Episode 1 Welcome to The Franklin Planner Podcast

Are you feeling overwhelmed by life’s chaos, struggling to stay focused on what truly matters? What if there were timeless principles and proven tools that could help you take control, set clear goals, and lead a more intentional life? In this episode, we explore powerful lessons from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, insights on personal leadership, and strategies to overcome today’s distractions—so you can create a life of purpose, productivity, and balance. Ready to uncover the secrets to building your best life? Let’s dive in.

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Welcome Back to the Franklin Planner Podcast
Actually, our inaugural episode. So my name is George Wright III, and I’m joined by my co-host, John Harding. How are you doing, John?

Doing great.

This has been a little bit of a time coming, right? Putting this podcast together with our schedules.

It is. It is.

Very much. I was excited that you asked me to join you here on the podcast.

It’s an awesome opportunity. You’ve done this a bunch, and we’re trying to get the word out, right? We’re trying to help people solve some big problems. There’s both stuff that’s coming at people individually, but leaders and teams. And some of them are problems that you get through and around, but also what’s going on today? There are big opportunities for people.

You know that because—and maybe what we could do real quick—let’s give them a little bit of our background. So I’m the host of The Daily Mastermind Podcast on iTunes and Google Play. But I’m also the CEO of Evolution Group, and I’ve been building brands for 25 years, some of the biggest names out there. But you are one of the owners and a board member at Franklin Planners. And you also have—you’re a managing partner at Lightric Consulting. So you see what’s going on. Tell everybody a little bit about what you do now. What’s your background?

I was spending my time as this board member. I’m on the executive team. Some great owners of Franklin Planner. And we wanted to give birth to this podcast just to help people and the community of people out there to help people break through barriers.

Yeah, teams through what’s going on today. So it’s a good mix.

And that’s what we have to do on this podcast, right? The idea is there are some timeless principles, there’s some strategies and tactics, but we want to dig right into problems. So before we jump into this kind of format, I thought it would be helpful for those that have maybe not known the background or any of the history leading up to this.

Over 15 million people over 40 years have been using—in fact, it’s probably higher than that now—the Franklin Planner system for their productivity, their teams, for what matters most. Could you give us just a background of Franklin Planners? Maybe just at least a high level of how it started and how we got to this point.

Happy to do it. And there’s two people that we should mention. Hyrum Smith started the Franklin Institute. And he did—he had a passion for Ben Franklin and what he had written about a number of things, but how to productively lead your life.

That company turned to—within a year, to Franklin Quest.

And the Franklin Planner. Now I’ve got here—just holding in my hand for listeners, but those on video—one of the many awesome versions of the Franklin Planner. And we would also add a journal system.

Yeah, ‘cause it’s both, right? It’s a combination of things. But that’s just a tool, right? They perfected these tools and training and things over the years.

Yeah. And that is a good way to look at it, but also to think of when you think of your life and how to lead it. And also teams—think of there’s a mindset, there are a set of principles, there are strategies.

And so the technology that has been breakthrough is actually putting that all together. It is paper-based. So I would mention Hyrum Smith, and he got this system going. Stephen Covey is a huge part of this. Dr. Stephen R. Covey.

On August 15th of 1989. He launched The 7 Habits and had been working with those seven habits. And through that book, there’s just some incredible principles and strategies and a success system.

One of the main reasons that we connected is I really believe that people need a combination of principles and strategies and tactics and also tools. So it’s—you’re saying that between Covey and Hyrum Smith, it’s merged those two things. You’ve got the principles, timeless principles of practice—Benjamin Franklin and others—and the tool set of the planners and journaling, right?

It really is in the genius, you could say, because these principles are, for hundreds of years. But the genius to put them together and a simple powerful system that helps you create your best life. And I think that’s, you know, in terms of the shareholders and even all our users, we wanted to get this podcast going to just see how we could help people create that best life.

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The Problems People Are Facing Today

But you see those problems all the time now. As I was going to say, the whole—this didn’t come because we wanted to put some great content out, which it will be. Or just because we have great tools, which there are. You saw the problems, right? There’s problems on both a personal and team level. Like what are you seeing right now, integrating and talking to people every day? What are the—that’s the purpose of the podcast, right? To help people to solve these problems and challenges that they have.

Absolutely. There’s a personal side to it, creating your best life, leading your life, and then there’s a very much an organizational team side to it. Think technology for a second and think of the incredible digital technology there is—But it also complicates your life too, right?

Huge set of distractions. And as you look at how the brain’s working. And so in terms of leading your own life, setting your mission, vision, values, and goals, and then executing that day by day. There’s that side where it’s just been amazing. And then as you think about your team members, you’re a leader, you’re an entrepreneur. How can you engage your team to do those same things? So there’s a lot there to help.

I think that’s—I wanted to unpack that for a minute because I think most of the challenges people face can go back to a couple of different things. Number one, they’re not grounded in any kind of direction. You think about it—every day, we’re just moving, and technology and everything’s pushing you so fast. You’re not intentional with your life. And then second, you don’t really have anything but technology to center yourself around. And so the idea of having a journal, a planner system, things like this tied to your intention is big.

So hopefully with this podcast, our goal is to give people the strategies, the tactics, the tools, and systems, and we’re going to dig into a whole bunch as well. But what is—and by the way, just for the—if this is your first time listening, it’s our first episode. We are going to be covering these principles, but we’re also going to dig into case studies, right? We’re going to do interviews of top businesses. We’re going to look at case study challenges. Do you feel like that’s one of the best ways for us to dig in with people on problems individually?

Absolutely. We’re going to try and take you down a path too that will be a mix of—you and I were talking about some numbers, and you mentioned some of them—over 40 million people.

I read The 7 Habits so that you could look at that as this amazing set of timeless principles of how to use, say, the Franklin Planner system and apply it. Then there are over 15 million and counting more that have implemented this planner and journal system and really the combination of those two.

And we hope to share some of their experiences. So a lot of those people, we have as part of our community, they’ll share their experiences. There’s also a bunch of other people, George, that have written books that people would recognize in the last few years. We research and cross-reference this. They really are validators of Dr. Covey’s work, Hyrum Smith’s work, and the work Franklin’s done.

That’s what I was going to ask you because some of these principles, I think people hear, “Wow, they’ve been around for a while.” And they are timeless, and they are success principles that last the test of time, and millions and millions of people have implemented them. Are they as applicable today as they were in the past? And some would say more applicable, right? What would you say to that? Because right now, it’s so different—the economy, the marketplace, everything’s different.

You probably don’t need to make it as you think about it. Here’s what doesn’t change—humans.

That’s true.

Humans don’t change. So technology changes. And why they’re more applicable now is there’s just an incredible amount of overload on the brain—decisions, information, and just the chaos we live in.

Another thing that’s happening, you have all this information—we didn't talk as much about this—but you have so much information, and you don’t know what to believe. So this helps you with that.

I agree ‘cause I think it used to be about information. Now it’s about application of that information in an ever-changing economy, ever-changing marketplace. So I know we’re going to dig in. We’re going to dig in today. We want to give a foundation overview of the seven habits and the mission, vision, roles, goals, things like that. And also the planner system. But I was going to ask you, do you feel like the average listener is going to learn from our podcast, regardless of what system they use, what type of training they’ve had? At the end of the day, these principles, when we start to apply them, they’re going to apply on a personal level and a business level, no matter where they’re at. In other words, some people are crushing it, some people are struggling, some people are trying to get past an obstacle or a benchmark. It’s going to really apply to everybody’s situation.

For sure. And I think we have one goal, and it is just to help.

That’s it.

Yeah. Just to help. And if you’re aware, you might rediscover something. And then you might also discover something you thought about.

I was doing some research the other day on what percentage of the earth sets goals. And, by country 2%, like 10%.

So some fundamentals that remind us, probably those that tune in, are high achievers and understand this. And if that’s the case, I’m hoping that there’s something new, and also they’re reminded of stuff they already know inside.

That’s the key. That is the key because you know it already, but it doesn’t mean you’re doing it.

And sometimes it’s because you don’t know how to break out of those bad habits. You don’t know how to get to that next point. And so we’re trying to create a path where we can help them on their journey, right? We want to help them through this process.

And invite them to join, and we’ll welcome their texts, their emails, their contribution, and them as guests. So somewhat of just counseling together.

Cool. But there—I would say this—even though day-by-day habits are small things, the impact is giant.

Yeah.

Don’t want to understate it or overstate it. I think for all of us, thinking about what matters to you, thinking about who matters to you, and thinking about how precious time is. It’s probably easy to make a case that it’s never more important. So whatever system you’re using, we’re going to focus on the principles. We are, though, going to try and highlight some things that have worked.

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Breaking Down the Seven Habits

And just so everyone’s really clear, this is going to be a mix of some teaching, some training, some case studies, interviews. We’re going to bring in some great thought leaders. But let’s do this—over the little bit of time we have, let’s overview the seven habits so people have a little bit of foundation. And then what we’ll do is we’ll talk through—I want to talk through the strategic process of vision, mission, values, and then we’ll get into the planner system. This will give everyone a great framework to be able to go with. So let’s start with the seven habits, and this is not—over the next few episodes, we’re going to break them down. 

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Habit 1: Be Proactive

This is meant to be a high-level overview. But in the first habit, which is Be Proactive, right? That’s the first habit. This is your personal vision, right? Can you elaborate on the first habit?

Taking responsibility for your life.

There’s a key principle of thinking about your circle of influence versus your circle of concern. And the concept is there are a certain number of issues and things you truly have control over. Focus on those, okay? And be proactive. Take responsibility for your life. And that’s really habit one.

Yeah, and we’re going to break that down—just so everybody knows. We’re going to actually break each of these down in a short episode.

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Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Habit number two is Begin with the End in Mind. And these are kind of your principles of personal leadership, right? So begin with the end in mind. What would you take away from that habit?

Thinking ahead. He gives the example of, let’s say you’re 80 years old, and you’re looking back. It used to be a funeral analogy. Let’s just say, though, you’re still alive, and what would you like to have become? What would you like to have accomplished related to who matters to you and what matters to you?

So it’s really the idea of a blueprint. Creating first in your mind. Some people say spiritually, others just say designing—what, where do you want to go?

It’s creating that compelling future, right? And our goal on this podcast is we want to help inspire people to create a clear, compelling vision of the future that you could then bring into your present day and be more productive.

And let’s just tie these in. As we’ve planned this, as with you and our team, it’s, “Hey, how can we help people create their best life? How can we help leaders lead and their team?” So as you think already about the two habits and why they’re so important to your mindset—you can do so much. The potential in you—be proactive and then where do you want to go? And now as we go forward, think, okay, if I have that, now, each day, how do I tie that together? Which leads to part three, right?

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Habit 3: Put the First Things First

And habit three is Put the First Things First, which by the way, people are moving so fast in life that they don’t, right? So put the first things first is their principles of personal management. That’s your day to day, right?

And there’s some awesome work in this. And this is where you can get quite specific about, “Okay, if that’s what I care about, I realized I have control over this. What can I do about it?”

You start to think about longer-term goals. You think about the day—is it possible to create the perfect day? What would be the perfect day for you, George?

Yeah, I have an idea of that because I do that kind of stuff. But I can tell you, I’ve asked that question multiple times, and people go, “I don’t know.” And the initial answer is to not have to go to work, to not have to do this, not to do that. But when you sit on that for a little bit, you begin to craft a vision of what you really want. Without limits, right? And you can create a real, true, compelling vision of the future because at the end of the day, people have unlimited potential. They just haven’t tapped into it yet.

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Habit 4: Habit four is Think Win-Win.

So what we cross—we’ll come back to this—but when we cross over from habits one, two, and three, those make up what Dr. Covey calls the private victory. And this is a personal—from kind of feeling and also using language like you’re dependent on being independent. You’ve taken responsibility. You’ve thought about the roles in your life. You’ve thought about where you want to go. You’ve thought about the people in your life that matter.

So as you—you’ve got this, what we call the private victory. Now you’re heading towards interdependence, where you now are in a healthy, strong, balanced place to actually help others and interact with others. Not that you’re not already doing that.

So think win-win is this idea that there’s not some limited supply—either you win, or you win. But truly, as we think about it, there are opportunities, there’s enough for everybody.

I want to do two things. Number one, I’m really glad you made that point. I want to make sure if they didn’t notice or listen to that, that they really understand that there’s these inner things you have to work on to create your life. And then as you begin to go into the outer world and interact with people, like think win-win, and I like to think of that—I’ve applied that in my life quite a bit over the years—I like to think of that as also abundant mentality and focused on solutions and finding things that—so many people are focused on the problem, and so many people are focused on them winning, but they don’t realize that win-win philosophy is actually an abundant mindset, which helps you to move to the next level. So that’s a big one. I really liked that habit itself.

And we’re going to break that one down because these sound very simple on the surface, but they definitely break down into a much deeper level. But I like that interpersonal—and remember, these are individuals and also teams, right? So this is how you think with your team, not just you with other individuals. And when you’re leading a team—okay—you have to think that way, right?

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Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

When you were talking about understanding how a team interacts and things—that leads us into habit five, which is Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood. If you’re leading a team and you’re trying to apply these principles of win-win, then habit five comes in and says seek first to understand, then to be understood. Tell me your high-level thoughts on that habit.

Think about this: to the body, oxygen is everything. Think of the last time you were underwater, for the last few seconds. It’s a very focused thing. Being understood is like oxygen is to the body, but being understood is to the soul.

So the ability for a leader to genuinely, actively listen—understand. And then also to be able to be reciprocal, to understand each other. So this is just giant in terms of also building trust, working together. It’s such a powerful habit.

Because I think that’s the problem that a lot of people have. They know some of these principles, but they don’t apply them. And at the end of the day, we’re so busy trying to communicate what we want that we’re not first trying to understand what others want. And actually, I’ve learned over my career it’s much easier to create win-wins when you understand what everyone else is thinking, what is important to them, and what’s critical. Okay, so we’re on habit five: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood.

Habit 6: Synergize

Habit six is Synergize. This is creative cooperation. So synergize—talk to me about that.

Synergize is the idea that there’s not a zero-sum game. There’s a third alternative. It’s not just my way or your way. This is something that we’ll impact further, but it’s just an ability to synergize and find something better than what we’re working on.

If you have high trust, if you’re listening to each other, if you’re also clear about where you’re trying to go—I think this one, for me, really taps into a couple of fundamental premises. I’m just going to put them out here that we have—I think we have in this podcast—and that is: inside everyone is really genius, brilliance, and I would use the word maybe even greatness.

And also inside us is a leader—the ability to lead your own life, the ability to contribute. So now, as we come together in the public victory—habits four, five, and six—we have the opportunity to just really unlock our potential and do more. So you’re working together, you’re understanding, you’re trying to draw out the best, you’re synergizing for something much better. Sometimes you hear, “Hey, one plus one equals five,” or something. But it’s that idea that we can work together.

Yeah, you said it earlier—these principles sometimes come back around from other authors that really validate it. A real big buzzword I’m hearing a lot right now in businesses is collaboration, right? So people are looking for ways to collaborate, but I’ve found that you’re more successful collaborating when you seek first to understand, when you begin with the end in mind, when you have your personal goals, mission, and values in place. Okay, so we’re short on time, but we want to keep going here.

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Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Habit seven, which we’ll unpack a lot in this podcast, is Sharpen the Saw, which really ties well with one of my core beliefs, which is daily rituals in all areas of your life.

This is just the ability to have balance—to be healthy mentally, emotionally, physically.

When you say balance, that’s a tough word sometimes because people are like, “I’m never going to have balance.” What do you mean by that?

Take time for yourself—the things that matter. I think a practical example would be your health. And then health is a good link to—if you don’t take time to put gas in your car, eventually it’s going to break down. And it really is the one that—you know, if you looked at this as a tree, you might see habit one as the roots. And then you might see the trunk of that tree and those branches going up as habits four, five, and six. Then habit seven is the water, the sun, that brings it all together.

I love it. Okay, so those are the seven habits, and we’re going to break those down in the upcoming episodes. But there are two other things I want to cover. One is this real strategic pathway of vision, mission, and values. And then I want to lead right into the Franklin Planner system and journaling system. So can you just give us a little bit of a basis as to why it’s important for people to spend time with their vision, mission, and values?

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The Strategic Pathway: Vision, Mission, and Values

Yeah, absolutely. And it really is why we’re here. Because in some ways you think, “Okay, the Franklin Planner podcast and many millions of people know the planner.”

George, I gotta mention—there’s a bunch of people depending on your age that haven’t discovered the Franklin Planner. And you think, “What’s a planner?” You might think of paper. The technology actually is paper. And we’ll show some unbelievable research about how the brain works and writing, and what we’ve lost by just screens and digital.

But the principles of personal effectiveness, the principles of personal leadership and team leadership come together. There’s a mindset. So we’ve talked about these unbelievably powerful principles. Hyrum Smith and Stephen R. Covey. And we’re talking about them in the context of really a personal leadership system that comes together—how you can execute daily and achieve these things. And you might look at it as a tool, but within that Franklin Planner, there are all the principles and how to execute. So that’s the Franklin Planner system.

It really does. So think about the habits that we’ve just gone through—how to execute those through the Franklin Planner system.

There are two other models I’ll just mention that are a core part of your daily life and succeeding. I would say using a powerful productivity system—

One is the productivity pyramid, and it’s a way to also lay right against the seven habits that show how powerful they are. But this pyramid is anchored by your values.

And so think of that wider end at the bottom of the pyramid, and within there, think of your vision, your mission, and your values. What matters to you—that’s your foundation. Basically, your personal constitution. And so that’s step one. And we’ve talked about the seven habits, and this is inherent within them. But as you think about, “How do I execute on that?” So you take some time—it is a lot of time—

But once you do that heavy lifting, your whole life—and most people are not willing to do that. But when you can get those missions and values and that strategic blueprint, then you can move to productivity. Most people go the other way around, and they just never get to what’s important. So that’s the baseline.

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Final Thoughts and Invitation

So as we’ve now built this foundation with habits and timeless principles, we have this planner system and things. We’re going to integrate that into what we’re doing moving forward because our goal—the goal of this podcast—you can tell the listeners what you think—is ultimately to help them have more success. But also, life doesn’t have to be so difficult. And when you’re intentional, the path—navigating this path—is not so hard. But you have to be intentional, right?

That’s right.

So what would you hope that people get really out of these episodes that we’re going to be doing? What’s the real goal out of it?

I hope that there’s something that they end up learning, right? And I also believe that there’s something that will change in how they feel, and then that they will take action.

Now we’re going to try and see how we can help. We’re going to mix this with issues that are going on today and people that have done a lot of different things. But what I’m hoping is that they will find an easier way, a powerful way, and a more simple way to lead their life and to create it.

I like that. And what I’ll do is, in the show notes, I’m going to put some links to some great reference resources, a PDF and a worksheet, as well as links to things that they can use in order to craft that if they don’t have any type of a mission or values or anything put together. So I’ll put links in that. And if you’re listening to this, do me a favor and subscribe. Don’t miss any episodes.

Anyway, that’s it for today. I hope that you have learned something. I hope you’ll apply something. I hope you’ll join us again in the future. And we’ll look forward to seeing you in the next episode.

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