5 Minute Success With Karen Briscoe

Foreign Today's show, I'm excited to have Karen Briscoe. Karen is a mother, wife, top producing Realtor, as well as an author and creator of the transformative five Minute success concept. She's also the principal owner of HBC with Keller Williams, which has been recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of the 250 top realtor teams in the United States. Karen, welcome to the show.

Chris, I'm delighted to be here because you know, who doesn't love to go next level? And we're doing a pod swap. Right. So you've been a guest on the 5 Minute Success podcast and so time to turn the mic.

Yeah, I love the concept and I'm not going to steal your thunder. I'll let you talk more about that. But I'd love for the audience to hear a little bit about your journey and how you ended up, you know, kind of where I introduced you in the intro today.

Well, I started out in dirt in the early 80s out of college, worked for Trammel Crow in Dallas where the company bought land, put in streets, utilities and sold lots to home builders and met my husband there. We had our two children and then his career brought us to the Washington D.C. metro region inside the Beltway on the Virginia side, McLean, which is where the home of Langley. I'm sure if you've seen any spy movie, you know where Langley is. Oh, I know it well, yes. And where Amazon HQ2 is in this area. So we are, you know, very impacted by the D.C. metro region, but we also have a vibrant economy on this side of the river as well. So I mostly stayed home with our children the first dozen years of their life. And when I wanted to reenter the workforce, I wanted to go back into commercial real estate. So I actually went to work for the Starbuck company, had the Nextel account and we managed the sales engineering warehouse offices around the United States. So what I found was what you see in one sales engineering warehouse office, you've seen them all because it's pretty, you know, cookie cutter. The attorneys do all the interesting negotiating. And it was during the tech bust. So, you know, when markets are correcting and then there's, there's dispositions going on, there's no money. Staubach lost the account. I would have to go for Nextel. That didn't seem very interesting. And somebody said, well, why don't you try residential real estate? And you and I kind of alluded to this, but the commercial folks, they think that they've got all the hard skills, right? Negotiation, market Knowledge, strategy. Those people on the residential side, all they're doing is dealing with emotions and relationships and you know what, you know how hard is that? Those are the soft skills. What I found is I'm actually very strong in both sides and that was success very rapidly. I guess I was technically rookie of the year and as what often happens when people achieve a high level success fast, you get the attention of people. And at the time, Sue Huckabee was number 10 in the nation on the residential rankings. And I happened to know her from church and she asked me if I would join her team. And then that led to me becoming her partner in 06 and then sadly she passed away in 08. It happened to be the same months that the financial markets crashed and the real estate market then crashed thereafter. So I took over this huge business that just totally shifted on me and I'm a resourceful person. I actually was in this in Texas during the savings and loan Crisis in the 80s. I had some muscle memory about that and also the recession of early 90s and then what happened after 911 and the tech bus. So I really now I've been through five recessions market corrections. So I pivoted really quickly and moved the company to Keller Williams, brought on Lindsey Conroy as my business partner and we set about rebuild the company. And that over the next half a dozen years or so started hitting the top rankings again. And once again people start to notice, right? I mean, particularly when you go through the level of situation I had with a partner dying, market crashing, all of that, that led to a lot of speaking and coaching and training which led to me having a lot of people say I should write a book. And I wanted to write a book that would be different than other real estate books because there are already a lot of real estate books, right?

I've read a lot of them and I haven't even come close to all of them.

I know. So I was like, okay, so what is unique, that would be a unique value proposition. And what I found over and over again when I would be speaking and coaching and training with people is they invariably felt they didn't have enough time, particularly when it came to investing in their personal and business development. And I said, well, do you have five minutes a day? And everybody did. And that stuck. And it really is, it's proven to be true that it works for a lot of reasons. One, it's basically Parkinson's law. So Parkinson's law states that limiting and restricting time actually makes you more efficient and effective. It's not really time, per se. Right. And so many people say they don't have enough time. There's actually a quote from 2,100 years ago. Lizzie said time is a created thing. To say I don't have time is like saying, I don't want to. So what we're trying to do is we're trying to break that down and eliminate that blockage. And so it stuck. And I found the five Minute Success principles apply for so many reasons, but probably one of the main ones is that people are more likely to remember it and apply it. It's the principle of the daily reader concept, like in motivational and spiritual religious literature is because most books, most trainings, it's a tsunami. It's almost too much information. So people don't remember it and then they can't apply it when they need it, which is the point. Right?

Yeah. They put on the shelf and say, I'll get to it when I have time.

And they never have time. Right. Or they started and they don't know where to stop. And, you know, this is bite size nuggets. And so it's. It's very effective. And so that's how the five Minute Success came about. Through my journey.

Yeah, I love it. And how many podcasts have you done now?

Well, so the five Minute Success podcast actually came out of the fact that my book, on its first birthday, said it wanted a podcast. And, you know, ideas often generate other ideas. Right. So it's not unusual. I was being asked to be a guest on other people's podcasts, you know, such as yours. And what I found is these principles so universally applied that I felt that I could bring guests on and really hone in on the five minute success principles that way. So we're at over 250 episodes and.

Awesome.

So many outstanding guests. Hal Elrod, Gretchen Rubin, Gay Hendricks, and lots of outstanding real estate people. Jay Papas on. And Chris Larson.

Thank you. Yeah. And I highly encourage everybody to check out Karen's podcast. I listened through several of them. That's why I invited Karen to come on. Just some amazing people, amazing nuggets, including those from Karen herself. And I'm excited to have you share some more here. So a lot of people know me from next level income. They know the commercial side. They know my affinity towards commercial real estate multifamily. I started as a Realtor when I was in college. I had a real estate license for a couple years and then moved into the medical device field. But I learned the same thing you did which was applying those systems really makes a big difference Karen. But also it doesn't take a lot of time if you're working on the right things, if you're working on your business. And I had one of my regional managers early on say if you just read this was in pharma medical device. If you just read two studies a week, you can outperform 98% of the reps out there. So what are the things that, for people that haven't listened to your podcast yet, five minutes success. What are some of the things that you talk about focusing on as you get started?

So key fundamentals. The book is written, like I said, as a daily reader. So every day it's different. I actually did that intentionally because so many sales and entrepreneurial people, they're, you know, shoddy object squirrel, they're off of the next thing. So I wanted to have enough unique information coming at it they wouldn't get bored. But the principles are core and the first one is commit to get leads. So that's business development, prospecting, lead generation. So in any sales entrepreneurs, but really any profession, if you think about dentists, you know, they lead generate, they call those patients.

I got a text, it was my birthday yesterday.

From your dentist.

I got a text from my dentist and I was like, that's innovative. I like that.

Yeah. So they're, you know, they recognize that, you know, client retention, patient retention is huge. Right. So really everybody does this. They just don't call it necessarily that, but it is key aspect because for example on the commercial side the leads could be, you know, investors or the leads could be deals. Right. So everybody's doing some sort of lead generation. So that is until you have a lead though really you don't have anything to do. So once you have a lead then the next key component is consult to sell. Some people call this conversion. I prefer the consultative approach because I feel like oftentimes if somebody feels like they're being converted there, you know, may have buyers remorse later or something will happen. But if they're, if you're consulting them and you're taking them through the transaction transactional process to help them, a service oriented, then that will end up with a better result. But the ultimate result for business is a transaction. Money comes out on the other hand and everybody has to do that. Right. Because if you don't monetize it, then you're non profit. But do you know, do you realize nonprofits actually have to make money too? So really all in the same business, if you think about it deeply enough and then the next component is connect, build and grow. What often happens, particularly with sales entrepreneurs is they're always off of their next deal or they'll do a deal and then they'll wake up and realize they don't have any business coming in. So they get crazy busy lead generating and then they stop lead generating and they get, you know, work their deal. So there's principles to create scale leverage systems, create a more sustainable enterprise. And we saw this happen with COVID 19. How many businesses did not have a plan if no money was coming in for 30, 60 days? So that really to create longevity, you need a plan. Right. And you need to work the plan. Many people, you know, refer to the e myth mastery concept of this is the working on the business. Working in the business is a transactional aspect, the technician and then it's surrounded or encompassed by the success principles of success, thinking, activities and vision, which is the mindset motivation component to be successful long term. It's really key first to have the thinking which is, you know, affirmations and planning, business planning, but also to have the vision of where you want to go, but doing the actions to make those happen. Many people just think all they have to do is say their affirmations and have a vision board. It really takes action, you know, to make things happen.

Take massive action, as Tony Robbins says.

Yeah, yes, massive action moves things faster than anything because at least you'll know quickly whether it's working or not. And then all of that comes together and that creates a sweet spot of success. So these core key principles are throughout the book and obviously throughout the podcast as well.

Yeah, again, it's what you've said, you know, you see it from multiple experts, multiple people. I love how you've put it down in bite sized pieces for those, like my wife, for instance, she's an architect, she's a professional. So you're a professional, you're listening to this, you're like, well, I'm not in sales, I'm not a realtor, I'm not a, you know, sales rep that's going out there. I don't need to generate leads. What would you say to that person, Karen?

Well, so they are generating leads, are probably having a lot of referrals, but at some point that would dry up if you stop doing the things that caused the business to come and flow. So the lead generating is the doing good work that spreads the news and that, you know, brings in more work. But at some point there will be a reckoning because you Stop doing that. I've seen it happen over and over again. And I had one agent that was very successful at open houses and he decided to take off the season to go hunting and. And then he woke up three months later and said, I have no business. And I'm like, well, you stop the flow. Oftentimes people want to start a new form of business development and you can do that, but often that takes longer because it's like the rocket ship. Right. If you think about it, with the energy that is required to get a rocket ship in the air, it has to get over gravity. Right. Is way more at a higher level than keeping it in orbit. And so your wife is just in orbit.

Yeah. She's reached escape velocity, right?

She has. And that is a very powerful place to be. Although I have seen situations where people just start to relax. They don't realize that some of the things they were doing were what was causing the energy to continue. And they relax and then all of a sudden they wake up someday and they go, what happened? Where did it all go? Stopped.

I think it's fantastic advice. So we're about three months into the COVID 19 crisis. Hopefully we're coming out of it as we go through this. What have you been doing personally during this period? You know, working on your business or, you know, I know the real. We can go into how, you know, the changes we've seen in the real estate market. But I would love to hear about what you've personally been doing during this period.

So back to the muscle memory. The one thing I've discovered is that when there's a market shift, a correction, you know, first thing is to, you know, stop the flow out and make the corrections necessary. Which, you know, a lot of instances should have been done a while ago. But when your money's flowing and deals are flowing, it's so easy to just say, oh yeah, just keep that on the credit card. So we that was first made some adjustments corrections also to employee went to some more contract labor for the transactional aspect of it rather than an employee based. So those changes stopped some of the flow out in terms of the lead generation business development. We all double timed from a. Not so much like I'm calling you to help you buy or sell a house, but more of. More of a client care call, more of a service call. We also started doing a video series because we found that we had a lot of people that were wondering what's going on in real estate, what's happening in the market? And they wanted a Good resource to go to. We started a video series. What we found actually our business is actually up this year over last year. So yeah, 2019, our team sold 91 million average. We sold about 100 houses a year. Average sales price 900,000. So we obviously are at a very high income area or cost of living area this year to date, which is just the beginning of June. We're already over 50 million soldiers.

Wow. Congratulations.

Yes, it sold in under contract. So what attributes to that? Well, I like to think we're good at what we do. You know, I believe that we were responsive to the market in a timely manner. The other key thing about at least our market area, Homeland Security considers it to be an essential service. So we were not shut down or I mean we did have stay at home orders, but we as a business, we could still show houses and close deals. Which was actually the first, most important thing was the recordation at the courthouses still, because I actually feel like I was instrumental in that. I have a friend of mine is a title attorney who's also a Virginia delegate and I woke up one morning and go, if they close the courthouses, we will all be shut down. All these people are going to be homeless. And he went immediately to the Virginia Supreme Court and declared service courthouses. So we're fortunate, we're blessed. At the same time, I think I could speak for a lot of the United States because I'm in a lot of mastermind with top agents all around. And what we're finding is, is that home has become even more important to people in the sense that it's now not just shelter in place and save at home, but it's also where many people are working, where many people are playing, where many people are homeschooling. They want more physical distance. We're seeing a shifting from what we had been seeing, a movement towards city center and walkability and density. We're seeing the opposite towards suburbia. So I believe it's a trend that's going to benefit the residential real estate agent. But I think that if you look at economies, right, when housing is strong, other aspects of the economy are strong too.

So absolutely.

Now of course we have employment. You know, I'm not saying we're out of the woods yet, but I'm anticipating or optimistic that we're going to see that housing is going to be one of those areas that people are going to focus on and it'll be beneficial to the overall economy because again, as people buy and sell houses, that creates a lot of jobs. And demand in other areas.

Absolutely. So in my book, I talk about the cycles like you mentioned earlier, and a lot of the money, the banking is real estate driven, just with all the real estate collateral, which drives the stock market, drives economies, it's a huge component. You can go back to the 1800s. And Karen, you started, you talked about this is the fifth downturn you've seen. I saw my first. My parents got laid off in the early 90s during the savings and loan crisis. And you were, and you were in Texas. So you're very acutely aware of that. And I saw three after that so far. What have you learned from those? But also we were talking about this before the show. As a female achieving success during those downturns in commercial, in residential. What can you share with the audience? I'd love to hear some advice for those out there that may be looking at my podcast and saying you got a lot of men on here and not a lot of women.

Yes. And I appreciate the fact that you recognize that and then you have me as a guest. So thank you very much for that. So I hit the key aspects to any market correction shift is, you know, getting real and right with your expenses quickly, making those moves quickly and then lead generating. You just double time until you feel like you've, you know, come out on the other side. And that may take. It takes several years. I'm not saying it's going to happen overnight, but those two red light, green light on the expenses and increasing revenue is going to be a key to success in any business endeavor. So the aspect of women and what was my characteristics that made for success? Well, I'm a high D. We got that in common. Natural driver, just this internal fire in the belly. I'm going to just keep going Energizer Bunny until I keep going. But the other thing is, is that I recognize very early on that this was a business. So what happens frequently, particularly on the residential side, Women enter the real estate profession as kind of a side hustle from their family, which I did too. So I mean, I get that.

Yeah, that's an interesting perspective. I've never thought of it that way, but yeah, like a side hustle from the family, from being a mom.

Right. And it's very good for that. I mean, my business partner started out that way. I have a number of women that have started that way. The difference is. This is the difference. The difference is when they recognize that it's a business and you know, back to the E Myth mastery, they go from the technician of Being the deal maker to recognizing they have to work on the business and create systems and scale. And I saw that very early on, and I implemented those in place very early on. And then as I've risen in the rankings of, you know, top level producers, as you mentioned, it really flops. It flip flops because there's a majority of women real estate agents on the residential side, and yet you get to the upper echelons, the top 20%, and it's the other way around. Again, I've talked to so many, you know, top producers, and I just hear it over and over again. The men go into it, you know, from the ground running, creating a. Building a business.

Interesting.

And so what often happens with women is. Well, several things. One, I feel like they take it personally, the rejection. And I do, too. I mean, believe me, in the beginning, I had to put on my bulletproof vest. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I look at guys, gosh, look, you all have to ask women out on dates. You all get a lot of. You get a lot of experience in overcoming rejection.

I got rejected a lot, Karen, Is that what you said?

So there you go. See? Hey, you know, it reminds me of that movie, you've Got Mail, you know, where Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, you know, and he's going, yeah, you got to go to the mattresses. You know, it's not personal, it's business. Men, for some reason, come out that way, and women look at it the other way. They think it's personal and they don't look at it as business. And then they take it personally. And by taking it personally, then it holds them back. And, you know, I'm sure you've heard Sheryl Sandberg and the whole idea of lean in, it's true. Women literally don't lean in. I mean, they don't make the big ask. They don't ask to sit at the table. But they also oftentimes. Now, obviously there's many successful women out there, myself included, but the ones that do, they lean in. They make the ask, and they consider it as a business. They treat it like a business. They obviously have feelings, but they recognize that it's not personal. And they don't make it about them. They make it about the business and how they can help that be successful.

I love that. And you know, like you said earlier, you know, if you take just a little bit of time and you, you put that first of working on the business systematizing focus on lead generation and the sequential growth afterwards, then, you know, at some point, you don't even have to work in the business. You can, you can have more freedom. And that's what I loved about your, your TEDx talk, which, and I believe it's like flip time, love life. And I listened to that. It really resonated with me. We were talking before the show. I'd love for everybody to go and listen to Karen on TEDx, but if maybe you could share a little bit about the philosophy of that and how you have applied it in your own life.

So what happened with me is that I achieved a high level of success, have a marriage of over three decades with love of my life, two successful adult children. And I looked around, I go, oh my gosh, there's still something more. I mean, I have what many people would say, okay, you've already arrived at the peak. So what I found is that I also kept saying I didn't have enough time to do the creative work, the contribution work, the thing that would give more meaning. And this is what led me to write the book. And what I realized was the only one that was stopping me from doing it was me. Because if I really wanted to do it, I would do it. There's a quote by Lazu that's 2,500 years ago that says time is a created thing. To say I don't have time is like saying, I don't want to. So I had to look at why I was saying that, why I was stopping myself. And what I discovered along the way is that what I was doing and what many people do is I was working my way up Maslow's hierarchy of deeds pyramid, the self actualization. So in the time of COVID the base of the pyramid is your physical needs. You're needing toilet paper. I mean, believe me, we all went back to the basics, right? We all needed our toilet paper. Then the safety, security needs. We all needed to know that we were going to be okay. And then the steam needs, relationship needs, then self actualization. And like I said, many people, myself included, worked their way up the pyramid and, and only once they have the lower level needs satisfied do they work on self actualization. Several things could happen. You can run out of time. I mean, a health event, you know, career event, a life event where you don't get to self actualization. And you know, many people wait till the kids are out of school or they're retired or in school or whatever it is they're waiting for. They're waiting for something to happen.

Yeah.

So what I realized was also people were trying to fit self actualization into their life. Like a time management block or a work life balance initiative. So the challenge of work life balance is it's got this, you know, teeter totter philosophy where like, okay, so you give to your work, but then your life suffers. And then if you give to your life, your work suffers and well, first of all, it's all life. So I was like, well, what if you flip the pyramid? What if it's not not time management? What if it is focus management and energy management? And if you put energy management, if you put self actualization first by flipping time and you create the life you love, you know why you're living the life you love right now, but you're creating the life of your dreams. What I find is, is the people who do that, they actually are more authentic with themselves. So because they're more authentic with themselves, they have higher self esteem, they have better relationships, they're really actually more productive because they're living in tune with themselves. And that leads to, you know, the personal needs. So, you know, people say, well, how does this work? And I'm like, well, I actually took the time to write my book, which some would say, wow, you took away from your business, it's actually doubled my business.

Wow.

So the energy that comes from living that life that I love is actually more impactful than the idea that I could work harder, work smarter, whatever. It actually became that impetus, if you will, the paradigm shift is what caused that to happen. It wasn't the other way around. It didn't become self actualized. And then it happened, I had to pursue it. And then it came to me.

I love that. And you mentioned losing your business partner. I lost my best friend, my training partner in college. And it made me think, am I really doing what I'm meant to be doing? And I say I'm lucky a lot of times because I went through some of these challenges, lost my father too when I was very young. But it makes you think, is this really what I went through was I thought, is this really what I'm meant to be doing? And it took me like you a long time to work up at that point. But then I realized one day you can have it all, you can do it all. And it doesn't have to be the chicken or the egg. And that's what we try to talk about at next level income is you can find your passion, you can work on that, you can be an amazing mother, father, business person and do all those things. And that's why I'd love to have you on the show here, Karen. So I'm going to ask you the last question. We always ask all our guests and then I'll let you share kind of where everybody can find all your resources. But we always ask our guests, if you could go back and give your 25 year old self one piece of advice, what would it be?

Well, it's going to have two parts, but one piece is to the proverb of, you know, when was the best time to plant a tree? 20 years ago. When's the next best time? Is now. Same with real estate. Right. When is the best time to buy real estate? 20 years ago. Next best time is now. So I would encourage that.

Love it.

Yay. And then the similar is invest in yourself. Warren Buffett said that your greatest asset, your greatest investment is in yourself. And I have found that to be true. Many people think that coaching and personal development and business development is expensive. And I'm like, but I have the ability to create value and wealth more than any other asset I own. And so I would encourage my 25 year old self to recognize that and to invest, invest in myself.

I think it's perfect advice. And I was listening to a podcast with a very successful tech entrepreneur and they said, hey, I know if I lost everything, if I could be dropped in a country where I speak the language and had the proper business structure, I could have a business in five to 10 years. I'd be tremendously wealthy again. I think if you invest in yourself and you go through that, it can have all that. So, Karen, I've absolutely loved having you on the show today. For our guests that want to or our audience that wants to listen to your podcast, get your books and or learn more about you and please go check out our TED Talk as well. What's the best way to find you, Karen?

So it's really easy because it's just the number five minute success. That's the podcast. You find podcasts everywhere and then the website, social media and the books. Real estate success in five minutes a day commit to get lead 66 day challenge as well as Flip Time Love life which is a heroine's journey. It's a story told about the character Haley who goes on this journey and learns to flip time to love life. And all of those are at Amazon or wherever you get books.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Karen. I highly encourage the audience to check all of Karen's material out. Also, you can get my book free@nextlevelincome.com book Karen, I wish you the best. Thank you so much for your time today.

And here's to your success.

Chris, thank you. It.