How to Make Sure Your Business Is Bringing You Time, Money, Freedom and Reduced Stress

Hey there. Lars Hedinborg, founder of Real Estate B School, back with another edition of the Business Freedom podcast. This is where I just get to rant a little bit and add as much value as I possibly can into your business to make the journey easier for you. Today I want to chat about probably, you know, one of the most common questions that I get asked it is when I'm having a conversation with a real estate team leader. A lot of real estate team leaders, if you really dig into their business, there's usually something off around the model they're using, the economic model, their agent compensation, the cadence and structure within the business and then how that business is affecting them personally. Time, money and stress. And just the issues that we face as business owners, bringing that stuff home with us to our spouses, to our children, our physical health, our spiritual health, our emotional health, and all of that. So this is the question. It's like, you know, I'm running a real estate team and if it's not giving me what I thought it could give me, and my definition of that is time, money, freedom with reduced stress. If it's not giving me that, what do I do? You know, I've had conversations with folks that are anywhere from a million to two and a half million to six million of gross commission income. And it is not. They have nothing to show for their efforts financially. They're working just as many hours in the business as they were when they were a solo agent selling 60 homes on their own with a part time assistant. And the stress is even more than it used to be because they're sort of eyeballs deep in transactions and helping their agents and, you know, looking for talent and watching the numbers and trying to get a handle on tracking. And their culture might be off. And so you actually get more stress, you have less time, and if it's not set up on the right economical model, you'll have less money to show for it. And so here are the three things I want to go through. Three things that you should do right now if you're not where you want to be as a real estate team leader in terms of what your goals are for time, money and stress. Right? The definition that I throw out there, and this is what I use personally in my business life. I need to have, you know, as much time to do what I want to do, and that's time in the business doing what I'm uniquely qualified to do, but also a lot of time away from the business. So I can be a great husband, I can be a Great father. So time, money. I need to see that this is building net worth. Not just, you know, a whole lot of gci, actually a process in place to build net worth and then stress. I don't want to have a lot of stress in my life. So I've got a few businesses that I want to, you know, help the folks inside those teams and help our clients. I just don't want to be stressed all the time. So here are the three things. Number one is just take a break and I say a clarity break. Just take a deep breath, take some time away from the business and really consider what you're building. And what I mean by that is let's just look at time, money and stress for now. Is the business that I built is this real estate team that I built giving me the time and money freedom and reduced stress that I'm looking for? Just ask yourself that question. And that's a question I want you to ask yourself every, at least every 90 days, but really every 30 days, are you taking steps to have a business that sort of hits those three points and just once a week, take 90 minutes to ask yourself that question. If the answer isn't an enthusiastic yes on all three points, then you've got to take steps to move past that. So that's, number one is just relax, take a step back and take a weekly clarity, clarity break, 90 minutes. Where the guiding question is, is this business moving me closer to time, money and stress freedom? Number two is determine your model. And what I mean by this, it has everything to do with your economic model. What's the profit target for the business with you not having to do all the heavy lifting in production or managing people or whatnot? What's your compensation model for agents? What model are you following with you being in production versus out of production? And there's, you know, there are teams that we coach and train that have the team leaders that just love production and they're going to stay in the listing side of the business. We make sure we train them to not have to do that. It's not a true measure, really. If you do most of the production on your team, you really don't have a business. You have some people around you that are adding to what you're doing. If you step out, it may not run like a true business. And then what's the service model that you're following? I believe in our industry that I see it, there's a shift storm. It is an absolute shift storm right now. Technology, consumer, economic shift, business model, shift with the ibuyers coming in, it's changing everything. And so what service model are you working toward in your business? Where are you really building something that's going to be the best in all the land at helping buyers and sellers? If you build that, you will be fine. You will sell as many homes as you possibly want to sell and you won't have to spend a bunch of money on leads and mass media and all that crazy stuff to get there. So that's number two is to know your model. Number three is to persevere. We need to be persistent in this work. This is not an easy path, especially with all the nonsense that's going on in terms of where most of us we don't purchase home search leads. Most real estate teams have a lot of money into Zillow, realtor.com, pay per click, those sorts of things and we're paying some someone else to generate an opportunity for us versus just becoming a really good marketer and shifting your marketing approach. Leading and managing folks is not an easy journey and it is so satisfying once you get the right culture and you're clear about where you're going and along the lines of persevering, it's the question like is my mindset one of a short term gain or long term business building? And what I mean by that is are you really digging into the long term game of being a business owner where the definition of business to me is like yeah, it's definitely time, money, stress. And it's also just being in business, being a force in your market, in helping buyers and sellers, where none of this stuff is going to even impact your business at all. Because you serve your clients at such a high level and you serve your team members at such a high level that it's just not going to matter. Whatever happens, the slice of the market is always going to be available to someone that provides the best service possible. And so you really need to think of your business in that sense with a long game game view. So that's what I've got for you. That's my answer, my very best answer. There's all these different tactics, tools and systems and a process for getting someone from, you know, let's say in all these three points you're a two out of five and you know, we need to get you to a five out of five. There is a process to get there. It's obviously a deeper level conversation. If you want to have that conversation with me personally, I will get on a 45 minute call with you and I will dig into exactly where your business is now, what's working, what's not working, what we think is possible, what you think is possible three years from now and what's holding you back and what strengths you have as well. Where are you falling short as a leader manager? What's not set up properly in your business? And that conversation in and of itself is going to be a valuable conversation. If there is an opportunity to work together, we will explore it. If there's not, we will not. And so it's not a sales call as much as it is an opportunity to get to know you, you and your business. This is 100% my passion. Working with real estate team leaders who have businesses that are ultimately hurting them and enslaving them in a lot of different ways where their time isn't their own. They're not making the kind of money to make it worth it, they don't have significant net worth increase year after year to show for it. And they're super stressed all the time. And a lot of times we're leading with expenses in our businesses and it is, it's just this crazy sort of model that is not sustainable. So if that's you, go to realestatebschool.com click on Business Growth strategy session and just book some time in with us. We'll have that conversation. There's just a few questions that you need to answer before we get on the phone and then we will get on for a 45 minute conversation and it'll be really valuable. I have nothing to sell anyone except a 45 minute conversation that you will leave with a ton of value. If we never work together. As long as I can serve you in that 45 minutes, all is good. And you may know someone who is a great fit for real estate B school. So take action. Go to realestatebschool.com right now and hopefully these three points, this is you. You've got to sort of just get out of it for a little bit, see what's there, ask yourself those questions and just take steps to move past where you are right now. Create a business that really is a business because it can run without you. Alright, much love and respect, we'll talk to you soon. Bye.