The good news is that if you build into your schedule a solid rhythm so that you can stay on top of your outcomes, keep yourself on track and remain focused on your priorities, you are virtually guaranteed to come out on top when the clock strikes midnight on 2021.

And yes, whether you’re a single agent, growing a team or have a team in place, you need to have a successful rhythm in place for your business to accomplish its goals in 2020 and beyond.

Here’s a closer look at what truly successful rhythm looks like in your business.

From a 10,000 foot view, there are three main parts to having successful rhythm in your business: strategy, plan and execution. 

By having the right strategy, the right plan and the right execution in place, you are always clear on where you’re headed, what you need to do to get there and what you must change along the way to accomplish what you set out to make happen when you first started. Here’s a brief look at each component:

Right strategy - Knowing your 1, 3, 5 and 10 year targets, identifying a clear and powerful mission, knowing “why” (your purpose) you do what you do every day, creating unifying core values and understanding what your Big Hairy Audacious Goal (GOAL) is.

Right plan - Getting clear on your annual goals and targets and then breaking them down into quarterly priorities (3 to 5 each quarter) so that you can focus on what’s most important and give yourself the best chance of getting things accomplished.

Right execution - Establishing a meeting rhythm that allows you to drill down regularly on the key strategies and tactics of your plan so that you build consistency in your approach and results.

Much like a three-legged stool, you need to implement each aspect of this strategy on an ongoing basis if you want to establish and maintain a successful rhythm for your business.

As with setting and reaching all your goals, you need to have a clear idea of what you’re looking to accomplish first. From there, you need to reverse engineer your action plan backwards from the end to determine what you need to be working on and doing today so that you can hit your goals. 

To make this job easier for our clients, we use a one-page strategic plan.

✔ Morning Huddles: Verne Harnish, author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and Scaling Up, is an expert on strategic planning for your business. One of the cornerstones of his rhythm strategy is the morning huddle. 

The morning huddle is a down and dirty 15 minute meeting at the start of each day where you (and your team if you have one) connect with each other to get the day started off properly.

Here’s what the agenda looks like:

Attendance at these morning huddles is mandatory and folks are required to participate. Not only are these huddles great culture builders, but also they are excellent in keeping your team connected with each other and committed to helping you build towards the future.

✔ Weekly Team Meetings: Once per week, you should set aside time to go over what’s happening in your business on a whole. Even if you’re a solopreneur, you should have time slotted in your calendar to look at how you are progressing and make sure that you’re not missing things or skipping steps. If you have a team, these meetings are great times to recognize people for doing a great job, dealing with team-related issues, updating the team on policies and procedures, getting feedback from team members, etc.

Keep the time to 30 to 45 mins and do your best to not exceed that time. As with other meetings, start with good news from every person in attendance and hold to your agenda.

✔ Call Nights: A great team building program that we’ve had a lot of success with is a weekly all night. Even if you’re in eXp and work virtually, you can put together a weekly call night at an office in town to get your agents together to make calls, support each other and leverage the energy of having other folks prospect with them.

Call nights happen one night per week for 2 to 3 hours. We recommend that two of the nights you all new prospects and two of the nights you do “hug” nights where you call past clients and sphere to strengthen relationships and generate referrals. If you have the financial wherewithal to hold contests, that would work to your benefit as well.

✔ Impact Zone Meetings: These meetings are daily meetings thirty minutes to an hour long, where you work specifically on your quarterly priorities. Ideally, you’ll cordon off your activities in each meeting to one specific topic where you can drill down on what needs to get done, what’s getting taken care of what still needs to be accomplished for you to get your priority completed. Here’s a suggested list of Impact Zone Meeting topics. Remember, one topic per session and ideally, one meeting per day (unless you are a larger team that has more employees to handle a larger workload).

✔ One on one’s (Fun on one’s): If you have team members, then you’re going to want to meet with them once per week for 15 minutes to review positive performance items, discuss room for improvement, answer any questions they have and provide guidance on helping them reach their goals. This time is reserved for connecting with your team members and adding value to their lives so they can see you are committed to their success.

✔ End of day report: A quick hit review of what got done that day and a brief explanation of what didn’t get done and why. Helps keep folks on track for what they’re supposed to do dials them in on what the focus is for the next day.

Believe it or not, this rhythm is easy to maintain. You need to do three things to make sure you stay on track:

1. Enter these items in the calendar as repeating events. Schedule them and leave them alone. More specifically, make them non-negotiable in everyone’s calendar and don’t let anyone — including yourself — move the times.

2. Hold yourself and others accountable to showing up and participating fully at each meeting. The more consistent everyone is and the more people add value, the better the rhythm works and the more enjoyable (and functional) your meetings are.

3. Keep up to date on what you’re working on with respect to priorities. As you complete activities make a note of what’s been accomplished so that you know what you still need to get done.

It may seem like a lot of work to put a successful rhythm into place for your business, but what 

you’ll find is that it’s a lot less work than running around like a chicken with its head cut off. A successful rhythm in your business means consistency, accomplishment, reaching of goals, motivation, momentum and fun for everyone involved.

Take the time to work on your business and not just in it and great things will happen today, tomorrow and long into the future.