Franziska: Welcome back to this episode

Christo: We made it

Franziska: This is actually very timely, out of time because we wanted to talk to you a little bit today about being on time, and clearly we are slightly two hours behind schedule. Now, the reason I wanted to share this concept and then I wanted to ask you about your take on it is, I’ve been watching “Inside Bill’s brain”, it’s a show about Bill Gates, it’s amazing and obviously that man is incredible

Christo: I’ve been hearing about it; haven‘t seen it

Franziska: Yes it’s awesome and one of the things that that his assistant I believe said, he said, Bill Gates is 100% on time, a 100% of the time he’s always on time basically. It made me think it he made me realize that “Wow, like I’m not always on time actually and I have a little bit of an excuse I always think back in Switzerland everything is on time, so now I’m rebelling against it,” but I don’t really like that. I think I’m rebelling against that.

Christo: Is that what it is?

Franziska: It‘s an excuse, right? I think I‘m rebelling against the “Swiss Timeliness” so I wanted to ask you actually what your thoughts are about being on time and being late because I do think it’s a really bad habit

Christo: I think there are two parts to it I think there‘s part if you‘re late for something for yourself, it’s almost like slightly disrespecting yourself; if you‘re late for someone else it’s like you’re disrespecting them. So like if you‘re late to a meeting with someone else it’s kind of like you’re like thinking your time‘s more precious than that person’s time. Also his team members‘ time, you‘re wasting your own money and resources because they’re sitting around waiting for you. So it’s like you know it’s kind of like doing a poop on their time a little bit and if you‘re late for yourself, I think it just means, yes, it’s almost like you can’t trust yourself you know like I mean like in a way it’s like oh my would I even be there all of our time or will I just vary off on something else and kind of.. there are lots of ways there’s like this.what lots of friends of mine that are in business-like kind of high level achieving guys a lot of something they often say is how you do one thing, is how you do everything. So it might be like oh the details of the time, you‘re late to a meeting but you’re also when it comes to managing your own cash or savings, you’ll be sloppy with you know a bit like these little things that were laying across it’s completely different seemingly unrelated areas. And it could be like you’re like how are you with showing up to yoga classes?

Franziska: Well that is I think that is the paradox; you know I go to yoga which is a practice to feel grounded and I‘m always rushing in, always super frantic. I’m always like, “okay, I have two more minutes to get some work done” and then around

Christo: Okay, so this could be a routine, a little habit for you to change and that will then I roll out and change in other areas do the 30-day challenge where you try to be on time
Franziska: Early maybe

Christo: Early for you, maybe get five minutes early so you can sit there, you can be Zen you can be relaxed, so you don’t get all frantic trying to make it before.

Franziska: I think how you can maybe do it as a challenge, I like the challenge, but I’m gonna do my own challenge and at the end of the year, it’s a great way to get into the New Year with you know new challenges. And if you want to do resolutions I don’t believe so much in resolutions, but you can do that, always spend time for you and your business. Something we’ve done here is we just start the meetings on time no matter what. We have team meetings here and if let’s say there are seven people in the meeting and only two are on time, we’re starting. And it’s actually helped in the last year so for people to realize that actually we are starting on time so I will be on time so people are on time now and then just commit to you and others to be on time. Now, the next thing we’ll do is because it is the end of the year, we picked a question from you that is super relevant and the question was, “How do I go about planning for 2020?” So how can I plan..

Christo: Good question.

Franziska: It’s great. Super timely. I want to give you three steps with three questions under each of them, and one for the last one. So there are sort of three phases of when we do our planning and before we go to planning for next year now. And the first phase is the review phase, and you can do this with your team, too, and where we look at what were our biggest accomplishments, so number one, what our biggest achievements what are we celebrating. Number two, what were some of our biggest challenges, so what are a few things that we were it may be challenged by, and then number three, what were a few things that we learned. And again this is a really good team activity to do or in your departments, if you have a larger business. So that’s the first phase, review phase. The second phase is the visioning phase. And again I’m gonna give you three questions here, first question is what is your bigger picture vision. Say three years and you probably already have that but maybe look at it again has anything changed are you needing to adjust something, so three years first. Second one is one year, so now looking at this year ahead, 2020, what is my vision for this year coming up what is my theme? And then the last one, the third part, is now called Quarterly Goals for the first quarter, January to March, what are my goals for that? What do I want to do in the first quarter specifically, to achieve my yearly vision to help me achieve my three-year vision, can you see how it goes, you go big and then you go down into the quarter.

Christo: ..and on this one because um I know sometimes when presenting this kind of structure to business people they might go, “Why do I need to look back?” I just think it’s really good what you’ve suggested in terms of looking back so that you highlight what really works for you so that you’re aware of what you want to maybe focus on doing more in the future. What do you think on just on the Goals thing, because everybody does go so you mentioned like with the quarterly thing and we hear “Goals, Goals, Goals” but I’m so so you do the next quarter what are some examples of things you reckon people should be looking at by the end of the year, that should be goals in the area I’m like you know like the revenue goal or is it like specific stuff like looking at branding or you know customer, unique customer enquiries or promotions, or social media or you know..

Franziska: That‘s now the third phase; so we looked at the review, visioning, and now the third phase; I promised you three pieces, the third phase is now you create an action plan and in your action plan you take those quarterly goals and you chunk them down. Actually we will give you a template that you can use for that, we will make it available on that page where you can see this video and so that the action plan basically, you take a goal and you would definitely have a revenue goal so what is a target. You might have a goal for how many leads or new inquiries you would like, how many website visits. Let‘s say, “I want to have 20% more website visitors” okay, what do I need to do to achieve that? I need to do a campaign maybe your Instagram I maybe need to reach out to some partners etc., then you might have another goal which is you want to have two really good collaborations, brand collaborations. What are my steps for that? First, I need to make a list of potential collaborators. Secondly, I look at if I have any connections to some of them. Thirdly, I’ll draft a really good email or a letter for example. You take your top goals your top priorities for the quarter, you only need three or four, you don’t need that many and then break it down into smaller pieces, and then that becomes your quarterly plan. So that’s how I suggest you do it. And we’ll make that framework available so on on the page.

Christo: Awesome! Sounds super duper cool. Now I’ve got a little book recommendation. I read this book, it was recommended to me by someone actually I can’t remember who. It’s called “Double your profits in six months or less. Seventy-eight ways to cut costs, increase sales and dramatically improve your bottom line”. The title sounds like.. I’m not the most you know impressed by kind of big statements like this because marketers use them all the time, to get people’s attention as you see on social media, “ten times your revenue in three months” Like, come on, man!

Franziska: And this design doesn‘t do it any favors either, because it‘s so ugly. I reckon if they just do a really nice design.

Christo: This is a book recommendation, not a bashing

Franziska: I know, I know, it‘s just a quick exercise.

Christo: I think that you make it differently the title would be probably cutting-edge gonna stay double your profits in six months or less but in terms of that I’m not suggesting in in terms of the title because a lot of people make all these beat climbs and I don’t and I read the book and I don’t think I doubled profits in six months of us reading books obviously, and applying these things however they are really good there’s really good practical tips at seventy-eight way. It’s these tiny little like short chapters were basically the way I read it was I would read a chapter for a week and just focus on that for that week. Sometimes I would read a few more because some of the chapters are only one or two pages but I might go because if I read like 10 or 15 different tips then I’m like okay I’ll work on one or two and I’ll forget about all the rest so there’s some there are some things in there a little repetitive, but just you know things like no cost is too small to worry about it gives you examples of getting right into the nitty-gritty and just looking at the cost and where you’re spending. It‘s a good little practical book with lots of practical little tips that you can apply in there in terms of increasing revenue and reducing waste in your business.

Franziska: I think it‘s a great book to read at the beginning of the year. And now we are gonna finish up with a word of wisdom. And the word of wisdom is more of an invitation and the invitation is to bring our best self to 2020. I always do think, you know, we do this every day hopefully or every week or month, we look at how can we be better, but even more so at the beginning of a year thinking about happy bring my best self to this year 2020 and so a few questions, three questions that you might want to ponder on, maybe journal one is how can I add more value. So in your business entrepreneurship is all about adding value and solving problems so if we already hopefully add value with our businesses. Now maybe you can ask yourself how can I add more value in my business to my customers. Secondly, think again about what legacy you want to leave so what legacy do I want to leave and the third question which goes with that is how you want to be remembered and I think we spoke about this I asked definitely also down at the end not unless you’ve done it but you can even be a little bit morbid if you want and write your own eulogy. Is it called a eulogy?

Christo: I haven’t done that I have done it spooked by it.

Franziska: just hearing a written speech but yes, I don’t know where I put it a while ago but it’s about what I would like my best friend, for example, to say about me and when I’m leaving. And it sort of makes you, and it’s a little bit morbid, but it makes you just have more clarity on what do I want to be remembered for so that I can then show up in a way that I will be remembered in that way. And so the second part is.. so bring your best self to ask yourself these three questions, the second part is set intentions. Some people said in the years and solutions which is cool. I like to set intentions at the beginning of the year and intentions are just asking myself “how do I want to show up” and then I write those intentions in a present way I think if it’s happening because of the hopefully is happening so it could be “I am generous” or “I am kind” or “I always have an open heart” or “I am patient” which is one that I need to learn.. “I am on time” you know, so it’s basically setting a few intentions of to show up in the world so that then you will be remembered later on as that human, as your best human version. That’s it. Did you like it?

Christo: Yes. I think there are some awesome tips and strategies to use definitely for the last you know the end of the year before we head into 2020. Can you believe it already? A lot of cool things happening around here in 2020 we have planned we’ve got “The Experience” which is coming up this it’s it will already be you know it’s already live now the promotions and things. That’s our annual event that we run in Manly and basically it sells out every year. Last year it sold out just in the early bird promotions, so if you want to grab a spot with that, we‘ll make sure there’s a link somewhere here. And that’s the two days with the Basic Bananas team sharing what they’re doing that’s working behind the scenes in terms of the latest and greatest in marketing and productivity and systems and so on and team, and how we create team happiness and all this stuff. It‘s an epic event if you want to check that one out and definitely like to just grab a spot while the early bird‘s running so you get a lower cost seat. And it’s a good thing to do to bring the team, it‘s a cool way to get your team excited always training, and getting them motivated to be working on new things. The whole team’s there, we‘re there the whole time, you know, talking and interacting and helping split specifics of your business and the attendees‘ businesses, so check that one out that’s “The Experience” and yes hopefully looking forward to an epic year and New Year‘s and parties over the new year‘s season.

Franziska: And we’ll see you in 2020. Have an amazing break if you‘re taking a break, hopefully, you are! Bye for now!