The Good, Bad & Ugly: Finding Your "Why?" and Building the Life You Want

Hey, Business Freedom podcast listeners. Lars Hedinborg here, founder of Real Estate B School. Another episode. This is our good, Bad, Ugly of building a Real estate Team edition of the podcast. This is where I just spent a little bit of time getting to just some rants, some hopefully not too much high horsing or preaching just to bring you the good, mostly the bad and the ugly about my business growth journey. So it is easier to for you, I think this industry, I know this industry is changing radically underneath our feet and most real estate agents have no clue what's going on. The great news is that we still have an awesome opportunity. I think even more so with a shifting market, shifting technology, shifting business models in real estate. I think we have an even more amazing opportunity to show up in this industry at the highest level and to build amazing businesses. Businesses that serve our family, serve our communities and just have a lot of fun doing it. Today I want to chat about something I think I did a pretty good job at. I don't know if I'm being honest. Probably the first. I'm 11 years into my business growth journey and probably the first seven or eight years I didn't do a good job of this. And I feel like here just recently I'm getting after it in terms of really taking a good look at myself and how I need to show up as a leader. And that's not always easy, right? It's not always easy to do. And so let me make sure here.

I can wanna grab.

For those of you that are watching, I want to grab something for you.

To look at here. All right, all right.

So you know, it's this. Your business can't grow beyond you. And what I mean by that, unless you raise. John Maxwell calls it the lid, right? So unless you're growing personally, professionally, in your leadership and your management, your business isn't going to grow. And this is something I really, I feel like I was late, late, late to the game on in my real estate business. And today I want to go through my go process if you will indulge me to talk about, you know, why are you even in the business? You know, really, really think about it. Not in the business necessarily, but why would you consider growing a business versus just slinging homes? And when I say by slinging homes, it's, you know, you're working with buyers and sellers. You're the one, you're the technician. If we're talking e myth, you're the technician, the person that is actually showing homes on a Sunday afternoon when you should be with your family, you're going on a listing appointment at 7pm on a Thursday and you're getting home at 9:30.

Right.

You've got a busy business, you're maybe a top agent and your time isn't your own. Money might be good, but your time isn't your own. So that's really who I'm talking to here. Or maybe you built a small team and you didn't build it right and you still have to be in production to make the numbers work or the time, you know, worth the money. It's always a time, money, stress equation. So you may be working a lot of hours, but the money's good and the stress is high. Our goal and in this podcast is to help you make, have that equation make sense. Time, money and stress. So I'm going to be going back to that a lot.

Right.

Is the amount of time you're working in real estate for the amount of money you're making with a level of stress worth it? Right. So every 90 days I check in as a business person, you know, is the amount of stress I have in my life for the time I'm working for the amount of money I'm making worth it? Is that equation making sense? And this was back in 2009. I built a plan and I went overboard on it and I may even give it away to this group. Yeah, let me, let me give it away. I'm gonna give it away in the blog. It's got some personal stuff on it, so do not come back and say. And it'll be on our website version of the blog. So if you go to realestatebschool.com and you click on blog, you can find this plan. When I look back on my business growth journey, this plan was the real defining moment for me. And it's because I combined my business and my personal on a single plan. And I got some emotion behind the why was doing it. And so I'm going to read.

I'm.

Going to read the thought, my wake up thought, what I said every day and the why. This is back in 2009, so almost 10 years ago. And hopefully this will help you because I help you. I believe your words matter. I know your words matter. My guiding quote in those early days it was Napoleon Hill, what the mind, what man can conceive and believe he can achieve. Essentially what the mind of man can.

Conceive and believe he can achieve.

So conceive, believe, achieve. And I continue to apply that in my business and impact I'm having in my community today. So conceive, believe, achieve. That's worth writing down. So your words matter. So my wake up thought was God has given me.

Let me get this. Hold on here. Alright.

So God has given me. Bear with me.

All right?

God has given me another awesome day in which I will use my. Which I will use to move towards achieving all my goals and realizing all my dreams. I will positively impact the lives of.

Everyone I touch today.

So I was given a gift every day, right? Another awesome day in which I will use my.

Which I will use to move towards.

Achieving all my goals and realizing all my dreams. I will positively impact the lives of everyone I touch today. And then the why am I doing this? God gave me the tools and presented.

Me with an opportunity to make a huge difference in this world.

I have the ability to be the best at what I do because I understand it. I have major passion for it, I am a student of it. And I have absolute and utter belief in myself and my team. I want to positively impact the lives of everyone I touch, especially those whom.

I love the most.

I want my children, my wife and all my family to have total freedom of choice and to what to do what they want to do. I want to give back to those who love me, support me and believe in me so that they may live.

A life they never thought possible.

I want to create positive change as much as I can and make the.

World a better place.

I will always try to be the very best I can be.

I want to be.

I want my family to be proud.

Of who I am.

I want to set us financially free so that we may lead an incredibly fulfilled and happy life. So that was the why for me. And I want to take you through an exercise. I'm not going to go too deep on it, but I want to challenge you to think a little bit about your why. So discovering your personal why and understanding what drives you, it's the most important factor when you think about the success of your business. Right? There's all the tactics, our online toolbox. And this is not a pitchfork. Although if you want to buy it, you can go to Rebs Toolbox.

I think.

I think it's repertoolbox.com Let me just make sure I didn't give out the wrong yeah. Getbschool.com so getbschool.com if you want to check out what the toolbox is, I refer to it quite a bit. My point is, is that all the tools are in there for you to go from wherever you are. Today to 500 homes a year. Right? So you have all the tools, but understanding what drives you is the critical component. I can give you all the tools in the world, but unless you understand why you're doing it, you won't be.

Able to scale your business.

Everything about your business starts with your why. Who you are and how you are at work forms the shape and texture of your business more than anything else. You define your business. So you're not building a business based on someone else, what they've done or why they're doing it or it. You, you define your business, which is pretty cool because you can have. I built my business first 10 years on marketing, now we're prospecting base. Others stood up at a podium and called for six hours a day. That wasn't my thing, but it worked for them. Right? If you want a thriving business inside a truly meaningful life, self awareness is not optional. You have a platform to bring your passion out into the world. Your ability as a leader isn't measured by how well you've got it all figured out. Let me say that again. Your ability as a leader isn't measured by how well you've got it all figured out by, but by how open and transparent you are about your strengths and weaknesses. So your team, if you don't have one and you're considering starting one, your team, they don't need you to have it all figured out. They just need you to be open and honest about where you're strong and where you're weak and what you need to do together to compete an industry that's becoming hyper, more hyper competitive. Right? And the good news is that who you are, right? So who you are has no competition.

Right?

You instantly separate yourself from your competition by uncovering what truly drives you. Clients want to feel your passion and care for what you do, so they want to feel what you stand for as part of how you deliver your services. And so I'm not going to go deep into this is part of our, of our training, the same training that we use for our $18,000 and $30,000 clients. And there's a whole exercise that we follow. So I'm not going to go through all of that. But this work in thinking about it's designed to help you discover or rediscover the things that matter to you most. And we take our members through and even our Toolbox online Toolbox members through a Values, passions, purpose exercise. And why do I do what I do? That's the question we want to answer. Why do I do What I do. When you know what drives you from this deeper place, everything you do feels different, right? The way you give presentations, listing presentations, the way you recruit, the way you handle client servicing. Right? The willingness to dig into your financials and get to know your numbers, become the CFO of your business. Even if you suck at financials, the why will drive you to get better. And here's the thing, your business needs more of you, not less. A lot of times we show up differently in our business than we do in our personal life. And many business owners assume their real values are inappropriate work, but they have to shrink into another version of themselves in their business. And it's a false Persona. Those false Personas are the reason why building a business feels so hard.

Because you're not yourself.

Your personal values are the secret sauce to your highest levels of business success. You can't leave it out when you know what drives you and start to run your business from that place, the place where you really want to be starts to feel within reach. So if you're authentic to who you are and you build your business to that, it's not going to be this frustrating sort of thing that you're building. I had a conversation, a client, b school client, a grad member yesterday and he good business, you know, he'll do.

6, 700,000 GCI and really profitable. And he's, he's getting into the recruiting and the tracking and different learning different lead sources and it's, it's mucky, you know, and he's been outbound prospecting, expires in fizz bos and getting frustrated. And I said, well, what you do, what you do to get to 500,000 DCI? He's like, what was 90% referrals? I'm like, in the last quarter, have you called any past clients? He's like, no. I'm like, well what are you trying to become an outbound expired prospector for when you're forgetting to love on the people that know like and trust you? So it's being authentic, right? It doesn't mean that ultimately he won't scale his business with other marketing pillars. Just means that now might not be the time. So the goal of this process is for your business to serve your life instead of your life being consumed by your business. In real estate, it is epidemic that we get consumed into the business and our life is on the side.

And this same conversation yesterday, I asked.

Him about his marriage, I asked him about his kids. He's got a 10 year old and a 13 year old. And I said, 10 years from now, what regrets will you have? And it's easy, right? It's a strained marriage and kids that are 20 and 23. And he missed out on the three to five years, this golden opportunity he has, you know, for him, four, four years from now, his oldest child will be in college. I'm like, we, dude, we got to design this thing around where you are right now.

And this will get a little bit.

Bit of a downer, but I want.

You to think a little bit.

And I go through this process. I've probably been through this process thinking about how you want to end your days here on Earth and thinking about when you're gone. It's pretty deep.

But I want you to think about at your funeral, the day your loved.

Ones speak about who you were and what truly mattered to you. What would they say about you? What would they say you truly stood for?

Right?

If your business is truly inside your life, then thinking about what your life was about will help you make some connection. Connections into the drivers of your business. So they're not separate. And basically what I did, I actually did a life plan recently. And let me show it. It's pretty intense. So if you're listening to this, you're not seeing me go through 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10 pages, 10 page life plan. And we went through this exercise. I went through all the people and constituents and groups of people that I want to impact over the course of my life.

And I had. I put down the words that I.

Would want to hear from those folks. So my wife Julie, my kids. I did Anders separate from Kendall, what they would say, my men's group, God. I put what God would say at my funeral.

And it was really impactful. And it really helps you to start.

Making changes to live more in alignment with the person you truly want to be. So just take a moment for the seven or eight sort of groups of people or specific people. I did it from my mom's perspective, my sister's perspective. Am I missing anything in those relationships?

Don't hold back.

This will give you a better understanding of the hero's journey you're on.

The clearer the angle, the easier to.

Chart the course to get there. And this is about writing your eulogy. So I know it's a little weird if you haven't done it. And it really helps you finish.

Well, no matter where you are, if.

You'Re 30 and selling 300 homes, or if you are 60 and you're selling 20 homes, right. This will help you finish well by going through this exercise. So by writing your eulogy defining the life you want to be remembered for, you will have a new compass as you move through every challenge. And I'll leave you with this quote, and it's from Thomas Jefferson. I think this was my guiding quote for all of last year for our members. Now, if you want something you've never had, you must be willing to do something you've never done. If you want something you've never had, you must be willing to do something you've never done. So on the podcast, there's never a hard sell. You know, you can always check us out@realestatebschool.com or go to get B school if you're interested in just using some of these tools and systems in your business. I've laid out every tool and system that I used to scale my business. Sold over 3,500 homes in about 10, 11 years and did it highly leverage. Highly, highly. Put on the right economic model and it's all there for you. You attach this why to it and you will be unstoppable. All right.

As I say to our members, our.

Community, much love and respect for, first of all, listening and for just taking the less traveled path. Right. Building a business worth owning is not easy and it's super satisfying. We'll talk to you guys soon.