1443: From Burnout to Breakthrough: Master the 12-Week Year with Entrepreneur and Productivity Coach Dan Mintz

Robert Plank 0:01 Welcome back to the podcast. We are here to talk about 5x ing our productivity in just 12 weeks. And we're here with Mr. Dan Mintz to help us get there. He built a chess startup that got acquired. He studied data science at MIT, and he now helps top performers five times their productivity in just 12 weeks. It's the 12 week breakthrough system, and it's trusted by high achievers who are tired of spinning their wheels and they're ready for a real edge. So if you've been just burned out, stressed out, if you say there's got to be a better way, some people seem to have their days, there are weeks, there are months, so structured, so scheduled, so productive. They have the output, they have the growth. I want that Mr. Dan Mintz is here to help us. So Mr. Dan, glad to see you, glad to be speaking with you.

Dan Mintz 0:52 Thank you for having me. It's a it's a pleasure and an honor,

Robert Plank 0:55 and it goes both ways. Right? It's it's a mirror event where I'm honored to have you here. And so what did I leave out of that bio? What are you currently all about? What's your passion and your purpose?

Dan Mintz 1:11 and that's from my experience of working almost 15 years with people managing my own businesses and so on. I've seen that one of the best methods and ways to help people, and I'm really passionate about this, helping people achieve the most ambitious goals, is that by helping them implementing a system to implement those goals, which includes setting up visions, setting the vision, setting the right goals, setting the right execution plan, doing the planning phase, doing the data measurement, performance evaluation, and all of this, doing it in a very short timeframe of 12 weeks. Or we take a whole year and actually squish it into 12 weeks, so you're going to have four years, actually, of performance in one year. And it's actually works

Robert Plank 2:02 very nice, and that's what we want, because we've all heard of that cliche of the New Year's resolution, and people say, Oh, here's a whole year's worth of things I promised myself and didn't do it, and I'll do more promising and not do that. And then next thing you know, you've gone through those cycles 2030 years, and you've lived your adult lifetime. And then it's time to retire and die, and we don't want that. And the idea of the these 12 weeks, these 90 day seasons, where you get a lot done in that little bit, and it's kind of like what you otherwise, what otherwise would have expanded to fill the space. It's exciting, it's enticing. It's what we want. And so tell us about like, how you came across this? Because, you know, we've all heard of the SMART goals and the planning, and we want to avoid the the dreariness. So how did you land on this, with all the possibilities out

Dan Mintz 2:53 there? Okay, first of all, in your first part, you totally nailed it. Totally nailed it. That's exactly the problem. And it's also scientifically proven that, and with actually a study from I went to, I did my MBA at Wharton, and one of their extensive studies that they did was to measure how much people are able to achieve the goals when they're doing annual goals. Okay, so first of all, most people don't even define goals, but the people who define goals, even for work and on a personal level, 90% of them, are not able to achieve most of the goals when they are doing when they're setting annual goals, and that's exactly what you describe. And that happens for many reasons, and mostly, I'm not going just to belabor the point, but mostly because people feel that they have a lot of time ahead of them during the year to to achieve this goals. And after a couple of months, it kind of tends to melt away because you are so busy doing other stuff. And lot of other stuff is, is, is coming into your life, and urgencies and emergencies and fires and whatnot, and what happens realistically, the 90% of the people are not able to achieve their goals now. So I was at the exactly same position. So roughly 15 years ago, I was managing a $15 million company. I was a CEO of the company, but I was, I felt a very similar feeling of not achieving my goal. So I was setting the goals for the firm. I was setting the goals for myself. And the feeling was that, you know, April, May and June, you will sell you. We look back at the goal and said, Oh my God. I mean, I haven't achieved almost anything. And all only have like five minutes left to start achieving my goals, and it starts to melt away, and you get lost in your time. In terms of I felt that the time external events were managing me, managing my time, controlling my time, instead of myself. Controlling my own destiny in my own time. So I went and studied, and that's also where comes my let's say, call it My professional background and my academic background. Like you mentioned, I use a lot of research message from being a data scientist, and I like, I like to do a lot of research, so I research almost every possible good productivity system, like getting things done, or coffee seven habits, atomic habits and so on. And actually, I landed on and decided to start using the 12 week year, which gives you the complete process of vision, goals, execution, measurement and and all of that. So it's a complete productivity system. So it has all the elements necessary. I mean, you cannot just use separate elements. I mean you cannot just pick and choose, or do a hack or or pick something that you like you need to utilize the entire process or the or the entire elements of the system that work together and reinforce one another. And it also gives you in a very short, focused cycle. So you're solving both setting the goals even for a long term, but you have the ability to bring it into the present, because execution happens in the present every day, every week. It doesn't happen in eight months from now, because that's just not going to happen. So with the 12 week year, it has this 12 week cycle, but it's not really a cycle. You have to look at it as a real year. So everything you used to think about the year, setting goals, measuring your performance execution, every everything happens is 12 weeks. Okay? So it's, it's long enough to achieve those broken goals that you're going to break from your vision into the present, okay, but it's short enough to keep you focused and urgent, and then you cannot, you cannot afford to waste an entire week, when your entire year is just 12 weeks, so you're much more focused, and in order not to burn out. And I can, you know, I hear this all the time, because I work with dozens of people said, Look, I don't want to get burned out. I don't want to be focused, focused, hyper focused all the time, and just working 12 weeks, sprints all the time. No, after 12 weeks, we can, you can definitely take a week to call it, to relax, take vacation, reset, learn from your mistakes. On the past 12 weeks, adjust yourself and then build on the next cycle and go and so on. And I've seen people trans transform their productivity and their life and their careers in less, couldn't say less, but in two cycles, because they understood, you started to understand how to set goals, how to execute within those 12 weeks.

Robert Plank 7:51 Very nice. And I love this concept of the cycles, right? Because it's like currently, the cycle for many is this whole year long thing where, as you say, there's the goals melt away. It's too far in the future. They make excuses. Oh, just take it easy this week and next week and versus shrinking the cycle. So that way you make every week calendar. This doesn't mean, as you say, like the final day of the 12 week year, then you start the next one, you can kind of take that break and reassess. And it seems paradoxical, doesn't it? This idea that your present self is telling your future self what to do, and then your future self, which becomes your present self, is following the plan, and it's like these two versions of you in different time periods

Dan Mintz 8:36 together with the lag time. That's an amazing description, by the way.

Robert Plank 8:39 Oh, thank you very much. And, and so, I mean, it sounds good in theory, but as you know, people start with the best intentions and then they end up not following through. But I like how it makes the problem smaller and more solvable, right right now, for many it's just a big dark cloud. Why am I not getting stuff done? You're saying, Well, hey, you're not even setting the goals. You're not even making the plan, and then if you're still not, if you're getting burned out, or you're still not following it, well that's a smaller problem, right? It's just that you're not following the plan in front of you. And so where do people fail with this? Right? It's, it's fair enough to make a plan, but then when it comes down to them saying, Okay, well, I'm on maybe cycle one or two, and I failed, or I'm not happy with the results. Why does this sometimes fall apart in the first try?

Dan Mintz 9:26 Okay, so just to clarify the question, why does it fall apart in the 12 week year? You mean, what might cause you to burn out or fall apart or not not continue with the cycles?

Robert Plank 9:39 Yeah, what might cause someone to either like plan halfway or plan and then not get the results?

Dan Mintz 9:45 Okay?

Dan Mintz 9:46 So to put it in context, first, we need to understand, if you don't use a 12 week here for a second, then we go into the 12 week here, and we'll see the differences. And that will answer your question. This contrast, how. Okay, so because it's, it's, it's kind of a spectrum that you continue it, and then you understand where the burnout happens and why you why it sometimes falls apart and everything. So the, I think the number one reason for that, I see with people that they burn out, or they get disappointed, or they stop having energy, and all that is that because they're working too hard towards not having the right vision, also they're working a lot of hard. They're working they're working a lot, many hours. They're working very hard. They're not seeing the results they want to see. Okay, because the the goals are not extreme. Is not clear enough. They're not absolutely sure how to measure the outcome. Their vision is not very is not clear enough. Okay? And so for me, that's the from what I see, that's a number one reason for burnout. People work hard, but then say, okay, but what's, what's my outcome? Why? What? What's the purpose of all this? Why I'm working so hard don't see the the results are not clear to me. It's, it's it's not effective. Now, when people go into a framework, or start implementing a framework as a 12 week year, this process starts to become much more clear in the head. So they said, Okay, I know I'm going to work hard. I mean, it's something you cannot escape, but at least I know what the outcome I want to have. I understand what, what's the vision I'm working towards. I understand what the goals I'm working towards. I understand how to measure my performance, because you have all those elements placed in so the the 80% of the people that I work with, kind of, I'm asking the I'm kind of asking the question backwards, but 80% of the people I work with are able to achieve the most. 80% are able to achieve 80% of the most ambitious goals. So if you are able to achieve 80% of the goals, you determine for yourself, because we are trying to give some stretch, okay, we don't want to achieve 100 It might sound straight, strange. You want to stretch yourself, right? We you don't. If you achieve, if you achieve 100% of your goals, all the time, you're not stretching yourself enough, okay? You want to stretch yourself a little bit because you want to achieve this significant results. Okay, so if you so, 80% of the people I have experience working with, and we're talking people who are fortune 1000 CEOs, people who are partners in large professional service, from entrepreneurs, students, the whole range, 80% of them are able to achieve 80% of the most significant goals within roughly two cycles to a whole year of 12 months. 20% who are not able to do that. So it's not going to be 80% they may be dropped to 50% but it's really less about burnout. It's more about just recalibrating how you're defining the goal. So maybe the vision was not realistic enough. Maybe it was too far. It was too stretched. Maybe the goals were not defined enough. Okay, so you need, you need to build in the patience. You need to understand that, you know, it's not a magic formula that will solve everything in 12 weeks. That's not going to happen. You need to calibrate yourself every cut, every cycle. And it could take two cycles, it could take three cycles, it could take six cycles. So some people just don't have enough enough patience and stamina right to calibrate themselves, following into the third and fourth and fifth cycle and so on.

Robert Plank 13:35 Ooh, I like these concepts here, the stretching and the recalibrating. Where you because, like, this term burnout, it just gets thrown around, right? And you wonder, like, do people even know what that means? And you're saying, well, there's unclear goals, so the goals over here, but they're working way too hard to get over there. And they're saying, but I don't even have the outcome you want. And someone like you is saying, Well, maybe you're not planning it well enough, and even if you aren't, well, cut yourself a break and do your best and buy cycle two or three as you figure out, okay, well, I missed my target. I got 80% now you can reiterate and then say, Okay, now I'm on track. And then it seems like that makes the pieces fall into place better, doesn't it? Then we'll be more motivated, excited, fulfilled. The momentum will be there. We'll just be like, hey, it's it's finally working, because I stopped trying to wing it, or I stopped leaving it up to random chance. With all these externalities pushing me, I'm finally taking control of my destiny, and it's amazing. And I know that you've helped people, so I'm curious about the stories that you have this health so as far as you getting these amazing 12 week results for your clients. What do you have to maybe humble brag about? Who have you helped?

Dan Mintz 14:48 Okay, I would like to give an amazing, amazing client. She is an architect. Her name is Rachel. She's from New Jersey. So couple you. Years back, so she was managing her practice, so she had a couple of people in her office. She was doing okay, but she felt like, I think many of us feel that being pulled apart by all the you know, the daily demands, the emails, the phones from the clients, the suppliers, the accountant, family and so on. So she felt she was kind of working very hard, but drifting a bit aimless. Goals were not clear. She wasn't sure how to develop her business. She she felt that she's being controlled, instead of taking control of her destiny in her time. And then we knew we had a mutual friend, and she came to me and said, okay, then help me with my business. Help me achieve control of my time, a control of my business. And basically, because she didn't have any real system of managing her time or a real system of managing the business itself, I told her, Rachel, first, let's think about, where do you see yourself in three years? Okay, let's talk about a concrete, vivid vision that you that is realistic but stretchy enough that you can, you can pinpoint and, and, and really be passionate about because this very strong vision. And that's a very, very important point, this very, very strong vision, okay, it becomes your North Star. It gives you tons we know we were talking about burnout. So if you have this clear vision, and you're excited about it, and there's a emotional connection, and you know, it's also kind of realistic. It's stretchy realistic. It gives you a lot of energy and motivation to work in the present and you know, and to go through those obstacles which will come in terms of burnout, being tired, emergencies, and all that kind of stuff. So we define this vision, and part of that vision was to become a top 10 architect in her state, okay, in terms of revenue recognition, the type of clients, and so on. So she defined her vision to be a top 10 architect in New Jersey, which was just, if you think about it's just a terrific vision. It's, it's measurable, it's stretchy, but it's realistic. It's, it's, she was very passionate about it, because she really wanted, you know, to become more successful, have more revenue, profits and so on, and actually work less than that she was working at at the moment. So we established the vision. Now. She said, Okay, I have this vision. What? What do I do with that? How do you bring it to the to the present? Okay, so, so we move, we start to reverse engineering. We started to take it to the present. Said, Okay, let's take this three year vision. Now start breaking it to, let's say, one year goals. Okay, let's be very clear the terms of one year goals that you're going to have, for instance, in order to be a top 10 architect, you definitely need to, let's say, increase your revenue, get state recognition to so you can talk in state events and so on. So she sets very clear goals that would help her to achieve this three year vision. So she was set up, she would set up these goals one year into the future, and said, Okay, great. So have one year goals, which I understand how it will take me to my vision. But again, how do what do I do in the present? I said, Great. Now you're going to use a 12 week year. We have the vision. We have the one year goals. Now you're going to have, you're going to plan your work and your life in 12 weeks. Each 12 week is one year. You're going to break this one year goals into the 12 week goals. Okay? And so you're going to set like three to five goals that for this cycle after a week, so you'll know exactly what type of goals you need to achieve in order to achieve those one year goals, okay? And based on that, you're going to have a plan for each and every week in terms of the actions that you need to take, that action attacks that need to you need to take in order to achieve these goals. So she had a very clear plan of this 12 week, okay? And she knew it. And then we also created a plan of measuring the performance in terms of, let's say, increasing the revenue, measuring how many new clients she had, and all that kind of stuff that I'm not going to go into because it's just for the sake of time. But what happened is, think about it. She had this vision, one year goals, 12 week goals, a 12 week plan to achieve those 12 week goals, and then she would block time into her schedule, okay, based on those weekly plans. So every. Thing was extremely planned, but we made sure that we're putting buffer times into those weekly plans. So these buffer times are the times that you you know you need for the daily routines you need for for the staff to talk to you. You need to all kind of emergencies. So it's not something which is inflexible. So you we understand that. You know life happens. So you schedule strategically, buffer times during the day. You you place strong strategic slots into account, or they're going to work on the 12 week goals, which are tied to your vision. And in that, that way having those weekly plans for the next for the next 12 weeks, and then she had the other cycle that she made some resets. She made some adjustments. She understood her mistakes. She made some improvements. She was able, in three years, almost exactly, reached the level of a top 10 in her mind, in terms of revenue recognition, the type of products she received, and this shift she made from basically being unplanned and kind of drifting in okay, just just living the moment, to being planned three years ahead, that made an absolutely huge difference. And I'm so excited about this, and I'm so proud about her work.

Robert Plank 21:22 Very nice, very cool. I'm listening to this thinking, Where is this guy? Dan Mintz, been all my life? Because sometimes people, they pay lip service to goals, but this is amazing. And as you said, it builds on what we've seen out there, right, with the 12 week gear and the atomic habits and all that. So you're saying, right, have this really powerful vision in the future, and then take a step back from that, reverse engineer, the one year goal, and take a step back from that, and figure out the 12 week goal, and then a step back from that and the 12 week plan, and then strategically time, block time to do it, and the buffer time. And it's just, it's just amazing to hear about this, because it's like, it feels very like rightly sized right, where, as we've been saying, a year is too long, but then, like, a few days or a week, that's too short. And this gives us enough time to build in the delays the people talking to each other, but also gives us it seems enough urgency to get this done and take this seriously. And this is such an amazing concept, so much to talk about. Think about. But you're here, you're the star of the show, and I don't necessarily know the ideal question to ask you in this moment. So in this conversation we're having, what's the missing question? What should I be asking you? I just don't know what you ask you

Dan Mintz 22:41 okay,

Dan Mintz 22:41 there are many, many different questions, because I get tons of different questions from different people about different areas. But one of the biggest trends that I'm sensing very, very clearly from the audience I'm talking to, people, podcasts, customers, so on, is what I'm going to do in the age of AI because I'm concerned about, basically, I'm going to say it very brutally. I'm concerned about being replaced in 235, years by AI machines or some super intelligence or whatever. How can I use a 12 week year to possibly future proof, or at least make my career resilient, more resilient in the age of AI and I may. And because of those requests by people to think about it, I made, I did some research, and I actually came, came along some researchers from MIT that who were looking at it, and I kind of built a program which is part of the 12 week year. It's basically taking the 12 week year as a framework to try to future proof your career in the age of AI. And that means you need to create this vision, but now you need to create this vision with the context of AI happening in the background. Okay, you need to, I'm not going to say, reprogram yourself, but transform yourself in a certain areas of skills and expertise that you need to develop in order to stay relevant in the age of AI and and we're talking about skills that are mostly more human oriented, which is emotional intelligence, being strategic, being creative, having the ability to make connections. Oops, I'm sorry about this.

Robert Plank 24:37 You're making a connection here.

Dan Mintz 24:39 Yeah, no, there's something in my in my screen. I'm sorry about this.

Dan Mintz 24:43 I apologize.

Robert Plank 24:46 I tried, trying to stop you from getting things done, isn't it?

Dan Mintz 24:51 That'll be amazing. So I'm actually telling people I. Think without actually having a certain framework. Let's say, like a 12 week year in which you plan yourself very carefully. How are you going to transition yourself in the age of AI? So almost working without a plan, thinking two, three years into the future? It's almost career suicide. Okay, I might taking it a little bit to the extreme, but, but maybe not so. Actually, I'm starting to work with people creating plans of how to transform themselves in the age of AI in terms of the areas of expertise that they need to develop, skills that they need to acquire, and stuff like that, and we're building, and basically we're using the 12 week here as a framework, as a system, to change, I won't say, No, change yourself. Transform yourself in two or three years. So I hope I kind of answered your question. I'm not absolutely sure, so you know, just let me know what you think.

Robert Plank 26:00 Yeah. I mean, what I think based on your answer is that the future is very uncertain because of AI. And there's some kind of, like, all these Ben Franklin quotes about, like, plans don't survive contact with the enemy, right? And this idea that you make a plan knowing that, hey, I it might not get 100% implemented, but then I'll cycle again, and it's, it's kind of it's just a weird thing to think about, right, that I need to make a plan, and the plan will get changed, but I can't go with no plan, and it's not useless, but it feels like it, because it doesn't always match reality. But that's no excuse for not planning, and that's no excuse for not taking action, and it's just like we need to be thinking on these multiple levels and adapting to the future, right? Because it's just a machine that we operate, and it can help us, and guys like you and I use AI all the time to, like make sense of our thoughts, to get things written down, to get things sorted out, to iterate, and it's just a scary but also an exciting time ahead, and AI still can't do it all for us, and that's why we need someone like you to be that mentor, that guide, and say, hey, you know you've tried, you've read the books, you've tried the systems, you've done the coaching, you've tried all these other alternatives, and you're still maybe burnt out, frustrated, not quite where you want to go. And if someone says, All right, I need this guy, Mr. Dan Mintz, in my corner to get this planning, strategy, execution, 12 week, year in place. So if someone says, I'm so impressed by what I heard on the podcast, I want to take the next step and go to his website, check out his program, contact him. What is that step to take? What's the call to action?

Dan Mintz 27:40 Okay, the call to action here is actually very simple. I try to keep it very simple. So each person has different needs, right? Someone is in his or her early 20s, someone is in his 40s and looking to enhance a career. Someone they're just starting the career. So I'm trying to customize the let's call it VIP coaching, one on one coaching to each and every person. I not a strong believer in just providing here's material, here's a course. Learn the course, and you will know how to transform yourself in 12 weeks. From my experience, it doesn't work really well. So I actually prefer that people just book a call with me. We talk about what's the best solution that fits their needs. Because it's like I said, it's very, very different, and the more it's customized to your career, your life, whatever, the better the solution is. So it's just very easy to go to my website, book a free strategy call, and we can discuss what would be the best solution.

Robert Plank 28:45 Very nice. And what is that website? Is it 12 week dash breakthrough.com Exactly.

Dan Mintz 28:51 So 12 week dash breakthrough.com you go to my site, you will see my picture, you'll see a button to schedule a free free call, and I would love to talk to anyone who wants to transform their lives in 12 weeks.

Robert Plank 29:05 Very nice. And when someone mentions these terms, like plan or like strategy, what comes to mind is that it's never a straight line, right? It's a zigzag. You use this tool to get you there and use that tool to get you there. And so if you're listening to a podcast, you're kind of getting in IDEA mode, or getting in like, you know, developing your interest, but just listening to a podcast doesn't really get you somewhere. And then Dan says, well, then the next level might be like a book or a course, and that gets you some knowledge, but then it still doesn't quite get you where you need to go. And the solution is to have that real human connection and have that real conversation and that real customized plan. So that's kind of like step three of three, right? It's like step one podcast. Step two is more learning, but then hey, let's have that actual real conversation by going to 12 week dash breakthrough.com that's the number 12. So. One, two week dash breakthrough.com and find out how to transform your life in 12 weeks, five to 10x your productivity. Achieve more in 12 weeks than in 12 months. It's VIP coaching by a 12 week year world expert. You go there. You click the button to book that free strategy call it's use that time slot. You show up, you have a good little chat with Mr. Dan Mintz. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. You tell them about your problems, your issues. He can give you some ideas and figure out if it makes sense to take that next step, just like he was sharing some of those success stories with us earlier. So that's 12 week dash breakthrough.com, and before I let you go, Mr. Dan Mintz, it's time for the scary part of the podcast where I try to stump you. I try to put you on the spot by asking about a fun quote or lesson that has served you. So what comes to mind as far as a fun quote or lesson,

Dan Mintz 30:58 fun quarter lesson that comes to my mind. Okay, a fun quote. It's hard for me to think about, but the fun lesson is actually what you talked about. I think, I think you said Benjamin Franklin said all plans are good until the actually hit the field. Right? That would actually hit the thing, and it's very right, okay, it is, it is kind of funny. You can plan all, all you want, but then you, you know, you start working, and all of a sudden, kind of life happens. But maybe it's not so funny, but it does happen. But by, just like you said that you nailed it perfectly by having this short cycles, what's not going to what's not going to work, you're going to make you're going to plan, and you're going to see what's not working, what's what is actually working. And using this 12 weeks, it's energetic, it's fun, you can make adjustment, and there's always a new cycle just around the corner,

Robert Plank 32:01 all right, so let's pursue those cycles, right? We don't need to pursue perfection. We just need some progress. So we're

Dan Mintz 32:07 donation. Yeah, yep, you need to quickly iterate. I think most of us understand by now that you know planning a year ahead is just too far ahead. The faster you iterate, which is realistic. You're not going to make a one year, one day a year, right? So 12 week is actually kind of the magical number. It gives you faster duration, and that's kind of the sweet spot,

Robert Plank 32:32 yeah.

Robert Plank 32:32 And you think about what your cell phone looked like 10 years ago, or the apps you use, or when you went to news site or Google or New York Times or Yahoo. You look at how that looked even 10 years ago, it was drastically different, but you didn't notice it, because they slowly iterated. They kept rolling out new versions. And why not do that for your own business, your own goals, your own life? So 12 week dash, breakthrough.com

Dan Mintz 32:59 I need to hire you as my marketer? You know that?

Robert Plank 33:01 Well, that's why we're on the marketer of the day podcast, right? You try. You have hired

Dan Mintz 33:06 me for nailing it sentence by sentence.

Robert Plank 33:09 Well, thank

Robert Plank 33:09 you very much, but

Dan Mintz 33:09 thank you very much.

Robert Plank 33:11 Nail their goals and achieve what they want. And if you're stuck but you need to get unlocked, then it's time to talk with Mr. Dan mins Wharton, MBA, 3x entrepreneur, MIT, data scientist, productivity expert, 12 week dash breakthrough.com go there right now. You'll be glad you did. And thanks Mr. Dan Mintz for showing up, stopping by and being like such a cool guy and helping us out with this productivity problem. Thank you very

Robert Plank 33:37 much.

Dan Mintz 33:37 Thank you very much. It was a it was a pleasure. You.