I’m delighted to welcome back Mike Clay to the show. It was episode 313 when he was last on the show, just a few short weeks ago, and we discussed his fairly recent transition from the corporate world into full-time property investor.
Today, we’re talking about Mike’s approach to vision strategy and goals – and not just writing goals down, but having a really clear plan for executing them.
There’s so much value in this episode, you don’t want to miss it.
Listen to this episode below:
Here’s a sneak peek at what discussed this time:
2.16 – Mike explains his interest and research into why so many people have great ideas and strategies, but often fail to execute them.
“It really is the discipline to do the boring hard work that’s going to take you the furthest forward.”
5.58 – Mike introduces the importance of focusing on the four disciplines of execution.
14.45 – Why it’s vital to prioritise your time – do less of the day job and focus on achieving clarity in lining up your vision, strategy and goals to move your business forward.
“Everyone is too busy! It’s one of the reasons a lot of the good ideas fail… the stuff that’s really urgent but might not be as important acts on you, but you’re the one that needs to act on your most important thing.”
17.46 – Step 1. It all starts with the vision – what are the core, long-term goals you want to achieve in life?
26.21 – Step 2. How will you execute the vision, what strategies will you use to get there? Depending on your vision, you can match it to a variety of different property strategies.
34.59 – Mike explains that now is the time to be brave and seek stakeholder feedback, to perfectly refine your strategy before moving forward with how best to put it into practice.
40.05 – Step 3. Goals – the importance of making the long-term short-term, by breaking it down into quarterly chunks, mapping out simple and achievable plans.
42.55 – Mike reflects on differentiating between your goals and your vision – remember to refer to key indicators such as the size of the goal and the timeframe in which you want to achieve it.
44.56 – How, and why, you should introduce a scorecard, to help you establish the important things you need to do each week to drive you towards your goal.
46.14 – The importance of knowing yourself in figuring out what’s achievable in each 3-month goal, and finding the balance between too much, or too little, ambition.
50.57 – Step 4. This is the tricky part – successful execution. Ensure you have clarity and alignment in your vision, strategy and goals, and utilise the correct tools, such as lead measures and score cards.
54.55 – Mike suggests setting a ‘Wildly Important Goal’ or WIG every 3 months to help keep you moving towards your vision.
57.58 – Mike reiterates the importance of measuring the action instead of the goal ie. lead measures instead of lag measures, in successful execution.
1.02.28 – Mike introduces the cadence of accountability, the short sharp weekly review you need to prioritise to check in with the tasks you have and haven’t carried out – and ask for help.
1.07.07 – Mike describes his ideal client, so if that’s you: get in touch!
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Links Mentioned
Follow Mike on Instagram (@clayproperties) or drop him an email on mike@clayproperties.co.uk.
To find out more about The 12 Week Year, the book that really resonated with me and that seems to closely replicate Mike’s own successful approach, check out the website.
And, if you remember from our first podcast with Mike, there’s one book that changed it all for him: pick up Rich Dad, Poor Dad on Amazon to find out more.