Why A Two-Page Plan Beats A Thousand Shiny Ideas, Dr. Tracey C. Jones

Ever feel buried under “you should” advice while your to-do list grows and your focus fades? We sat down with Dr. Tracy Jones to strip business building to its essentials: values, clarity, and a two-page plan that actually gets used. Instead of chasing every shiny object, we map a practical path to results—define your offer, choose your market, and decide how you’ll measure progress—so you can say yes with confidence and no without guilt.

Tracy brings a legacy of leadership and a refreshing stance on success: pay your people, cover your bills, avoid needless debt, and give back. If your dream is scale, hire the full-size bears who’ve done it before. If your dream is freedom, design lean systems that protect your time and energy. We talk through aligning work with non-negotiable values, pressure-testing opportunities for fit, and resisting borrowed ambitions that don’t match your life. The payoff is a business that serves customers and the person running it.

We also dig into execution discipline. A plan without owners, timelines, and KPIs is a wish. Tracy’s 72-hour rule keeps new insights from fading, while debriefs and after-action reviews turn missteps into improvements. Borrowed from aviation and the military, this cycle—act, measure, reflect—sharpens sales activity, cleans up processes, and builds a culture that learns fast. By the end, you’ll have a simple structure to focus your week, a clear lens for decisions, and a definition of success that’s honest and doable.

If this conversation helps you refocus, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review to tell us what you’ll say no to this week.

Transcript

The Power Of A Two-Page Plan

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I really would encourage people and and reach out to me if you need help doing it, just a two-page business plan that really gets you clear on who you are, what you do, and who your ideal client is. That way when you get the calls about, oh, you should do that, oh Tracy, you should do a speakers bureau, oh Tracy, you should do kids' camps, oh Tracy, you should do that. You go back and say, does this align with who I currently have and who I don't?

Introducing Dr. Tracy Jones

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Welcome again to the Commission Code Podcast. We appreciate you taking the time to listen and join us here today. We're here to help you increase your business revenue and have time to enjoy it. I'm your host, Maurice Sims, and I've been consulting and training business people for, well, let's just say over 40 years. We're focused on increasing revenue and having time to enjoy it. After years as a professional salesperson, I spent 32 years in the corporate world. I retired as vice president and chief learning officer of the sales department of a large insurance company where we designed and built and delivered training for over 12,000 professional salespeople. Now I get to consult one-on-one, helping people grow their business and organize themselves to make the most of the time they have. We also build online courses to support business owners in their work as they strive to build the business that they've always wanted. Our objective is really very simple. It's this we're here to help you get what you want from your business and your life. So, right now, let's get on with this episode. Today on the Commission Code for your success, I have an opportunity here with a friend of mine that I have been looking forward to for weeks. And I know I I know I start every show saying, Man, I'm really excited about this guest. I'm really excited about this guest. Tracy Jones is with us. Dr. Tracy Jones is with us, and she has a legacy of tremendous work of her very own. And she also comes with a legacy from her father, Charlie Tremendous Jones, who I read about back when I was a brand new salesperson out there in the world. And his story in that book that I read kept me going for a long time. And if ever you can find the story that Charlie tells about Green Lane Farms, I'm telling you, it'll keep you going and get you excited. But Tracy Jones is with us today, so I'm gonna hush and let her talk. Tracy, welcome. We're so glad you're here.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Tremendous, Morris. It is just such an honor to be with you today. And thank you for all your listeners.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Well, I am pleased to have them here and excited about their being here, that's for sure. And we thank everybody for taking the time. There's no doubt about that. Tracy, tell us a little bit about what you do now.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

I am currently leading, have the honor of leading, as you said, a second generation business that was started by my father, Charlie Tremendous Jones, one of the legends in the personal development industry. He uh emigrated to heaven 17 years ago, but he would have been 99 years old. So that tells you kind of growing up with uh Zig Ziggler, Ogmandino, Norman Vincent Peel, that kind of thing. But um, I moved home after he immigrated to heaven 17 years ago to take over a company called Life Management Services. Back then it was known as Executive Books. We have since also rebranded to tremendous life books and tremendous leadership. So we are the leading provider of motivational, inspirational uh material, books, audios, CDs, DVDs, uh, digital downloads, and uh it's just a tremendous experience. And and Charles's main goal, uh, he loved God, he loved people, and he loved the transformative power of books. And his legacy quote is often still used. It was you are the same person, you'll be the same person five years from now that you are today, except for two things: the people you meet and the books you read. And uh, I love hearing from people how they resonate with that quote. And honestly, Morris, it becomes more real and near and dear to me every day.

The Entrepreneur’s Core Tension

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Oh, and it's so true. It is so absolutely true. My pardon me, my first senior vice president used to say that all the time. Now I know where he got it. It uh it's just it's just incredible. Uh Tracy, our audience is probably small business owners, medium to large business owners, who all have the same kinds of challenges. Speak a word of wisdom to us today. What do you think? Where does what what are those challenges that that need to be overcome?

Values First, Then Business Plan

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Well, I love if you are experiencing challenges, that means that first of all, you're alive. It's like Charles would say, you got problems, good. It means you're not dead, you know, kind of thing. So I would say, uh, well done. You're you're growing, growing is inherently uh difficult, stressful. It's a time of crisis because you're dying to the old and bringing on the new. So I find with a lot of small to mid-sized businesses, uh, there's kind of two sides to the same coin. And the number one is uh internal. Is this really what I'm supposed to be doing? Getting that real clarity and focus. I started in this zone in this season. And how do you really, you know, hold on to your DNA, but also evolve with the market? Or if the market is telling you this season is done, you depart and move on to something else. So I think inherently entrepreneurs were visionaries by nature. We don't lack for good ideas and energy. So trying to figure stuff out, what we want to do is never our problem. It's detailing it, taking the kaleidoscope and putting it into that one fine laser beam and saying, this is where I'm pulling, putting all my energy. Uh, of course, as a small business owner, the flip side of it is the externals, the funding, the marketing, the branding, the people. You know, you can't get it right without the right people. And so, you know, it's not just about your vision. You have these means that you need to get these resources together. Otherwise, I don't care if a dove anointed you on the head while you were being baptized with John the Baptist, you won't have the resources to get it done. So, this is the beautiful tension that entrepreneurs deal in. How can I be uniquely in my space that nobody else is? My calling, my gifting, my anointing that the market wants. And number two, my goodness, I'm just a mere mortal. I can't do it on my own. I need money, I need resources, and I need the means and the knowledge to get it done. So that's kind of uh, I think what everybody all day long, and that's why we work with coaches and mastermind groups and read books because we're constantly in this state of, oh, I didn't see it that way. That's what I've been looking for. So entrepreneurs are inherently, we're researchers and we're troubleshooters and we're problem solvers and we're testers of truth. And that's why books and great people are so powerful because they're constantly pouring into you and refining you.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

You know, in today's world, there is just so much going on and so much input for all of us all over the place. I don't know, it's it's like it's hard to focus, it's hard to remember. This is what I said I want. This is why it's important to me, but yet I got all these different things crashing in on me saying, Well, you ought to do this and you ought to try that, and you ought to do this, and yeah, you ought to have your own podcast, and you ought to have, you know, your own your own marketing systems, and you ought to do this, and that product is great. But what about this other new product? Don't you want to go out and work with that? All these different things coming along. Focus seems to be the biggest challenge, and well, it is for me, I guess. Maybe that's my ADHD coming in, but uh focus is is the hard part is saying no.

Focus, Saying No, And Fit

Redefining Growth And Success

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Absolutely. And I had to laugh about that. I think entrepreneurs do have a little bit of ADHD, all of us, all of us in there. And you know what? We never grow out of that. I think sometimes the older we get, the worse it gets, or the more worse, the more pronounced it gets. Um, but I think at the beginning of everything is knowing who you are, and that is your values. And I think it's very important to write down your core three, four, five values. These are the things that you will die on the hill for, these are your non-negotiables. Um, mine are truth, uh, beauty, and freedom. So uh these are the things that I will uh stake everything on. And so you have to know what your values are. Once you align them, and there's so many great exercises out there to talk about how you find your values, no shortage of that, great books on it. But this is you, this is the core of your DNA. And then I really would encourage people and reach out to me if you need help doing it, just a two-page business plan that really gets you clear on who you are, what you do, and who your ideal client is. That way, when you get the calls about, oh, you should do that, oh, Tracy, you should do a speakers bureau, oh Tracy, you should do kids' camps, oh Tracy, you should do that, you go back and say, does this align with who I currently have and who I don't? Um, the other thing, Morrison, I have to say for small business entrepreneurs, if what you're doing right now meets and covers the bills and is profitable, okay, you don't need to go hog wild unless it's in your business plan to scale and grow and go hog wild. I don't know how many entrepreneurs, I think if you're the kind of entrepreneur that loves inventing, blowing it up to 20, 40, 100 million, and then selling. But I'm not that kind of an entrepreneur, and most of our clients aren't. And I can remember, this is probably 15 years ago, when I'm comparing myself with all the other publishing houses, and I'm like, oh, you know, look at I'm growing, look at I'm scaling. And here I am. I have a great reputation, I have no debt, and I'm paying the bills and I'm giving a lot of money away. But yet, because I wasn't meeting the metrics, I was like, I'm failing. And I can remember uh Bruce Wilkinson, the author of the Prayer Gibbs, said to me, uh, are you are you uh in the black at the end of the year? And I go, Oh yeah. And he goes, then you're more successful than most of us are, including me this past year. And I was like, what? And he goes, Tracy, in the end, the bottom line as a business is if you can pay your people, if you could pay your bills and if you have no debt and you're able to give back and pay it forward, you're already a success. And so I think that really stuck with me. So I mean, if it's on your bucket list to grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, then you need to hire and bring the people in that help you uh what do they call it? You need to hire the full-size bears and not the baby bears that that know how to get you there. But I think again, that's not that important to me as a value. So, and it wasn't to my dad either. So that's I'm just not gonna be that kind of an entrepreneur. And that's not gonna be in my business plan. Um, but I I think it's just important in your business plan, know the space you want to be in and know what brings you value. Uh, you know, like I said, I love freedom. So I have run big bureaucratic organizations. I have no desire to be answering the phone through the middle of the night to be deposed and sued. Those days are gone. So just know what your space is. But if you want to do that and you were in that, then then grow big enough that you can hire an army of lawyers and do it. I I I look at people that do that and I'm like, hmm, that's awesome. Not me. So know yourself and know know what what you want your business uh to be operating in.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Oh man, that that is so true. If if we don't have something to focus on, and the only way you're gonna be able to know what you need to focus on is to have that that two-page business plan based on what you've decided you want. Yes. And that that's being real clear about that. And that clarity principle is just so I I think it's the foundation of any good business is being really clear about what you want, but you gotta make sure that what you're what you think you want is what you really want. In other words, it can't be what somebody else said you should want, it can't be just the next right thing, it's gotta be what you really want in your own mind and heart.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Yeah, and and also what your market wants. I know our market, I know our raving fans. Charles has been curating them for 61 years. You're one of them. So for me to then go, well, I'm gonna do um summer camps for kids, although I would love that because ages five to ten are the ones that really that's that's my ideal audience. And I did that for a while, but I thought, but that's not our core, that's not our core thing, you know. And and um so you you just need also to consider, you know, what they're looking for and how you can best serve them.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

And then once you get that focus, gotta get to do the right things. And that I guess that comes back to focus, but it's activity. You gotta be active about what you what you want and follow that business plan and you know, get up off the couch and go do it.

Freedom, Scale, And Personal Fit

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Well, that's the beauty of the business plan. You assign owners, okay? That's where you take the battle plan and you move it into actual, you know, war orders, you know, as you're as you're going forward. Uh, you know, um different things where you're moving out. So the business plan is great because that static thing, but you know, I use the old apply or die uh thing. If you do not, after you say something, if you do not put it into application within 72 hours, it's like it never even happened. And that's why when you're sitting there in church or uh listening to a lecture, if you don't write it down, guess what? You're gonna walk away from there with something that could completely radically change your life. And 72 hours you're gonna go, it's like it not even happened. So knowledge must be applied in order for it to turn into wisdom. And so that's why the business plan is so good because it gives you something tangible and and real. And then you say, okay, here's what we say we're gonna do. Who is going to be the uh owner of this? And what are the KPIs or what are the metrics that we're gonna have to track? And it's just it's processes. Processes get you um activity.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Systems. I I just I'm I'm a systems freak. If I don't have a procedure for something, something's wrong. Yeah. And and you're so right, Tracy. If you don't apply it pretty quick, it's gonna go away, and that gets worse and worse as I get older. Yes, sir. Yep. Had an idea last night while I was trying to go to sleep. Had an idea, and I thought, gee, I gotta write that, I gotta do something because I'm gonna luckily I remembered it this morning, but uh lucky, yeah. Yeah, it's a one in a million. The um the whole the whole key though is is getting up and doing. I love the business plan, the two-page short business plan idea. It doesn't have to be, you know, a book. It doesn't have to be something you need a three-ring binder to continue to to contain. What just high level? What are the what are the key points in the outline of that business plan in your mind?

Turning Plans Into Action

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Well, we we call them and and uh, you know, a lot of people use uh different things, but but you know, it's the outlines are, you know, what are what is um what you what you give, okay? So exactly what is that problem you're solving for other people? Okay. Number two, you really have to get clear on identifying who your market is. You can't be all things to all people. So your business plan will really clearly target exactly. And number three, how you're gonna track it. Okay. So I think I like the the three-legged stool, like the father, son, holy ghost, three-legged stool, um, a marriage, man, woman, God, you know, ever at the three, the three the triangle is the most stable geometric platform, and it's also the most efficient. And for a small business owner, that's how I want to be. I can't build a table with a hundred legs on it. I want something lean, mean, fighting machine, a tremendous fighting machine. So everything I go, I want the three-legged stool. So I would say when you really know, you know, what it is, what it has that you're offering and um what it is that you're uh who you're marketing, you're doing it to and how you're gonna roll it out. It reminds me of Jim Collins' good to great the hedgehog principle. What are you most passionate about? Okay. Um, uh, what drives your economic engine? In other words, who's your market and what are you the best in the world at? But you have to be, it has to, it has to make money. So that gets into the third leg at how you're gonna roll it out and how you're gonna measure success. Because if you're not at least covering your bills, it's a hobby. It's not a business. And that's okay. That's hard for us entrepreneurs if you're funding it from your own private uh business uh checking account, personal checking, and we've all had to do that. But if you do that for any length of time, you know, you you gotta really look at it. So I I think that's really the key thing in the business plan is no, of course, your values, okay, um, your ethics, um, who you're serving, and very being very crystal clear about what you're gonna do and how you're gonna track it.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

How you're gonna track it, being able to measure the metrics and then analyze them without creating analysis paralysis. Right. Uh, you know, it it's it's just so important. And seeing too many salespeople say, Well, I'm just gonna go talk to as many people as I can this week, and then they don't know how many people they talked to or what the results were, and they never they never seem to be able to make it with that kind of a thought process. Stacy, yeah.

The Three-Legged Business Model

SPEAKER_00 17:49

Yeah, well, you said you said it talking, reflecting. I was in the military when the pilots would land, debrief, they go into debrief, they don't just go home. Um, and I was in aircraft maintenance, so root cause analysis. Okay, the plane is broke. What happened? What could we have caught it before? How do we prevent a repeat, a repeat, or a reoccurrence? And I think the huge problem us entrepreneurs do, oh, it didn't work, on to the next thing. No, knowledge is gained in the self-reflection. Take time to unpack it. Okay, why did we make this decision that went horribly wrong? What were our blind spots? Did my ego get in the way? Yes. You know, who did I forget to what what which of my partners did I not bring into the fold? Um, and and even sales, if you were raised with a great salesperson, they will sit alongside you afterwards and say, great job. Now, three hours of debrief. Let's talk. And they will take you through everything. That's where it is really unpacked. And so I think in if for people doing the one-page business plan, have a chunk of time. We have these quarterly meetings, these monthly meetings where we talk about what we're gonna do, what's going on. Have time set aside for the debriefs, for the hot washes, for the for the personal reflections, because you can only get better if you identify what went wrong.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Gotta have that after action report.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

No doubt. No doubt. Tracy, this has been so much fun and so good. And I'm just so looking forward to more time to to work with you and to move things forward with all that we're working on together. And I I just appreciate you taking the time to be with us today on the commission code.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Thank you, Morris. It's been such an honor. And to our listeners out there, thanks for supporting our dear friend Morris. He is so tremendous.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

And how do we find you again?

Metrics, Debriefs, And Learning Loops

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Uh, you can find us at tremendousleadership.com. If you click on there, you'll find Charles' stuff, our stuff, our books, lots of books, blogs, podcasts. I'd love to hear from anybody.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Tracy, again, thank you so much for being with us today. Look forward to having you back again sometime.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Thank you, Morris.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Well, that does it for this episode of the Commission Code Podcast. This is the place where we want to help you find the Commission Code to success in your business. Remember, go to MorrisSims.com for more information. And in the meantime, hey, have a great week. Get out there and meet somebody new, and we'll see you again next time, right here on the Commission Code. Best wishes, I'm Morris Sims.