Whose Race are You Running?

The question today is, whose race are you running? And the analogy I want to sort of bring up here, you know, as we're in just a time of, you know, spending way too much time on social media and watching the news and getting so wrapped up in everything that's going on around us in the 24 hour news cycle or other people's lives on social media, you know, it just constantly reminds me to check myself. And I get caught up too, you know, seeing like, oh, man, that person's doing that, or, you know, oh, I didn't know, you know, they were going on vacation or they had joined that real estate company or, you know, that's a nice car. I wonder why they're showing their $150,000 car on Facebook. You know, even if you're smart to it and, you know, to guard yourself from it, you can get caught up in it. And so I think of, and this is the analogy, you know, if you, if you see a horse and, you know, around their eyes they have those little like half cups, you can't see the video if you're listening to the podcast, but I have my hands over my eyes and to the point where I can't see anything to the left or right of me, but I can see straightforward. Hopefully you're getting a laugh if you're watching the video of this podcast and, you know, it's putting blinders on and I love that visual because a horse cannot run a race without those blinders on. They're going to get distracted by the horse to the right of them and a horse to the left of them. They only need to see what's in front of them. They only need to run their race. And so, you know, think about your life and where are you getting sidetracked in terms of paying attention to what others are doing? You know, maybe it's not getting like in the envy, you know, playing the envy game, you know, where you're, you're looking at others on social media consciously anyway, and, and you're wondering, you know, I wish I had that life or keeping up with the Joneses. Maybe it's not that. Maybe it's, you know, are there people around you that you're having to sort of be involved in their lives and they're not supporting you and your big goals for business and life. And so, you know, when I think of my journey in business and the first, probably only the first couple years I was in real estate, it was running the traditional race, you know, it was buying leads or generating leads, you Know, calling leads, setting appointments and meeting with buyers, signing them up, and then showing them homes. I focused on the buy side. You know, 2007 was 10 months in the business. 2008 was, know, full 12 months in the business. So I sold 71 homes that first, you know, by the end of my first full year for 500,000 of GCI. And I think I only did like five listings. Five or six listings. So like 65 buyers and, you know, like six listings or something like that. So it was a traditional race I was running. Cause I didn't have a lot of that 500,000, you know, leftover at the end of it. At the end of my first full year, I don't think I had increased my net worth at all. So $500,000 went through my bank account, and I didn't have anything to show for it. But I realized I was running like, someone else's race. And it was the industry's race. Like traditionally, real estate agents are. They're just solopreneurs, not even preneurs. I don't think they're really entrepreneurs. The average real estate agent is just a, you know, they're like a solo accountant or. Yeah, a solo attorney. Like, they're doing all. They've committed to doing all the jobs, even if they're administrative, even if their sales or marketing or the delivery of the service, or planning or crunching numbers, you know, running your books, They've just agreed to do all of that themselves. So I was running that race, and I didn't have anything monetarily to show for it. And I definitely didn't have any time, freedom because I was working seven days a week. My son Anders was born in November 2007. So that was the first year I was in real estate. And so by the end of 2008, he was a year old. He was starting to get into the age where it was fun to be around him. I rationalized for his first year that he was on this earth, that he wasn't all that useful and he wasn't that fun to be around. So that was a little selfish of me. But a year, year and a half, two years old. And then Kendall came in April 2010 after a couple miscarriages. And I was really sort of making this shift from running the race of the industry, which the industry wants. A lot of real estate agents selling a few homes, you know, and they don't teach you about leverage. They don't teach you how to build systems that run continuously and sustainably. So I was deciding to get off of the racetrack, the treadmill, transaction treadmill, the hamster wheel. That's real estate. And just take chunks of time. Typically at crazy hours, I'm talking like 10pm to 2, 3 in the morning a few times a week where I would just say goodnight to Julie and Anders and I would get to work on the business. I didn't have time during the day to work on the business. Working on the businesses, like setting up marketing systems, organizing your database, you know, working on client care systems, get working on a mailer that you're going to put out, the things that are going to move the business forward. I didn't have time during the day because I was a busy real estate agent. I was top 1% in my market in my first full year. And so I just made that commitment, you know, to start running a different race. And. And with all of that, I find that maybe this is just true of society in general. In real estate, though, I know it because on my stupid phone, I open it up. I do some things on Facebook for real estate B school that unfortunately it gets me into Facebook sometimes. And I just see all these people like I'm seeing their life, you know, And I'm. I just. I just know some of these folks are working a lot of hours. They don't have financial freedom. You know, they are super stressed all the time. They're physically, you can see they're not. They don't have it together, you know, I don't know spiritually or emotionally where they are. And a lot of times, you know, I get to talk to these folks when they come into real estate B school. And there's not a whole lot of transparency on Facebook. That's why I call it fake book. You know, I don't think it's a real snapshot of what's going on in someone's life. And I feel like when you see only what someone wants you to see, it's gonna make you feel like you are less than because you're thinking of your worst self when you're looking at someone's best self. And so when you're trying to run your race in business and life and you're going on to Facebook, or don't even get me started on Instagram. I can't go on Instagram because Instagram is like, I don't know what it is about Instagram. I spend 10 minutes on there and I have a headache because everything looks so amazing on there. Everyone has it together. And I'm like, I don't have Everything together. And everyone has everything together. I feel like an idiot. I feel totally like a failure. And I have a lot of stuff together. So for me to go on social media and feel less than is kind of crazy. And that's not me bragging. I just work really hard to do really well in a lot of areas of my life. And it's not just business, you know, it's my faith, it's my physical body, it's my emotional wellbeing, it's my relationship with my wife, each of my children individually, you know, and I work really hard at my finances and of course have business. And so when I think about everyone is running the wrong race. They're running like they're trying to run like a horse with no headgear on so they don't have the blinders on. And they're just like all over the place. And it's chaos and inside it's turmoil. And I only know that not because anyone would actually say that on Facebook. When we talk to folks as they come into our world, we do what is called a business growth strategy session, where it's a 45 minute coaching session, essentially. And it's a little bit of a therapy session, not in a like, really overly therapy kind of way. It's like, what's the reality of your business and your life right now? Let's just be real and talk about what is it like right now. Hours, money, are you in debt, you know, physically, where are you spiritually, Your relationships with your spouse and your children? Like, let's lay it out there and just, and just, let's just be real right now and then we talk about, all right, so that's where we are right now. Let's talk about where we want to go and, you know, let's paint a picture three years from now what your life could look like. And then the last part is like, what's holding you back? And that is just being honest about where you are right now and what you want the. Where you want the race, you know, the finish line to be. Let's run that race. If we can help you run that race and run it well from where you are now to where you want to go. Let's do this. Let's. Let's work together to get you there, right? And so, I don't know, I hope there's some, there's some, you know, usefulness in this. It's more or less I wanted to get on here just to let you know that if you're finding yourself in the 24 hour news cycle and in social media, not for business purposes, you are going to, it's going to hurt your chances of running your own race and you're going to constantly feel like you're less than because you're. Well, news is a separate story that's just fear inducing and anxiety and all of it and just don't do it. I'm talking more the social media and keeping up with the Joneses and feeling less than because everyone's putting their best foot forward on social media platforms. And here you are like feeling like shame and worthlessness because you're not putting, you know, they're not putting their tough stuff out there on social media. So anyway, that's the question. Whose race are you running? Run your own race. If you're at the point in your business growth journey where you would love to be able to have a clear vision of the future and actually have a roadmap to achieve it with all the tools and systems you would need along the way. Let's just have a conversation about it. Go to realestatebschool.com that's realestate B school.com and we make sure I give you the right. Yeah. And just hit apply now. It's just a conversation about your business and it's an open and honest conversation about your business. So there's no, there's really no agenda to the conversation. If you're a good fit for real estate B school, we've got, you know, 60 days where you can try us out. There's no hard selling at all either. You know, we're going to have that conversation and you're a good fit and we can give you certainty that we can help you get to where you want to go or not. And that's totally cool as well. So go to realestatebschool.com, hit the apply now button and we'll see you over there. Thanks for listening to the Business Freedom Podcast. If you're getting value from the podcast, would you please leave us a five star review and share it with others who might benefit from from the content I'm sharing. And if you're ready to scale your real estate business sustainably and profitably, there are a couple options for you. If you're doing under 500,000 in annual GCI, our business foundations program is for you. Head over to get businessfoundations.com that's getbusinessfoundations.com and learn how you can make the shift from overwhelmed real estate agent to true business owner. If you're doing more more than 500,000 in annual Team GCI. There's our graduate program designed for top producers and team leaders who want to grow their team and scale their business. If that's you, go to realestatebschool.com and apply for a free Business Growth Strategy session. 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