“The main thing is strategy. It’s not just come in and duke it out and fight.” — Royce Gracie, born December 12, 1966

Royce Gracie is known for winning many of his fights without getting hit.

The reason for his success was his strategy.

As soon as his fights would begin, he would immediately close the distance between himself and his opponent and get chest-to-chest close—in the clinch.

Being that close made it difficult for his opponent to hurt him with any strikes.

Being that close also meant that Royce could impose his own technique onto his opponent—Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Eventually, he would take his opponent to the ground and get them in some lock or choke, winning the fight.

That’s what a good plan does for you.

It positions you to make use of your strengths to achieve your goal while avoiding threats and maximizing opportunities.

Many people don’t have solid plans though. They make the mistake of “winging it”.

Others make the mistake of planning too much. Of creating a 734.6-page business plan that they’ll never look at again.

I’ll show you my approach and you can run it by what you do to see if it’ll work for you.

If you can answer these nine questions in terms simple enough for a 12-year-old to understand, you’ve got a good plan:

1. Who is a person that would be interested in working with me, who I also want to work with?

2. What’s my message to this person?

3. What media will I use to reach this person?

4. How can I get this person’s contact information?

5. What value can I provide to him to show him my product/service works?

6. What’s my process to convert this person into a customer when he’s ready?

7. How will I deliver a world-class experience to this customer?

8. How do I keep this customer around, while increasing the value of the experience I deliver over time?

9. How do I get this person to tell their friends about me?