failings, because those are opportunities to learn. And if they sting, they sting. Okay? That’s okay. That’s part of the process. We call that productive tension, which causes me to behave differently next time.

Brian:
So, you don’t shy away from the reality of the situation, whether you’re winning, whether you’re struggling. But it’s really taking it one week at a time.

Brandon:
That’s awesome.

Brian:
Right? I win this week. I don’t worry about next week till next week. I don’t have to, because the 12-week plan will tell me what to do next week. Let’s just win this week.

Brandon:
Yeah, really good, really good man. One of my last questions I got for you is on accountability. And you talk about this a little bit in the book about that people get the word accountability wrong. And they say, I want somebody to hold me accountable on to what they’re looking for. Where’s the misunderstanding of that term? Where’s that?

Brian:
Yeah. Well, we laugh at that, because I think saying I need someone to hold me accountable was probably the least accountable thing you could say, because you’re trying to shift the burden. The burden to perform is yours. Right? And so, the misunderstanding is most of us have experienced accountability as consequences.

Brian:
I mean, everywhere you hear the word in society, you’ll hear it today on the radio or TV or something that they’re going to hold this person accountable. And what do they do, right, they find them, they suspend them, they punish them in some form, and we’ve all experienced accountability that way. And that is not accountability.

Brian:
That’s consequences. And consequences play a role. But accountability is different than that. Accountability is ownership. It’s the recognition that we have free will choice. We always, always have choice, and then, taking ownership of those choices. And then, in the end, I would argue we choose our consequences.

Brian:
But you either choose to be successful and happy and healthy, or something else by the choices you make each and every day. And so, when you really understand accountability as choices, ownership, it’s probably the most empowering concept we have to live the life we want to live.

Brandon:
Yeah, that’s really good. To add a humorous story to this. I got a buddy from college that I met in college, who, to this day now, he’s almost 40. He lives at home and gets very upset when his mom does not wake him up. Because you were supposed to wake me up for that thing, mom.

Brandon:
And he’ll complain about how like, I asked her to wake me up and she didn’t wake me up that’s why I missed the meeting or missed my work that day or whatever. And I’m like, I mean, they got these fancy things called alarm clock. But it’s a silly example.

Brandon:
But the question is, in what way… I would have every listener right now and I’m thinking it about myself, in what way am I acting like that? Where I’m shifting my responsibility to do something onto somebody else because it takes the blame off me and I wouldn’t feel bad that I’m not taking action. I’m not holding myself accountable.

Brandon:
I’m going to blame somebody else. And I think there’s probably areas of all our lives where we can look at and be like, yeah, I need to step up and take ownership of that because right now I’m not.

Brian:
Yeah. I’m looking outside myself, someone or something to change. But you don’t control any of that, right? And that is a level of a victim mindset. This victim mindset is that the world happens to me and I fail or I struggle because people didn’t do what they were supposed to do, or whatever. That life is a struggle when you come after life that way.

Brian:
When you recognize that you don’t control the circumstances, but you control how you respond, and that you always have choice and taking ownership of those choices, life just shows up so much better. Not perfect, right? I mean, there’s still struggles, there’s still disappointments, but you’re equipping yourself to have the best life you can have, which is, I think, what we’re all striving for.

David:
I’ve really noticed that, Brian, and a lot of what you’re saying here, you’re teaching, your philosophies, the principles in this book, are empowering principles. This is how you can get more out of yourself. I wanted to ask, in your experience, what are some things that prevent people from embracing this perspective or this philosophy?

Brian:
David, I think it’s probably more than anything else, it’s the discomfort of growing, right? I mean, I talk to groups all the time, does it take sacrifice to be great, and everyone agrees. And I would argue, you don’t have to sacrifice your values, you don’t have to sacrifice your integrity, your health, your sanity, your family.

Brian:
But you got to sacrifice your comfort, because if you’re going to grow, if you’re going to do anything great, it’s going to be uncomfortable. And I think that’s at the heart of personal leadership and being successful, is being comfortable with being uncomfortable, because that’s the process of growing. And that’s how you’ve gotten to where you’re at today.

Brian:
But there’s a mindset of just being intentional with that, that recognizing that that’s part of a gig, and to lean into that versus leaning away from that. But I think that’s the number one thing that holds people back, is we are wired for comfort.

Brian:
And when you realize that that’s the villain we’re fighting our entire life is from the comfort of other people accepting me to the comfort of just the physical comfort of doing stuff, the emotional comfort of where I want to be. And we’re just wired that way. And it’s not a bad thing, but it does hold us back.

Brian:
And so, recognizing that that’s the enemy and not giving in to that, surrounding myself with people that think the same way I do using systems like the 12-week year that help me confront that comfort on a daily basis and make a conscious choice about, okay, am I going to choose success today? Am I going to choose company?

Brian:
Am I going to choose a better relationship right now and serve my spouse or my mate, or am I going to choose comfort? Am I going to choose to be the father that has impact, that has influence or am I going to choose to sit here and watch the football game right now because it’s comfortable and it’s easy? I mean, those are the choices we make each and every day that shape our lives.

Brandon:
That’s fantastic. It’s really good, man. Well, I want to shift and head over to the next and final, I guess, segment of our show. It’s a segment we call our Famous Four. This is the part of the show where we ask the same four questions every week to every guest, and we’re going to shorten it today. We’ll call it the Famous Three today.

Brandon:
The first one we usually ask about a favorite real estate-related book. For this Sunday episode, we really got to come up with a better first question. So, hey, if you’re listening to the show right now and you got an idea for a better first question for our non-real estate shows, let us know. I guess hit me up on beardybrandon on Instagram. Let me know if you got a good question.

Brian:
One would be just a favorite, so I’ll give you a favorite book, how’s that?

Brandon:
Well, that is a second question. But yes, go ahead. That’s going to be our first question today.

David:
Also?

Brandon:
Yes.

Brian:
And it’s just as important if you’re a real estate investor, it’s called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.

Brandon:
Ah, I’ve heard that, but I’ve never read it.

Brian:
Great little book. She studied successful people and found that they had fears just like people that didn’t have the success, but they didn’t let him stop. And she talks about five truths of fear. It’s just a really, it’s a really good read, one of my favorites.

Brandon:
That’s awesome. I’ve been actually teaching my daughter, I got a four-year-old, four-and-a-half-year-old, Rosie, and I’ve been teaching her a lot lately about like, being brave doesn’t mean you’re not afraid. It means you feel the fear and do it anyway. And we’ve had a lot of discussions about that because she’s afraid of everything. And-

Brian:
Her just being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.

Brandon:
Ah, I love it. Yeah, love it. Cool.

David:
Yep. Okay. What are some of your hobbies?

Brian:
I used to golf, don’t do that much now, because I’ve got kids. They didn’t get into it, took a lot of time. One of my goals in life, we’re big on family. I want to be the biggest influence in my kid’s life. And I think that takes quantity time, not just quality. I think quality time is an excuse to recreate. So, we do horses. We raise Arabian horses.

Brian:
We show them. It’s a great family deal. The girls play sports, too. But when they do that, they’re going separate directions. We do the horse thing, we’re in the same spot for a week. And so, that’s probably my biggest hobby, is that. And I shoot clays. I shoot clay pigeons and-

David:
Sporting clays?

Brian:
… sporting clays. Yeah, that’s newest fun.

David:
When you watch someone else do it, it doesn’t seem that great, but when you’re doing it, it’s a freaking blast.

Brandon:
Yes, it’s so fun.

David:
Yeah, I love it.

Brian:
It really is.

David:
Yeah. I can talk to you about sporting clay the next hour if you have nothing to do. What kind do you do? Is it five-stand? Is it trap?

Brian:
We do them all. The club I’m at has a one-mile course, too, where they have 16 different stations, four different throws. And then, they have two traps and two skeets as well. It’s fun. I’m fairly new into it, but I’m loving. It’s great.

David:
There’s something that I’ve noticed that, this is completely unrelated to the topic, I’m just curious, Brian, if you’re the same way. When you combine a physical action with a mental puzzle that has to be solved, it just is fun. Like that’s what I loved about sports, was my mind had to analyze what was happening and then my body had to execute a movement or a decision.

David:
And when those two worlds collide, that’s fun. And that’s what, like paintball, I get that same rush out of it or sporting clays like, okay, every station, they’re different. What are the angles? How much do I have to lead it by? What choke am I going to use? And then I have to go do it. Is that something similar that you found?

Brandon:
I think so. We found that, too, David, with parties. If there’s a theme around the party, there’s something to do. Like we’ll do a Christmas caroling party where we go to a nursing home. That is one of the most fun parties because there’s a purpose to it. There’s activities for people to do. And so, there’s a lot of communication that happens that wouldn’t otherwise happen.

Brandon:
So, that kind of thing, I think. When there’s something to do there that that is intriguing and taps the curiosity and the intellect.

David:
There’s something rewarding to a human about solving puzzles. I mean, really, if you look at what we talked about today, it’s how do I solve the puzzle of a goal that I’m trying to hit, particularly within business, right? These are puzzle-solving strategies that we’re talking about to get the most out of yourself.

Brian:
I like that.

Brandon:
That’s cool, man. All right. My final question of the day, what do you think separates successful people from those who give up or they fail or they just never get started?

Brian:
That’s an interesting question. I think the one thing is the comfort thing, right? People buy into that. But I think it’s really having a strong vision. That’s why I say that’s the cornerstone. If you don’t have something you’re striving for, then it’s really easy to give up. If you have something that matters to you, and you’re passionate about it, right? If you think about passion comes from vision.

Brian:
That’s what creates passion. If you don’t have a clear vision of… if you’re lacking passion in some area, you probably don’t have a clear vision for it. The things you’re passionate about, you have vision for it. So, to me the vision creates the passion, the passion creates the courage to do the things you need to do.

Brian:
So, the reason people will do the things, if you tie it back, they like the passion, they actually lack the vision about something bigger than what they currently have, right? A future that’s more compelling than the present that causes me to want to step out and try some things and be willing to stumble and fall down and pick myself up.

Brian:
I think if we didn’t learn to walk as kids, we wouldn’t do it. Because we will be so embarrassed, we’d fall a couple times. And then, we don’t have confidence, settle into the [inaudible 00:52:59] there. Because too many of us are concerned about what other people think. And so, when you’ve got a strong vision, it lessens the impact of that, right? I don’t care so much about what other people think.

Brian:
I really want to make this happen because it matters to me and my family. And there’s a personal why behind it. I think that’s the key.

David:
That’s really, really well put. I love that. I’ve never heard anyone say that, if we didn’t learn to walk as kids, we probably wouldn’t do it. But it illustrates a very good point.

Brandon:
Cool, man. Well, David, final question?

David:
All right. Last question of the day from us is where can people find out more about you?

Brian:
Great. 12weekyear.com. So, the digits 1-2-weekyear.com. Bunch of free stuff on there, getting started course, there’s some other online programs. We’ve got a virtual live event coming up in January. And that’ll be great. So, yeah, all that stuff. Anything we can help with, please reach out to 12weekyear.com.

Brandon:
Awesome. All right. Well, thank you, man. This has been fantastic. I love connecting with authors who have written and just stuff that just shape my life. So, thank you for writing this book.

Brian:
Yeah, you welcome. I appreciate the opportunity to connect with you guys.

Brandon:
All right. Thank you. All righty, and that was another fantastic episode of The BiggerPockets Podcast with an amazing guest, Brian Moran. That was really, really cool, David. What do you think? You have not read the 12 Week Year, right? So, this is new to you?

David:
Never read the 12 Week Year. I’ve heard you mention it briefly, but I didn’t really have a good understanding of it. But the more he talked, really, the more I started thinking about other very successful business people and what they’re teaching and how it all connects. He mentioned a lot of things that made me think about the one thing, how do you win the week?

David:
What’s the one thing you got to do that will make everything else easier or unnecessary? I thought about a lot of the 4DX Principles. I know you love that book also, right? Lead measures and lag measures, don’t measure just the results, measure the action that you’re taking.

David:
The sense of urgency that he mentioned, to get the most out of yourself, I thought that was incredibly valuable. You may hit your goal. But you still left so much on the table for what you could have done, right? You thought, I want to buy a property next year. Well, you could probably buy 10 properties next year if you take what you did, and you just amplify it.

David:
And in my personal life, I see this come up all the time where we have a mindset, we have subconscious beliefs that are absolutely sabotaging us, okay? Like the eight-hour workday is one of them. Who says you have to work eight hours, you can get everything done in two hours, or you can work 14 hours if you really want to depending on your goal.

David:
That’s a way that people think that gets in their way. So, this type of stuff really challenges that conventional thinking that we’re comfortable with, forces us to get uncomfortable. But man, if you want to unlock your potential, this is where it’s at.

Brandon:
That’s so true. One thing he talked about today was, you have that vision, you start with your vision. And I love that he talked about that, that the vision should begin with your personal vision, because your work’s line up with your personal life. And they go into a lot more depth on that in the book. So, make sure you, guys, pick up a copy of the book, it is fantastic.

Brandon:
But they go from vision, and then you have your goal, your 12-week year goal. And then you have your tactics. And so, I want to talk about that just for a few minutes here, because I want to relate this back to real estate investors. Let’s just take the average new real estate investor. Now, if you’re an experienced one, stick with me anyway.

Brandon:
But let’s just say you’re new and you want to buy a property. And let’s say your goal is to buy one in the next 12 weeks. So, in the next 12 weeks, you’re going to buy a property.

Brandon:
I want to, David, while you’re here, you and I, just real quick, let’s brainstorm what are some of the tactics, the things that have to get checked off your list, that once you get all these tactics done, you will then have a property, or at least you’ve done everything in your power needed to have a property. So, what are some of those things? Maybe just firing back and forth?

David:
How are you going to fund it?

Brandon:
Okay, that’s a good one. So, you need to get fund it. So, let’s even go deeper on that one.

David:
Can you get pre-approved?

Brandon:
Can you get pre-approved? Yeah. So, maybe week one, my goal, week one, is to contact three lenders. And my goal, week two, or not even goal, but a tactic. Tactically, one is contact three lenders and submit my financial documents to them. Or maybe week one is actually get your documents together.

Brandon:
I don’t know maybe you can do both in one week depends on how busy you are. And then, you’re going to get your documents to your lender. And then, what about how you going to find deals? So, maybe I’m going to get a real estate agent. That’ll be good tactic?

David:
Well, maybe first, pick your market, where you want to buy in. And then, get cleared in your criteria. What type of property do you want? When you have that, now you can go to the agent and say, in this area, I want this property, can you help me do it? And maybe interview a couple agents the same way that you talked to a couple lenders?

Brandon:
Yep, that’s great. And maybe one of my tactics is maybe an ongoing one. I’m going to analyze 10 deals every week, that’s 120 deals over the next 12 weeks. I’m going to analyze 10 properties.

David:
Okay. So, Brandon, if I don’t know how to analyze a property, what can I do.

Brandon:
You can’t do anything. You have to give up and go back to watching TV. That’s how it works. You can watch one of a billion YouTube videos on how to analyze rental properties, or you can head over to biggerpockets.com/calc, C-A-L-C. And we have a calculator that helps you analyze properties, whether it’s a flip, rental, or whatever.

Brandon:
But that’s a tactic. It’s go and analyze some properties. So, maybe that’s another one. By this week, I’m going to have analyzed 10 of them, or buy 20 of them, whatever.

David:
There you go.

Brandon:
What else do somebody have to do?

David:
I’d say after that first week of analyzing that many properties, you should have a baseline for what kind of ROI and what type of return you can expect on the different properties. And by then, you should recognize when you find one that is above that baseline. Now, you know what a deal would be, is it something better than the other properties around?

David:
So, you would want to start identifying deals and writing offers on those properties.

Brandon:
Yeah, making an offer, okay. My week seven, I’m going to have submitted an offer. Week eight, I would have submitted two offers. Week nine, I’m going to fit 12 offers, whatever, scale up a little bit if you feel like it. And like he said earlier, you can’t control the outcome, but you can control your inputs, right? I don’t want to say you’re guaranteed to buy a property in 12 weeks. I hope you do.

Brandon:
And if you do the right inputs, you should have. You put in a dozen offers, you’ll probably get something accepted as long as you’re not being super crazy strict. You know another one, it could be a good one. If you’re just getting in the education phase, maybe it’s like, hey, you want to invest at a distance?

Brandon:
Maybe their first step is to read David’s book, Long Distance Real Estate Investing, right? Or maybe you want to bur, maybe the first step is to read Buy Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. Maybe you want a house hack, maybe should go read Craig’s book, The House Hacking one, or you just want to buy any rental, read the book on rental property investing.

Brandon:
You have no money, read the book on investing in real estate with no and low money down. That can be a tactic for week one, is to finish one of those freaking books. It doesn’t take all year to do it. Get it done in a week and then move on. Check it off your list. Great, I accomplished the one thing that I was going to do this week, which was read the book.

Brandon:
If you didn’t answer e-mails, if you didn’t respond to that text, who cares? You did the one thing that got you closer to your goal, which gets you closer to your vision, which gets you closer to the life that you want to live.

David:
I’ll give you another thing, take your plan that you’ve come up with. I want to use an FHA loan to buy a property in this area that looks like this at this price, and run it by somebody else who’s more experienced than you and say, what would you change about this plan?

Brandon:
Yup. Yeah, I love that. In fact, you can even take your entire 12-week year plan… in fact, if somebody came to me that I knew, right, I’m not going to go do it to a perfect stranger and you shouldn’t either, build relationships, people.

Brandon:
But if somebody came to me and new and said, hey, I really want to buy a property in the next 12 weeks, so I wrote down this list of 12 things that I need to do, and includes market, this, this, I’d be like, oh, my gosh, that was so good. Look at you. I’m so proud of you. Yeah, let me tweak this little thing. And yeah, I think this is probably not going to work out, but try this one instead.

Brandon:
That is such an amazing way to get a mentor to help you, is by approaching them and say, this is the 12 tactics I’m going to work on the next 12 weeks, am I missing anything or would you add anything to this or would you take anything away?

Brandon:
Now, you didn’t just come to me with will you help me and be my mentor, you came to me with a specific question, a game plan, and all I had to do is read it for three seconds and decide if it’s good or not.

David:
Very, very good. Go, man, that was a good one. You got it at that one. That was good.

Brandon:
I just expanded upon it. So, thank you. With that said, I think that’s all we got. So, let us know what you, guys, think of the show. If you have not left a rate and review for the BiggerPockets Podcast, those really help us reach more people, helps keep us in the top of all our business podcasts and iTunes and Stitcher and Google Play and all that. And it makes us feel good.

Brandon:
So, leave us a rate and review if you would. And follow us on Instagram at BiggerPockets, B-I-G-G-E-R pockets, like hot pockets but larger. And you can also follow David @davidgreene24, me @beardybrandon. And that’s all I got. So, David Hot Pockets Greene, you want to take us out?

David:
Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Please-

Brandon:
[crosstalk 01:01:32] over hot pockets. I don’t know why.

David:
And then, you said we’re like hot pockets but larger. So, I started thinking maybe we need to make a spin-off called Larger Pockets and then deeper pockets.

Brandon:
Larger pockets, yes.

David:
Share this episode with somebody that you think would benefit from it. Think about the successful people in your life who are very driven. I promise you they are dealing with daily frustration that they want to be doing even more, even though it seems like they’re doing good. This type of stuff is very, very valuable to them and they will love you for it.

Brandon:
It’s true. All right. Get us out of here.

David:
I need to get on a plane to get to Hawaii. Go, see you in a little bit there.

Brandon:
Come hang out. It’ll be fun.

David:
Thank you very much. This is David Hot Pocket Greene for Brandon the 12-week Wonder Turner signing off.

Outro:
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