THE LIFESTYLE ENTREPRENEUR

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My Personal Strategic Plan

Happy New year!

This is a special edition for me, as it’ll be the first time I share my actual personal strategic plan.

It’s a little nerve-wracking for a few reasons:

1. I’ve been doing planning for my businesses every quarter since 2014, but I haven’t been consistent with personal planning until this past year.

2. Putting the numbers out there is scary - I’m going to report on them each quarter, whether I hit them or not.

3. My EOS coaching practice is new - and my numbers are aggressive - I put numbers I really think I can hit, but I am SCARED of them.

One way I know my process is good is that I’m going to bring it to life down to the daily level for you.

I read a newsletter this morning from a guy I really respect, who is way more experienced at writing - and he laid out his plan, he actually uses the EOS VTO as well - but he didn’t bring it to life in any way and show how he uses it throughout the quarter.

I’m going to do that by laying out:

1. Wheel of Life

2. My personal VTO

3. My Weekly scorecard

4. My daily journal

You’ll see that they’re all tied together so my measurables are related to my quarterly & annual goals.

Here’s how I recommend doing this:

1. If this is your first time - don’t get overwhelmed, just schedule 2 hours and complete it fully.

2. Then right when you’re done - schedule 4 hours to spend by yourself at the end of the quarter to do it again. Work up to 1 full day to yourself per quarter for planning.

3. Complete in this order:

   1. Wheel of life

   2. Personal VTO

   3. Weekly Scorecard

Ok, here it is:

Wheel of Life

Complete this each quarter first - this helps your mind focus holistically on your life - not just your work. Score a 1-10 for each, based on how you feel “right now”. The magic comes here after you’ve done a few and you start seeing how your score compares to past quarters.

I’ve done the wheel of life 5 times now, and like to do it with my partner Erin although we haven’t done this past one together since the holidays were crazy (Erin date night to discuss soon????)

My Personal VTO

The personal/family Vision/Traction Organizer (VTO) is a modified version of the standard planning document called the VTO that is used in businesses around the country.

The way I used it is that I have a business VTO for my EOS practice - all Implementers have one that they report on each quarter with all their colleagues.

My personal VTO is inclusive of my business VTO - meaning everything from the business one is included in the personal VTO, get it?

A couple notes about my VTO:

1. Core values - on the left are my personal Core Values, on the right are the EOS core values which implementers are expected to exhibit in their everyday lives and work. I love all of there’s, my personal ones are mine alone:

   1. Heart first - in all interactions, even the most challenging business situation, leading with my heart first is always the right thing to do, because everything is just about people.

   2. Pursue your Legend (this is one of Alchemy 365’s CV’s) - Spend your life seeking your calling and purpose in life.

   3. Always building - Somewhat similar to “grow or die” - life is better if you’re working towards something - business, health, relationships, connection to god.

   4. Find the fun - Peak experiences are worth investing time and money into, but there are also moments of joy in the little things - the bite you’re chewing, the person you’re talking to, the way that tree looks.

2. Most of the remainder is self-explanatory, here’s a few clarifications of things that don’t make sense easily:

   1. 10-year target - “great & love doing” category is in reference to the Delegate and Elevate tool - which I discuss in depth in The Lifestyle Entrepreneur #19

   2. Housing - I love my house but we’re in the city and it doesn’t have enough space to host large gatherings - my goals may change but right now I want a place that can be the gathering spot

   3. PO for multi-use building - I’m going to buy a multi-use building to place a few of my business uses, including session rooms for me and a few implementers and a few other businesses

   4. 1-year and rocks:

      1. VA is a virtual assistant I’m planning on starting with this quarter

      2. 4-2-1 is the EOS business development proven process - it means 4 calls with leads, 2 90-minute meetings, and 1 new client per month

   5. Sleep and stress metrics are from a Whoop strap

   Want a VTO or Personal VTO Template? Go here

   Two additional parts of my annual planning:

   • Word/phrase of the year - Courageous conversations & focus

   • Year highlights (Taken from my friend Scott Jagodzinski - he’s an awesome guy):

     • Jan - Groove Cruise

     • Feb - Solo planning retreat. EOS Annual in Dallas

     • Mar - Best driving spring break ever Wildcard - If I hit my numbers by end of Feb I’m going to Ultra Music Festival 

     • April - Eclipse Festival, Celebration of US

     • May - Solo Planning Retreat, Kids’ 8th grade graduation

     • June - Erin’s 40th birthday, Breakaway Festival

     • July - Summer camps and VA trip

     • August - Solo planning retreat, Cabin Weekend, brother’s visit

     • September - Arc Festival & 45th birthday

     • October - Nothing yet

     • November - Thanksgiving

     • December - Christmas, Solo Planning Retreat

   My Scorecard

   A scorecard is 5-15 numbers that you review every week to give you an absolute pulse on your business - or your life when applied to your personal scorecard.

   Here’s mine:

   

   A few of these are very EOS specific - they’re basically measurables along the funnel from new meetings to scores in sessions.

   I fill this out every monday - the key is I can find all these and fill this out in about 10 minutes. Longer for me wouldn’t work.

   Weekly and Daily Journal

   Lastly, I have a weekly and daily journal I use, that takes less than 5 minutes, and keeps me on track.

   Here it is:

   Weekly:

   1. Scorecard fill out

   2. Did I complete last week’s top 3 tasks?

   3. Score last week 1-10

   4. What would make last week better

   5. Top 3 priorities for the week

   6. Highlight/story from last week

   Daily:

   1. 3 Things I’m grateful for

   2. Story from yesterday

   3. Score yesterday 1-10

   4. What felt good/bad yesterday

   5. How I’m feeling today

   6. Why not a 10

   7. Did I complete yesterday’s top 3 things?

   8. Three top priorities for the day

   9. Daily affirmation - e.g. I’m extremely smart

   Ok that’s the whole thing!

   I hope you liked getting a front seat into my planning process - I included the whole thing, only thing I left off was my net worth goals which I’m not comfortable sharing yet - maybe some day.

   My life has already improved since getting serious about personal planning about a year ago. I’m scared in a good way about the work ahead to come back and report on my progress each quarter.

   My challenge to you - if you’d like to do better with planning - just do it. Do it now in one burst of 1-2 hours, schedule time at the end of the quarter to do it again, and stick with it.

   The power is in the repetition and getting better a bit each time.

I wish you a Happy New Year, and send my best wishes for a challenging, productive, and joyfilled 2024.

I’ll talk to you next week,

Mike

Thanks for reading The Lifestyle Entrepreneur

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Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help you:

I’m a Professional EOS® Implementer. That means I work with entrepreneurial leadership teams (typically growth oriented business leaders with 10-250 employees) to develop three things:

• Vision - getting teams 100% on the same page with where the company is going and how to get there

• Traction - Applying discipline and accountability to achieve that vision

• Healthy - Creating healthy, functional, cohesive leadership teams

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