Join Matt and Garrett today as they talk about a fundamental, but often overlooked, facet of running your business. What is today’s topic? Planning! It can make or break your business, and Matt and Garrett are diving into it today because this is a typical time of year (end of first quarter) when people get “busy”. They have also both seen that some people they coach are foregoing their planning sessions to address the business (and busy-ness) that their planning sessions have created, only to be without business later on from lack of planning. Listen in as Matt and Garrett spend time comparing what happens when you plan to what happens when you don’t. They not only see tremendous shifts in business, but also in how much time people are spending when they actually plan and own their time versus when they don’t make the time to plan. Matt and Garrett also discuss the necessity of analyzing your plan and asking the right questions around it and the things you do to fill your days so that you produce better results. Another way to produce better results is to join the Ninja Selling Podcast group on Facebook at Ninja Selling Podcast Facebook, and find a community of over 7000 Ninjas who share resources and ideas, ask and answer questions, collaborate, and network. If you’d like to offer more direct feedback, leave a voicemail at 208-MY-NINJA. Check out Ninja Selling Events for upcoming installations and other events, and if you’d like personalized help in achieving your goals, visit Ninja Coaching to connect with one of our coaches. Episode Highlights: Why do planning sessions get missed? How do planning and owning your time affect the rest of your time? What to include in your weekly plan Why analysis is key How to ask the right questions around your planning to get better results out of how you spend your time Avoiding the management of mediocrity Weekly planning and analysis are crucial to understanding your business and drawing up yearly plans Quotes: “Planning sessions get missed by a lot of people, yet it’s so crucial to helping create structure, which creates success throughout the week.” “When you do all the right stuff, and you engage the systems in the right way, it produces great business. It produces a lot of people that need your help. And what happens is… all of a sudden, we get caught in the world of just taking care of what we’ve created and then all of a sudden, we find ourselves, in a couple of months, wondering where all the business went and what happened.” “I think that’s where a lot of people get stuck, is they think, ‘Oh, planning just takes too much time and I need to get right into work’. But we’re talking about maybe an hour, once a week.” “So, I think you have to look at it that way: with that hour you’re giving yourself, it’s not an hour that you’re giving away. It’s an hour to make more time in the week to be more effective for you. So, it’s a very big mindset shift… this is a prime example of ‘how to slow down to go fast’.” “What’s keeping you awake at night?... Acknowledge it and now make a plan that includes it.” “What I’ve noticed for myself is that not doing a planning meeting produces the same week that occurred the week prior.” “However it looks, understanding where actions lead to results helps you then, at the end of the year, put together a great business plan for the next year. Because this goes beyond just what’s going to happen week over week… All of those numbers, all of that understanding, and your micro adjustments throughout the year are going to culminate in ‘I’ve got a great plan. Now I understand my business!’.” Links: www.TheNinjaSellingPodcast.com Email us at TSW@TheNinjaSellingPodcast.com Leave a voicemail at (208) MY-NINJA Ninja Selling www.NinjaSelling.com @ninjasellingofficial Ninja Coaching: www.NinjaCoaching.com @ninja.coaching Ninja Events www.NinjaSelling.com/Events Garrett garrett@ninjacoaching.com @ninjaredding Matt matt@ninjacoaching.com @matthewjbo