The 12 Week Year | Brian Moran | 286

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August 24, 2020

Brian Moran is a keynote speaker, best-selling author, and the Founder and CEO of The 12 Week Year. This 12-week approach helps entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and business leaders improve their performance and results by focusing on the critical factors that drive productivity and life balance.

In 2013, Brian co-authored The 12 Week Year, a how-to book for ambitious individuals looking to leverage his effective execution method. Today, he delivers workshops and training sessions that teach his audience how to achieve more in the next 12 weeks than most will in the next 12 months.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

Brian Moran explains how his methodology, The 12 Week Year, was born
Brian reveals the biggest mistake people make when trying to reach the next level
How to embrace The 12 Week Year methodology and start making profound progress
Brian’s process for building a compelling vision for your personal and professional future
How 12-week planning is different, and more effective, than traditional goal planning
Laser Beam Focus versus Flood Light Focus: why one is goal is better than three
How Brian’s mistake in his first business taught him the importance of hiring and developing leaders
Brian Moran’s advice and recommendations for ambitious parents, leaders, and entrepreneurs

In this episode…

Are you a business leader or entrepreneur looking to boost your efficiency and start performing at a higher level? Have you tried all the goal-setting programs out there, but still feel stuck in a rut? What if you could effectively achieve a year’s worth of goals in just 12 weeks?

That’s the idea behind Brian Moran’s 12 Week Year methodology. With this approach, business leaders can achieve more in 12 weeks than they did in 12 months by creating a clear vision, simplifying their focus, and staying consistent. According to Brian, you are capable of more than you know, as long as you have the focus and commitment to turn your goals into actions.

In this episode of the Growth to Freedom podcast, host Dan Kuschell sits down with Brian Moran, the Founder and CEO of The 12 Week Year, to talk about how you can make profound progress in a short amount of time. Stay tuned as Brian discusses the biggest mistake people make when trying to perform at a higher level, why one goal is better than three, and the importance of developing great leaders.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Sponsor for this episode

Thanks for listening to this episode of growthtofreedom.com.

Are you struggling to get a steady flow of new clients every day? Or maybe hit a plateau or hit a wall in growing your business? Well, let’s help you solve this problem today. Let’s review your business and have a conversation. You can do that for free today at breakthroughstrategycall.com. That’s breakthroughstrategycall.com.

In addition, if you’re looking for a simple way to implement some of what we’ve been talking about in today’s episode, I want to encourage you to get our free small business toolkit. You can get that at activate.breakthrough3x.com. That’s activate.breakthrough3x.com.

If you’d like access to the special resources and all the show notes for this special episode, make sure to visit growthtofreedom.com.

Episode Transcript

Dan Kuschell 0:03

Welcome to growthtofreedom.com, the show that brings you inspiration, transformation, and leadership. We’re helping you connect the dots, see the blind spots, get unstuck so you go out there and create more sales, more growth, more profit, more importantly, so you can make a bigger impact, have a bigger reach, and make a bigger contribution. Is that what you want? If that’s what you want, then you’re gonna love today’s episode, if it’s not what you want, you might want to tune into something else, go watch it, you know, I don’t know, go watch something else or listen to something else. But if it is what you want, you’re going to love today’s show. Why? Because if you’re looking at a place in time, if you’re struggling with being able to execute if you’re struggling to be able to navigate, like, what should I focus on? How can I get more done? Maybe you find yourself in a little bit of a rut, maybe a little bit stuck, right, or you and your team’s performance is down, then you’re going to love the strategies with today’s expert. His name is Brian Moran. He’s the co-author of The New York Times bestseller The 12 Week Year. Over the last several years, him and his business partner Michael Lennington have had the good fortune of aligning ourselves with many of the top organizations in the world. What does that mean for you? You’re going to get insights on how to get more done, execute and boost performance. And after amazing testing and a lot of testing, they can share with you how to strip away the noise, right, isolate and, you know, get on the other side of complexity, right. In fact, write this down right now. You know, there’s a great quote that, you know, we’ve been living by for about 20 years, which is, you know, I wouldn’t give a fig get on the other side of complexity. But I’d give my life to be on this side of simplicity. What would that be worth to you right now? Having that type of clarity, having that type of certainty, having that kind of confidence? Well, if that’s of interest, you’re gonna love what Brian has to share with you today. Brian, welcome to the show. How are you?

Brian Moran 1:56

I’m good, Dan. Thanks for having me. It’s great to be with you.

Dan Kuschell 1:59

Yeah, same So, your process, The 12 Week Year, your methodology, like, Where did this come about? Why did you guys go about creating this?

Brian Moran 2:09

Yeah, it really came out of the work. It was born out of the work we were doing with our clients trying to help them perform at a higher level and, and really achieve what they were capable of. And so we had started working with the fundamentals of execution, realizing that you know, most of the folks we work with didn’t need another idea, right? Whether it’s a small organization, a large organization, there’s lots of resources, they’ve all got great ideas. We saw that the primary breakdown the thing holding most people back was a lack of execution. And so we started to started really work with that. And, and out of that was born this notion of The 12 Week Year because of the fact that in an annual environment we just saw, it was easy to put things off. Yes, January, December looks a long way off and so throughout the years It’s easy to feel like you got lots of time. And and so things get put off. And, and that’s really the difference between where people are currently operating what they’re capable of. It’s not about working harder or longer. It’s really about just being more consistent with the things that matter in one more done this week and one more done next week and one more done the next week, and it can have a profound effect, almost like compound interest in in a short period of time.

Dan Kuschell 3:28

Now speaking, I want to speak to the elephant in the room. Brian, I’m sure you’ve dealt with this navigated this a bit. You know, for that creative entrepreneur, that has a tendency to be like the type a kind of personality charged hard, charged fast have 100 to dues on their to do list every day and prides themselves on getting so many of those things done. And they come to you and go, Okay, well, I appreciate this for others, but for me, like this doesn’t fit for me. And my style. What would you say to that person? What would you say to that phone? That’s it. Yeah.

Brian Moran 4:01

Well, a couple things First off, you can’t you can’t help somebody go to where they’re not willing to go. You can’t coach somebody if they’re not coachable. So, you know, Henry Ford said if you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right so I don’t spend a lot of time trying to win that person over to be honest with you, are we we have we have a track record of 20 some years of amazing results so and it’s through all different personalities, you know, the, the great accomplishments don’t come from all getting all the minutiae done and getting everything checked off your list. It’s really about the big rocks and moving those consistently. And, and so if someone if someone doesn’t get that they don’t they don’t get it, you know, I mean, it’s, it’s hard to, because I’ve tried for years, you know, thinking I had no one left behind. Well, the reality is you can’t take people where they’re not willing to go and so, so you’re asking, you know, conceptually, what’s what’s the argument, which I think is probably more what you’re asking is The reality is, is we all have limited capacity, I don’t care how much energy you have, you have limited energy, I don’t care, you know, you have limited physical time, you have limited intellectual capacity. And so you can use that all up on a bunch of little stuff. Or you can decide that, hey, I’m going to I’m going to focus on the things that matter most and, and life is much more rewarding when you’re focused on those because not only do you accomplish more, but it reduces the stress. And it provides you the opportunity then to be to live the life you want in in all the areas of your life not just in one not sacrifice everything for this one area.

Dan Kuschell 5:37

So true. And and I’m curious, Brian, what’s your take? Like? What are some of the biggest mistakes, right that you see people making? Maybe you’ve got a story of like some of your biggest mistakes where this grew out of and what can we learn from that?

Brian Moran 5:51

Well, the I think one of the biggest mistakes is thinking it’s a it’s something you don’t know or some new ideas strategy that’s going to take you to the next level.

Dan Kuschell 5:59

So like FOMO

Brian Moran 6:01

Yeah, yeah, you know, all ideas are good, they’re great. But in and of themselves, they’re not the difference maker. Because the marketplace only rewards the ideas that could implement it. And, and, and so chasing another day or chasing another day. And so we we add to our potential and our capacity when we’re not even tapping the current potential that we have. Right, we’re adding another idea, another idea and, and all these things are all sub optimized, because we don’t have a system or a process to really execute them at a high level.

Dan Kuschell 6:34

And as you’re listening or watching right now, did you just catch what Brian mentioned? Right, which is the market rewards, ideas that you implement? What would it be worth for you to translate and transfer the energy of ideas to implementation, to transfer the ideas to getting more done and moving Those big rocks, how would that shift the game for you? How would that transform your business? your peace of mind, your sanity? and a whole lot more? You know, Brian. So, you know, as we look at this idea of The 12 Week Year, right, what are what are what’s the first step that somebody needs to really look at taking to adapt this way of life this way of operating?

Brian Moran 7:22

Yeah, the first step is realizing that, you know, you’re thinking create your action, structures, results. And so how you think about the year right, getting out of that annual environment, really embracing 12 weeks as the year where there’s not four of those in the year that’s annualized thinking where there’s just this 12 weeks followed by the next and so there’s a hard line in the sand. That’s the first step because, you know, we I’ll ask groups, why do we behave differently at the end of the year than we do in the middle? And inevitably, it’s because there’s a deadline where we’re going to measure our success or failure and that that deadline at the end of December at one level is arbitrary, but it has an impact and so when you have raced 12 weeks as the year. That deadline is now closer. And 12 weeks is a long enough time to make profound progress but near enough where we don’t lose sight of the deadlines, so we act with more urgency, not stressed out urgency, like you might be in November, December, right freaking out, Oh, I got to get to, but just a healthy sense of urgency. And so the first start is that, that mind shift around the year and really treating those 12 weeks, as the year. Forget, annual goal setting forget annual planning, it’s just you’ll do better with it than none at all, but it’s really ineffective. Start setting your goals every 12 weeks, connect them to a longer term vision, start building out 12 week plans on that day, and that’s really the first step.

12 weeks is a long enough time to make profound progress, but near enough where we don't lose sight of the deadlines. - Brian Moran Click To Tweet

Dan Kuschell 8:48

And as you’re listening or watching right now, how would it translate the game to simplify things for you to get more done to have a 12 week plan? Well guess what? When we come back, we’re going to take a deeper dive on some of the strategies you can put in place today, so that when you walk away from this session today, this episode today, this segment today, you’re going to have clarity, you’re going to have certainty, you’re going to have a blueprint and your plan to be able to go forward to build a great 12 week plan to get more done to execute more and boost performance that in a whole lot more coming up with Brian Moran on growthtofreedom.com. Thanks for listening to this episode of growthtofreedom.com. Are you struggling to get a steady flow of new clients every day? Or maybe hit a plateau or hit a wall and growing your business? Well, let’s help you solve this problem today. Let’s review your business and have a conversation. You do that for free today at breakthroughstrategycall.com. That’s breakthroughstrategycall.com. In addition, if you’re looking for a simple way to implement some of what we’ve been talking about in today’s episode, but I want to encourage you to get our free small business toolkit. You can get that at activate.breakthrough3x.com. That’s activate.breakthrough3x.com. If you’d like access to the special resources and all the show notes for this special episode make sure to visit growthtofreedom.com. Now did you come from like Strategic Coach world Brian, or how to evolve into doing what you’re doing?

Brian Moran 10:23

know my background spin I started in in management in college those pay my way through ups yeah open boxes and they offered me a promotion to run the reload part time getting a degree in physiology to be a strength coach and ended up loving that so much. They offered me a full time position but it was in Michigan and that’s when I said hey, I’m going to California so left there join PepsiCo, advanced in that joined a consulting firm and so you know, just really got switched on early on, about how to perform at a high level. I mean, even when I was a kid, I was kind of wired that way right? If I I was doing something I always wanted to do it the best I could my dad was always like, if you’re going to do it, right, give it 100% or don’t do it at all. So, I mean, I would time myself on my paper route just to make it interesting and fun. So that’s kind of it’s always been part of my makeup.

Dan Kuschell 11:16

That’s fascinating as you’re listening right now or watching right now, yo, by the way, grab a pen grab a piece of paper, you’re gonna want to come back to this episode. And you can you know, number one, get this episode of growthtofreedom.com/286. That’s growthtofreedom.com/286. If you never want to miss an episode, you can go to growthtofreedom.com/subscribe. That’s growthtofreedom.com/subscribe. You know, Brian, thanks for kind of taking us on that quick now. I’m curious. As a strength and conditioning coach, were in Michigan, were you going to be a coach?

Brian Moran 11:56

Well, it’s interesting because at that time, not even every football team had one, right and let alone basketball and hockey and baseball. You there. We’re still this notion that you’d be muscle bound. So, you know, I was looking to land it with a football team somewhere, because that’s the only only groups that mattered at that time.

Dan Kuschell 12:12

That that’s awesome. Now, as we look at this idea that 12, you know, Week Year, right? So we’ve got the first step, we’ve got to have the mindset wrapped around it. What are a couple other steps that somebody can take to start building momentum to build moving forward so they can get more done, execute more, and boost performance?

Brian Moran 12:32

Yeah, good question. I mean, The 12 Week Year, we took that concept, then, and then we bundled it with the fundamentals that drive execution, and there’s a set of five disciplines. And so when you ask first step, the first discipline is vision. It’s really about understanding what you want in life, and building out a compelling vision. Now, what’s different with The 12 Week Year then a lot of what people have done is we don’t start as an entrepreneur or a business or owner or leader. We’ll start with your business. We start with your personal life. What do you want your life to look like three years from now, five years from now 10 years from now. And by the way, what is great look like not good. God willing, you’re going to be here. Let’s make it great. And then we look at your business or your career and say, Okay, what do you need to do there to line in enable that. So there’s an emotional connection between what you do Monday through Friday, and the life you want to live in, the stronger that connection is, the easier it is for you to step out and do things differently and do different things which is key to growing.

Dan Kuschell 13:32

So we’ve got step one, which is create a vision now, by the way, as you’re listening, or you’re watching, don’t underestimate the simplicity. Watch yourself going, oh, I’ve already kind of done that. Well, wouldn’t now be when is now the best time is what I share with my kids and in what they’re pursuing when is now the best time right would now be the best time to recalibrate it, to re explore it to open it back up because can things shift and when the world shifts Maybe we need to shift and maybe we’ve got new priorities today that you can look to focus on. Right. So we’ve got that next step of creating a vision. What next?

Brian Moran 14:10

Yeah, well, part of that to Dan is not just creating it, it’s staying connected to it, because that’s where it has its power. And then once we’re clear on that, then we build the plan. But 12 week planning is different than traditional planning. It’s much more focused, you know, most plans have too much in them. They’re overwhelming. people end up diffused, nothing gets executed. And so most people plan but they kind of do it in a perfunctory way because they don’t execute them. So they kind of go with 12 week planning, we get very granular. Meaning we create a tactical plan, which is different than most plans. Most plans are conceptual or directional. You can’t execute concepts. You’ve got to get tactical, which means the statements in the plan, literally describe the action that you or someone on the team takes and when we do that, it’s sort of called squeezes out all the wiggle room, which makes it really uncomfortable By the way, yes, but but if you’re serious about hitting your goals, you’ve got to plan that way. And the cool thing is, you don’t have to be perfect with the execution anyways. So you can’t be afraid of really getting very, very granular, very focused, very definitive on the actions.

Dan Kuschell 15:23

And as you look at actions as you’re watching, like, what would happen for you, if you move beyond conceptual planning, to really get into the, you know, essentially get where the rubber meets the road? You know, in get into the tactics, how would it transform what you’re doing and instead of having big giant to do list, as David Bach says, You’re not to do list becomes far more important than your to do list. But would it be better to have three to five critical big rocks you could focus on in a given 12 week period, and then granularly break it down. into the tactical things you need to do to accomplish those big rocks. How would that shift the game for you? And what if there was a plan that could help give you simplicity, give you freedom, give you the ability to get more done, execute more and boost your performance. Now what if it was as simple as putting a 12 week plan in throwing away all the other traditional goal setting programs, maybe you’ve had a part of, or goal planning you’ve had a part of in traditional business, because most of the time, guess what, they don’t work as effective now something is better than nothing. But this is a new way to be thinking about innovating iterating pivoting quicker than ever before and isn’t now the right time to be looking at ways to be innovative, to be able to be flexible, to be able to adapt quickly to the shifts and the constant changing going on. Well, if so, you might want to take an opportunity to dive into the 12 week plan. So Brian, what Like, what is something I should ask you that we haven’t? You know, we haven’t covered yet related to building out a 12 Week Year.

Brian Moran 17:08

I mean, you’re asking great questions. You know, one of the key things when you start to plan, though, is you kind of back to that limited capacity. And understanding that, truly when it comes to, to accomplishing things, less is more. So, you know, when you start to look at your goals, I would say one goal is better than two, two is better than three, when you start to get more than three are experiences that in any one area like your business, you’re probably setting yourself up to fail. Because you’re just going to spread yourself too thin, and to do really meaningful work. I mean, think about this, if you thought about if you pick the one thing, the one thing that would have the greatest impact on your business in the next 12 weeks, and that’s what you focused on, you nailed that thing. And then the next 12 weeks, you did that again, and maybe you did that in a couple areas of your life. I mean it can literally be life changing. In a very short period of time, so it’s really about focusing and getting to the critical few.

Dan Kuschell 18:08

Now with that, coming back to, you know, the elephant in the room we brought up earlier, right? You know, the client work we do a lot of the types of founder CEOs that have these creative visionary types, and it takes one to know one, right. And they’re the type that like in crisis, like they put their big fire engine hat on, right for in their fire department hat and everything’s a crisis in the sky is falling and, and, you know, let’s go as fast as we can, as hard as we can. Oh, and let’s do that with the team. And you know, what I have experienced myself and doing that is a lot of burnout, a lot of overwhelm. Right? You know, and everybody’s doing the very best they can catch up. And what I heard you say, is not necessarily just focusing on the big things, but also that they’re meeting will speak to that a little more as it ties to this kind of hard charging creative, visionary type.

Brian Moran 19:08

Yeah, nothing, nothing wrong with hard charging. I mean, we’re, I think to be successful in life takes effort. Right? anything worthwhile takes effort. Yeah. But we want it focused effort. It’s the difference Dan between a floodlight and a laser beam. They’re both light. You know, the laser beam, though cuts through steel. And I think so often. For a lot of, especially entrepreneurs, they think that the quantity of the work is what matters and, and it’s really about what are you working on? You’re working on the really, really important stuff. Great. You got 1000 things done today and you went home exhausted? Did you really move the needle? Or are you the hamster on the wheel, and every day is another day on the wheel. And that creates a lot of stress and, and candidly, the results aren’t anywhere what they could be. So if you’re succeeding doing that, and you took that Energy and you focused in on a few areas. My gosh, think about what could happen. Right? Think about how far you could go how fast you could go with focus and, and oftentimes, you know, creatives go well, I don’t like structure Well, well, creativity without structures chaos. When you take creativity and you add some structure to it, that’s when it’s really powerful.
When you take creativity and you add some structure to it, that's when it's really powerful. - Brian Moran Click To Tweet

Dan Kuschell 20:23

And speaking of powerful as you’re listening or watching, you know, I think it was Picasso it said something like this learn, learn, learn the basics, like a pro, so you can act like an artist, right? So you get the basics out of the way so that you can perform like an artist, how would that shift the game for you? Instead of focusing on more and more and more and more more, especially in times of crisis? What if it was more productive, to focus on less and get that laser beam focus versus the floodlight focus? Right? How would that shift and translate the game now? I mean, Brian, I mean, this I mean already, there’s I’ve got about a page and a half of notes. In our short time already together, if people want to go deeper with you if they want to learn more about The 12 Week Year, where can they go to get read? I mean, you’ve got an amazing amount of resources you got a free video series available where would you want people to go to learn more about what you guys are up to?

Brian Moran 21:16

Yeah, you bet 12weekyear.com is the place to go. 12weekyear.com. Dan said there’s a free three part video series really recommend you, you get that we have everything from online programs to you know, individual one on one coaching and everything in between so we can help in any way. Please, please reach out but check us out at 12weekyear.com.

Dan Kuschell 21:39

And I want to encourage you if you’re looking for a way to get more done if you’re looking for a way to execute more if you’re looking for a way to boost performance, while also doing it with less stress, doing it with less chaos, and doing it with greater simplicity. Then go to 12weekyear.com right now don’t wait. You can open up a browser while you still listen to our episode our conversation? Go to 12weekyear.com. That’s 12weekyear.com. Now, speaking of, you know that a 12 Week Year, Brian, Like what? Like, what would you hope that our viewers, our listeners would take from our conversation today and take action with?

Brian Moran 22:25

Yeah, I mean, ideally, you know, to get out of that annual environment to realize that, look, there are some, there’s some thinking shifts, if you’re going to get to the next level. And the first thinking shift is, it’s not enough to know you’ve got to implement everything we do, Dan with every client we work with is designed to help them accomplish what they’re capable of, through more effective execution. And, and so that’s the that’s the first mindset shift. The second is getting out of that annual environment doesn’t matter. When you’re listening to this. Sit down, define the next 12 weeks and set your goals in go after it. And don’t vary from that. You know, right now we’re in a, we’re in a pandemic. Well, if if you ever doubted, is annual planning ineffective, I mean, everybody’s plans been blown up. And and we’ve moved from an environment where we need to be flexible to environment where we need to be fluid. And that’s it. That’s a whole nother level. Yeah, and most people’s planning process and what they use really doesn’t support that The 12 Week Year, not only supports that, but it enables you to be effective in an environment like that.

Dan Kuschell 23:34

Yeah, and what’s amazing is we think about it with being fluid, right? And being agile in times like this, right? How would it translate for you in your business, to give you greater sense of power, freedom, you know, less stress, right, staying out of overwhelm, by really chunking it down into a 12 Week Year? Right? And having used a version of this type of exercise for the better part of a decade, it works. And it can work for you because what it can do is put healthy guardrails and allow you to then move, pivot, innovate, iterate at a much greater speed, actually, by doing less, you can actually get so much more done, like a laser beam cutting through stick steel, like Brian shared a little bit earlier. Now. Again, I encourage you if you’re looking for a way to be able to do some of that go to 12weekyear.com. That’s 12weekyear.com. Now, Brian, is we kind of wind down, you know, the conversation here. Can you remember back being a kid? You know, like me, you grew up in Michigan, it sounds like And do you remember like your first inspiration when you kind of thought or knew you are going to take a different path to entrepreneurship to being an entrepreneur to go and creating something where, you know, you’re and your business partner having this amazing impact now hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people’s lives changed all over the world.

Brian Moran 25:08

You know, it wasn’t for me, Dan, it wasn’t like a switch flipping. I grew up in a very middle class family. You know, loved it. But my mindset, I mean, I didn’t, you know, all I’ve tried to do with my kids is expose them. I remember thinking about what I wanted to do when I grew up. I didn’t know anybody that owned a company. I didn’t know anybody that was a CEO or an executive or, I mean, there was nobody in my parents sphere of influence that was at that level. And so that wasn’t even on my radar. You know, I was into science, I was in animals, we had horses as into working out. So it was somewhere along you know, as I got out of college, and I started in business that I really got switched on to, to the whole leadership piece of it and the whole business side of it and went into management. Realizing that I could have a bigger impact there. And I think that decision was what set me on the course of looking at, okay, how do I find ways for me to improve, and for my team to improve because as soon as you have a team, you know, you’re judged more by the results of the team than you are any of your individual efforts. So I got very interested in you know, I’ve got this, this team of managers, how do I help them get better? And how do I help them help their people get better? And and then as I joined that consulting firm, you know, that’s what we did, we worked with Fortune 1000 companies on improving performance, all different cultures, all different industries, all trying to improve performance. And so it was a it was a great education. And so it was kind of this It wasn’t like a switch flip. And it was this indoctrination to, to really getting kind of turned on to the whole notion of personal leadership and personal effectiveness and, and how to have a bigger impact.

Dan Kuschell 26:55

That is amazing. And again, as you’re listening, you want to get a glint you You’ve gotten a glimpse, if you want to go deeper with this, I encourage you to go to 12weekyear.com. You’ll get access to some of the resources Brian or company are making available for you. Now, Brian, can you remember a time as you’ve been on this journey? Like if you could think of your potentially your biggest failure? Or maybe your your biggest mistake in business? What would that be? And then what could our viewers and listeners take from that? That would help them as it relates to The 12 Week Year process?

Brian Moran 27:36

Well, there’s a lot to choose from there. There’s two there’s two things that stand out for me. One is when when I think it was 2008, or something that the big recession I mean, we literally lost everything. Okay, that wasn’t necessarily anything that we had done. But we had to we had to re engineer the company as quickly as we could. And so that’s that’s one thing. Another one, though, that I think is, is maybe more mistake is, and I’ve known this because I was in leadership in corporate America, that’s what I came out of. But, but when I got into my own business, and I first started out, you know, everything ran through me. And, and it kept running through me too long. Hmm. I didn’t, I didn’t hire and develop leaders. And it really, it really held our company back. And and I see that with a lot of folks, right, you you start out you’re one one person show. And you start to add some support. And it’s easy to add more and more support and never really bring in leaders to run entire sections of the business. And so I think that was a mistake. I was too slow to see that, you know, I was coaching other leaders to do that. But I wasn’t I didn’t see it in myself in my own company. You know, the waythe way you grow a company, you grow the leadership capacity. And so I was helping other leaders do that the mistake I made is that wasn’t holding up the mirror and and Getting on that train fast enough with my company?

Dan Kuschell 29:03

Well, what shifted for you? What What was it that finally got you to realize? Was it you just had enough? Or what was there something that inspired you like, Can you remember back? Like, what was the trigger? Yeah, the

Brian Moran 29:14

inspiration was was the frustration, the frustration of, you know, of not growing as fast as we wanted, and then realizing that that’s because of what I was doing. You know, so it was really the frustration of not of not growing fast enough.

Dan Kuschell 29:33

And as you’re listening or watching, can you relate to what Brian is sharing with you, you know, the idea where maybe just maybe, you or I could be the bottleneck in our company’s growth, where by having everything come through us, that perhaps we’re at a place where we’re slowing things down, and especially the development and the leadership that we’re looking to build in our businesses and what would it be worth if you could just Make that pivot right now to commit. You know, as Brian mentioned, you grow your business by growing leadership. How simple is that? Right. And if you want a better, simpler process, to be able to grow your business to grow leadership, to be able to simplify and get more done, execute to boost performance, then go deeper and go over to 12weekyear.com. That’s 12weekyear.com. Now, now, by the way, going back to where’d you go to college? Michigan State as part of your Spartan

Brian Moran 30:34

Yeah, yeah. Hey, you know, Dan, one last thought around the leader development is, is I started to think about, someone challenged me I read it was okay, think about your company, you know, 10 times the size it is now. What kind of leader will you have to be to run that company. And it’s definitely different than the leader you are today in and unless you start to become that leader. Your company’s not going to become that company because the company isn’t going to outpace the leader Lee Iacocca said the speed of the leader is the speed of the team. Right? So unless you’re growing as a leader, your company can’t grow as fast you’ve got to grow as a leader.

Unless you're growing as a leader, your company can't grow. - Brian Moran Click To Tweet

Dan Kuschell 31:17

And how about you as you’re listening as you’re watching right now? What would it take for you to move your leadership skills up another notch? And what if having a simple method like The 12 Week Year could help you grow greater leaders grow you as a leader grow faster, easier, with greater simplicity? Without the typical stress? Would it be worth it? Well, you’re never going to know unless you try. So why not go over to 12weekyear.com, access the resources, check it out, see how it fits and commit to it. Ideally, to put it in place it can transform how you think about building and growing your business. Now,

Brian Moran 31:58

with that in mind, I got another resource: Awesome accountableleader.com accountableleader.com. It’s a it’s a monthly leadership development program that we run and the first month is free you can cancel at any time but check it out if you really look into develop as a leader it’s a great program

Dan Kuschell 32:19

awesome so go to accountableleader.com, that’s accountableleader.com. By the way if you’re driving right now if you’re listening on the go if you’re on your treadmill right now chugging it because you’re at home then guess what you can come back to the show here at growthtofreedom.com/286. That’s growthtofreedom.com/286. Download the notes, access the notes, click the link go over to 12weekyear.com and go over to accountableleader.com as well. You know, I’m fascinated I can’t help but be drawn to like your background since we’re both from Michigan kid who’s been your biggest influence or you know whether it’s serendipitous mentor, book you Read some what’s been your greatest I guess inspiration in what you’re doing Brian to you know, move the dial. And who do you learn from?

Brian Moran 33:17

Yeah, a couple different things there. I mean, my dad was a big inspiration in my life. He died too young he was 63 but, you know, he and my mom were very intentional about building the family and investing in myself and my brother and sister and you know, so I miss my dad. He was he was my hero. He was my inspiration for a lot of things and I think the person I am today is a big result is this part of you know, him and my mom really investing in us in terms of my career, Dan, I learned from everybody I can I read a ton. My bent is always about how to apply it. I don’t you know, knowledge for the sake of knowledge is great maybe in academia, but it’s not going to do much in my life. So I’m, I’m reading now. Exploring and I’m listening to podcasts like this with a bent towards Okay, what can I take from that? And how do I apply it? So, so I, you know, I just learned from everyone I try and learn from everyone that I’ve got a coach right now on marketing. I think, you know if you know the theory constraints, it says that there’s a constraint in your business. The reality is when you when you solve that, it just shifts it to another area. And right now, I think one of our challenges is from a marketing standpoint. And so I’ve got a chief marketing officer, and we’re working with some, some really switched on people around that. So I learned a ton there, which is fun and applying it and it’s making a difference. And good timing, given everything else that’s going on, too. So

Dan Kuschell 34:46

Now speaking of your dad, and, you know, your leadership style, right, like, what advice would you give to parents, Brian, you know, parents who are, you know, navigating this entrepreneurship model, right. I think you’d mentioned your dad, and mom. You know, we’re middle class families. So I don’t know if that meant they had businesses or not. But like what what advice would you give to entrepreneurship parents? And you mentioned investing in you as a kid. Like if you were going to give some advice to parents on how to build better leaders as kids, like, what would you say would be a couple recommendations, insights you’ve learned or maybe how your parents impacted you?

Brian Moran 35:34

Yeah, I think the big thing there Dan is being intentional about your family identity. So my kids know what it means to be a Moran. And we’ve just defined that for them since they were little. And then we constantly sell that into them. The other thing I would say is if you want to have influence with your kids, you need quantity time that that notion of quality time I think, is a bunch of crap. It’s an excuse to go recreate Oh, I spent 15 minutes question time with my kid. You’ve got to get hours with your kids so that they you get beyond the surface conversations they get bored they start sharing with you what’s on their heart, you’re in situations where you blow it you get a chance to apologize and role model with the way you want to see it in them and, and so, you know, being intentional about the family identity and then being willing to invest time in a more than anything else.

Dan Kuschell 36:26

And as you’re listening or watching right now, whether it’s business or personal, oh, does your personal show up to relate to your business? See, it’s my belief that you can’t be solid in business unless you’re first solid yourself and at home, because whatever is happening at home will ultimately bleed over into the business. So if your front stage of home is a mess, your backstage of your business will ultimately be impacted. What could you learn from Brian in this simple example he shared about your family identity. You know, is it having core values in your family that are clear and investing the time? Not just quantity time, but are quality time but quantity time? Putting in the hours? Are you giving your family leftovers because of the excuse of Oh, I’m investing I’m investing in my board grown this for the future. You know what, I made that mistake. I made that mistake. It cost me a marriage. And I feel like I’m doing it better this time around. We’re now I coach my kids teams, I get to be fully available. And you know, availability is one of those rare capabilities that people can and will pay handsomely for done right about you. As you’re listening or watching right now. Are you truly available to your family, to your spouse to your kids? And if you’re not how is that ultimately impacting your business? Right And what if you could actually have the best of both worlds you could have a great front stage family life. You could also have a great backstage Life. And in fact, they actually become one not separate. They become one. I think that’s part of what Brian’s suggesting here. And you know what, if you want to get the steps to make it simpler to make it easier to get more done to execute to boost performance, not only in your business but at home, I encourage you to check out The 12 Week Year and go to 12weekyear.com. That’s 12weekyear.com and accountableleader.com. We need more leaders. We need you to be a leader as you’re listening or watching right now. We all need to step up or help pass this on to our kids and pay it forward so to speak. We’re leaving this great gift called life to our kids, aren’t we? Well, what are we going to give them? It’s times like this, that leadership can make a huge difference. How are you showing up? And what if these tools could help you? So Brian, is we we wind this down? What do you want to leave our viewers our listeners with today?

Brian Moran 38:59

Great question. And, you know, just encourage them that you’re capable of more than, you know, Thomas Edison said, if we did the things we’re capable of, we would literally astound ourself. And so think about that and just realize that it’s not about working harder or longer to really tap into that, to live into that capability. It’s about being focused and being committed. And as you do that, again, it’s not about being perfect. It’s just being more consistent. And as you go down that path, you know, two things happen. One, you get more of what you want in life, which is a really good thing. But two, and I think it may be the bigger benefit is it shapes who you become in the process?

It's not about working harder or longer to really tap into that capability. It's about being focused and being committed. - Brian Moran Click To Tweet

Dan Kuschell 39:40

And as you’re listening, as you’re watching, who do you want to become? Who do you want to become? Right? If our companies will only grow to the extent we grow our quality of family life will only grow to the extent we grow? What does that look like for you? Well, guess what? You know, Brian talked about having a vision Setting a vision? Well, have you set a vision for your family? Have you set a vision for you as a spouse? Have you set a vision for your business? Have you brought them together? Are they still apart? What’s your vision of your front stage family and your backstage business? or bringing them together is one, what does that really look like? And how would it impact you, if you could bring it together? Again, to make it simpler, to have less stress around it to get more done executed to boost your performance in both areas, right? That there can be both because there is a process to do that. And again, if you want to get the process and you want to simplify it, change the game or some athletes will call it slow the game down. This is a great tool for you to slow the game down. You can go to 12weekyear.com. That’s 12weekyear.com. Get access to all the resources Brian mentioned to you go to accountableleader.com, that’s accountableleader.com, to grow that leadership, whether it’s you or maybe you want to offer this as a gift to some of the people you care about. Some of your team members some of your key talent, key personnel, or even family members to help introduce them to the simple ideas that Brian’s been sharing with you I encourage you to take action with what Brian has shared again if you want to come back to this episode you can do that real simply by going to growthtofreedom.com/286. That’s growthtofreedom.com/286. IF you never want to miss an episode you can go to growthtofreedom.com/subscribe, that’s growthtofreedom.com/subscribe. most importantly, implement, execute. Take action, seize the day, and we’ll see you next time on growthtofreedom.com.

Thanks for listening to this episode of growthtofreedom.com. Are you struggling to get a steady flow of new clients every day? Or maybe hit a plateau or hit a wall and growing your business? Well, let’s help you solve this problem today. Let’s review your business and have a conversation. Do that for free today at breakthroughstrategycall.com. That’s breakthroughstrategycall.com. In addition, if you’re looking for a simple way to implement some of what we’ve been talking about in today’s episode, I want to encourage you to get our free small business toolkit. You can get that at activate.breakthrough3x.com. That’s activate.breakthrough3x.com. If you’d like access to the special resources and all the show notes for this special episode, make sure to visit growthtofreedom.com.