January 2, 2024 • 24 mins
Ever felt like your goals are just out of reach, or that a year is too long to wait for success? In this episode, we are going to go over The 12-Week Year, an effective approach that can help you achieve your personal and business goals.
In my first ever book review, I am going to go over Brian P. Moran's book The 12 Week Year and how the 12 week year strategy has simplified my ambitions, allowing me to concentrate on a single personal and business goal every quarter, creating a rhythm of urgency and accomplishment. No more over-committing or feeling overwhelmed; just clear, attainable objectives and the thrill of crossing the finish line four times a year.
Tune in and learn how you can create more consistency in your business and push your business forward by following these tactics!
Mentioned Resources:
*Buy the 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran: https://amzn.to/3tIU1aE
Join our new free Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/bcsesolutions
*Contains affiliate Links
This week’s episode is sponsored by our Search Engine Optimization Mini Course. Our Free online digital course that teaches eCommerce and website owners how to level up their search engine rankings with some simple, doable steps! Join us at www.ecommercemadeeasypodcast.com/seominicourse/
Be sure to subscribe to our podcast where ever you are listening!
You can find our show notes at:
https://www.ecommercemadeeasypodcast.com
Find more of our resources and newsletter subscription here:
https://linktr.ee/bcsengineering
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
As an online business owner and entrepreneur, we are
bombarded with so many tacticsand ideas on how to make
progress in our business, butwhat will really make the
difference?
What will really propelourselves and our businesses
forward?
Consistency is the key.
It's the key in online business.
It's also the key in brick andmortar businesses.
(00:24):
In this episode, we're going todiscuss how using tactics from
the 12-week year book can helpyou become more consistent and
be able to really push yourbusiness forward to where you
needed to go.
Welcome to the Ecommerce MadeEasy podcast.
I'm your host, kiri Saunders.
When we started this business,all I had was a couch, a laptop
(00:47):
and a nine-month old my maingoal To help others.
Now, with over 20 years in thee-commerce building industry and
even more than that in webdevelopment, I have seen a lot.
I love breaking down the hardtech and the easily
understandable bits to helpothers be successful in their
online business.
Whether you're a seasonede-commerce veteran or just
starting out, you've come to theright place.
So sit back, relax and let'sdive into the world of
(01:10):
e-commerce together.
Welcome back to this week'sepisode of the Ecommerce Made
Easy podcast.
So this is going to be ourfirst kind of book review on our
podcast, but it's one that isreally exciting to me.
So today I'm going to betalking about the 12-year week
book, and that is by Brian Moranand Michael Lennington.
(01:32):
So this book I actually pickedup I believe it was back in 2017
or 2018, and I'm recording thisat the end of 2023.
So a while ago, right, so overfive years ago and I tried to
implement it back then Now and Ifeel like I did a decent job at
first.
But, unlike like many of usentrepreneurs are, we're
(01:57):
generally perfectionists and tryto take on way too much than we
really should, and the 12-weekyear, if you do it right, is
supposed to help you not do that.
But for me and for how I was atthat time, there's no, no
blaming or shaming here.
We all have our own stages oflife.
I took too much on when I triedto implement the 12-week year
(02:19):
back then, because I actuallyfound today, when I was digging
out some things to find somenotes on this, how much I tried
to implement back then and Irealized, looking back now, that
I'm older and wiser.
You know, I really tried topush the limits and really get
the maximum I could out of thebook, but then I fell short
(02:41):
because it got overwhelmed.
So what I want to focus todayon this podcast episode is how
can we use a book like this thatcan help us really maximize our
efforts, but also use it in avery intelligent way that we
aren't overwhelming ourselves?
Because the 12-week year'sprinciple is pretty simple we're
(03:02):
going to get more done in 12weeks than we're going to in a
year if we look at that 12 weeksas a year.
And the concept is really also,you know, plays on our
psychology here, in that manytimes we really push and get
things done when we're pushed tothe limit, when we're pushed
towards the edge of our time tobe able to complete a task right
(03:23):
.
Many of us, especiallyperfectionists, might be
procrastinators in our own way,because we want things to be
perfect.
So when we're wanting things tobe perfect, many times we will
procrastinate getting somethingdone to the very last second.
Well, with a 12-week year, youcreate a really good sense of
urgency because your year endsin as short as 12 weeks, and 12
(03:45):
weeks is a pretty short periodof time if you really think
about it.
So the whole concept is toreally shorten up your year into
four 12-week periods and thenyou have a 13th week in between,
and that 13th week we'll talkabout soon, but it's a great
prep week and review week.
So, for the 12-week year,though, we want to have fewer
(04:08):
goals, because whenever wemultitask and think about too
many things at once, we getoverwhelmed.
So this is something I did whenI tried to implement this
originally, as I had I believeit was like three or four
12-week goals.
So if you have never done the12-week year before, I highly
recommend you pick one personaland one business goal and that's
(04:30):
it, and that's what I'm goingto be doing for 2024.
I've already been doing prepwork for this for several weeks
now, been doing some practicetrial runs, and, honestly, if
you're like me, maybe you need afew weeks of practice trial
runs too, where you're reallykind of just, you know, digging
in and saying, okay, what can Ireally like?
It's not really adding to yourplate, but kind of mentally, it
(04:53):
feels like you're adding to yourplate when you're adding a new
structure like this.
So, really, what can you kindof add to your plate, right?
And you really need to bethinking about how can I
implement this, what can I do sofor me.
I'm doing a revenue goal forour business for 12 weeks and
then I'm doing a personalfitness goal because I want to
(05:13):
get a bit more in shape and I'mtrying to really be very
conscious on the tactics I takewhen I'm doing this.
Okay, so let me back up for aminute too.
So when you do the 12 week year,if you're not familiar with the
book, we will link to it in theshow notes and if you're on our
YouTube channel, you can seethe picture of the book right
here.
It's not a very big book.
(05:35):
It's actually a pretty quick,nice, easy read.
They do a great job of givingyou examples in the book of how
it applies to real life and howwe're really.
One of the things I really likeis how it talks about you
become great when you're doingthose daily steps.
So think about that you'rebecoming great when you're doing
(05:58):
those daily steps, not when youwin that race.
They have example with MichaelPhelps in there and that he
would became great when hedecided to go to the pool every
day, potentially multiple timesa day, to practice his swimming
and practice exercising anddoing all the things that makes
a great swimmer.
He wasn't great when he wonthose gold medals.
(06:18):
He was great when he made thedecisions that helped him
achieve that gold medal.
So you need to keep in yourmind that you are great when
you're making those daily actionsteps towards your goals.
Another thing that's great aboutthe book is they talk about
lead and lag indicators.
This is something that can bereally easily missed on.
(06:41):
One more business owners, andparticularly online business
owners, we need to be looking atwhat actions can I control
those are more your leadindicators and what actions can
I control as a business owner?
What steps can I take?
What things can I do to make mybusiness work?
And then the lag indicators arethe results or the output of
(07:02):
your actions that you're puttingin.
So you want to have both leadand lag indicators in your
assessment of your 12 weeks.
And another thing that reallyhelps with the 12 week year is
that you're having fewer and Ithink I already touched on this
was really is we're having fewergoals to really concentrate on.
I know for me, I can so totallyoverwhelm myself.
(07:25):
I want to do this and I want todo that and I want to.
You know now we don't want todo all the things all the time
at the same time.
We need to pick a couple ofthings.
I think they recommend the booka minimum or maximum, three or
four tactic or goals that youwant to achieve and, like I said
, when you're just starting outand they even mentioned in the
book just a couple, one or two,not very many.
(07:48):
So when you're really doingthat is you really need to look
at these tactics.
Like I said and he goes intoreally great detail in the book
I highly recommend you get it,if you don't already have it of
you know what are these smalldaily action steps.
So if you're a business owner,you might need to do specific
marketing steps every single day, and then you also are going to
(08:12):
want to look at the results.
You're gonna wanna be measuringyour revenue that you're coming
in Now.
Revenue is going to come fromthe marketing steps you took
weeks or even months ago.
So that's why we wanna do thelag and the lead indicators,
both in the 12 week year Alsothe 12 week year, and I'm gonna
show on the YouTube channel ifyou're watching us on YouTube.
(08:35):
One thing I really loved aboutit is it has a lot of psychology
in the book too, and it talksabout our psychology and how we
can really train and retrain ourbrain around this.
And one of the things is onpage 72, if you have the hard
copy of the book right here isthat it shows you this graph and
so I'm gonna describe it to youfor the podcast listeners, and
(08:57):
it really shows you the fivephases of a project.
So first you have uninformedoptimism.
That's phase one, where you'reat the top of the hill and
you're excited to get thisproject going and this goal
going, and you have uninformedoptimism.
And then about midway down inthis kind of like a sine wave if
(09:22):
you're kind of techy aboutmidway down the curve, you run
into informed pessimism.
So you're kind of getting downin the weeds.
You're realizing, ooh, what I'mtrying to accomplish is a bit
harder than I thought it wasgoing to be, and so you have
informed pessimism.
And then we get to the bottomand phase three, and that's the
(09:43):
valley of despair, and hedescribes this a lot.
This is where a lot of peoplewill stop and quit and start
back over with the uninformedoptimism and go to a new task or
a new project.
So really the key to beingsuccessful is getting past that
(10:03):
valley of despair and moving onto phase four, which is informed
optimism, where you're in thetrenches and you're now seeing
the light at the end of thetunnel and you're like, ooh, ooh
, I think I can make it.
I think I can make it, I thinkI can achieve this goal.
And then phase five is successand fulfillment, when you've
actually fulfilled the goal.
(10:24):
But I think the key here isrealizing that when it gets
really hard, that doesn'tnecessarily mean that we need to
quit.
That might mean that we'realmost on the edge of succeeding
and that we really need to pushthrough this.
And I kind of wanna go back toabout the same time I got this
book.
Honestly, I found I have celiacdisease If you've already heard
(10:49):
that on the podcast and my statethat as I have health issues,
because I didn't know I hadceliac disease until my 30s.
One of the health issues I haveis I have osteopenia and I got
diagnosed at 37 with low bonedensity and osteopenia.
That's kind of a big deal atthat age.
You're supposed to be peekingin your bone density in your 30s
(11:12):
.
As a female, mine was alreadylow, you know.
That's kind of that's not goodfor my longevity right and my
ability to not break my bones asI get older.
So one of the things I decidedis I needed a big, scary goal to
chase.
I decided to do a local minitriathlon back then.
When I found out it was like itwas.
(11:33):
It was basically 10 years ago,actually to 10 years ago,
exactly a month ago and so Idecided to do a big, scary goal
and I decided to do a minitriathlon.
I am not an athlete.
I'm.
I was generally kind of fit.
I mean not, I'm not, you know,I'm kind of fit but I'm not an
athlete.
I was a marching band in highschool, which is athletic I will
(11:57):
say A shout out for themarching band people out there
but I wasn't like an athlete.
I wasn't like a track person ora swimmer or a bicyclist or
anything like that.
I do love riding my bike, but Iwas not an athlete, what you'd
really consider an athlete.
So when I started training forthe triathlon, I literally
couldn't run more than a quarterof a mile without out of breath
(12:17):
.
One I didn't know how to runslowly, because in this
triathlon you have to run a 5kand I didn't know how to run
slowly.
I was a sprinter, so one I hadto learn how to run slowly and
not super fast and completelywear myself out.
But it was a really long, big,scary goal, but at the same time
, if I look back, it was a fourmonth goal.
(12:39):
I started in January and therace was in April, so it was
about four months, which isalmost 12 weeks.
You know it's a little bitlonger than 12 weeks, but I had
step-by-step action steps.
I decided to take this coursehere at our university on
preparing for the triathlon, andyou know what our coach did.
He gave us exactly what to doevery single day and as long as
(13:02):
I checked those boxes, I wasable to get to the finish line.
So not only could I not run aquarter of a mile, and the
triathlon on this in this, thismini triathlon, is 500 meter
swim, a 25k bike and a 5k run.
I couldn't swim that long LikeI was, as I love swimming as a
(13:24):
kid, but I was not a swimmerright and I love biking and
probably bike riding wasprobably the easiest part for me
to get down, because I did loveto bike long distances.
But you know, that was justsomething that I had to do step
by step.
So not only could I not run notrun a quarter of a mile, I
couldn't do any of those thingsfor that length of time or
(13:44):
anywhere close.
But I followed the action plan.
I followed what is basicallythe lead indicators that we
would consider in the 12-weekyear.
I did every single step I wassupposed to do and by the end of
those four months, when thetriathlon was here, you know
what I did.
I did the triathlon, I didn'tstop, I didn't take a break, I
(14:06):
didn't do anything.
So my whole goal was to do thetriathlon without stopping.
It didn't matter how long ittook me, I didn't want to stop.
And you know what I actuallydid at the end of the triathlon
is, if you're not familiartriathlons, usually they swim by
grunt because they don't wantto drown you and have swimming
last, so you do the swimmingfirst.
In the run part, I sprinted tothe finish line.
(14:28):
Once I could see it hundreds offeet away and I'm very
far-sighted so I could actuallysee it pretty far away.
I sprinted.
I had people looking at me likewhy is she running so fast?
How is she doing this?
I sprinted to the finish line.
I was so excited and so stoked.
So that little story just kindof makes me realize and I hope
it helps you realize that whenwe do those step-by-step actions
(14:51):
like they talk about in the 12week year and really laying out
the daily and the weekly actionsteps you need to take to reach
your goal, you get there and youstop looking at the finish line
.
You stop looking at this big,scary goal of, oh my goodness,
I've got to take a couple hours.
I mean, this is.
(15:11):
I think I did it and I can'tquite remember how long.
I think it was about two hours.
It was about two hours ofexercise.
I think I have to look back tobe sure, but I basically
exercised for two hours and I'mnot an athlete right to do this
whole triathlon and I did it andI completed it and I was so, so
happy and so excited.
(15:32):
But I never looked towards thatscary goal as to what I was
going to be doing at the end.
Every day I focused on the smallsteps I needed to get there.
So when you're focusing onthose small steps that you need
to get your goal, the goal seemsso much more attainable.
So another thing that they talkabout too that I love in the
(15:54):
book is specific types of blocksof time.
So the specific types of blocksof time are like strategic
blocks and buffer blocks.
So buffer blocks are superimportant.
We always get interrupted inour days.
So having those buffer blockswhere you allow yourself to be
interrupted on purpose andreally honing down to when your
(16:17):
employees or other people caninterrupt you so that you can
focus during your strategicblocks and so you can focus
during those focus type ofblocks, it also gets you in the
habit of doing a consistentweekly review.
So something really importantand really key to the 12-week
year in making sure it'ssuccessful is that every week
you score yourself.
(16:38):
You score which tasks that areon your strategic task did you
actually get done?
And then you give yourself arating for that day or for that
week.
Sorry, excuse me.
So you want to make sure thatyou're working towards at least
85% completion every week, andhe talks about in the book in
the beginning.
You're not going to get to 85%and that's okay, but you need to
(17:01):
be getting better every singleweek and getting more, a better
percentage done for that week.
So not only does he give youstep by step, he also helps you
be realistic in getting thosestep by steps done, which is
what I really like.
And he also talks about you knowalso the psychology of why am I
(17:22):
hesitating to do a specifictask, and really breaking that
down.
I'm really thinking about whyyou might be resisting that task
.
Sometimes we resist a taskbecause we think it's hard.
Sometimes we resist a taskbecause we just don't want to do
it but we really need to do it.
So really kind of breaking downwhy you're not doing a specific
task you know you need to doand sometimes a task just
(17:45):
honestly needs to change andit's not really aligned with
what you're trying to do, andthat's okay too.
But we have to be reallycareful we don't make that as an
excuse either.
Then he talks about that a lotand also Mindset Shift.
That's really hard to say.
Mindset Shift is a very key.
(18:05):
This book is so great athelping you shift your mindset
and really, glend, easy breakdown all the psychology and all
the reasons why we resist change.
We are so human beings thatreally want to stay in their
comfort zone.
They really want to stay withwhat's familiar.
(18:26):
So when we're making new habitsand new goals and things like
that, we can really getuncomfortable with that and our
brains will find ways to avoidthat task or to get an excuse to
not do the task or getdistracted with other things
that are more in our comfortzone.
And aren't these new tasks thatare going to stretch us and
(18:50):
grow us?
Just like whenever I was doingthe triathlon, I had to set a
non-negotiable set of timeduring my day when I was going
to do my workouts.
I am not a morning person, soit was not in the morning, I can
tell you that.
But I knew in the eveningbetween it was like I think 7
and 9 pm.
That was my window when I wasgoing to work out and I had to
(19:13):
do it during that time,absolutely no matter what.
Now, that did make it hard onthe days.
I did have the triathlontraining class because that was
like at 6 in the morning orsomething like that.
Awful, yes, it was 6 in themorning.
Such awful memories because Iam not a morning person.
So it was kind of hard if Iworked out the night before like
8 pm at night and then I had toget up and work at 6 in the
(19:34):
morning, work out at 6 in themorning.
But the point is, though I hadspecific times, I had a
non-negotiable.
This is when I'm working out,so having that mindset shift of
a non-negotiable and also reallyseeing why am I getting tripped
up, why am I not doing thesethings I know are going to move
(19:55):
me forward?
And then another thing that Ididn't implement then when I was
doing the 12 week year let meclarify that, not the triathlon
when I was doing the 12 weekyear before.
One thing I didn't implementwas an accountability partner.
I didn't have somebody checkingin with me and keeping me
accountable on my tasks.
This time I do my podcast buddy, melissa, who we will have on
(20:19):
our show later in 2024, when wecelebrate our one-year
anniversaries and launching ourpodcast.
We're going to be having her onour show.
She is working with me.
We're going to be our own, eachother's 12 week year
accountability buddy this year.
So one of the reasons thetriathlon was so successful is I
had an accountability buddythere.
(20:40):
My friend and employee Lynn andI decided we were going to do
the triathlon together, so wewere always checking in with
each other on our workouts.
So having an accountabilitybuddy could be a business friend
, could be a friend in personcould be whomever you want, but
having an accountability buddywhen you're doing something
brand new, like the 12 week year, is going to be really helpful.
(21:03):
And if you've done the 12 weekyear before but maybe, like me,
not been as successful as youwould have liked, I feel like
having that accountability buddyis what is really going to make
the big, big difference.
Ok, so that is a little bit of ashort synopsis of the 12 week
year, how I'm going to beapplying it for this year.
(21:23):
I'm so excited because itactually kind of feels like a
relief to me because I have alot of business goals.
You know, in the past few yearshave been really weird for all
of us.
You know we've had the pandemic.
You know it was four years ago.
This March is when I reallybroke out in the United States
and it's been with us, whetherit's been like actively with us
(21:45):
as far as sickness goes or justas a you know part of our lives,
as far as how the economy isworking and how businesses are
run and things like that.
You know it's been aheavyweight burden on all of us
and on the online businessowners you know, these past four
years.
So I'm really looking forward toworking with Melissa, my
(22:06):
accountability buddy, and usworking on this 12 week year
together and I'm sure later onin the year I will go I will do
another episode on the 12 weekyear and how it's working for me
and what I've learned, becauseI feel like as entrepreneurs and
online business owners, wereally got to find what will
work and what will really helpus move forward without the
(22:27):
overwhelm, with the joy and withthe step by step confidence,
and I know, especially afterrereading the book a second time
, that this is the time.
This is my 12 week year.
I'm going to have it four timesthis year and it's just going
to be really great to help megrow as a person and grow our
(22:49):
business and become better.
You know better people whoserve other online business
entrepreneurs who need technicalhelp out there in the world, so
I hope this is really helpfuland I appreciate you listening
to us on the podcast and if youlisten to us on YouTube, be sure
to hit that subscribe button.
We really appreciate all yourfeedback.
(23:12):
Oh, and something new too, whichI announced on the last episode
, is we have a new Facebookgroup where I will be going live
regularly in 2024, teaching youall about online tech, and
we've got some interestingtopics coming up that are going
to be very impactful forbusinesses.
So if you want to join ourFacebook group, you can go to
ecommercemeadeeasypodcastcom.
(23:34):
Forward slash Facebook Again.
That'secommercemeadeeasypodcastcom.
Forward slash Facebook to joinour free Facebook group.
We're going to be having lotsof information, including email
marketing and also emaildeliverability.
There's a big, huge changethat's coming up this year.
I'm going to just give you alittle preview there, because
it's really important thatyou're going to need to pay
(23:57):
attention to, and we'll be doingan episode and doing some
videos on it as well.
So I hope this was superhelpful for this week's episode
of the ecommercemeadeeasypodcast.
I appreciate you listening and,as always, we look forward to
seeing you next week and you canalways visit our show notes
again atecommercemeadeeasypodcastcom.
As an online business owner and entrepreneur, we are
bombarded with so many tacticsand ideas on how to make
progress in our business, butwhat will really make the
difference?
What will really propelourselves and our businesses
forward?
Consistency is the key.
It's the key in online business.
It's also the key in brick andmortar businesses.
(00:24):
In this episode, we're going todiscuss how using tactics from
the 12-week year book can helpyou become more consistent and
be able to really push yourbusiness forward to where you
needed to go.
Welcome to the Ecommerce MadeEasy podcast.
I'm your host, kiri Saunders.
When we started this business,all I had was a couch, a laptop
(00:47):
and a nine-month old my maingoal To help others.
Now, with over 20 years in thee-commerce building industry and
even more than that in webdevelopment, I have seen a lot.
I love breaking down the hardtech and the easily
understandable bits to helpothers be successful in their
online business.
Whether you're a seasonede-commerce veteran or just
starting out, you've come to theright place.
So sit back, relax and let'sdive into the world of
(01:10):
e-commerce together.
Welcome back to this week'sepisode of the Ecommerce Made
Easy podcast.
So this is going to be ourfirst kind of book review on our
podcast, but it's one that isreally exciting to me.
So today I'm going to betalking about the 12-year week
book, and that is by Brian Moranand Michael Lennington.
(01:32):
So this book I actually pickedup I believe it was back in 2017
or 2018, and I'm recording thisat the end of 2023.
So a while ago, right, so overfive years ago and I tried to
implement it back then Now and Ifeel like I did a decent job at
first.
But, unlike like many of usentrepreneurs are, we're
(01:57):
generally perfectionists and tryto take on way too much than we
really should, and the 12-weekyear, if you do it right, is
supposed to help you not do that.
But for me and for how I was atthat time, there's no, no
blaming or shaming here.
We all have our own stages oflife.
I took too much on when I triedto implement the 12-week year
(02:19):
back then, because I actuallyfound today, when I was digging
out some things to find somenotes on this, how much I tried
to implement back then and Irealized, looking back now, that
I'm older and wiser.
You know, I really tried topush the limits and really get
the maximum I could out of thebook, but then I fell short
(02:41):
because it got overwhelmed.
So what I want to focus todayon this podcast episode is how
can we use a book like this thatcan help us really maximize our
efforts, but also use it in avery intelligent way that we
aren't overwhelming ourselves?
Because the 12-week year'sprinciple is pretty simple we're
(03:02):
going to get more done in 12weeks than we're going to in a
year if we look at that 12 weeksas a year.
And the concept is really also,you know, plays on our
psychology here, in that manytimes we really push and get
things done when we're pushed tothe limit, when we're pushed
towards the edge of our time tobe able to complete a task right
(03:23):
.
Many of us, especiallyperfectionists, might be
procrastinators in our own way,because we want things to be
perfect.
So when we're wanting things tobe perfect, many times we will
procrastinate getting somethingdone to the very last second.
Well, with a 12-week year, youcreate a really good sense of
urgency because your year endsin as short as 12 weeks, and 12
(03:45):
weeks is a pretty short periodof time if you really think
about it.
So the whole concept is toreally shorten up your year into
four 12-week periods and thenyou have a 13th week in between,
and that 13th week we'll talkabout soon, but it's a great
prep week and review week.
So, for the 12-week year,though, we want to have fewer
(04:08):
goals, because whenever wemultitask and think about too
many things at once, we getoverwhelmed.
So this is something I did whenI tried to implement this
originally, as I had I believeit was like three or four
12-week goals.
So if you have never done the12-week year before, I highly
recommend you pick one personaland one business goal and that's
(04:30):
it, and that's what I'm goingto be doing for 2024.
I've already been doing prepwork for this for several weeks
now, been doing some practicetrial runs, and, honestly, if
you're like me, maybe you need afew weeks of practice trial
runs too, where you're reallykind of just, you know, digging
in and saying, okay, what can Ireally like?
It's not really adding to yourplate, but kind of mentally, it
(04:53):
feels like you're adding to yourplate when you're adding a new
structure like this.
So, really, what can you kindof add to your plate, right?
And you really need to bethinking about how can I
implement this, what can I do sofor me.
I'm doing a revenue goal forour business for 12 weeks and
then I'm doing a personalfitness goal because I want to
(05:13):
get a bit more in shape and I'mtrying to really be very
conscious on the tactics I takewhen I'm doing this.
Okay, so let me back up for aminute too.
So when you do the 12 week year,if you're not familiar with the
book, we will link to it in theshow notes and if you're on our
YouTube channel, you can seethe picture of the book right
here.
It's not a very big book.
(05:35):
It's actually a pretty quick,nice, easy read.
They do a great job of givingyou examples in the book of how
it applies to real life and howwe're really.
One of the things I really likeis how it talks about you
become great when you're doingthose daily steps.
So think about that you'rebecoming great when you're doing
(05:58):
those daily steps, not when youwin that race.
They have example with MichaelPhelps in there and that he
would became great when hedecided to go to the pool every
day, potentially multiple timesa day, to practice his swimming
and practice exercising anddoing all the things that makes
a great swimmer.
He wasn't great when he wonthose gold medals.
(06:18):
He was great when he made thedecisions that helped him
achieve that gold medal.
So you need to keep in yourmind that you are great when
you're making those daily actionsteps towards your goals.
Another thing that's great aboutthe book is they talk about
lead and lag indicators.
This is something that can bereally easily missed on.
(06:41):
One more business owners, andparticularly online business
owners, we need to be looking atwhat actions can I control
those are more your leadindicators and what actions can
I control as a business owner?
What steps can I take?
What things can I do to make mybusiness work?
And then the lag indicators arethe results or the output of
(07:02):
your actions that you're puttingin.
So you want to have both leadand lag indicators in your
assessment of your 12 weeks.
And another thing that reallyhelps with the 12 week year is
that you're having fewer and Ithink I already touched on this
was really is we're having fewergoals to really concentrate on.
I know for me, I can so totallyoverwhelm myself.
(07:25):
I want to do this and I want todo that and I want to.
You know now we don't want todo all the things all the time
at the same time.
We need to pick a couple ofthings.
I think they recommend the booka minimum or maximum, three or
four tactic or goals that youwant to achieve and, like I said
, when you're just starting outand they even mentioned in the
book just a couple, one or two,not very many.
(07:48):
So when you're really doingthat is you really need to look
at these tactics.
Like I said and he goes intoreally great detail in the book
I highly recommend you get it,if you don't already have it of
you know what are these smalldaily action steps.
So if you're a business owner,you might need to do specific
marketing steps every single day, and then you also are going to
(08:12):
want to look at the results.
You're gonna wanna be measuringyour revenue that you're coming
in Now.
Revenue is going to come fromthe marketing steps you took
weeks or even months ago.
So that's why we wanna do thelag and the lead indicators,
both in the 12 week year Alsothe 12 week year, and I'm gonna
show on the YouTube channel ifyou're watching us on YouTube.
(08:35):
One thing I really loved aboutit is it has a lot of psychology
in the book too, and it talksabout our psychology and how we
can really train and retrain ourbrain around this.
And one of the things is onpage 72, if you have the hard
copy of the book right here isthat it shows you this graph and
so I'm gonna describe it to youfor the podcast listeners, and
(08:57):
it really shows you the fivephases of a project.
So first you have uninformedoptimism.
That's phase one, where you'reat the top of the hill and
you're excited to get thisproject going and this goal
going, and you have uninformedoptimism.
And then about midway down inthis kind of like a sine wave if
(09:22):
you're kind of techy aboutmidway down the curve, you run
into informed pessimism.
So you're kind of getting downin the weeds.
You're realizing, ooh, what I'mtrying to accomplish is a bit
harder than I thought it wasgoing to be, and so you have
informed pessimism.
And then we get to the bottomand phase three, and that's the
(09:43):
valley of despair, and hedescribes this a lot.
This is where a lot of peoplewill stop and quit and start
back over with the uninformedoptimism and go to a new task or
a new project.
So really the key to beingsuccessful is getting past that
(10:03):
valley of despair and moving onto phase four, which is informed
optimism, where you're in thetrenches and you're now seeing
the light at the end of thetunnel and you're like, ooh, ooh
, I think I can make it.
I think I can make it, I thinkI can achieve this goal.
And then phase five is successand fulfillment, when you've
actually fulfilled the goal.
(10:24):
But I think the key here isrealizing that when it gets
really hard, that doesn'tnecessarily mean that we need to
quit.
That might mean that we'realmost on the edge of succeeding
and that we really need to pushthrough this.
And I kind of wanna go back toabout the same time I got this
book.
Honestly, I found I have celiacdisease If you've already heard
(10:49):
that on the podcast and my statethat as I have health issues,
because I didn't know I hadceliac disease until my 30s.
One of the health issues I haveis I have osteopenia and I got
diagnosed at 37 with low bonedensity and osteopenia.
That's kind of a big deal atthat age.
You're supposed to be peekingin your bone density in your 30s
(11:12):
.
As a female, mine was alreadylow, you know.
That's kind of that's not goodfor my longevity right and my
ability to not break my bones asI get older.
So one of the things I decidedis I needed a big, scary goal to
chase.
I decided to do a local minitriathlon back then.
When I found out it was like itwas.
(11:33):
It was basically 10 years ago,actually to 10 years ago,
exactly a month ago and so Idecided to do a big, scary goal
and I decided to do a minitriathlon.
I am not an athlete.
I'm.
I was generally kind of fit.
I mean not, I'm not, you know,I'm kind of fit but I'm not an
athlete.
I was a marching band in highschool, which is athletic I will
(11:57):
say A shout out for themarching band people out there
but I wasn't like an athlete.
I wasn't like a track person ora swimmer or a bicyclist or
anything like that.
I do love riding my bike, but Iwas not an athlete, what you'd
really consider an athlete.
So when I started training forthe triathlon, I literally
couldn't run more than a quarterof a mile without out of breath
(12:17):
.
One I didn't know how to runslowly, because in this
triathlon you have to run a 5kand I didn't know how to run
slowly.
I was a sprinter, so one I hadto learn how to run slowly and
not super fast and completelywear myself out.
But it was a really long, big,scary goal, but at the same time
, if I look back, it was a fourmonth goal.
(12:39):
I started in January and therace was in April, so it was
about four months, which isalmost 12 weeks.
You know it's a little bitlonger than 12 weeks, but I had
step-by-step action steps.
I decided to take this coursehere at our university on
preparing for the triathlon, andyou know what our coach did.
He gave us exactly what to doevery single day and as long as
(13:02):
I checked those boxes, I wasable to get to the finish line.
So not only could I not run aquarter of a mile, and the
triathlon on this in this, thismini triathlon, is 500 meter
swim, a 25k bike and a 5k run.
I couldn't swim that long LikeI was, as I love swimming as a
(13:24):
kid, but I was not a swimmerright and I love biking and
probably bike riding wasprobably the easiest part for me
to get down, because I did loveto bike long distances.
But you know, that was justsomething that I had to do step
by step.
So not only could I not run notrun a quarter of a mile, I
couldn't do any of those thingsfor that length of time or
(13:44):
anywhere close.
But I followed the action plan.
I followed what is basicallythe lead indicators that we
would consider in the 12-weekyear.
I did every single step I wassupposed to do and by the end of
those four months, when thetriathlon was here, you know
what I did.
I did the triathlon, I didn'tstop, I didn't take a break, I
(14:06):
didn't do anything.
So my whole goal was to do thetriathlon without stopping.
It didn't matter how long ittook me, I didn't want to stop.
And you know what I actuallydid at the end of the triathlon
is, if you're not familiartriathlons, usually they swim by
grunt because they don't wantto drown you and have swimming
last, so you do the swimmingfirst.
In the run part, I sprinted tothe finish line.
(14:28):
Once I could see it hundreds offeet away and I'm very
far-sighted so I could actuallysee it pretty far away.
I sprinted.
I had people looking at me likewhy is she running so fast?
How is she doing this?
I sprinted to the finish line.
I was so excited and so stoked.
So that little story just kindof makes me realize and I hope
it helps you realize that whenwe do those step-by-step actions
(14:51):
like they talk about in the 12week year and really laying out
the daily and the weekly actionsteps you need to take to reach
your goal, you get there and youstop looking at the finish line
.
You stop looking at this big,scary goal of, oh my goodness,
I've got to take a couple hours.
I mean, this is.
(15:11):
I think I did it and I can'tquite remember how long.
I think it was about two hours.
It was about two hours ofexercise.
I think I have to look back tobe sure, but I basically
exercised for two hours and I'mnot an athlete right to do this
whole triathlon and I did it andI completed it and I was so, so
happy and so excited.
(15:32):
But I never looked towards thatscary goal as to what I was
going to be doing at the end.
Every day I focused on the smallsteps I needed to get there.
So when you're focusing onthose small steps that you need
to get your goal, the goal seemsso much more attainable.
So another thing that they talkabout too that I love in the
(15:54):
book is specific types of blocksof time.
So the specific types of blocksof time are like strategic
blocks and buffer blocks.
So buffer blocks are superimportant.
We always get interrupted inour days.
So having those buffer blockswhere you allow yourself to be
interrupted on purpose andreally honing down to when your
(16:17):
employees or other people caninterrupt you so that you can
focus during your strategicblocks and so you can focus
during those focus type ofblocks, it also gets you in the
habit of doing a consistentweekly review.
So something really importantand really key to the 12-week
year in making sure it'ssuccessful is that every week
you score yourself.
(16:38):
You score which tasks that areon your strategic task did you
actually get done?
And then you give yourself arating for that day or for that
week.
Sorry, excuse me.
So you want to make sure thatyou're working towards at least
85% completion every week, andhe talks about in the book in
the beginning.
You're not going to get to 85%and that's okay, but you need to
(17:01):
be getting better every singleweek and getting more, a better
percentage done for that week.
So not only does he give youstep by step, he also helps you
be realistic in getting thosestep by steps done, which is
what I really like.
And he also talks about you knowalso the psychology of why am I
(17:22):
hesitating to do a specifictask, and really breaking that
down.
I'm really thinking about whyyou might be resisting that task
.
Sometimes we resist a taskbecause we think it's hard.
Sometimes we resist a taskbecause we just don't want to do
it but we really need to do it.
So really kind of breaking downwhy you're not doing a specific
task you know you need to doand sometimes a task just
(17:45):
honestly needs to change andit's not really aligned with
what you're trying to do, andthat's okay too.
But we have to be reallycareful we don't make that as an
excuse either.
Then he talks about that a lotand also Mindset Shift.
That's really hard to say.
Mindset Shift is a very key.
(18:05):
This book is so great athelping you shift your mindset
and really, glend, easy breakdown all the psychology and all
the reasons why we resist change.
We are so human beings thatreally want to stay in their
comfort zone.
They really want to stay withwhat's familiar.
(18:26):
So when we're making new habitsand new goals and things like
that, we can really getuncomfortable with that and our
brains will find ways to avoidthat task or to get an excuse to
not do the task or getdistracted with other things
that are more in our comfortzone.
And aren't these new tasks thatare going to stretch us and
(18:50):
grow us?
Just like whenever I was doingthe triathlon, I had to set a
non-negotiable set of timeduring my day when I was going
to do my workouts.
I am not a morning person, soit was not in the morning, I can
tell you that.
But I knew in the eveningbetween it was like I think 7
and 9 pm.
That was my window when I wasgoing to work out and I had to
(19:13):
do it during that time,absolutely no matter what.
Now, that did make it hard onthe days.
I did have the triathlontraining class because that was
like at 6 in the morning orsomething like that.
Awful, yes, it was 6 in themorning.
Such awful memories because Iam not a morning person.
So it was kind of hard if Iworked out the night before like
8 pm at night and then I had toget up and work at 6 in the
(19:34):
morning, work out at 6 in themorning.
But the point is, though I hadspecific times, I had a
non-negotiable.
This is when I'm working out,so having that mindset shift of
a non-negotiable and also reallyseeing why am I getting tripped
up, why am I not doing thesethings I know are going to move
(19:55):
me forward?
And then another thing that Ididn't implement then when I was
doing the 12 week year let meclarify that, not the triathlon
when I was doing the 12 weekyear before.
One thing I didn't implementwas an accountability partner.
I didn't have somebody checkingin with me and keeping me
accountable on my tasks.
This time I do my podcast buddy, melissa, who we will have on
(20:19):
our show later in 2024, when wecelebrate our one-year
anniversaries and launching ourpodcast.
We're going to be having her onour show.
She is working with me.
We're going to be our own, eachother's 12 week year
accountability buddy this year.
So one of the reasons thetriathlon was so successful is I
had an accountability buddythere.
(20:40):
My friend and employee Lynn andI decided we were going to do
the triathlon together, so wewere always checking in with
each other on our workouts.
So having an accountabilitybuddy could be a business friend
, could be a friend in personcould be whomever you want, but
having an accountability buddywhen you're doing something
brand new, like the 12 week year, is going to be really helpful.
(21:03):
And if you've done the 12 weekyear before but maybe, like me,
not been as successful as youwould have liked, I feel like
having that accountability buddyis what is really going to make
the big, big difference.
Ok, so that is a little bit of ashort synopsis of the 12 week
year, how I'm going to beapplying it for this year.
(21:23):
I'm so excited because itactually kind of feels like a
relief to me because I have alot of business goals.
You know, in the past few yearshave been really weird for all
of us.
You know we've had the pandemic.
You know it was four years ago.
This March is when I reallybroke out in the United States
and it's been with us, whetherit's been like actively with us
(21:45):
as far as sickness goes or justas a you know part of our lives,
as far as how the economy isworking and how businesses are
run and things like that.
You know it's been aheavyweight burden on all of us
and on the online businessowners you know, these past four
years.
So I'm really looking forward toworking with Melissa, my
(22:06):
accountability buddy, and usworking on this 12 week year
together and I'm sure later onin the year I will go I will do
another episode on the 12 weekyear and how it's working for me
and what I've learned, becauseI feel like as entrepreneurs and
online business owners, wereally got to find what will
work and what will really helpus move forward without the
(22:27):
overwhelm, with the joy and withthe step by step confidence,
and I know, especially afterrereading the book a second time
, that this is the time.
This is my 12 week year.
I'm going to have it four timesthis year and it's just going
to be really great to help megrow as a person and grow our
(22:49):
business and become better.
You know better people whoserve other online business
entrepreneurs who need technicalhelp out there in the world, so
I hope this is really helpfuland I appreciate you listening
to us on the podcast and if youlisten to us on YouTube, be sure
to hit that subscribe button.
We really appreciate all yourfeedback.
(23:12):
Oh, and something new too, whichI announced on the last episode
, is we have a new Facebookgroup where I will be going live
regularly in 2024, teaching youall about online tech, and
we've got some interestingtopics coming up that are going
to be very impactful forbusinesses.
So if you want to join ourFacebook group, you can go to
ecommercemeadeeasypodcastcom.
(23:34):
Forward slash Facebook Again.
That'secommercemeadeeasypodcastcom.
Forward slash Facebook to joinour free Facebook group.
We're going to be having lotsof information, including email
marketing and also emaildeliverability.
There's a big, huge changethat's coming up this year.
I'm going to just give you alittle preview there, because
it's really important thatyou're going to need to pay
(23:57):
attention to, and we'll be doingan episode and doing some
videos on it as well.
So I hope this was superhelpful for this week's episode
of the ecommercemeadeeasypodcast.
I appreciate you listening and,as always, we look forward to
seeing you next week and you canalways visit our show notes
again atecommercemeadeeasypodcastcom.
Popular Podcasts
1. The Podium
The Podium: An NBC Olympic and Paralympic podcast. Join us for insider coverage during the intense competition at the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. In the run-up to the Opening Ceremony, we’ll bring you deep into the stories and events that have you know and those you'll be hard-pressed to forget.
2. In The Village
In The Village will take you into the most exclusive areas of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games to explore the daily life of athletes, complete with all the funny, mundane and unexpected things you learn off the field of play. Join Elizabeth Beisel as she sits down with Olympians each day in Paris.
3. iHeartOlympics: The Latest
Listen to the latest news from the 2024 Olympics.