The Perfect Time to Slow Down and Think

RCS Influencer Danny Kerr says the end of the year is a time of reflection, learning and exploring unconventional ideas.  

Editor’s note: The following consists of a conversation between RCS Multi-Media Manager, Megan Ellsworth, and Breakthrough Academy CEO, Danny Kerr. You can listen to the podcast or read the transcript below. 

Megan Ellsworth: Hello everyone. My name is Megan Ellsworth here at RoofersCoffeeShop.com. And I'm with Danny Kerr from Breakthrough Academy. And we're going to be talking about plans for 2022. This is the influencer response for December. And the question this month is, what are your plans for 2022? How do you plan on growing your business in the new year? So Danny, how do you guys plan on growing your business? 

Danny Kerr: Oh, we've got a couple of big things coming our way. One of them we just launched is just called the Masters Circle. So it's a new program for members that have been with us for a few years, that are kind of looking to take [inaudible 00:00:39] not beyond their business, take their personal lives, and their financials, and their health, and a few different things to the next level. So we're building out that program, well, right now. 

And then another big initiative is we've been developing some software. So we're in the, I'd say mid stages of it right now. So we're just finishing the initial development of V1 and then we're going to spend about next year getting it out there to our members, and kind of beta testing. So that project is being planned out as we speak, and getting ready to be launched going into the new year. So yeah, there's lots more than that, but those are the two big ones I'd say that's kind of on the docket, and things that we're looking forward to, so. 

Megan Ellsworth: Wow. Very cool. I would be really interested to hear what you think contractors should be doing at the end of the year and the beginning of a new year. How should they be planning looking forward to the future? 

Danny Kerr: Sure. Yeah. It's I mean, 12 months if you think about it, it goes pretty fast. Especially as you get older, it seems to go faster and faster. And it's crazy how much all of us have in our businesses as far as things we're accountable for, right? You think about the tens, if not hundreds of thousands of hours that your team is going to be working under your command. You think about the millions of dollars that you're going to be allocating to different things, and within the organization. And to not sit down and give a good amount of time to really think through how you want to coordinate that, I think it can be very destructive to a brand. 

I think that people can get too busy on the wrong things, and spend half a year realizing that everything that them and their team put effort into, whether it be a new project, a new employee, a new piece of software was useless because it wasn't well thought through ahead of time. And something I've learned a lot in my life. I mean, I have a tendency to shoot from the hip, and go off what my gut feels right to go do. And a lot of times I'm right in doing that. 

But what I have found is as our companies get bigger, it's not the only piece of data which is just your head that you need to use any more, right? You need to go, what are the facts? What are the trends from last fiscal year? What are we seeing patterns numerically? Where is all the strengths and weaknesses, and opportunities within our organization? And really give that a few days of thought. And then from there, come back to your ideas, and look at what are truly the most important initiatives for next year, right? 

Megan Ellsworth: Right. 

Danny Kerr: There's no shortage of opportunity in the Western world. What is hard is knowing what to say no to, and how to really focus and hone your effort in some of the things... Hone in your effort on the things you're going to say yes to. And I think that again, in business, in the beginning, you can kind of week-to-week, month-to-month plan something out short term, get it done and move on. 

As your business gets bigger, there are projects that sometimes span the course of a year. And to do them properly, that's the way they need to be thought out, right? If you're going to put in new hires or a new sales team, or a new system in place, what's the research stage look like? What does the actual rollout of that look like? How are you getting adoption and development within the team? 

There are places within the year where you're like, this is our research phase. Okay, by now, we should have a decision. Okay. Now, once that decision is made, this is the implementation phase. Okay. From there, how do we kind of look back and see how it worked? And all that stuff takes intentional thought that takes time. And like any good project, project management at some level is needed. And it starts with having a good strategic plan. Where are you focusing your efforts? What quarter, who's involved, what's the money allocation for that? And what is it we're actually going to go do? 

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely. I think that's great advice. And something that our contractors should really be looking at. And I think that's brilliant. I say this every time, but you really are just so wise. 

Danny Kerr: We spend a lot of time hanging and talking business, so this is- 

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely. 

Danny Kerr: ... what we do. So yeah, one thing we do. So in every December of every year, all of our members get together. Well, I guess January, they get together. But all of December, they're spending their time building out what we call a one-page strategic plan. So it's something that we have them go through where they really analyze the previous year, like what went well, what didn't go well, what the numbers were. And then they project out next year, both numerically. 

So like, what numbers do we want to hit from a sales production, or a financial standpoint? But also project wise, what implementation items are we committed to? And then we use that plan to break it down to quarterly, kind of like runs. So we're like, okay, in the first quarter, what are we getting done? What are we getting done in sales? What are we getting in production? What project are we putting in place? And then it allows them to make sure that they're focused on things that actually move the ball forward. 

And the whole plan itself is a year-long, also is built off of what we call a BHAG, a big hairy audacious goal, which is usually a five-year vision of where you want to take the company. And now, instead of doing lots of random things that seem good, you're doing just the things that are focused on the big picture, right? And my business partner always even ask me this. He's like, "Danny, is what you're doing right now, is it going to be great long-term? Because if it was just an idea, or a new thing that came in last week, and you think it's cool, question that, and pit it against where we're heading long-term, because that's all that really matters." 

Megan Ellsworth: Interesting. Absolutely. That's a great sentiment. Great question to ask yourself. 

Danny Kerr: Yeah. 

Megan Ellsworth: Well, thank you so much for your time today, and your thoughts. Do you have any last thoughts to share? 

Danny Kerr: Well, if you're interested in doing the strategic planning thing for yourself, I'll recommend a couple of things. One, we usually rent a cabin or we get away somewhere for three days. So I would recommend not just trying to do it in your office, and do it on the edge of your desk in between projects. Shut your cell phone off, book a place for three days, do some prep and be fully focused on it. And if you want to follow a format that we know works really well, we're giving away a strategic planning template that everyone can utilize. 

So that should be in the BTA directory in the RoofersCoffeeShop. You can go in there and download it. It has a little explainer video to go along with it, an example file and a template that you can utilize. And if you want to take it even a step further, I think we have a webinar coming up with you guys that you can attend. That'll give you some instructions on how to do this for yourself, so. 

Megan Ellsworth: Very cool. Excellent. Well, this is the last influencer topic of the year. So thank you so much for being a RoofersCoffeeShop Influencer this year. You're fabulous. 

Danny Kerr: You got it, Megan. Thanks for having me. 

Megan Ellsworth: All right. Well, I'll be chatting with you next time. 

Danny Kerr: Okay. Talk to you then. 

Danny Kerr is the Director of Assessment of Breakthrough Academy. See his full bio here.