Are You As Productive As You Could Be?

Welcome back Business Freedom podcast listeners. Lars Hedinborg here, founder of Real Estate B School, co founder of High Performance Real Estate Advisors in Charlotte, North Carolina today. And I'm probably going to unpack this over a few sessions. It's not going to be a formal multi part series, although I'm going to dig into the to the productivity strategies that have made me really, really successful in business and life. And I don't say really, really successful. As that came out, I was like, man, that is all ego. I don't mean it that way. I mean it like I've done a lot of things wrong and I figured out a lot of things that have worked really, really well for me. And over these next few podcast episodes, I'm going to unpack all of it. The good, the bad, the ugly, and I'm going to call it. This first episode is going to be titled are you as productive as you can be? And if you've heard me talk about my business growth journey, it's not. It is a journey. And so I see a lot of real estate team leaders and a lot of top producing agents like they're just rushing to get to the place, right? They're not really enjoying the ride. They're not building their business in a way where there's some sustainability in it, where it can serve them rather than enslave them. The majority of real estate team leaders are enslaved to their businesses in multiple ways. Wrong economic models. They think they can't extract themselves from certain parts of the business even if they don't have a desire to get out of production. There's 95% of the activities of a real estate team leader that you don't need to do and you can get someone at a much lower wage. I'm going to get into that here a minute. There's a quote here by James Clear that I want to kick us off with because it's kind of like it really touches on the journey aspect of this. Becoming the type of person you want to become, someone who lives by a stronger standard, someone who believes in themselves, someone who can be counted on by the people that matter to them is about the daily process you follow and not the ultimate product you achieve. Super cool. And the guiding question for any conversation on productivity is this, and I want you to really think about this. Am I making consistent progress toward meaningful goals in the areas of life and business that really matter? Let me say that again. Am I making consistent progress toward meaningful goals in the areas of life, business that really matters? So meaningful goals, areas Right. There's areas of life, there's areas, areas of business. And are you making progress towards those goals in the areas that actually matter. And so a lot of times when I look at, back at my business growth journey, you know, there's multiple sort of phases and there's seasons of business. And let's say that it's, it's your intention to build more of a business than what you have now. And I define that by if you don't show up every day in your business, quote unquote. Because a lot of real estate agents don't really have businesses. They have really good jobs. And that's not a dis against a real estate, even a team leader if their business doesn't run without them because they may have a really important position in the business. And a lot of team leaders though they their wrong economic model, they're stuck in production because they set the thing up the wrong way. Super low profit margin, super high stress, super high hours. And that's not what we want and that's what we fight against in real estate B school. And so my point here though is that a lot of times at different points in your journey you hit a ceiling and it's because you're doing a thing that you've, you need to move past. And so you feel frustrated because you're doing a thing that is really, I don't want to say beneath you because nothing is beneath the business owner. Right? The business owner will do anything to keep the business going. It's below your pay grade. So if you want to elevate your position in your business, you need to make a commitment to get out of the things that you can get others to do at a much lower pay grade. 80% of the function of a real estate agent you could in my market, which is A Metro Top 20 Metro Market Charlotte, NC 2.2 million in our metro you can get someone for $20 an hour or a lot less to do. We hired a runner, a 24 year old super good kid at $8 an hour. He was, he's amazing. We instantly gave him a raise to 10 or $11 an hour. And then we've got another runner who started at 11, got to, I think he's at 12 or 13, you know, so the pay grade on our real estate team, you know, and we have transaction quarter that probably makes 25 to $30 an hour. Buyer agents for the amount of hours they put in make, you know, 40 to $50 an hour. Listing agents make 75 to $100 an hour. So you hit a point where your frustration goes up because you're doing things that are sort of a ceiling at what you need to be doing to move to the next level. So just know that if you're feeling frustrated, it's likely that you've hit a ceiling and you need to look at the things that you're doing. And I'll go through that here. Maybe on one of the next episodes I'll go through that. And my next thing I want to sort of unpack here as we kind of get into this conversation about productivity, is that the day and age that we're living in, a conversation around true productivity, what it means to really be productive is needed because it is crazy. The amount of distraction, if you think of, you know, I am holding up my phone, if you are watching the video, you can see the amount of distraction that can be let into your world through your telephone is crazy. So there is an absolute need for extraordinary measures. And, and if you have kids and you have a spouse and you're trying to show up in your church and add value there, and you're trying, maybe you're in a men's group and you're adding value there, and maybe you do community service and you're adding value there, maybe trying to take care of your physical body, your emotional well being, like all of those things are really good. And then think of the Netflix, the watching sports, the going golfing, the mindless watching the news reading, going on social media, all of the stuff that could take you away from the things that really, really matter. And so there's an absolute need for extraordinary measures. And then the last thing I'll tell you is that when it comes to productivity, there are no secrets. So I'm not sure how long I'm going to keep this thread here, this podcast thread going on productivity. But I will tell you that there are no secrets. And common sense is not always common practice. I will say that again. Common sense is not always common practice. So as I go through the things that have worked really, really well for me, really think about, are you doing that thing? The very highest level that you could be doing it. Really think about that. Because I have really thought about all of these sort of strategies that I'm going to go through and how when I look back over my business growth journey from 2008 was my first full year in real estate. I was a solo agent. I brought on an assistant that year, did 44 sides and then 58 and then 118 when I started my team 178, 248, 310 or so, and then 400 plus. That was my journey. The year we did 248, I did one transaction that year. And so I was just committed to, you know, getting out of the thing. I didn't have a passion for doing and I knew someone else could do it better and take care of the clients better. And I can get into my sweet spot with switch systems building, marketing, pretty much IT systems building and marketing and sort of being the business owner and tracking numbers and, you know, lead source, ROI tracking, all of that stuff. And so when I look back on my journey, the things I'm going to go through are the things that have endured over the entire journey to the point where, you know, for the last six years I'm one day a week in the real estate team and now I've built a multimillion dollar coaching company that I've pretty much built, pretty leveraged. And so there are elements of the process. I'm pretty much still holding onto the listing appointment equivalent in this business, which is the strategy session. And if you've heard the podcast for a period of time, the sign off is go to realestatebschool.com booking a business growth strategy session. As of the recording of this podcast, I'm still doing those business growth strategy sessions. So that's the last thing I'll probably give up because I really, really enjoy them. It gets me face to face with somebody that's struggling with time, money and stress as it relates to the real estate team. So just know that there are no secrets when it comes to the stuff I'm going to work through and talk about. And I'm super excited to go on this journey with you. We'll see how many episodes this lasts. Every one of these strategies are going to be really impactful and I may double up some strategies on some of these episodes that are upcoming. Just know that this conversation is sort of couched around the fact that you are. If you're a solo agent, if you just hired your first admin or your first buyer agent, or if you're running a big real estate team and you're feeling a level of frustration, it's likely that you've hit a ceiling, you're doing things you don't need to do. We're living in a time where there's an absolute need for extraordinary measures and there's nothing new I'll bring to this conversation. It's just the challenge on all these strategies, are you actually doing it? Are you actually doing it? And so we'll talk to you on the next session. If you already know that you are just as jacked up as I was, as I was going through the growth journey here and you're ready to have a conversation about it, an honest conversation about where you are today, where you want to go and what's holding you back from achieving your goals. Go to realestatebschool.com There is no hard sell. It's literally a conversation on those three points, where you are today, where you're going and what's holding you back from achieving your goals. And we have a pilot program which is 30 days free coaching. Set up some baseline systems for productivity and tracking and we'll analyze your business against the four key drivers, the 12 accelerators, and it'll be awesome. So take action. Go to realestatebschool.com we will see you there. And stay tuned for probably about 10 productivity strategies that you can absolutely use in your business and in your personally personal life to show up at a higher level and add more value in the areas of your life that truly matter. We'll see you there.