Accountability Coaching

Okay, good news. Let's have a quick chat about the accountability coaching you are going to be participating in and provide some perspective on what we need for it to work really well for you. The game plan consists of three phases. Phase number one is about finding out what you want.

We're going to do a bit of that right now. We will set some goals. Phase number two is how you get there. And phase number three is where you actually go away, implement, and deploy the marketing system—the 6 Maps Marketing System. This first part is just goal setting. The second part is about the 6 training—that’s how we are going to get you there.

Phase three is the accountability coaching, which I want to talk a little bit about today, as well as the goal setting. The "how"—the sixth training—is what you'll find in the training area. You'll be able to go through the videos step by step, fill out forms, and we will go away and create some of the collateral or the landing pages for you.

The technology pieces will be created for you; you just need to fill out the forms. But you do have to watch the videos to understand how the whole system fits together.

Now let's talk about the game plan for achieving things in life. There are three different parts.

You are going to set a six-week goal, which will be something pretty simple. You are going to set a business goal for where you want your business to be, and I also suggest you set a life goal. This is the most important one because it determines what your business goal should be, and your business goal determines what your six-week goal should be. However, a lot of people don't have a life goal.

In personal coaching, if you ever hired a personal life coach, they often focus on these seven areas: health and physical (your body), financial (how much money you want), business or career (in your case, business), family, spiritual goals, community goals, and relationship goals. These seem to be the things that most professional life coaches work on with people.

I want you to think about all those. You may not need all of them or think that some of them are that important, which is fine. Pick the ones that matter and then break them down.

For example, for me, if I were focusing on health and fitness, I would say success would be 98 kilograms. That’s the metric we use down under. You might use pounds depending on where you are in the world. I want to have a five-day exercise routine because I like getting into a routine, and I want to be able to run freely.

I've had a lot of problems with my Achilles and constantly get tendonitis, so I'd like to get my body to a stage where I can do faster running and shuttles without my Achilles flaring up. To me, those three things would constitute success in my health and physical side. Those three things mean nothing to you, in which case you choose something completely different that works for you. So, for any of these areas that are important to you, work out what the two or three measurable things are that would constitute success for you.

Once you've done that, then you’ve kind of got some life goals. Don’t make them perfect because if you try to make them perfect, you’ll never finish. Just come up with something really good for now in as many of those areas as you need to.

Now, this is important.

Your business. So, we are going to do a little business goal-setting session now. Answer these questions.

As I'm doing this, I’ll tell you a story about the first architect I ever worked with. I asked her, “How good are you as an architect?”

She said, “Oh, I’m pretty good. I’m about a 7.” I asked, “How good do you want to be in the next year?”

She said, “If I get to an 8, that would be great.” To her, a 10 was the best architect in that particular area. She felt she was certainly above average. She knew she wasn’t going to become a star architect within a year, but maybe she could improve to an 8. So, that’s fine.

I asked, “What about the projects you're working on now?”

She said, “About a 5. They’re okay. They’re middle-of-the-road projects. Where do you want to be?”

She said, “Well, if I’m an 8 out of 10 architect, I’d like to win 8 out of 10 projects. So, these are better projects than I'm winning now.”

I asked, “Where's your income now out of 10?”

She said, “Well, how do I work that out?” I asked, “Who’s someone earning the most doing the type of projects you're doing?”

She said, “My old business director at the company I used to work with was charging this much. I guess, equivalent to that, I'm probably charging less than half of what he is.”

I asked, “Where do you want to be?”

She said, “I’d like to be at an 8. If I'm going to be an 8 out of 10 architect, I want to be winning 8 out of 10 projects and earning 8 out of 10 in income.” This showed a gap between where she was and where she wanted to be.

It can be quite jarring, particularly if you’re a 7 or an 8 architect and your income is like a 4 or 5. It’s like, why are you only earning that? So, let's take this a little bit further. We are going to have two axes here. At one end of the scale, let’s say a 10 out of 10 would be earning the highest income in your particular area. At the other end, you’re earning the lowest income.

I’m going to ask you where you are out of 10. You’ve already told me your income is at a 4 out of 10. So, you would put yourself at 4 out of 10 on that spectrum. The other spectrum is lousy projects at one end and dream projects at the other.

You’ve told me, in that example, it was 5 out of 10.

Each of these quadrants has its own name. It’s almost like a village of architects. There’s the Old Quarter, which is someone doing lousy projects and getting low income. There’s the Artist Quarter, which I should call the Starving Artist Quarter—they are doing great work and dream projects, but they are not earning a lot. Then there’s the New Quarter, where they are not happy with the projects they are doing—they’re a bit soulless—but they are earning good money. And here’s where you want to be: Sunshine Island. Here, you are earning a high income and working on dream projects.

So, that's where we want to be. According to the numbers the architect I was telling you about gave me, she would put a red dot about here. I asked, “Where do you want to be?”

She said, “An 8 out of 10 on income and 8 out of 10 on projects.”

Great. Now we have a visual representation that shows she wants to move from somewhere between the Old Quarter and the Artist Quarter up to Sunshine Island.

Great, we have our journey mapped out. Now, that’s level 1 goal-setting. This is kind of simplistic, so what we're going to do now is get a bit more specific about it. But first, you might wonder, “How am I going to get there?”

You are going to get there by being a much better marketer. By being a better marketer, you will win better projects. By winning better projects, you will be able to charge higher fees. Now, where are you now as a marketer and where do you want to be?

You might say, “I’m about a 4 out of 10.” By the time you finish this program and continue to attend the weekly Q&A sessions, you will be pretty close to a 10 out of 10 in marketing for architects. That will give you a distinct advantage when it comes to winning projects. So, it’s all possible. Now, with that possibility in mind, because you are going to be such a good marketer, let's go to level 2 of designing your dream business.

I'm going to use a series of spectrums here. There's no right or wrong answer for any of these things, but I just want to put down where you are now and where you want to be. If I ask, “How many days a week are you working?” you might say, “I’m working about 6 days a week.” Put a cross where you are working now. Where do you want to be working?

You might say, “Three and a half days a week would be great.” I don't know what it is for you, but I just want you to get specific about what a good business looks like for you.

Next question: Are you a generalist or a specialist? You might say, “I'm very much a generalist.”

What do you want to be? “I want to be very much a specialist.” Put that down. Do you want to do local work or global work, or somewhere in between?

Do you want small projects or large projects? Do you want no staff or many staff? Maybe you just manage the staff, and they do all the work. Do you want to work from a home office, have a rented office, or own the office?

Put a cross where you are now and a tick where you'd like to be. Do you want to work by referral only, or do you want to pick up your projects through marketing? Just put a cross where you are now and a tick where you want to

be. Do you want to be the best-kept secret in town, or do you want to be famous? If so, how famous do you want to be? Where on that spectrum do you want to be? Put a cross where you are now and a tick where you want to be.

Do you want to work with clients who don’t really care about design or clients who love design? Put a cross where your clients are now and a tick where you’d like them to be. Maybe you don’t want clients who love design so much that they want to get actively involved in the design process. Maybe you want clients who love design but kind of want to leave you to it.

Using the example of the lady, my first architect client, she was about the red dot. She wanted to move to the yellow dot. What we'll do now is a quick exercise where I want you to imagine you are at that point where you've got the business you want.

So, even if you've only done that exercise in your head, imagine not where you are now. If where you are now is point A, the red dot, and where you want to be is point B, the yellow dot in Sunshine Island, don’t think, “Oh, well, I'm earning 4 out of 10 income and doing 5 out of 10 projects, so I’m at point A.” Don't see yourself as point A. It's kind of embedded in your self-image. You might think, “I'm a middle-of-the-road architect, and here’s what I want for my business.”

I want you to think as if you are at point B. You are at the yellow dot. You are 8 out of 10 for income and projects, or higher, wherever it is you want to be. Imagine as if you are already there.

Take a deep breath. You are now on Sunshine Island—welcome. You are doing projects that are dream projects. They are the type of work you always wanted to do, and you are winning these types of projects. They are great clients and great projects.

They appreciate great design. They have realistic budgets and are happy to pay for design fees. They really appreciate you.

They heard about you. Your reputation preceded you, and they sought you out. They knew you were going to be a bit more expensive than other architects, but they were prepared to pay the extra. As you go through all those spectrums, think about how many days a week you are working now that you are at point B, on Sunshine Island. Imagine what it would be like to be there now. Not what it would be like, but what it is like.

How does it feel? How many days a week are you working? Think about the type of projects you are working on and the type of clients and how they interact with you now. Now that you are on Sunshine Island, now that you are doing 8 out of 10 projects, think about your bank account and what that looks like now that you are winning 8 out of 10 projects. How does it feel? Who else benefits apart from you? How does your family benefit?

How does your community benefit now that you are a successful architect winning these better projects? What does it mean to you to be on Sunshine Island, winning these projects? Imagine it has already happened. Was it worth all the effort?

Was it worth the effort to learn marketing and how to communicate your value to people? Was it worth the effort to get specific about the type of projects you wanted, who you needed to attract, how you needed to attract them, and how you needed to communicate to those people? Was it worth it now that you are on Sunshine Island?

That yellow dot is where we want to get you, and that's the whole point of this program—to move you from where you are now to where you want to be. To be an architect, you have to work incredibly hard, even just to become an architect or a designer. Incredibly hard. The study, the exams, the debt, the trials and tribulations your employers put you through, the hours they made you work. Then you had to go out in business on your own, which is tough. Starting out is a scary thing to do, but you did it.

Now we need to design your business. You are an expert at designing buildings and spaces. Now we need to design your business. And I know you can do it because that’s what you do for a job. Here's a bit of a trick. You need to design your life goals first. Remember those seven things—personal, relationships, family, spiritual, money, and business. You need to work out where you want to take your life first because your business should be designed to serve your desired life. Too many people do it this way:

They think, “I don't know what I want out of life; I'm just going to coast along and take whatever comes because it's too hard to think about.” But they can set some business goals. What happens if you just set business goals and not life goals? Your life has to be squeezed in around your business.

When it is time for a holiday, you think, “I can't go on holiday now because I've got all this work,” and your holidays get planned around your business. Let's say your partner says, “Why don't we go here for a holiday?” and you go, “We can't really afford it.” Your holidays get planned around the income that your business earns. When it comes to family time, you might say, “I can't go on this family activity because I have to do this project.” Once again, your life is becoming a servant to your business. It should be the other way around.

The business should be a servant to your life. Your business is a function of your life. It should be designed in a way that gives you the life you want, not the other way around. Your life isn't the servant for your business; your business is the servant for your life.

This is the correct order. You now need to set some six-week goals because we are going to go into the accountability coaching, and it would be good for you to have a six-week goal that you want to achieve with your accountability coach. What are some possible six-week goals to get you moving? Here are three examples:

Complete the six-month training. That would be an excellent goal for the next six weeks. Or you might want to sell one LCC. That would be an excellent goal for the next six weeks. Or you might want to spend four hours a week working on your marketing. That would be a good process goal.

The other two are outcome goals. Any of them are fine, or something else is fine as well. If you are going to choose the first one, I will come to that in a minute. Let me just give you a quick run-through on what the accountability coaching is.

It's 20 minutes a week with your accountability coach. It’s about setting your weekly actions. What are the two or three things you want to do by this time next week? Your accountability coach will call you and say, “Hello, how's it going? How did you do with your actions for last week?”

You’ll say, “Yes, I achieved all three,” and they will say, “Right, what are you going to achieve this week?” You will map out what you need to achieve to make significant progress toward your goal. It's not about marketing. If you want marketing coaching, attend the two weekly Q&A calls with me and with Eric. That’s where you get your marketing coaching. These accountability coaching sessions are about the actions you need to take.

Let’s say you set your six-week goal as completing the six maps training. Each week, you would say to your accountability coach, “Here are actions one, two, and three. I want to watch the first module, fill out any worksheets, attend the weekly Q&A session with Richard, and submit my work for feedback.” Those would be examples.

The accountability coaching is about holding you accountable to make sure you get into the habit of doing things. By having someone hold you accountable, you are more likely to do them.

I took on an accountability coach recently, which is why we added it to this program. I found it so useful. My accountability coach knows nothing about my business or marketing, but she knows how to ask me questions and hold me accountable. I found that incredibly useful, so I wanted to bring it into this program.

What you need to do now is book your regular accountability coaching time. You will have a link somewhere to click on and set it up. Your accountability coach will call you at that time. Block out that time in your calendar so you know it’s coming.

It also serves as a reminder to finish the two or three actions you were supposed to have done each week. Then go and set some perfect goals for your life and your business so that you know where you are heading. If you have any questions, you can post them in the 6 general channel on Slack. You can also send a direct message to me on Slack.

Go to direct messages, click on the plus button, and search for my name. You’ll be able to send me a direct message if you have something more private or personal to discuss. Otherwise, you can ask questions in the general channel on Slack or during the weekly Q&A calls. Asking in a group format is the best approach because most people get a lot of value from those sessions.

So, please turn up to those because they will help you immensely. Don’t just go through the training—attend the weekly Q&A sessions as well.

That's a bit about goal setting and the accountability sessions. I look forward to seeing you at the weekly Q&A.

Welcome to the group! Thanks for joining us. We're going to take you through this program, and I believe it's going to be really, really good. The reason it'll work well for you is that, in the mastermind group, I was hearing from people who were very successful as architects on projects but often unable to follow through on their own business goals.

One guy had everything written out but wasn't making any progress. He knew what he should be doing for marketing but just couldn't follow through. There's this whirlwind that gets into your life every week, distracting you with other priorities that seem more important. When it comes to marketing or following through with the 6 program modules, other things come up, and you just can't follow through. I know you're supposed to, but sometimes you can't. That's why we set up this accountability coaching.

I was in the same spot a few months ago. I saw Eric, and we talked about maybe doing a coaching program. We looked at different programs for marketing because, as a marketer, I wanted to do marketing programs. Just like when you're a designer, you want to learn from great designers. But I realized I didn't need more marketing knowledge. I just needed someone to help me follow through and do it.

I saw an ad on Facebook for accountability coaching, signed up, and started doing it. It was brilliant. It wasn't rocket science; it was just someone holding me accountable and keeping me focused.

Since then, I've studied the process of being in accountability coaching and watched some good videos on the four disciplines of implementation by Franklin Covey on YouTube. I realized this is what we need for our 6 members. So, I've designed a one-page template that you'll go through each week and be held accountable for.

Here are some reasons people fail to implement:

1. The goal is not clearly defined. It needs to be specific and measurable. You need to know if you've missed by 5 inches or just 1 inch.
2. People can't see themselves achieving the goal. You need to visualize yourself at the endpoint, where you want to be.
3. The goal has only a small emotional pull. Set emotional goals that you're passionate about. If you don't like the taste, change the ingredients until you find something you love.
4. Obstacles and distractions. Anticipate and make plans in advance. Ask yourself what could get in the way and come up with a plan to mitigate it.
5. The goal is overwhelming. Break it into smaller chunks or milestones.
6. Lack of a scoreboard. Create a scoreboard to show whether you're winning or losing. It makes the process fun and engaging.
7. You're only accountable to yourself. Holding yourself accountable doesn't work. You need someone else to hold you accountable.
8. The journey seems like a long, hard slog. Set up rewards and celebrations for smaller victories along the way.
9. You unconsciously push your goals below everyone else's. Be conscious of where your goals and actions sit in your priorities. Don't let them drop to the bottom of the list.

Here's how the weekly coaching works:

1. The sessions are about setting and reviewing your actions. Max might ask you to be specific or break down your actions if they're too big.
2. Marketing questions should be saved for the weekly Q&A sessions with me and Eric. Max won't know the answers to those.
3. The coach's job is to keep you within the framework of these nine momentum triggers, not to answer marketing questions.
4. Get straight to the point. These sessions are 20 minutes long. Focus on reviewing last week's actions, setting new ones, and aligning them to your goals and milestones.
5. Ensure your goals and milestones are set before the first session. They don't have to be perfect, just good enough for now.
6. Prioritize your actions high on the list. Don't beat yourself up if you slip up. Max may ask you about punishments or rewards to motivate you.
7. Commit to your actions and follow through faster next week.

As an architect, you can deliver hugely complex projects when they're prioritized high enough. The question is, how high will you prioritize your own goals and actions?

In the next video, I'll take you through the worksheet. This will summarize the key things and the nine momentum triggers. By filling out one sheet of paper, everything will fall into place.

Good luck, and thanks for joining us. I'm excited to see what you achieve with this accountability coaching. Use this opportunity, and let's go do it!

Okay, I want to take you through the workbook for the accountability coaching sessions that you're going to be registering for and show you how to use it. As you probably know from the previous video, I'm a big proponent of figuring out your life goals first before setting your business goals. Your business should be reverse-engineered based on what you want your life to be, not the other way around. Your life shouldn't have to fit your business; your business should fit the life you want.

Here's a sheet where you can sit down and work through different aspects of your life. You don't have to cover all of these areas. Use the ones that work for you. These prompts are often used in life coaching to help you consider various aspects.

For each area, break down your goals into three sub-goals that are more defined and measurable. I'm not going to go into detail on this, but it's important to work out where you want to be in life. You only get one life, so it's better to move deliberately toward where you really want to be.

Once you've mapped out your life goals, consider what sort of business you'll need to support that type of life. After defining the business you want, think about what you want to achieve in the next six weeks. Since you're on the 6 Maps program, your goals should probably relate to the work you're doing in that program.

Imagine you've achieved your desired outcome. If your goal is to make $3 million, own a freehold house, and drive a Lamborghini, imagine what it would be like to have achieved these things.

This exercise is crucial because it engages your subconscious mind. Visualize what you would see if you had exactly what you want in life. How would you feel about your life and yourself? How is your life better now? Be specific. Who else benefits from your success, and how? What does it mean to have created this life?

Step into the future as if it has already happened. What people and things do you now have in your life? Conversely, what people and things do you no longer have in your life? What advice would you give to someone who is where you were before you joined the 6 Maps program and who wants your success? What advice would you give your past self before embarking on this journey? What insights have you gained?

Take a few moments to go through this exercise as if you've already achieved your goals.

The next exercise is the Sunshine Island Quadrant. You'll assess your income and project quality on a scale from 0 to 10. Where are you now, and where do you want to be?

The quadrants are as follows: the Old Quarter (low income, lousy projects), the Artist Quarter (low income, dream projects), the New Quarter (high income, lousy projects), and Sunshine Island (high income, dream projects). For example, if you rate your ability as 8 out of 10 and want to move to 9 out of 10, your projects are currently 4 out of 10, and you want them to be 8 out of 10, and your income is 3 out of 10, and you want it to be 8 out of 10, plot these on the chart. This gives you a visual representation of your desired progress.

Now, get more detailed. Fill out where you want to be: how many days a week you want to work, whether you want to be seen as a generalist or a specialist, whether you want to work locally or globally, on small or large projects, with no staff or many staff. Use the spectrum to outline your current state and desired state.

Once again, imagine you have achieved this dream business. What would you be seeing, how would you feel about yourself, how would your life be better, who else benefits apart from you, and what does it mean to you to have created this business? Take the time to write answers in here. What sort of projects are you working on now? What projects or people are you saying no to? What advice would you give to someone who is where you were before joining the 6 Maps program and wants your success? What insights have you gained?

Take a good five or ten minutes to fill this out. It will give you great insight.

Next is the action plan you will fill out on a weekly basis. You might just take your three actions and that's fine, but if you want to get very specific about your weekly actions, this will ensure you are doing everything right.

You can see examples of specific actions. When speaking with the Accountability Coach, come up with three things a week. Sometimes it's helpful to drill down and ask additional questions: How will this action help me? Who is responsible for it? What resources do I need? When do I want to do this action? What is its status? Identify any distractions or obstacles that might stop you from completing these actions and plan for them.

You might also consider rewards for completing your actions, like treating yourself to ice cream or donating to a cause you support if you succeed. Conversely, set penalties for not completing them, like donating to a cause you dislike.

Why must you achieve your business goals? What would you be seeing if you achieved your dream business goal, and why must you complete this week's actions? Use this sheet to keep track of your weekly goals and actions.

Your accountability coach will ask you about your three actions each week and help you break them down to be more specific. Most people often aren't specific enough.

You can use a simplified version of this process by writing down your life goal, why you want it, your one-year goal, why you want it, your six-week goals, and using a Post-it note to update your weekly actions. Choose whichever version works best for you.

This is how you complete the workbook. If you have any questions, ask your accountability coach. Good luck with your six-week goal. Getting results early will significantly increase your chances of overall success. Get those early wins, build momentum, and you'll do incredibly well.