Yearly Controller, Real Results

We step through the Yearly Controller, a paper-diary system that locks in priorities, reduces chaos, and drives monthly performance reviews. Charles Tarbey shares practical examples for leaders and agents, from saving key staff to aligning objectives with a personal vision.

• why analogue writing cements commitment and recall
• bookings stay digital, commitments live on paper
• pre‑loading the year with recurring reviews and checkpoints
• reducing low‑value drag with scheduled procedures
• monthly real‑time performance and objective resets
• staff member time to protect culture and retention
• linking objectives to a clear what and why
• FTK strategy for building recurring family income
• flexible planning that prevents daily frustration
• end‑of‑year reflection and focus on what matters

I will keep this going every week throughout the holiday period

Hosted by Lee Woodward Training Systems

Brought to you by The Complete Salesperson Course & Super Coaching Program

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Discover more:

• Next Events
• Lee's New Book – Claiming Doors
• Explore Lee Woodward Short Courses
• The Top 100 Business Stories & Life Lessons Of Charles Tarbey

Chapters

• 0:06 Setting The Stage For Reflection
• 0:25 Why A Paper Diary Still Wins
• 1:23 Introducing The Yearly Controller
• 2:05 Charles Tarbey On Systems And Growth
• 4:36 Lock It In Or Lose It
• 7:13 Avoiding Daily Frustration With Structure
• 8:59 What To Preload In Your Yearly Plan
• 11:31 Monthly Reviews And Real‑Time Performance
• 15:25 Objectives, Vision, And The Why
• 19:07 FTK: Building Recurring Income For Family
• 22:15 Closing Thoughts And Holiday Message

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:05

Hello and welcome back to the podcast We After. My name's Lee Woodward, your coach and host of the program. We've reached the end of December. It has been an absolute amazing year, and I'd like to thank all our agents, principals, and creative people who've appeared on this program. For today's podcast, I've chosen a topic called the Yearly Controller. I've selected this one as December is a brilliant time of year to reflect, look at next year, and when you look at a year in full plan, there's not as much time as you think. And although we've all got the same time and we know that, the future belongs to the prepared. So when you lock in that you're going to be away in the UK in June, and you're going here and you're going there, that chunk is gone. But you've only got to get to that part of the year because you've got that break coming up. And then in the first part of the year, you can look at your objectives and what you need to do there. But actually physically recording, meaning writing it down, having it connect to your brain, is a very powerful skill. And the most powerful system in the world to do that, as old-fashioned as people think it is, is the paper diary. Now, during last year, many of you know I was the producer and weekly host of the Top 100 Business Stories and Life Lessons of Charles Tarvey. And when I was going through that production of the Top 100 Business Stories, I converted back to the paper diary. Being in the studio with Charles for all those months was just amazing. In between the tracks, I'd stop and he'd say, Holy, I just need to make this phone call. And he'd flip to the diary, and there is this massive conversation about a big opportunity overseas, but it's all logged, it's all there. And then he plays it down the line. What he doesn't finish today, he moves tomorrow. And as I was having this moment of thinking, wow, here I am working with someone who's doing things a hundred times the scale that I do things, does it all with a commitment list and an objective list in a paper diary. So for me today, all my bookings and calendar bookings, they're digital. All my commitments and my reflective work is analogue. And I love just going to a coffee shop with my paper diary, flicking forward to September 2026 and writing in an entry for project that I may have booked for that time and how I feel about that and what I think is important. So when I arrive on the day to the project, I read my notes and I go, wow, there it is. Or it'll reference that there's a digital audio file or a digital note that I need to look at as well. And the future belongs to the prepared. So the Yearly Controller is a system of Charles, and I'm featuring him in that audio today as it's such a great time of year to reflect. He joins me now, Mr. Charles Tarby. Welcome to the program.

SPEAKER_01: 3:07

I am so excited to hear that. I'm going to say it again. I I copped it again the other day when I had my diary with me, and uh this young cocky blake said, Would you walk into a presentation with that? And I said, Yes, I I would. And it's been very powerful for me over the years because when I was actively selling real estate, I'd take my diary in, and people had their little phones with their calendars and all that sort of stuff, and I'd have my diary in pick.

SPEAKER_00: 3:37

Charles, the yearly controller has been a very powerful part of your management style. How did it come about? What got you so good at this part?

SPEAKER_01: 3:48

Yeah, like most things, Lee, it uh it came about by mistake. And uh, as most people say in life, gee, I'll I'll never do that again. And of course, three months later, the same thing is happening again. And uh as we always say to our principals, look, when something goes wrong, get angry. Whatever it is you do, when you get angry, get angry. But once you've gotten over that, put a procedure in place to stop it from happening again. And that, uh, my dear friend is called growth. And so for me, the activity started to become so strong, I started noticing more and more things about my business. And the more things that I found, the more it freed me from these chains that hold you down all the time because I didn't have to think about any of these things. And we mapped out a plan for a real estate company for uh agents, for administrators, for front desk, for property managers, for managers, et cetera, et cetera. And we detailed as many of these things as we could, and we had everybody, and we still do this, we had everybody at the start of the year. Well, I do it in and around December of each year, lock in all of those things into the calendar, uh, into your diary, uh, for the year in advance. And all of a sudden, we had a significant amount of time on our hands to think about what our role was, and that was as a property manager to find a landlord and a tenant that would fit it, or to find a property, somebody who wants to sell and find a buyer for it. Because at the end of the day, that's the only time we actually earn any income for our business, is when we're doing that. All of the other activities that that uh drag us down are not profitable, but they are necessary. And for me, I didn't want to be thinking about what I had to do. And and and do you remember that story I told you about the Seventh-day Adventist commercial where the father was uh reading a broadsheet newspaper and the camera was at the back of his head, and the kid runs in and says, Hey, Dad, remember next week when you said you'd take me fishing? And the dad said yes, and the kid says, Dad, it's next week. And that's what it's like. These things come around so quickly that you you say, I'll do that in a couple of weeks, and before you know it, it's a couple of months. So lock it in. Uh and our famous saying, which we'll talk about again, I'm sure, if it's not in writing, it just didn't happen. So, you know, somebody says to me, Hey Charles, I said I said to you the other day we that we're going to do this. I said, Do you have an email? Is there anything in writing? And they just stare at you. And I tell you, after a period of time, a lot of my team just know that my controller, my yearly controller is going to remind me. And they know that I will go to them at a certain point in time about a certain item or topic or or activity that needs to be done. They will know because it's staring a year in advance. I know that it's in theirs also. So if it doesn't happen to me, it means that they haven't been actively using their calendar or their diary. So it's again, it's a reminder for me to say to them, hey, listen, uh, I noticed that this didn't happen. Is there any particular reason? And so they start to get to the point of where they look after activities that are associated with you and have a tendency to drop things that are associated with uh other people that are not so important. And so uh for me, it it happened by mistake. Uh I I was standing at the front desk of my office and um I was chatting with some people and this this chappie came in, very irate. And uh the moment he walked in, uh, without any consideration to the people that were uh with me, he just started uh having a go. And I had to I had to uh I was embarrassed, but I had to uh say to the people I was with, look, would you just mind just give me a few moments? And uh I went and chatted to this particular chap. And that was to to me, um I had a complaint in my business recently, and I rang the person involved and I said, We've had this complaint. And and his reaction was, Well, that's their problem. I don't really care. I said, No, no, you're not, you're not, you're not listening to me. I'm not blaming you. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying we had a complaint. So you need to make sure you've learned from that complaint. Make sure you deal with it and learn what it is that we could do to stop that from happening again, or deal with it to a point where it doesn't create a an even bigger problem. So at that point in time, when something goes wrong, put a system in place to stop from happening again, and it was from that day onwards I started to recognise that if I was able to document these things and put them down somewhere where they constantly reappeared over the calendar year, then I was going to be free from issues. Problems, you don't even you don't even know uh that there might have been a problem because your yearly calendar would have avoided it for you. And a lot of people don't realize how much frustration there is on a day-to-day basis if you are not organized that will come around and bite you on the bump so many times during the day, and you just become so frustrated, so angry, and you start thinking that this real estate business is a sham.

SPEAKER_00: 8:59

Charles, give us an example of what you would have the principals and the agents lock into their yearly planner so that it's coming up rather than we missed it, we're now taking the responsibility and the inefficiency of what's happened.

SPEAKER_01: 9:14

Yeah, I this is that's a really good question because one situation comes to mind for me when when you were people ask me about why, why, why, why would you put this down? I remember thinking to myself, gee, what's wrong with that person? I haven't spent any time with that person, and and and I'll catch up with them in a week, maybe have a coffee with them, find out what's going on. And before I know it, they've resigned. And that happens a lot, you know. Some people you're happy when they resign, so you know it's like you really want them to resign. But the people that that uh are very experienced uh stay in your business for a lot longer than you want them to, right? And you just can't get rid of some of them. But this particular situation for me was about keeping team members, keeping quality team members. So I wrote the word staff member time in my diary for the rest of the year, every month. And I just one day I'd open up the diary and there was a word top and I was staff member time. So I look around my office, walk around my office, and I'd think who who might need some of my time. And I remember uh one particular chap, and this is why I know it works. I remember this chap, his name is Guy, lovely, lovely English gentleman, uh still a friend. And um I said, Hey Guy, um let's let's go and grab a bite to eat. Let's uh see how things are going. Oh, everything all right, Charles? Everything all right, you know, Charles. And I said, Yes, don't know if it's fine. Just thought we just might catch up, see how things are going for you, and if there's any way I can help you. So I I go back into my office and I can hear him in his office. He's he's ringing his wife. And I go, I don't know. No, I don't. He just came into my office. Yes, we're gonna go and have some lunch. No, no, I think everything's fine. Everything's fine. I'll give you a call after lunch. Anyway, I've I'm listening to this go on. So we went off and we had some lunch, and I asked him what you know what his ambitions are and how can I help him, and is there anything that's holding him back right now? And he told me a couple of things, and I said, maybe we could try this or try that. And we went through this whole process. At the end of the lunch, I go, we all go back to the office, and now I'm in my office. I can hear me. No, it was wonderful. I feel so, I feel so engaged with the business that yes, yes, yes, there's so many more things that that they can Charles can help me with, and they and it was a complete change. And it was just this one line in my diary that said staff member time, and it's still there to this day, Lee. Once a month, staff member time. And I just look around, see because you know what it's like, mate. Things are moving quickly, and one month, two months, three months goes by, and all of a sudden you a person who is a great operator and and great for your business is somewhat depressed, somewhat going through some issues, and it's because you as an individual hadn't picked up on the messages they were sending. Give me another example. Oh well, I can't uh tell you about the first one I told you about because apparently your your staff thought your website was hacked when uh when the words uh routine sex appeared at the top of the as one of our podcasts. As one of the podcasts. But I I'd have to say to you that from my perspective, um as a business owner, uh reviewing my objectives every month is a critical part of it as well. And so with our our franchise owners, we we get them to write the words real-time performance at the end of each month. Real-time performance. Luckily for our business, uh, we operate in real time. And so when a when a principal or a salesperson set their objectives, you'll probably note that a lot of people start planning, you know, next year in and around November, December of the previous year. And they create all of these strategies and they look at, you know, what do we need for from what are my objectives for a gross income, what would I like to have for a gross income, what do I need to have for a gross income? And they they map this out and then they work backwards as part of a normal plan. Oh gosh, my average commission is this, so I'm going to need this many listings, but hey, my conversion ratio is this, so therefore I might need this. And and for me to achieve that, these are our marketing strategies for the year and and so on. So real-time performance brings all of those things into one play. And I've said to real estate practitioner practitioners so many times, you set your objectives a year in advance and you don't review them monthly. And they go, What are you talking about? I said, Well, if you said you wanted to bring in X hundreds of thousands of dollars a month in commission and that your average commission was was Y and your conversion ratio was this, then that's great. But at the end of the month, if you could look at one little platform, which we're in a position to do, and see that your average commission was actually not high at this point, it was actually slightly lower, and your conversion ratios were slightly lower, it means you have to adjust your objectives for that month. Look, I know you planned it for a year in advance, but your your stats are telling you this. So therefore, your objectives and your plan that you put in place for the year, you are, my friend, going to go on the biggest roller coaster ride over the next few months if you don't adjust real-time performance at the end of each month, set new objectives based on the previous four to five, four or four and a half weeks of operation, and you're going to be moved forward. And you're going to have a roller coaster ride, but it's going to be like, as I've mentioned to you before, a kiddies ride in a park. And I and I think that's the one thing that a yearly controller does for you. It stops you at the right time on a regular basis and asks you to assess you, your performance, or your team's performance. And if and if you at that point in time look at that uh diary entry and just ignore it, well, then that's your problem. I can I can't help beyond that. You know, it that when people say to me, Oh, you're not helping me enough, I said, Listen, if I was helping you anymore, it'd be a company-owned store, not a franchise. Charles, personal question for you.

SPEAKER_00: 15:04

As you come to the end of this year and you are the master of this yearly controller, ninja level. But my personal question is, what do you sit down and reflect upon and what do you lock in? Because it seems to me the yearly controller is your best behaviors forecast ahead to give you the best results out of your life.

SPEAKER_01: 15:26

What do you lock in? Look, I always do uh one thing at the end of each year. I sit with my son. Uh, he and I have this little tradition where we pop downstairs in this little wine cellar and we open a bottle of dessert wine and we talk about how the year has gone so far, and we look at planning uh small objectives uh of what we might like to achieve next year. Nothing audacious, just basic objectives that are achievable. This is really important because remember, um, we have our dream, we we we we have a vision of what we'd like to see happen, uh how I'd like to see my life unfold, it engages my family and people around me. While I'm talking to you, I can mentally picture these people. So I have that, and that's what's important to me. So I like to make these nice little positive steps along the way that keep me energized and and move me towards this this dream that that uh I have that changes, but it's it's a dream. And so for me, the calendar, uh I I replace everything that from the year before. I uh I have a photograph of uh of all the diary entries that I used for the previous year, just in case I lose my diary. And uh when I say photograph, it's just one page of a list of uh of things that I'd written down. And so I transpose that again into next year's calendar and I add the new objectives that I might want to achieve and little reminders along the way. So if you were to open my my diary, you you'd see the word objectives written in there at the end of each month. And that's that's an opportunity for me to go back and just review those things to see whether I'm on track or not. It's nothing spectacularly, but what it is is that I'm finding now that the that the months, the days, and the months are moving so quickly that uh when I thought uh gee, I'm I'm looking forward to my Christmas break, before I know it, it's August next year. And and I know I've achieved a lot of things in that space of time because I can go back in my diary and and and see what I've done. Most people can't do that. So for me, it's a simple plan of putting forward all the things I know that are important in my business, adding to it my personal situation, because I think business and personal are one thing. They are not two separate things. I'm busy, oh, I'm gonna go on holidays. They are one thing that that should blend into each other. And at the end of the each and every day, I I can put my head down the pillow and know that most of the things that I have been thinking about are locked in somewhere. So that when I wake up the next morning, I open up my my uh diary, which I've done this morning, and there's my day. That's my future starting right there. Everything yesterday is is no longer there. It's either today or in my diary for the future. And I think that's the the real plan about a yearly controller. It's not rigid, it can be flexible, but I can promise you the days of constant frustration and surprises that bite you on the ass disappear significantly when you leave your tasks to the holder of a perfect memory, your diary.

SPEAKER_00: 18:36

Give me an example of an objective that you would have in the diary that's prompting you to live up to your plan.

SPEAKER_01: 18:44

Uh well, simply put, uh if I if I was to think about the things right at the very start of my diary are my objectives. Uh right at the very start of my diary, each year is rewritten, so you can see it going backwards, is the vision I have for my business and myself personally. And it's a vision. I can mentally picture it while I'm talking to you right now. I know what it is, I know why. Uh I don't know how. Because if I think about the how it gets confusing. So I know I know what what it is I want I want to happen. I won't share that with you, but I want to know what it is that I'd like to see happen, and I know why I want it to happen. And I just keep reminding myself of that on a regular basis. Now the word objectives in my calendar goes back to that page, and I look at the little objectives for the year, but right above it is the what and the why.

SPEAKER_00: 19:38

So, Charles, I find this so interesting. Your diary, when you have on that page objectives just for our listener, you then jump back to the front of the diary where you've written out all the objectives for you, your family members, for the year, and it's just uh okay, back to the front. What did we set out to do? Back to the front. Front, what did we set out to do? Charles, share with us if you can, because I know so many things are private, confidential. Some you could share, some you can't. But what's one you could? Let me push here. Let me push.

SPEAKER_01: 20:13

Let's have a little quick look here. And and uh, you know, okay. So here are my objectives, and and one of my personal objectives, it says FTK. So nobody wants to do FTK, nobody understand it. Well, you can make it whatever you like, but uh but but I know that I I know that for me it means for the kids. That's that's simple. For the kids. Yes. And I I set up a little company called FTK, and people wonder what it is, and it and I've bought property in it and sold property in it, and it's been for the kids. The reason that that's there in my diary is that this year I want to try and buy a couple of pieces of land that I can put maybe four villas or townhouses on. And uh so buy them now and in a year or two uh create an environment where I can uh afford through equity that I might have gained through real estate to build those on their fourth, fourth kids and give them those things so that as a gift for me as a father, there's to create an environment where they have recurring revenue streams. Not different from the recurring revenue streams I'm expecting from your book, Claiming Doors, now that you've told me how involved I am. But more importantly for me, it's about being able to disconnect in a rational way so that uh when they're reading my will, for example, uh, and they they start off by saying, I Charles Tary, being of sound mind, I wanted to finish by saying, I, Charles Tarby being of sound mind, spent all of my money while I was alive.

SPEAKER_00: 21:46

So, Charles, this is so good though, but for the kids, create you're not building properties for them to live in. This is recurring revenue to protect them for the future, to give that income stream, but that's one of your objectives, which means everything else must work if you're going to achieve that objective. Now, that could be the businesses, the golf resort, all these things. No one thing happens in isolation. Oh, God. There's that big word of this podcast. But the yearly controller is just driving the objectives.

SPEAKER_01: 22:19

It drives, and it's just it's a constant reminder, almost an annoying reminder, but one that we need because hey, I still vividly remember walking into my first real estate agency uh in 1977, and my God, how quickly things have gone.

SPEAKER_00: 22:42

Charles, thank you for joining us. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that brings us to the conclusion of our podcast for December, and I will keep this going every week throughout the holiday period. I'm finding it hard to find interviews as everyone's going to be off, and I don't want to disturb people in their holiday time, but I will always come up with something as I have a commitment to the weekly podcast we are selling. So today, a very interesting, different topic, and for a lot of you you would think, I didn't think I'd ever find that interesting, but you did. And at this time of year, what is important to you? And my only final guidance of advice here is be careful of all the noise, all the influences, and all these things you hear. Not saying there's anything right or wrong with that, but you're you, you know what's best for you and your family, and the routine that you like to keep. Not everyone is the same, thank God, and we all have our different ways of living our life, and so we should. And with that, I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. This came out on Christmas Eve, as I do not want to disturb your Christmas Day Thursday. I'm Lee Woodward, thank you for listening, and I'll be back for you next week.