Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Happy Valentine's Day
week.
I know I know not everyone is ahuge fan of Valentine's Day,
but it really is one of myfavorite holidays, because who
doesn't like expressing love tothe people who mean a lot to
them?
Now I'm not sure how you'refeeling about your business,
because that kind of is anentity that we need to love, and
(00:21):
today we're going to dive intofalling back in love with your
real estate business.
I have a 90-minute businessaudit that I love to lead people
through, and this is going togive you a fresh perspective on
your business and hopefully helpyou fall back in love.
So, if you have been feelingdisconnected from your real
(00:43):
estate business, like you'restuck in a grind or you're just
what am I doing?
Like, did I sign up for this?
This episode is for you.
So let's clear out thosedistractions.
Let's reconnect with the partsof the business that bring you
joy and success, and success ismoney and happiness here, people
(01:03):
.
So why is Valentine's Day theperfect time for a business
audit?
Love is in the air and I thinksometimes you need to take a
step back, reflect and refocusand reignite the passion, like
remember when we first got intothe business and we were so
passionate about it.
That's what I want you to feellike, and I am all about
(01:28):
life-first business planningaround here, and that means
making space for what you love,and that means both inside and
outside of your business.
If this is your first timelistening, I am Lindsay Dreyer,
a real estate coach.
I own a real estate brokeragein the Washington DC area and I
am a busy mom of three.
(01:48):
I love helping real estateagents build businesses that
support their lives so they canmake a bigger impact in the
world.
I do that through one-on-onecoaching, online courses and
retreat.
So now that we have that out ofthe way, let's dive in to
(02:09):
falling back in love with yourreal estate business.
First things first, we need toset the mood for this audit.
I know, I know I get it.
You are a busy person, you havea life, you have a business,
but this is a really fun and canbe a relaxing way to cozy up,
(02:29):
get your favorite drink, turn onyour favorite playlist, and you
need 60 to 90 minutesuninterrupted to reflect on your
business.
This is not some like in-depth,crazy planning day.
This is a happy business audit.
Now what do you need?
You are going to need yourcalendar, your to-do list, a
(02:52):
list of all the tasks that youcomplete.
I highly recommend havingsticky notes.
So get those post-its, becausethey are going to come in handy
and you are going to be doing abig old brain dump and
reorganization.
So that is it.
Set the mood, get a nicelocation, nice big table, get
(03:14):
those post-its, get your tea andcoffee, whatever you need to
sit in, tuck in and spend 60 to90 minutes with you and your
business.
Okay, you are ready to diveinto this audit.
We are going to list all of theways that you have been spending
your time and energy in yourbusiness.
(03:36):
I like to think of them incategories, so it could be your
marketing, your administrative.
I also want you to figure outwhat clients you have had in the
past year or two.
We are writing down everythingin your business.
So this is everything you do,all the people you spend time
(03:57):
with, all of the vendorsliterally everyone.
They are all on the table andthey are all getting evaluated
today.
I want you to think of this asyour just totally unfiltered,
judgment-free brain dump, andthe reason we're doing this is
because we want to get a fullpicture of your business.
(04:20):
We want everything out there.
So then we can move on to thenext step, and the next step is
analyzing all of these things.
So we are going to rate everysingle one of these things,
every single one of these stickynotes, on a scale of one to ten
(04:43):
.
One is it does not contributeanything to your life you
actually hate it or them if it'sa person.
And ten is oh man, this.
I totally enjoy this.
This is absolute joy for me.
I love this so much.
I could do this all day longand I would never get tired of
it.
So you go ahead and rank all ofthese sticky notes from 1 to 10
(05:07):
.
Then we are going to dividethese sticky notes into a few
categories.
Now we are going to have 7 andabove, so we are going to
segment those into your 7 andabove category.
Then we are going to have fiveto seven and then anything below
five.
Now these are our three zones,so anything below five is your
(05:31):
unenjoyment zone.
These are things that you do notneed to be doing in your
business.
If you can help it, this oftenis unnecessary busy work.
It could be tasks you'veoutgrown because you're just
operating at a higher level inyour business.
These are the things that stealyour time.
They steal your energy and yourlove for your business.
(05:53):
So, if you can, you can eitherdelegate them to somebody else,
you can find ways to make themmore enjoyable, or you just stop
doing them altogether.
And I think that sometimes wedon't give ourselves permission
to stop doing things or reallytake a look at things that maybe
we just really don't need to doanymore.
(06:15):
So this is our way to getreally in nitty gritty about our
unenjoyment tasks.
This is our unenjoyment zone.
Let's talk about our seven andhigher.
This is your zone of enjoyment.
This is where we are going tofall back in love with our
business.
So the more time we can spendwith our seven and higher tasks
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people, vendors that is going toresult in a more enjoyable real
estate business.
So finding ways to really spendthe most time in your zone of
enjoyment is going to reallyhelp you.
Now, the five to seven categorythat one can kind of be what
(06:58):
are you feeling?
You could either move down intothe enjoyment zone, you can
move it up into the enjoymentzone, but we're really looking
at ways to try to clear out thefive to seven, because that can
oftentimes be those just likeevery day.
It's just a drag, and so thoseones can either stay or go, but
we're really trying to eitherget them out of your life or
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we're trying to make them moreenjoyable.
So when you're able to focus onyour seven plus category in
terms of enjoyment, these thisis like going on a date night
with your business every night.
This is what is going to keepthe romance alive.
So I really really want you totry to find a way to lean into
these activities and thesepeople and these members.
(07:45):
Let's talk a little bit aboutstreamlining and delegating to
make more space for loving yourbusiness.
So I am a big fan ofeliminating what's draining that
relationship, and this reallyis what can you stop doing
altogether?
And again, we can either stopit or we can outsource it.
But whenever you are saying noto something that is low
(08:07):
enjoyment, you are saying yes towhat you actually really love
and what you actually enjoy.
So, delegating the tediousstuff, if it has to stay in your
business, that is youropportunity to outsource your
tasks.
There are so many different waysto outsource in real estate.
I love that so much and we havevery outsourceable things to do
(08:30):
, so marketing is veryoutsourceable Anything admin,
transaction coordinators,virtual assistants.
Even technology can automateyour follow-ups or your
processes.
So really that can free you upto focus on the parts of your
business that bring youhappiness and joy.
The other thing is taskswitching can be such a hard and
(08:57):
energy suck for real estateagents.
So if you can group similartasks together so you're not
constantly switching gears, itcan be so helpful.
So, for example, if you havethree listings coming live
having one day be just photo dayor marketing day that means you
(09:17):
can bang out the MLS listing,the brochure, your social media
posts, whatever you are doing,and if you're not outsourcing
those, you could just F1.
But if you are doing thatyourself, grouping similar tasks
together can be so time-savingand it also means that that
saves your energy and your timefor other important parts of
(09:39):
your life or business.
So batching can be a reallypowerful tool to help streamline
your business.
All right, so we have rankedeverything from one to 10.
We have our three zones andhopefully you have started to
figure out a potential plan forbeing able to spend more time in
(10:00):
your enjoyment zone so we canfall back in love with our real
estate business.
Now that plan needs to bespecific.
So I want you to go ahead andstart putting in some actionable
items that you can commit to,either in the short term or the
long term, to really worktowards being able to operate in
your zone of enjoyment.
(10:22):
I like to hold myselfaccountable with a CEO date, so
we are going to plan for somelong-term love with our business
here and we are going to createa weekly check-in.
I love, love, love, love, lovecreating a weekly CEO date with
myself because, just like anygreat relationship, your
business needs regular attentiontoo.
(10:44):
I say block out as much time asyou can afford.
So, whether that's 15 minutesan hour, two hours, whatever,
you can commit to start small ifyou don't feel like something
big is worthwhile or that youcan do it.
But it really helps to reflecton what's been working.
How are you doing in terms offocusing on your zone of
enjoyment?
What's not working?
(11:05):
Do you need to pivot?
Do you need to bring in someoutside help?
It is just a really great wayto get intentional about
focusing on your business andmaking it enjoyable.
The other thing is justrecommitting to having an
enjoyable real estate business.
I think a lot of times we don'tthink that that's a metric that
(11:26):
we should care about or that'sa metric of success, but
honestly, I think that's one ofthe biggest metrics of success
is that you have a business thatyou love.
So, remembering what you lovemost about your work and having
that biggest, bigger purpose ofwhy am I doing this every single
day and we're really lucky, weactually make a really big
(11:47):
difference in people's lives.
So remembering that and justcommitting to oh, I actually am
making a big difference and I'mactually enjoying what I'm doing
.
I also think that settingboundaries is really important
because it is very easy to letscope creep come back in.
So if you have decided that youdon't want to work with these
(12:11):
types of particular clients oryou're done working with buyers
I'm only doing listings but thena buyer comes along and you
feel bad saying no, that is whenyou are violating those
boundaries that you have set.
So once you have decided whatyour enjoyment zone is whether
(12:32):
that's tasks, whether that'sclients, whether that's vendors
the key to that protecting thatrelationship with yourself is to
have boundaries and say no.
No is a complete sentence.
That is my favorite thing everand I think it's important to be
able to say I'm not workingwith buyers right now, but I
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have someone on my team that isincredible and will take great
care of you, and that is okay.
If you have decided you're justworking on listings, because
that's what's going to affordyou the life and business and
enjoyment that you deserve.
So there is your blanketpermission to set boundaries to
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protect that loving relationshipwith your business, because if
we don't protect that, that iswhen burnout creeps in.
That is when our resentment ofpeople and our business creeps
in and it's a really, reallyshitty place to be.
Yeah, I know we've all beenthere, but this is a really
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great way to get clear on whatyou enjoy, what you like doing
and what you're not going to bedoing.
So, if you get anything fromthis audit, that's what I'm
hoping that you get, which isthis is what I'm going to be
doing, this is what I'm notgoing to be doing, and I'm going
to stick with it, becausesetting boundaries is crucial to
(13:55):
having a real estate businessthat does not destroy your life
or your health or your energy orreally just everything.
So let's recap those steps weare going to set the mood for
our audit, put it in ourcalendar.
We're going to plan for it.
Make sure you have all thematerials.
Then you are going to do yourbrain dump.
We're going to plan for it.
Make sure you have all thematerials.
Then you are going to do yourbrain dump.
You're going to lift all youractivities and then you are
(14:19):
going to grade them on enjoymentfrom one to ten.
Analyze the three zones thebelow five, the five to seven
and the seven plus.
Decide what's worth keeping,what's not.
Maybe you need to reworksomething.
Then you will streamline,delegate, set some goals, some
action items, some ways thatyou're going to make your
(14:40):
business more enjoyable, andthen you're going to plan for
long-term love, with someboundaries and a CEO date.
So I hope this Valentine's Dayyou give yourself the gift of
clarity.
Take 60 to 90 minutes this weekto reconnect with your business
, to discover what you love mostabout it.
Real estate is one of the mostflexible careers, so there is a
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way for you to love thisbusiness, I can guarantee it.
If you found this episodehelpful, I would love it if
you'd share it with a fellowagent who maybe needs a little
help falling back in love withtheir business.
And please don't forget tosubscribe.
I hope you all have a veryhappy Valentine's Day and thank
(15:23):
you for spending a little bit oftime with me diving into love.