One of the things you’ll discover if you keep a journal is that ideas aren’t the hard part.
The hard part is getting them out of your journal and into the real world.
As I’m working my way through Journal Number Three, I’m noticing a pattern that eventually became one of my favorite planning tools. Long before I had a name for it, I naturally started thinking in timelines.
But it always started with a story.
At our real estate seminars, we used an exercise called the Ultimate Scenario. We’d ask people to write a story from the perspective of their ideal client after everything had gone perfectly.
“I’m John Jones, and I just sold my house with Dean Jackson. From the very first phone call, the experience was incredible…”
Then we’d ask them to keep going.
What happened first? What surprised them? What made them tell their friends?
People loved this exercise because something magical happens when you write in story form. Your brain can’t help but visualize it.
Once you’ve imagined the perfect experience, the next question becomes:
What has to happen for this story to come true?
That’s where the timeline comes in.
Across the top of the page I’d draw a series of boxes. First: Lead comes in. Next: 800-number voicemail. Then: Lead sheet completed. Welcome package mailed. Appointment scheduled.
Each box represented something the customer would experience.
Underneath each one, I’d write everything that had to happen behind the scenes to make that step effortless. Checklists. Scripts. Forms. Responsibilities. Systems.
Eventually that became what I now call the Client Experience Timeline.
Above the line is everything your client sees.
Below the line is everything your team does to make that experience feel seamless.
Thirty years later, I can see this way of thinking became second nature. Whenever I have an idea, I still start by imagining the finished experience. Then I build the timeline that makes it possible.
Breaking a big idea into a sequence of small, visible steps has always been the easiest way for me to get something out of my journal and into the world.
Maybe it’ll work for you, too.