Here is a quote from one of the best success trainers who ever lived….Jim Rohn….
“Either you run the day, or the day runs you.”
Years ago, when I was in a mode of filling my brain intensely, and I was just consuming everything that I could get my hands on….I created a reading habit. One of the books that I read was by Michael Gerber – The Emyth Revisited. I think that was around 2003. This book was a game changer for me because, if I was to sum up the message that really hit me the most, it was….”Work ON your business instead of working hard IN your business”
Business owners hire people to work in their businesses. But you left the job for a reason right? Because you were working for someone else’s dream.
As a Realtor-Preneur – or a Realtor Entrepreneur, you have made a conscious decision to get out of the J-O-B. right? You have decided that you want to be in business for yourself. SO there is nobody telling you when to get up in the morning – nobody telling you when you get to eat – nobody telling you when you get to have vacation time – nobody telling you when you have to be at the office and when you get to go home.
The freedom in this is what you wanted….but just like everything in life, every decision or situation is like a double edged sword. These things can work in your favour or it can work against you, if you let it. “Either you run the day or the day runs you”.
Self discipline is the key. You are the one who sets the rules. Do the rules that you have set either consciously or unconsciously or “on purpose and with purpose” or “or with no plan at all,” serve you and your future goals? Or hurt your future or delay the chance to meet your objective?
I found what happens with a lot of people when they enter into the Real Estate profession, is that they leave a job to become a Real Estate professional and when they do, they embrace this new way of life but there is something inherent built in from past habits and mindsets that proves that they are still relying on someone else to govern their actions.
I see it a lot. There is this dichotomy in mindsets. Then, when someone tells them what they must do, there is a resistance to that because they are now in business for themselves. They get their back up and I have seen some people actually get offended at first. See the tension there?
Believe it or not…this is natural. It is normal. Most Real Estate agents go through this. This is ok. But maybe take notice of this. The fact that you are listening right now is fantastic. You are seeking knowledge and you are getting more and more excited about personal improvement. That is awesome. This episode will be very helpful for you.
I find that if we take time to simply understand ourselves we learn how to make minor adjustments in certain aspects of our lives. We begin to recalibrate some of our habitual thought patterns and suddenly we begin to surprise ourselves at our own accomplishments. This is a wonderful feeling when it happens.
Just showing up to the office and putting in time, is not paying you. When do you make money? When do you get paid? When are the most productive? What activities are the most profitable?
In a job it was easy right? We traded time for money. The people that paid you made a decision on what you were worth per hour or per month or per year depending on how you got paid. Someone said you are worth – THIS- per hour or per year and you accepted that. It was up to the person who is paying you to ensure that you were productive in those hours and they got the most out of you during that time that they were paying you. So they had a motivation to keep you busy. You were motivated because you needed the money, and you didn’t want to get fired so you did the job.
So the idea of time being so precious was not really pounded into your brain. It doesn’t become an emergency until the money in your bank account starts to dwindle…three or four months have gone by and now you are in emergency mode! Yikes…I better make something happen!
I see a lot of Real Estate agents who ramp it up with huge intensity when they get into Emergency MODE and then when they get busy they begin to deal with that business and forget about creating and nurturing business while they are busy,..,then they go into a mode of enjoying the fruits of their labour – they kind of cool off – until Emergency Mode kicks in again and the cycle continues. The other thing that I noticed about these people that in all markets they seem to make the same amount of money every year…
They operate like a thermostat. Just like how we set the temperature in our home on the thermostat…to a certain comfortable temperature. The system is in control mode. When heat is required, the furnace will kick in and when the house is too hot the thermostat will turn on the air conditioner and cool the house until it gets to the desired or “set” temperature.
These people are not operating with a clear WHY and no stretch goals or objectives that they have a burning desire to achieve. I hope this is not you. I can’t be you because you are seeking information right now and you are interested in filling your brain with good nourishing information to sharpen your mind in order to be more successful. I am excited that you are here listening to this right now.
So how valuable is time? How valuable is your time? How do you value time? How do you measure time? What is your time worth?
Every year, I estimate the amount of work days that I worked. I take into account my vacations and “non-working days” and I the average amount of hours that I put into each day and I calculate what my time is worth. When you put a value to your time, it changes things. Once you know what your time is worth per hour, then you start to get really good at making decisions on what you do with your working hours. When you are vacationing or taking time off that doesn’t count. During your productive hours it becomes more and more crucial. Do you know what that number is?
Is it above minimum wage? If not, then do you have a plan?
Is it over $50 per hour? If so, then you are in a position to actually double that and quadruple that– believe it or not. Just stop watching cute cat videos on Youtube and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish….just joking.
Here is a good quote from Harvey Mackay…
“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.”
I heard someone say on a podcast the other day. It went something like this– “Time is non-refundable – once it is spent it is gone.”
What are the “Robbers of Time”?
- Coffee Talkers
- Unqualified Clients
- Sleeping in
- Social Media
- Bad Habits
- Disorganization
- Challenges with Deals that can be avoided
- Undisciplined Computer / Phone / Tablet time
- Lack of Prioritization – Looking busy – lack of focus
- Client Hatching – acting like a mother hen keeping the egg warm.
- Working without a plan
- Working without a Goal
- Working without knowing your WHY
“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” Anonymous
You are in control of the whole thing. Yes…we are human. Do we get taken off track sometimes…sure.
Do we book a vacation during productive working hours? No. We don’t. We will do it on a Sunday afternoon or in the evening when our day is complete. I see people researching vacations in the office all the time. Online shopping. This is working hours! Not shopping time. That’s the wonderful thing about the internet…its open 24 hours per day 7 days a week!
It is absolutely imperative that we understand what our time is worth. Mine is worth right around $300 per hour. That’s my calculation. I am not saying this to brag at all. There are people who are worth much more than me but as of this recording that is what my time is worth. My productive time. So, should I be booking a vacation during that time? Should I be talking about war stories with my buddies in the office? Should I be checking the “like” on my last social media post? No not during productive time.
When should I preparing for my day? First thing in the morning before the phone starts to ring. When is the best time to do paperwork and get that finalized for the office etc? Before 9am. Get it all done and emailed to the office or copied for the office depending on how your office works before the staff get there. Then you will be ready for opportunity when the phone starts to ring.
I do a thing called “Critical 6”. If I died tomorrow, what would be the 6 things that need to get done today before I die. The Critical 6. This is very productive. I encourage you to try that. Write down the critical 6 the night before so that when you start the day you know exactly what to do first. Not only that, but you will sleep a lot better knowing that you have a plan for tomorrow. It causes the mind to relax and allows you to have a better sleep. It’s a proven fact. Empty the mind onto paper before going to bed.
Now you are ready to do the things that keep the business growing because you have hammered off the little detail things that can bog you down. Block time for prospecting, follow up calls or emails, and listing feedback calls.
Which strategic alliance are you going to focus on this week?
Have you ever thought about the activities that we do in our Real Estate profession? Have you thought about what an (A) Activity is? A (B) Activity? A (C) Activity?
If you are signing listings and writing offers and negotiating contracts, those are A Activities. Those pay you the most. Those are productive. While you are doing those activities, you must govern yourself accordingly so that you find ways to create more business…B Activities are activities that get that to happen…Checking on Pre-Approvals with the Mortgage Broker that you work with; following up with Leads that have decided to work with you; booking showings for Buyers; Pre-Listing interview phone calls; Following up with referrals and rewarding people who have referred business to you; prepping for listing presentations; market research; meeting or lunching with strategic alliances nurturing business etc..etc..etc…I think you get the picture….these activities will lead to business in the future….
BUT if you are not busy enough on a daily basis doing A and B activities then you must do the C activities. I don’t do a lot of C Activities now and I pay people to do those types of activities so that it keeps things warm..but it is easy to justify that when I know what my time is worth.
You know, I don’t really mind mowing my lawn. But I don’t do it. It is a $20/hour activity. It is a waste of my time, for me. I can pay someone to do that. I used to do it on my “non-productive” time, but I would rather spend time with my family or relaxing and re-charging than mowing my lawn. Does that make sense? When you know what your time is worth, then you know how to leverage it.
Nicole who works with me every day, was getting stressed out about the condition of our house. She likes a clean home. I like a clean home too. We do the basic things to keep it in order. But she was finding it hard to find the time to do the deep clean on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.
For the last couple of years, we have been paying someone to clean our house every two weeks. There are dual benefits for this. One – my wife is happy. That’s enormous. She now can relax about the little nitty gritty details of cleaning the house. AND #2 she is way more productive in our business.
We will work from home on some days or a portion of a day, and Nicole can’t help herself…she will get up and walk around the house or go into the kitchen to get a coffee or something and all of sudden she will burn up an hour cleaning the boys bathroom upstairs which can get pretty knarly. She couldn’t help herself.
So we made a decision to pay for a lady to come and clean our house. This was one of the best decisions that we ever made.
What is my wife’s time worth? A lot more than the money that we pay the cleaning lady and she does an excellent job! The benefit of reduced stress for Nicole more than makes up for it…
We know what our time is worth. We do the calculation every year. I love doing that calculation…it kind of fires me up when I see the results.
Give a true value to time for your productive hours. Do that. DO the exercise. Now internalize this. Now that you know that you are going to do this at the end of a year, you will be thinking about this as the days go by, and that alone, will cause you to be a little more productive.
Then you begin to start thinking of ways to maximize your time…You cut your conversations a little shorter, you prepare to increase efficiency, you get yourself organized so that you can operate more efficiently….if effects all aspects.
TIME….it is so important. Our time on this earth is a gift. We have no idea what will happen tomorrow. IF we maximize our “money making” hours and days and weeks…then we will be able to afford more time off. More TIME devoted to our loved ones. More TIME for our other interests. More TIME to give back. More TIME to make a difference in this world.
I am going to let you in on a little secret. Once you effectively understand this concept it will open doors for you….your world will open up. The potential for more possibilities will blow your mind.
Here’s the secret that I believe with my whole heart…..Once your systems are in place. Once you create new habits and understand where you need to spend your time, you will learn how easy it is to make $100,000 per year. I can make $100,000 per year on under 20 hours per week. It can be done….that’s 2 deals per month…
This is literally the core reason that I have put this course together…If every single person that utilizes my systems and employs the strategies has the ability to make a minimum of $100,000 in the Real Estate business then we can make a difference. That is my goal for you as the start. Because I know that once someone knows how to earn that they can double it, triple it and more….
We go over this in the 4X Formula Real Estate course…knowing is half the battle. Right? I have a friend who has this saying…. “Starting is half way to finishing”. I love that saying. I have no idea where it came from…but it is true.
“Starting is half way to finishing”….think about that
Go to 4XFormula.com and get on the waiting list for the course. We won’t ask for any money…the FREE Training will be launched soon and you will be able to watch that and take it from there…just get on the waiting list. IT costs nothing to do that.
We will reveal all of the bonuses that the “waiting list” people will get later.
Anyway…I hope you have a super duper day and please remember to put a lot of value on your time….if nothing else for your loved ones, friends, strategic alliances, and valued clients…..they need to know that they can count on you. Time is a gift….don’t squander it. Be thankful for it. Give value to it….maximize your time the best that you can.
Make a great day…
Kelly Johnston - the Creator of the 4X Formula Real Estate Mastery Course
Listen to this on my podcast - look for it on Youtube, Stitcher, Google Play or iTunes....thanks for reading.
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