Making the Most of the New Year

Welcome back to the Business Freedom Podcast. Today we're gonna chat about the new year it's coming, how to prepare for it, how to make the most of it. I go through a process every year which I'm gonna share with you. I actually do it every quarter and I'm gonna share with you. Kind of a process that I go through to build momentum as you close one chapter of your business. And you can do this in areas of your personal life as well. Mainly I'm going to apply this to business though, and kind of take an inventory of what's good about what you've achieved, kind of where you are right now and where you want to go. And so there's three parts that I want to go through. Number one is what we call looking back and. Well, actually let me give you this a little bit of context before I dive right in. So the one thing as a business owner, so choosing to make your own way. Let's just talk general business ownership. Choosing to make your own way, show up every day and fight for a sale and then make decisions about where you're going to spend the income from a sale in terms of resources with marketing or with people or overhead, and then hoping you make all the right decisions and you have a profit to show for it. That's business ownership. Right? That's not specific to real estate necessarily. So doing that, deciding to be the business owner is on the one hand it is really admirable. Right. Most business owners don't make it like the statistics for small business owners in the United States are really bad in real estate, it's like, you know, you launch your business, you get your license, it's like 82%. It's either 82 or 84% do not renew by their second anniversary. So they'll be in the, they'll get their license, they'll renew on their 12 month anniversary because they have to same business and then they won't renew. 82% roughly won't renew by their second anniversary. So that's a, that's a small business owner right there failing within two years. 82%, I think it goes up to like 90, 94% or I'm making up numbers, but it's in the 90s, five years for small business owners. So really admirable and really like crazy and intimidating and like the odds are stacked against you to be successful. So with all of that said, it's important as business owners, as entrepreneurs that have chosen the real estate, you know, residential, general brokerage, real estate, working with Buyers and sellers. It's important for us to protect our confidence. Like we need super high confidence to be able to fight in our markets. Most every market is super competitive. On the last podcast I mentioned in Charlotte, I think we're at 16,000 licensed agents fighting for roughly five or six commission checks apiece. So for you to go in and take your unfair share is really super hard. Like there's nothing easy about it. And I believe the only way to take your unfair share is if you build a sustainable systems and have empowered. Right. Fit folks run those systems that are at a lower pay grade than you so you can make the kind of money, work the kind of hours and have lower stress than just being in the business alone. So we need high confidence. The way to do that is to constantly do this inventory. So I'm constantly looking back on what went well. What were some of the challenges I'm looking at? You know, what am I feeling really good about, really right now at this moment? And then what's coming, what am I excited about for the future? So those are three points we're going to cover. And I'm going to challenge you to take notes or journal on this. If you're driving or if you're running or working out and you're listening to this, hopefully these three questions aren't going to be hard to remember. And I want you to go back and do the work. So I'm going to challenge you here. As we transition from 2019 into 2020, really super helpful to go through this. So number one is looking back. So as you consider, you look back all through 2019, what went well? First of all, we always start with the positive. What went really well and then what didn't go well? You know, I like to look at time, money and stress. We talk a lot about time, money and stress in real estate B school. So what went really well? How were you able to have some time, freedom, you know, financially? What went well with your stress levels? What went well? I'm going to push you to find the stuff that went really well. Even if you have to look at all the areas of your life, in your marriage, as a parent, in your friendships, in your physical body, in your spiritual journey. What went really well this last year? So just maybe one piece of paper. What went well? What didn't go well? This is looking back. And then the second part. What didn't go well with your physical body and your finances, with your time, your schedule, in your marriage, as a parent, like, be honest with yourself. Take an inventory of what went well? What didn't go well, as you look back over 2019. So that's the first exercise that I want you to do and you may not be able to do all this as I'm talking through this live. This is one of those episodes where I give you homework and trust me, it's going to be worth it. So that's number one. Number two is right now as we're looking at all of the good, bad, ugly that we've experienced in business and in our life, pre real estate, in other businesses or in corporate jobs, in any relationship that you've had up to this point, and anything you've learned about your physical body, about your emotional well being, about your spiritual journey right now, what gives you the most confidence? We talked about confidence being important for entrepreneurs based on all of that. Everything up to this moment that you're listening to me talk right now is research and development for the future. So looking back over 2019, what gives you confidence moving into 2020? And just take an inventory of that. You know, did you establish a. Maybe you worked hard to establish, establish a culture of productivity on the team? Most small teams, the team leader is the bird that goes out and catches the worms. And there's these like, I know it was that way for me when I first started my team. All those little birds could not eat on their own. Maybe this year was the year where you taught them how to eat on their own. You kicked them out of the nest a little bit, built a culture of productivity. That's an amazing capability that you can bring in to 2020. Maybe you really figured out where to spend your time and you mastered your calendar and time blocking. Super simple. And I train on it extensively. And at the same time, it's one of the areas that we all struggle with. Are you making the best choices with your time? Maybe 2019 was the year that you really got great at focusing, laser focusing on the things that really matter, to move your business forward, to work on the highest dollar productive activities, DPAs, as we call them. And then right now, where are you a little insecure going into 2020? Maybe you didn't build a culture of productivity on your team. Maybe you've got some misfit team members. Maybe you're not great at time management, Maybe you've let all of that slide. Maybe your relationships, you're not communicating well with your spouse, you're not showing up great as a parent, you know, your spiritual walk, maybe you've gotten away from that morning quiet time or your physical body Maybe you put on £20 and you're not investing, you know, you're not eating the right things, you're not hydrating, you're not resting, you're not moving your physical body right now, what gives you a lot of confidence going into 2020 or where are you a little insecure going into 2020? All right, so first part was looking back, what went well, what didn't go well? Second part was right now, what gives you a lot of confidence? What are you insecure about going into 2020? And then the third part is looking forward, looking into 2020, where do you want to be one year from now? And it doesn't really matter when you listen to this, it's all still the same process. I do this every 90 days. So you can do a 90 day look back in this same 1, 2, 3, looking back right now, looking forward. This though is for the year. So for 2020, as you look forward, given what happened in 2019, what went well, what didn't go well, given where you are right now, what you're confident about, what you're insecure about, and knowing what is possible in 2020, where do you want to see the important areas of your life just 12 months from now, what do you want to see have happen in your finances, in your physical body, with your spiritual journey, in your relationships with your spouse or with your children, if you have them in your business, where do you want to see? How do you want to be showing up in the business differently? What position do you want to maybe shed in the business? Maybe you don't be working with buyers anymore and you want to hire a showing agent. Maybe you want to, you know, hire two more producing agents so you can step out of, you know, buy side production. Or maybe just this is the time, this is the time you can work with just your sphere on the listing side. Depending on where you are in your journey, where do you want to show up in the different areas of your life just 12 months from now? And just write out those six areas. The six areas, if I remember them, it's number one is your business. So just what are some business goals? Maybe they're just around time, money and stress. Number two is in your relationships. So husband, father or wife and mother in your finances, in your spiritual walk, in your physical body. And then emotionally would be number six. If I had to write six areas of your life and emotionally could include fun and self care and you know, that daily practice of gratitude, how are you feeling emotionally? Emotional, well being. So Those are the six areas of your life 12 months from now, how do you want to see those areas of your life look a little different? And that's a real simple way that you could look at the good and maybe the not so great about 2019. Realizing that it's all great stuff to build from. Even the challenges are things to learn from and do. Maybe shift away from those things that didn't make you too happy or move you forward in 2019 and then be honest about where you are right now, what are you confident about, what are you insecure about? And then looking forward in the important areas of your life, where do you want to be 12 months from now? Where there is no vision, the people perish. I think that's Proverbs 29:18 or 27:18. It's really true. So even just a 12 month view of where you want to be in the 12 in the six areas of your life that matter is super super important. And I would not underestimate the power of being clear on where you want to be in the future. And then we have a process in real estate B school where we help you really get clear on a three year vision. We break it down to one year plan. We work in a 90 day world and then we land that thing weekly in terms of what you need to be tracking in your business and and the measurables and the projects you need to be working on in the business so that you can have a different business more sustainable, more systems driven, more leverage, more profit, more time away from the business, less stress. That's everything we work on in real estate b school that 319013 the three year vision, one year plan, 90 day world, 13 weeks and a quarter. That is something we help you build out in our pilot program if you qualify. And we go through the qualification process on our website realestatebschool.com 30 days free where you can build that 3190 with no obligation whatsoever. So if that's you, you're at the point that you built, you know like top producing agent with administrative assistant, maybe some buyer agent support 3 to 500,000 GCI all the way up to we're talking we just brought on a member at 5 million GCI that has a team, you know that's I think it's a 35 person team. So anywhere from 500,000 to 5 million their challenges to that other coaching programs don't help you address. It's the sustainable systems empowered people that help you build a business that's truly impacting, you know, your clients. That's number one, making sure that you're bringing a world class experience into the market. And then number two is that you're building a business that doesn't rely on you grinding it seven days a week. If you don't show up, there's not even a business there. It's literally just a job. And it's only a job that works and gets you paid. If you show up and work that job, that's not what we want for you. So if that's you, go to realestatebschool.com if you want to make that shift and you want to start this trajectory of being unattached, you know, money and time delinked and stress levels coming down. So you have more time, you have more money and you have less stress and you want to do that. And you know that sustainable systems and empower people are the way to get there. Then go to realestatebschool.com, click on the orange button there that says Free pilot program. Apply for the pilot program. We'll jump on and have a conversation about your business, where you are today, where you want to go, and what's holding you back in there. For your fifth pilot program, we'll get you enrolled in it. And like I said, there's no obligation for that program. So go to realestatebschool.com and we will talk to you later.