Maven Marketing with Brandon Welch

Why Your New Year’s Resolutions Always Fail (And the 100-Day Fix)

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Every January starts the same way.

Motivation is high, everyone’s announcing goals and convinced they’ve cracked it this time.

And then… real life shows up.

In this Maven Monday episode, Caleb Agee breaks down why most New Year’s resolutions fail, and shares a simple framework that actually survives February, March, and the chaos of everyday life.

This isn't some "new year, new me" motivational hype video.

It’s about building a system that creates real change over time.

You’ll hear how a quiet practice inside Frank & Maven has helped people reshape habits, pay off debt, regain health, start businesses, and become the kind of person they wanted to be (without burning out or starting over every year)

If you’re tired of motivation that fades and goals that never stick, this episode will give you a better way to think about change and a place to start that actually lasts.

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Host: Caleb Host
Executive Producer: Carter Breaux
Audio/Video Producer: Nate the Camera Guy

Do you have a marketing problem you'd like us to help solve? Send it to MavenMonday@FrankandMaven.com!

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Caleb Agee:

Every year it happens the same way. Right now, people are feeling hopeful and motivated, certain that this year is going to be different. Things are gonna change. The gyms were full this morning. Journals and planners are fresh, and goals are feeling possible again. But there's a truth that most people don't want to admit out loud. It's that in a few weeks the momentum's gonna fade. February, life's gonna come in and crowd like normal. And in March, a lot of people are gonna be right back where they were before they started, disappointed with themselves and realizing that not a lot has changed. And it's not because they didn't want to change badly enough, it's because they didn't build a system that could really survive in real life. So today I'm gonna talk to you about one framework that I've personally seen work, not just for me, but for our entire team and how it fixes the whole New Year's resolutions thing that everybody gets wrong. Welcome to the Maven Marketing Podcast. Today is Maven Monday. I'm Caleb Agey, and this is the place where we help you eliminate waste in advertising to grow your business and build a life that you can really be proud of. Today, we're not talking about tactics, we're not even necessarily talking about marketing, although I think this could apply. We're talking about how change can really happen. And uh, this is a system that we've built over time here at Frank and Maven. Um, it's we've done it on purpose, but I think we discovered it on accident, and it's quietly become one of the most powerful tools for personal and professional development inside of Frank and Maven. And so um we call it 100-day goals. And here's kind of the the core idea is we have this New Year's mindset. You know, the new year comes with a lot of hope and motivation, uh, but it doesn't give us structure. We write down all the things we hope to achieve this year, and uh sometimes they just become that, you know, ink on a piece of paper in your, you know, the front of your journal, and not a lot of progress moves beyond that. I think we all know the problem with resolutions, and uh some people try to change the name, call them expectations, call them goals, call them whatever. And the problem is the motivation can be thin or fragile because it shows up only at this time, right? We wrap around the year, we have new thoughts, we're creative, we're excited at the prospect of all these new things, but then the goals are really vague. Um, we set year-long goals, maybe, and they're so far away. And then they can really be kind of lonely. So we figured out that 100 days is kind of the sweet spot because a year, years seem to go by fast, but a year is way too long, way too abstract. You just can't lock down real progress in that time. 30 days is too short. I'm not sure where we came up with 100 days. I guess it could have been 90, could have been one per quarter. 100 just feels like a fun round number. And I think that's really the science behind it if you're looking for one. And what we do is we say, today is actually our first Monday morning meeting as a team at Franken Maven for this year. So our team this morning at 9 a.m. Central Time is going to be declaring their 100-day goals for the first chunk of this year. And we calculate against that first day out 100 days. If you just Google it, what's 100 days from today? You'll get that. Um, and should land you somewhere in April, in the middle of April, if you're doing that pretty close to the date of this recording. And um, we all come together and we set one to three goals. I think more than three gets to be a little bit too much to keep track of. And before we do that, we're thinking about what is the core change that I want to see in me as a person? Who do I want to be at the end of that hundred days? Or who do I want to be becoming at the end of that hundred days? Uh are there any things, any parts of me that I want to remove? Think bad habits, think things that I want to break down, um, things that I waste time on, spend too much on. Um, and then are there things that I want to build, new things that I want to be a part of, that I want to move toward? And so we think about that a hundred days from now, the middle of April. I am not currently here, but I'd like to at least make progress toward this version of myself in a hundred days. And then we work backwards and say, okay, well, let's make clear and smart goals. Some of those things may take literally years to become that person, to um build uh a business, to write a book, to maybe it might be a big thing that I've got in my mind, but what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take one bite-size 100-day chunk out of that thing. Could be that I want to uh get myself in a certain kind of shape. Well, 100 days is not a whole lot of time to get your body into, you know, a certain shape or lose weight or gain weight, gain muscle, whatever you're trying to do. So we take these and we say, what's what's a goal or three goals maybe that I would want to do? And we always go back to these SMART goals. If you don't know about SMART goals, I'll break it down for you. SMART stands for specific, which means it cannot be general. It has to be like, do this thing. I'm gonna give you examples here in a little bit, uh, actual real examples from our team. It has to be measurable. So if there uh is a measurable outcome or a specific, you know, dollar amount, number of times you do something, whatever that looks like has to be measurable, achievable. It needs to be reasonably like you could do that in 100 days, needs to be relevant, it needs to be connected to that core change we just talked about. And then time bound um is the T for smart. And uh obviously we've set that for ourselves because we said 100 days. So here's, I believe, it's like anybody could do what I just described. Set a hundred-day goal. Um, we do it together as a team, we all share them. And if somebody's is not specific, if it's not clear or measurable, uh, we have the ability in kindness and respect toward each other to call each other out on that. Like, uh, that doesn't really make sense. How would you know if you're doing this? How would you know that you're on track? And so we we help each other refine these goals and we make them better, we make them stronger. Um and then we literally have a Google slide deck that we follow each Monday for our meeting, and we have one slide that is 100 day goals, has each person's name and then their goals across it. Um, we just write them in plain text, we have fun and put a bunch of dumb emojis next to them because I don't know, it's like person working out for that, if that's you know, maybe the category, a book, if you're reading books, it whatever, painting, you know. And so we just have a slide and we walk through um, we walk through this every Monday. Here's where it's gets truly different because you could set 100-day goals, you could write them in your journal right now, and um I believe without this facet of it, you'll be missing out on a huge piece of this. And this is why we do it with our team. Um we have weekly accountability, sometimes daily, because we all know what each other is trying to do, but every Monday morning we pull that slide back up. It is slide three in our team's uh meeting list. We start with personal things until and then we pivot toward our work things. So we don't spend our whole time just talking about ourselves, but we do start on personal things before we talk about our shared mission. And at the very beginning of this, we are asking Nate the camera guy, how are you doing? And he looks up at it at his goals that he's declared. Hopefully he knows them by heart because he's working hard on them. He'll be like, Yep, I'm on track. I did this and this this week, feeling good. Or he might say, Hmm, not doing so well, haven't even made any progress, I haven't really gotten started on that. Um and once again, we give the whole room permission to ask questions and to push when we feel like project, like progress is stalling. And I think that's that's the beauty of this, is it brings accountability. I think everybody maybe has this. Um people can have a weird relationship with the word accountability, and it can sound uh it can sound like somebody checking in on you or something something strange. Accountability is a powerful tool. And the people you spend uh the majority of your waking hours with would be a great set of people to help push you toward these goals, the person you want to become. And so Nate, if I'm on, you know, off track and I maybe have a week, a week might be a fluke, but two weeks, if he notices that I have not been on track for what I want to do, um, he might call me out on the hey, I've that's like the second week in a row that you haven't shared any progress. Uh, are you gonna start that book? Did you, you know, you're gonna start reading it? Are you gonna get in the gym? Are you gonna um whatever, whatever it is, are you gonna start saving your money? Um and he can call me out. He has total permission to do that. And then I'll be like, yeah, I feel like I'm not finding the time. I feel like these things are getting in my way. And what we do is he or the whole room will have permission really to help me take that first step. So it's like, okay, well, what could we do today to help you move forward on that? It's like, well, um, we could get really practical and we find this like little micro gain where we can make it a part of our of our life. So um it's not about bringing shame, it's just about holding each other accountable and not letting each other drift. Uh, my favorite quote, one of my favorite quotes of all time is uh from James Clare, we don't rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems. And I just imagine um there are some people who think that you can like strap on a jetpack and shoot up and slap a goal and like hit that sign, it's like I hit it. And then uh the reality is that jetpack was only a short-lived thing. What you need to move is the platform you started standing on. You need to raise the floor so that you don't have to jump as high to hit that goal. And um, the that is true in business, but it's also true in your personal life, which is we rise, we create systems that allow us to get better over time. So I asked our team uh before we recorded this, uh, we've had we have team members who have been here 10 plus years, and uh, we've been doing this for the majority of our time as a business. And I asked them all, um, I'm gonna anonymize these, but I asked them all genuinely, what were your you know most impactful 100-day goals? And uh here I just wanted to give you some really practical ones because these have happened over the years, and um I think it'll be inspiring for you. So one person mentioned uh three things. She mentioned 75 hard. If you haven't done that before, it is hard. Um, that was the hardest and most rewarding one that she did. Um she did no meat for a hundred days, just a total reset for the body. And then um she put 2500 in savings over the course of a hundred-day interval, which is um difficult. Like that's hard to find if you weren't already in the habit of saving at that rate, to be really intentional with your budget, the spending, and then be able to put that savings. And and she found that that intentional spending helped help a lot. Uh, we had another team member actually on his first day, it just lined up that it was one of the days we were dropping, we were starting a 100-day um segment, and he decided he had done it in the past, but not maybe as consistently. He decided to do intermittent fasting, and he said he lost 20 pounds just in his first 100 days at Franken Maven, uh, which is pretty, pretty fun, pretty cool. Um, but he said that that being a rhythm in his diet and the way his his body composition is, that intermittent fasting really helps him. And so he was like, that was a really powerful thing. Uh, another another guy said saving$20 a day. Um, this this guy literally has a mechanism. I think he does it weekly, so it's not like a every day there's$20 getting drawn over to a savings account, but every week he does the equivalent of$20 a day. And um he he's pushed himself to do that kind of savings goal. Um, he also mentioned replacing sugar with protein, increasing its protein intake. Um and he mentioned that he felt like the things that were more daily minded, uh, which I think is going to be a theme you'll hear from all of these, uh, the things that were more daily minded felt like they had a better outcome because they were building habits. Um another team member, she mentioned keto being uh one of the hardest dietary restrictions she's ever tried, but having the accountability here, um doing keto for a hundred days was a really powerful reset and um pushed her to pull that off. And then reading her Bible every day created a structure that actually uh let her complete that uh throughout the entire year. Um, a couple of team members mentioned getting up earlier. Uh for different people, it's different times. I have kids, so it's really early if I want to get some like morning time before. Uh, but uh for a couple of our team members, they were trying, one was getting up at 5 a.m., another one was getting up at 6 a.m. And for both of them, this was a push beyond where they were. And it's not like we're measuring one against the other, but we genuinely are are pushing each other to be who we want. And so they felt like they had more margin, less stress, more intentional mornings, which set up for better days. Um, couple other people I'm gonna mention. Um, one mentioned kind of a one-time goal of clearing out her garage. So garage was a mess. I think she actually um had uh been reselling like things like flipping like Facebook Marketplace type things. Um, and she had accumulated a lot of things but not moved it out. And so she made a goal of selling those things or getting them out no matter what. And she ended up with less clutter, she felt like she had a clearer mind, and she ended up with more money because she got some stuff sold. Uh and another team member actually started a business that she had been kind of side hustling on um and formed an official LLC, which really uh, for her unlocked confidence that uh she was legit in what she was doing. We actually, at Frank and Maven, we encourage, obviously not if it's uh if it's a conflict, but we encourage people to have side hustles to be entrepreneurial-minded because I think it helps um it helps them push themselves and it helps them be better consultants for the business owners we get to talk to when they themselves are business owners. And so uh she unlocked this confidence by forming an LLC. Very simple, small first step, but it really uh helps her mentally legitimize the business that she had done. Um, for me personally, one of the most impactful hundred-day goals I ever set was simple. It was read three books. Um, 100 days is just over three months, a book a month. Um and the the person I wanted to become was I wanted to be a reader. I wanted to be considered, I wanted to consider myself well read. And um for probably the better part of a year, one of uh sometimes there were more than one goals, but one of my goals was read books in some form. And so um I did that probably for 12 or 15 months, and I felt like uh that really set me off on a path where I was consistently reading all the time, and it created that habit in me and made me want to read instead of maybe my motivation being initially like I want to read, but I don't have the time or the motivation. I found the time, I made the motivation, and it became a part of who I am. And um I think the best goals aren't necessarily about finishing something. And that's the beauty of this. Uh, sometimes it can be like, I want to complete this thing, I want to start this business by this time, I want to clean up my garage by this time, I want to paint this room. Some people have those goals, but I found consistently, as I thought about mine and our team thought about theirs, the best goals were actually about becoming something, doing something habitually. Um, habit is something you do automatically. It starts with um a trigger, a response, and a reward. And habits you do every single day, no matter what. Um your heart is beating, you are breathing. Um, there are habits you'll drive to work. Maybe you're right now, you're driving to work, you're listening to my voice, and you're driving, and you're not even thinking necessarily about where you're going because you have this habit loop that is happening and you're kind of an autopilot. Now that I've said it, I've shocked you out of autopilot and you're actually thinking about the people in front of you and around you. But that is something that can happen, is where you have this automatic thing. And it takes repetition for those things to become a habit. And so what we really are allowing ourselves to do is make these things common, make them normal, make them a part of us, just like breathing is, and then they become exactly the trajectory of where we're going. Um, I want to share one more uh bonus story uh from somebody who used to work here at Franken Maven, but uh actually hasn't worked here in a man, two or three years now. Uh, she texted us just last month, which is it's really cool, that she was able to uh they've they've really worked their budget and she was able to pay off her husband's student loans early. He went to graduate school, had more student loans than most people in a medical field, and uh she was able to surprise him with the payoff letter uh of his student loans as as you know before Christmas as a cr big Christmas surprise. And the crazy thing is that this literally started at a hundred as a hundred-day goal that we had on this list, which was I want to contribute more to pay off the student loans. I want to, it was like, I can't remember the specifics, but it was like we're gonna contribute X amount more per month to pay off these student loans faster. And that thing that happened three, four years ago has now snowballed into this last month, she was able to pay off those student loans way earlier than she ever would have considered doing it. And so a small habit done faithfully uh really can create a moment that you won't forget. Um, James Clear again, he's the habit guy. If you haven't read Atomic Habits, you should definitely do so. Success is the product of daily habits, not once-in-a-lifetime transformations. So um get in this rhythm, set your hundred. Day goals and get with your team. And what you're going to do, you're going to come together, you're going to give them some warning. Don't just show up at the next meeting, the next staff meeting, and be like, all right, guys, we're going to set hundred-day goals. What do you want it to be? What you need to be to allow them to do, I think it's important that people, you have a culture of improvement. People want to be better. This is the reality. I think people get a lot of, they get disgruntled, they get tired, they get frustrated because they don't feel like they're growing. And they may spend 40, 50, maybe 60 hours a week at work or with work. And they can sit there and blame work for the lack of growth that they feel. Um, the reality is you can push them to grow in their positions, in their roles, but the rhythm of what they do may not change. They may not have a whole lot of opportunity for title changes, for raises. You may not have room for all of these things. Their intrinsic value, this is just like a personal thing, their intrinsic value cannot only come from what they produce as a human at work. Yes, that helps, that that supports it, makes you feel confident, you feel success, you feel satisfaction in a in a job well done, but they also need to be becoming the person that they imagine themselves being. And you have the ability to bring that to your team, to bring that to your workplace. Uh, if you're not necessarily a leader in your workplace, um, bring this to your leadership. Show them, send them this episode, bring this to your leadership and uh show them what you know what they might be able to do. And uh I I promise you, you will see habits formed, have bad habits kicked. You will see people have lost hundreds of pounds cumulatively. Not, you know, one person cumulatively uh people have gained weight uh through muscle, like intentional. Um they've changed their diets, they've saved thousands of dollars, paid off uh entire loans, paid off debt at levels that they hadn't imagined. They've um pushed themselves to start new businesses, to write books, to do all of these crazy things. And it's really, really a beautiful thing. So um give your team a warning in a good way. Say, hey, we're gonna do this. You should forward them this episode so that they can get an idea of some of the goals that might help them think about who they want to become. Um, and you're going to say, hey, on this next staff meeting, this next team meeting, we're gonna start this 100-day goal thing. Make a slide, make a whatever, make it a whiteboard in your office. I don't really care. It needs to be visible, it needs to be easy to find, needs to be obvious, and have each person declare their 100-day goals. If you have a larger organization, you can do this on a team level. So per department or team, um, and each team could lead this little workshop and hold each other accountable. Um, set one to three SMART goals. These can be personal or professional. There's no rules on this. I think naturally sometimes people will be like, I want to read more of a professional book, I want to grow in this way. Um, sometimes it's I want to grow in this personal way. Here's the deal: when they're growing as a person, they will grow as a professional. That is the reality. If your goal is, if if your mode when you're implementing these hundred-day goals is to just kind of force people to become better so that their output is better, so your business is better. Um that will be the wrong mentality to approach this in. Your goal has to be that they become better people and healthy people actually make healthy businesses. And that's the that's the reality. So everybody declares their goals, make sure that it's clear, it's it's a smart goal, and then review it every week, every single week. Uh, I don't know if maybe you have to do it if your team's not all together. Maybe you do it in a Slack channel and everybody calls out how they do it. How are you doing? Put a screenshot of the graphic, everybody's goals. How'd you do this week? Maybe that's how you have to do it. I think it does better in person or or verbally, but do that and then give everybody permission to challenge. Even you, if you're the leader, they have permission to challenge you, to push you um to be better and uh and to grow. So uh hope you are kicking off this year with a lot of excitement. I hope that it is not um thin, you know, emotional excitement, but that you can use this to raise your systems. You can use this to create habits that become a normal part of who you are and not just like a short-term motivation burst that uh that fleets as quickly as January ends. What I would love for you to do, if you're on YouTube, jump down in the comments, drop yours in there, and let us know uh what your 100-day goals are. One to three, smart goal. Um maybe we'll obviously see the timestamp, so we'll know that it's gonna happen in 100 days. Let us know what it is. And uh, Brandon and I, here in this podcast, I think we're gonna bring it up every once in a while. Uh, we can't be that person. We are here weekly, but uh I don't think we're necessarily the right people to hold you accountable. We do want to ask you, we want, we want to push you. Um, and we're gonna ask you about this. We'll remind you when that hundred-day cycle is over so you can set up another one. Um, but drop that in the comments. If you're just on a podcast app, hop over to YouTube, throw it in the comments because why not? Uh, you could also email us at Maven Monday at Frankandmaven.com. Um for that, for your goal, or if you have questions about this system, if you would like to see uh the slide we use, it's very, very simple, uh, but we'll send that right over to you. Um and if you have any other questions about marketing, business, or life, um, if it makes sense, we will answer it on this podcast for you on a future episode. So if you enjoyed this, hit subscribe. Um, that really helps us uh give us five stars. Uh, give us a thumbs up if you're on YouTube, you know all the things. Um, that helps helps us push this to more people so we can help businesses grow. We will be here every Monday answering your real life marketing and advertising questions because marketers who can't teach you why are just a fancy lie. See you next time.