Buy The Bay - Strategic Planning with The Anchetas

[00:00:00] Technology, Diversity, Wine, The Redwoods, and Everything In Between. Welcome to the Northern California Bay Area and one show takes you inside the real estate that makes it all happen. This is Buy The Bay.

[00:00:18] Hey everyone and welcome back to Buy The Bay. I'm your host Dan Ancheta. I'm grateful that you're here and if you would please like and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and anywhere else you might be listening to this. Also follow us on social media. That would be really appreciated. Today I'm welcoming back my most favorite guest in the whole wide world, my lovely beautiful and talented wife Megan Ancheta. I'm going to keep adding to your introduction as we go through. Thanks for being back on the show hun. My pleasure.

[00:00:46] You're a fan favorite. Everyone loves you on the show. I get a ton of feedback whenever you're on the show. So thank you for being here. I think this is like the fourth or fifth time you've been on, which is great. So thanks for being here. Today what I wanted to talk about was the last time we talked about goal setting and today I thought we'd talk about how we are implementing like the doing of those goals. Which is substantially more difficult in the setting of the goals.

[00:01:14] So I think the tie-in is that like basically we're taking big projects, big plans, and we're putting them into small, more digestible pieces. That is how one reaches their goals. So it's not daunting. I think you can apply this if you're a first time home buyer, if you're a mortgage originator, if you're a real estate professional in any way to take your big goals and break them into small pieces.

[00:01:39] So like I wanted to hear from you because we were kind of laughing about how we'll have this conversation about, hey, here's the big plan. We're going to do this to the house. We're going to go on this vacation. We're going to save, do this, whatever. And I'm like, okay, cool. Job's done. The goal is set. And then it kind of becomes like part of your job, like part of your role in our household is the implementation of a lot of those things. So let's talk about the like vacation planning.

[00:02:07] Like, first of all, we've changed from having a calendar that's like six months out to being like two years out. And that adds a level of complexity because like we're just booking things well in advance because of just how busy our life is and three kids and business and all this stuff. Like I was looking at calendaring, going to a mortgage conference and I was like, oh, nope, there's already something planned. And that's like nine months away. We're booked and busy. It's booked. We're busy. 2025 is booked.

[00:02:35] So if you're not already on the calendar in 2025. You may submit your request for 2026. So talk to us about like how you actually go through the implementation of the big goal and breaking it down into something smaller. Yeah, it's a fun process for me. I enjoy this line of work. I tend to run our household the way you tend to run our business. So we do a lot of the same things. We have a lot of the same strategies.

[00:03:01] My employee and client face-to-face is a lot different than yours. Yeah. Sometimes you both deal with some meltdowns and... Oh, tantrums galore. But that's okay. You gotta get through it. Absolutely. So I think one of my favorite things is that when we sit down at the end of the year or beginning of the year, and we set our list of what we really want to accomplish, then once we have those items, we go through our calendar and we see when we want to have those. Like what are our due dates?

[00:03:31] You know, for example, we have a vacation that we're planning for November of 2026. And that's because of the nature of the vacation, the cost, the planning that's needed, the coordination with other folks. And so that's where we landed was taking the kids on this vacation in November of next year. So that means that now we have a date. We can start working backwards. And I think at the time it gave us like what, 20 months, maybe 22 months.

[00:04:00] So we can work backwards and divide, you know, once we had the date, I started going through and seeing what it would cost for us to do this. Because now Atlas is three. So he'll be four by the time we go. Almost five. And so he will not be free anymore. It's a lot easier to plan things when one or more of the kids were free, but we are out of that. So, yeah, it's like five calendars, right? Because kids have stuff. They've got their school stuff. They've got their extracurriculars. They have friends' birthdays and their birthday.

[00:04:30] You know, there's just very, very busy active calendars. We have three grades at two different schools. We have Taekwondo. We've got tennis. We've got arts and performances. And school events. And yeah, like you said, performances and other things. In addition to our business and all the stuff that goes into that. And there's, you know, travel that we do and other things we have to do for work.

[00:04:54] So combining all that, plus, you know, maybe going and having some fun and going on a girl's trip or going doing something, you know, going on. Yes, I too am booked and busy. Yeah, exactly. So I really like the idea of like, hey, this is far away, but it's actually going to be here before you realize it. Right? Well, yeah, it goes fast. Right. It goes fast. And so like you've taken this big goal and broken it down into small pieces. So now we know, like you did all the research. Here's what airfare is going to cost. Here's what hotel is going to cost.

[00:05:24] Here's what tickets are going to cost. Here's what, you know, food budget, all these other, all these other things. The snack budget alone. The kids eat a lot of snacks. The snack budget alone is bankrupting. Let's talk about that for a second. Like, what is it? Let's talk about the berry budget. How does one plan for berries? The kids ate like the entire thing of raspberries this morning. I was like, that's $9. Yeah. You each owe me $3. Anyway, that's tangent. So anyway, once we have the big plans, which is where you shine, then I like to kind of

[00:05:51] hunker down and do the research, figure out what our timeline is, how many months, weeks, whatever we need. Divide it all down, figure out how much we're going to save per month. And then having that goal, I know it might seem to some people daunting maybe or maybe overwhelming or too far away. For me, it gives me a lot of, I don't know, understanding and like a lot of encouragement

[00:06:17] because once we have the plan set and we know what we need to do every month, then all of our other purchases, I can reflect on like, is this something I need? Is this going to help me reach our goal? Is this something that's going to contribute to the trip? And then it really just helps me kind of sift through the necessity of the purchases. And I end up not feeling like, you know, you don't feel deprived because I know sometimes saving or planning in this way, it can cause a sense of deprivation.

[00:06:45] But ultimately it's empowering because you're putting all of your effort towards meeting this goal. Totally. And then you like set up a separate account. So every month we're transferring money and we can see that balance starting to go up. And then it's motivating to see like, hey, this is working, right? Yeah, it feels good. We're getting closer. We know what that number is. We're getting closer to that budget number where we can go in and go and enjoy the trip and not worry about the massive credit card bill we're going to have when it's all done because it's all paid for. Yeah. Right.

[00:07:13] And as you keep these things rolling, you know, we're planning this for 2026. We have plans for 2025. And then, you know, this time next year we'll be into 2027. So we'll still be chipping away at our 2026 trip because it won't be until November. But then we'll also have something on the books for 2027. So there's always something to look forward to. There's kind of always something keeping us in alignment with what we want to achieve. And you're doing this not only for vacation stuff, but it's also like home and big,

[00:07:40] like bigger home improvement projects and, you know, like larger anything that's like a major purchase. Yeah. One thing that I was laughing about with some with some girlfriends of mine is the overwhelming nature of buying a couch. If you have tried to buy a couch lately, my heart goes out to you because it is exceedingly expensive. They're so difficult to find that fit your space. And if you do find one that fits the space that has the performance fabric you need for

[00:08:06] your kids and dogs and cats and hamsters or whatever, and it's the right color and it can be manufactured and shipped to you in less than nine months, and it's not $14,000, like you have hit, go buy a lotto ticket because you're the luckiest person in the world. Buying a sofa is so difficult. So even that something as innocuous as that you, you have to really plan and budget and save and figure it out and give yourself space to mourn the loss of all the sofas that you want, but we'll never have.

[00:08:36] Well, I mean, what you're describing, I think it's really interesting. There's a lot of like labor and research time and energy that goes into figuring out things like furnishing your home and planning vacations and even just like the month to week to week meal planning. There's a lot of like invisible labor that happens in a household that is not always recognized, right? And it's like, you know, how many hours do you spend like researching things and figuring

[00:09:04] them out and, and just to come up with the, like, is this feasible or not? Like answering that question. And sometimes it's no, sometimes you'll put 20 hours into a research project and you're like, no, this is not going to work out. Or I have to push this, kick this can down the road like five years. Right. Or yeah, we, this, this sofa, this, whatever would work, but it's not in the budget until 2028 or whatever that is. And then, and then maybe it's not available then. Right. Well, and then by then you're going to want something different.

[00:09:34] No, things will have changed. Things will have changed. Kids will be different. Well, maybe it's still be a mess. So, yeah, I think it's a, you know, again, the parallel is that everyone has some type of big goal, right? Like if you're a professional, if you're, if you're a home buyer, if you're just like, you know, trying to take care of yourself and, and, and get physically fit or something like whatever, whatever your goal is, whatever, whatever you're working on that.

[00:10:02] Breaking into really small pieces, right? Like to the point where you're saying you can analyze every individual purchase that you make and go, is this worth it? Or should I, should this a hundred dollars go just get, get us a hundred dollars closer to our, our goal or trip or whatever, however you're. It creates a sense of mindfulness because you have to really tap into your, your values on these things and, and how much this goal means to you.

[00:10:27] And regardless of what it is, like you said, you know, if you're trying to, you know, it's the, it's the beginning of the year. So I know a lot of people have fitness goals and things like that. And, you know, if that's on the top of your mind, it's like, is me ordering this lunch item out, helping me meet my goal. And again, it kind of lessens that sense of, I can't this, the sense of deprivation or this kind of disheartening feeling of, I'm never going to get there. Or this is, you know, feeling like things are stacked up against you and it empowers you

[00:10:55] because you're making a proactive decision based on what your personal value and needs are. Right. Yeah. I think, yeah, it's not like you're going without, it's that you're making a conscious choice to do something different. Yeah. Right. I think there's a big difference there. I don't think that's why a lot of people fail in, in their goals because they feel like, oh, well, they're like punishing themselves. Well, I can't do this. I can't do that. It's like, well, you can, you're choosing not to, and there's a difference and that's a really important difference. Yeah. And it's okay to say, you know, that just doesn't align with my goals right now.

[00:11:24] I'm not going to spend my money there. I'm not going to spend my calories there. I'm not going to spend my energy there. Like whatever it is that you have in mind, you're making an active decision to prioritize that goal. And listen, sometimes it's worth it. Sometimes you just got to order that Thai food out and get on with the rest of your day. Yeah. And that's it. I can tell you, you have a bad day. Sometimes you just need a French fry and, you know, you know, it's sometimes the morale boost is going to be better for your goal than the deficit of whatever it's going to cost you against that goal. Totally.

[00:11:53] I wonder how many people actually go through and break their goals down into small incremental pieces. And how many people just look at like the big mountain and go, just, you know, how do I, how do we get to the top of that? It's difficult because we are enticed with instant gratification. So having stepping stones is really hard to do. And I don't know that that's something that we're really taught to do or encouraged to do. But having kids and having been a teacher for a short time has really taught me that

[00:12:21] incentivizing is a great way to reach your goals. And it happens all the time. I'm in the classroom with our oldest daughter every Monday and I volunteer with the arts program. And you go into any elementary school classroom and they've got an incentive, incentive, you know, board or jar or something. They've got some kind of program. And, um, one thing that I saw a lot of my friends doing this year was making bingo cards for themselves to mark off their goals.

[00:12:51] But if you want to break it down further, make yourself a punch card. Do you know how satisfying it is to just punch something off a punch card? It's great. That's great. It's fun. What's your reward when you punch all 10 or something? You can set it up. Up to you. Up to you. How fun. Yeah. I can get some punch cards. I can help you make them. Um, I was just something dawned on me. Do you like the delayed gratification thing? Do you think that is something that you learned?

[00:13:19] Cause like your, you prior to kids are avid backpacker, right? Yes. So do you think that that mentality of like, there's going to be a payoff at some point that sense of accomplishment, that view, that waterfall, that lake, whatever your objective was for the, for the trip, do you think that that plays into this kind of mentality of like small incremental pieces? Like just get up this next switch back. Does that make sense? Totally.

[00:13:47] I don't know if it's a kind of a chicken and an egg thing here. I don't know if it's like, I'm really into incremental goal setting because I really enjoy this or if backpacking fell into line with, with what I like because I'm into, you're attracted to backpacking made sense to you because. Yeah. I love data. I love tracking things. I will track anything. I track my reading, track all my weightlifting. I'll track anything. I love data.

[00:14:14] And backpacking is a really wonderful way to do incremental steps because you, you know, okay, if I'm going to be out for 10 days, I need this many calories to stay alive. I need this many freeze dried meals. I need this many bars. Okay. But then the bars weigh a lot. So, you know, how much room is that going to take up in my pack and how heavy is that going to be? But I'll tell you on day seven, payday on day seven. Oh, worth the best payday you've ever had. Hauling it around for a week. Yep. A hundred percent. A hundred percent.

[00:14:43] That filthy wrapper payday is going to be the best thing that you've eaten. A handful of Mike and Ike's when you're 50 miles into the back country. Glorious. It's totally true. It's totally true. Uh, I recall just the tangent, but remember the freeze dried ice cream that we had? Listen, that was a monumental day. If you want to feel like an astronaut, just go down to Dick's, get yourself some freeze dried ice cream, go find a Vista.

[00:15:09] If you're in Petaluma, go to Helen Putnam and just look into the horizon and have some freeze dried ice cream. And it's not going to cure everything, but it's going to help with most things. Yeah. The backstory is it was a week long trip. I think we were like on day five and we had kind of gotten to the, like the big destination, like the top of this hill mountain. And you could see out for, you could see the curvature of the earth. I mean, it was really cool.

[00:15:35] And it was like the sunset and we sat there and we ate our freeze dried ice cream and just were like, this is, this is what this is all about. It's the closest you'll ever get to be an astronaut sitting on 10,000 feet and eating freeze dried ice cream. Yeah. Good. It was a good time. So if, by the way, it's tangent. If you haven't been out to Sequoia Kings Canyon and seen that amazing landscape, put it on your list and go check it out. It's one of the coolest places on earth. Absolutely. But yes, to your point, backpacking requires you chipping away.

[00:16:05] You're not going to get anything day one and you're going to feel miserable and it's, it's going to feel overwhelming, but you know, you just one foot in front of the other. That's how you got to keep going. I think I'm thinking back to those days. I would, it would be like just a mile marker, like just walk to the next tree, like just get to the next patch of shade. Right. And then like, instead of thinking about, oh, we've got 30 miles to do, or we've got, you know, a 15 mile day or whatever, whatever our days were.

[00:16:34] If you think about the 15 miles, it's really daunting. But if you're like, just make it to the next switchback or into the next tree or the next whatever, then, you know, that's just, you can make it there. It's not that far. Well, and everything is a finite amount of work. Nothing, nothing goes on forever. Yeah. I think that's a really good point. I remember you told me one of the first times that you took me out, cause this was, it was Meg's thing. And I joined her. She's the backpacker. I was the, I was the added person that, um, I was maybe the first or second trip we went on.

[00:17:04] I was dogging it one day. And you're like, do you realize that there's a, there's a finite number of steps you have to take? Like there's a finite number of steps for beginning to end. So the sooner you take those steps, the sooner they're done. So if there's like a hundred thousand steps to take, if you're going to, you know, slowly take each one, you're still got to take a hundred thousand steps. So just get them done. Yeah. You can do it miserable or you can do it happy. It's, you know, up to you, but you, but you're still going to do it.

[00:17:33] Cause you can't break camp until we get where we're going. Right. And there's, at some points there was like, there's no place to camp. Like there was no choice. You have to make it to the, to the spot. This was also my fault for bringing you into like back country backpacking. I should have taken you on a few trails into a few camping spots first, but I was like, I'm glad you didn't. We're going to see that mountain way over there. We're going to go over it. Well, yeah, this is a, yeah, another, we're full of tangents today.

[00:17:59] But the thing is that the very first time I went out with you, we went to bear pot meadow where they have like the glamping thing where they'll take you out on a, on a donkey or a horse or whatever. Pack meal, pack meal. That's it. And they'll like cook you steak. They're like, there's like margaritas and steak and like heaters in the middle of this beautiful place. But if you're not paying to stay there, you stay adjacent to it and you're in like your

[00:18:28] dirty tent and you've got your freeze dried meal and you're like hearing people like laughing and drinking and partying. You smell the steak and you're like eating your freeze dried, you know, or not what the pad Thai. That was the one I liked. Oh, so good. Um, anyway, um, that was kind of, that was interesting. That was like a big experience for me. I was like, why don't we go? Let's go get the steak. Um, but didn't do that. Yeah. Cause it's like $3,000 a night. Yeah. That's cool. Cool experience.

[00:18:56] Um, anyway, I'm not sure why I got on that, on that topic, but, um, I think that it does, it does play into this whole thing of like breaking everything down into small pieces. So that's the, that's the overall theme. So if you're like planning to buy a house, if you're a real estate professional mortgage pro, um, look at your, like, what, what can you do to look at your goals and break them down into really small bite-sized pieces, right? Make it so it's just getting from here to the next tree.

[00:19:25] Don't look at the miles, look at the next thing that you can see, you know, ahead of you and just walk to that next point. And if you do that consistently and you do that, like you said, as happily as you can and, and just, you know, get, get, get from point A to point B, you're making incremental progress every single day. Yeah. You're always making progress. If you're taking a step forward, you're always making progress and setting reasonable and realistic goals. There's a finite amount of work that you have to do to reach that goal.

[00:19:55] If you set whack-a-doodle goals, like I want to be present on the moon. Okay. Well, like that's, that's going to be infinity work. Cause I don't really know how to accomplish that. But if it's like, I want to take the kids on vacation next year. Okay. Well, that's the big goal. Break it down into months, break it down into weeks, you know, think about it day to day. Is this going to get me to that goal? And then you're there. Perfect. So, yeah. So as you're implementing the goals that you've set and you're thinking about what you

[00:20:24] want to accomplish in 2025, um, focus on creating like smaller sub goals and do the, like the daily worksheet. Like, what do you have to do every single day to meet those goals? So if you're trying to make X amount of loans this year, then you need to take a certain number of applications per day or, or per week, which means you have to have a certain number of conversations or referrals per day.

[00:20:51] And instead of focusing on, you know, the closing of the loans, which you have very limited control over, it's really about working on getting those introductions and converting those leads to be clients. Cause that's what you can actually control. Right. Well, and then this becomes a habit. So using the analogy of backpacking, you know, yeah, the first day is really hard, but you get through it and then, you know, your muscles get a little stronger. Your resolve gets a little stronger. Your mental acuity gets a little sharper.

[00:21:20] And then as you're walking, now it's becoming habit. And as you're building these habits in your business, okay, if I want to make, I don't know, five, five loans a month, and then that means I need to get in front of maybe 50 people have, I need to have 50 conversations. And okay, I've got 20 working days a month. So I need to have at least two and a half conversations. So between two and three a day, once you start doing that and you remember you're mindful, okay, two to three a day is going to get me to this goal.

[00:21:50] That's going to become a habit. And when you're doing that every single day, that goal is going to meet itself eventually, because now you're in the habit of having those two to three conversations. Right. And now you can add another goal because that goal is already kind of on autopilot. Cause now your new normal is making sure you have two to three conversations every business day. Yeah. And, and, you know, taking a step, step back from there is that if you need to have two to three conversations every single day, then that is your whole objective, right?

[00:22:16] Like that's, that's your non-negotiable before the day is over. I must have two to three conversations every single day if I'm going to meet my goal. And so if you just, that you're focusing on what's actually important and not wasting energy, focusing on things that are beyond your control, right? You can't control the market. You can't control prices. You can't control what rates are doing. You can't control lots of things, but what you can control is like having really, really

[00:22:43] great conversations with people, building trust and helping them achieve their goals. And now that you know that that's what you're going to do, what resources do you need or what resources can you gather or who can you reach out to for resources to help you give, get a stepping stone for this goal? You know, do you need to like, you just recently joined a BNI group and that's helping you have conversations flow. That's causing your network to kind of spider out a little bit more.

[00:23:10] I know a lot of people joined Rotary, but that was a huge influencing your business and our lives for many, many years. So having those outlets, once you have things kind of narrowed down, it's easier to see, okay, this outlet is going to really help me or this resource is going to really help me. Or maybe there's somebody who's like really sucking your energy and they're taking up a lot of your time every single day. If you're in an office or if you're, you know, whatever it is now, now we know we just got to kind of bypass that. Right.

[00:23:38] That obstacle. Yes. And Todd Duncan's coaching, they call it the law of the broom where you have to eliminate distractions and people who are, are a burden on your time essentially. And that could be a referral partner and other people to make room for, um, quality relationships that build you up instead of, you know, kind of suck your energy away. Yeah. And I think that's really, it's hard to do. Um, but it's really important to, to keep that in mind.

[00:24:08] In the Megan and Cheta coaching, it's called ain't nobody got time for that. So I have to reflect. Yeah. We got to start your, do I have time for this? You got to start your coaching company. I think you would, yeah, do really well there. Um, cool. Well, I think it's really cool that, um, that the way that you handle our household stuff and like the way that you're like, I look at the calendar, I'm like, wow, this is very well thought out, very, very clear. And, um, there's a lot to learn from that.

[00:24:35] That's why, that's why I wanted to bring that up on our, on our show today. Um, because I think the, the, the practical things that you're doing household wise applied to business applies to home first time home buyers applied to lots of things. So thank you for sharing your wisdom with us. I appreciate you being here on by the Bay and we'll have you back. I don't know. In a couple of weeks. We got to keep our listenership up. Put it on the calendar. Yeah, exactly. I got to see if there's any space on the calendar. Yeah. Like we're, we're booked and busy. That's right. Right.

[00:25:04] So I, I will consult the calendar right after this and schedule you for your next visit, but thank you for being here on by the Bay, hon. My pleasure. And thank you for listening. And if you, um, send us a message, if you have any questions that we want us to answer, um, on Meg's next episode, thank you for being here. Stay up to date with Bay area real estate. Hit subscribe now. If you haven't already, did you enjoy this episode?

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