Why Traditional Real Estate Success Isn't What You Think It Is

As top real estate agents and team leaders, you know, why do we pride ourselves on working crazy hours and just giving everything we have to our businesses? You know, it's almost this badge of honor in our industry where if you're not working, you know, from dawn to dusk every day and working every weekend, where you're just not doing the job of a traditional real estate agent. And today's video I want to dive into, like what traditional real estate success looks like, have a really honest conversation. And some of this may be hard to hear. And I only deliver this message out of love and from being where you might be today, where you're working way too many hours and the money isn't there to support the amount of effort you're putting in. And you're super stressed all the time, you're kicking your dog, you're a bear to your spouse, you're just not there for your children. And maybe you're just falling on really bad habits in every other area of your life. So the question I have is, why do we do it and is it actually worth it? You know, if you're struggling with the time money stress equation, make sure you stay tuned for later in the video where I'll talk about my time freedom challenge. And if you like the video, please hit the thumbs up. Make sure you subscribe to the channel and turn your notifications on. And as always, leave me constructive feedback in the comments section of the video. So let's dive in. Let's talk about the reality of traditional success in real estate. And I can speak on this topic because back in the day, I did what a top producing agent does. I grind every morning just hoping that something good would happen and I would have money to show for my efforts. In my first, I think it was about 21 months. It was 22 months. It was 10 months in 2007, 12 months. In 2008, I sold 71 homes. I served 71 families. And I think the gross commission income was about $500,000. Of the $500,000, I think I barely scratched some six figures in terms of my take home income. And my hourly wage was pathetic. And my stress was through the roof. I was a new dad at that point and I wasn't able to show up in the areas of life that were really important to me. And when you look at your real estate business, you know, are you at the point where you're working too many hours, you're giving up on the things in life or you're falling short in the areas of life that matter to you. So I want to give you a few steps, things that you could do right now to maybe get off of this, you know, rise and grind culture that we pride ourselves on in real estate and get onto a path, you know, build a business that has, you know, it's built on elegance and ease versus this blood and guts, you know, type of business that we see so often, not only in top producing agent, but in top producing agents, but also in team leaders. You know, these businesses are not built on foundationally sound principles. And I want to dig into that today. How do we shift our approach so that we start playing a different game in business? That's the question I want to dig into. My journey was tough. Our most successful members are willing just to do the hard things so they'll get the results that make life easier in the future. We call this the hard easy principle. You know, Jim Rohn has a quote go something like this. You know, there's two pains life. There's the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. And in business, I wasn't willing to suffer that pain of regret. I didn't want to look back and miss, you know, years of quality time with my kids, you know, neglect my relationship with my spouse. I didn't want to end up at a point where I was regretful for the things that I missed out on. And then I was willing to go through this pain of discipline, right, that there is no easy path to success. I promise you, in any industry, in order to achieve at the highest level, you have to suffer the pain of discipline. And so what are the things in your business, in your life that you might be not really doing the way you should, things you're not leaning into or disciplines that, you know, you should be doing, but you're cutting corners on? You know, for me, it was taking care of my physical body in the early days. It's one thing I was attempting to take a shortcut on. And I found myself not having the energy to play the game of business at a high level and also to not have enough energy left over at the end of the day to play the game of life at a high level. So I would grind real estate from 7 to 7, and I'd have nothing left to show up as a dad or a husband. And then I would get to work even after I put my family to bed, and I would go on fumes until the early hours of the night, and I would sort of wake up the next day and rinse, repeat, and do that whole thing over Again, and it was just a willingness to look at that one area of my life. If I could just get my physical body in order, I can crush it in business, be super focused, do more and less time during the day so I can show up at a reasonable hour, spend some time with my family, and then spend some time with my spouse, go to bed at a reasonable hour so I could be engaged and energized the next day. So that's the first thing. It's just this hard, easy principle, which it's tough to even talk about because I feel like I'm preaching at you. But I promise you, I failed in this area. Next, I call honoring the struggle. You know, it's one thing to make a commitment to doing the hard things that make life easier in the future. It's another to actually enjoy the ride. You know, this honoring of the struggle, there's going to be a point in your journey where you want to tap out where you think it might be too hard to continue. Are you willing to keep your eye on the prize? Building this business that gives you freedom rather than retreating into what might be comfortable? You know, honoring the struggle and being grateful for the little wins every day. You know, Dan Sullivan, who was a coach of mine, he talks about the gap versus the gain. And a lot of times as hard charging, goal oriented individuals that want to build big businesses and have a big impact and be financially free. We're constantly looking into the future and we set this ideal, which is essentially a moving target. You know, we achieve a goal, it's not quite where we want to be. And we don't give ourselves credit for how far we've come. We just look at the fact that we haven't achieved this ideal. And we're constantly sort of in this mode of discontent, you know, discontentment, you know, lack of fulfillment. And. And we're down on ourselves because we're never getting to our destination. But if this ideal is like a moving horizon, picture yourself in a boat and you're sailing in the ocean and you're trying to reach the horizon. The horizon is always moving. And so are these ideals that we set for ourselves. So instead of measuring yourself against this ideal, which you're always going to be moving, just look back and see all that you've accomplished and honor the struggle, honor the fact that you're not where you want to be, but you're definitely not where you were, and that's honor the struggle. That's probably the biggest thing that holds back. You know, an average real estate agent to achieve greatness is the fact that there will be struggle. And the question is how you show up in that struggle. The last point here is just one thing at a time. Slow your roll, keep your eye on the prize, and just realize there's only one next right thing to do. You know, early on in my business growth journey, it was to figure out how to generate buyer leads. Like, if I could just master this one thing and I can generate buyer leads consistently, that would be a great one thing to focus on. I mastered that, and I'm like, oh, crap, I better figure out how to talk to these leads on the phone. So I had to master a single script to follow up with to follow up with a single lead source so I can convert that lead source at a high level. I got the words right. I role played, I listened to role plays. I became a master of a single script. Then I was like, oh, crap, these people are saying yes. To meet with me in person, I have to master a buyer sales presentation, right? So I would just fail in that. And all the while, I was building systems around these different things so I wouldn't have to do these things forever. So when you look at your business where it is right now, what's the next one thing that you need to work on to move to the next step? You can't leapfrog any part of building a business. You can't go from where you are now and look at, like, the leader in your industry and say, I want to be there. And you're not willing to take the hundred steps, right? The hard, easy principle, honoring the struggle and doing one thing at a time. What's your. Your next right move? There's only one next right move, and it's specific to you. Where are you in your business right now, and where do you need to get to next? And it's specific to you, so don't copy someone else and look at their journey. I promise, what you see on Facebook or Instagram is not the real world of, you know, what it's like to be in their shoes, right? So just look at your next right move. When I think of someone who has really sort of leaned into this process, and they've been in our world for three or four years now. It's Cody Riddle out of Arizona. She started out as a struggling solo agent doing 250 to 300,000 GCI per year, where she fell out of love with real estate. She hated real estate at that point. I think she was about 18 years into the business, and she was ready to throw in the towel. She just fell out of love with it. So we really sort of broke this thing down. We said, hey, listen, give me three years. We'll turn this whole thing around. We'll get you growth in your business and bring your hours down and bring your stress down, and I will help you fall back in love with your business. She suspended this belief, as all of our members do. She agreed to work with us, and she got to the point where it got a little easier. She went from 300 to 500 to 750 to a million. Last year, she did just over 1.2 million of gross commission income. At this point, she only runs a small team, a couple buyer agents, an administrator. I think she has a VA as well. And she does more than 50% net profit. She only does listings, and she works 40 to 45 hours a week, down from 70 hours a week. And there's nothing magical about her journey. She was willing to lean in, do the hard things, honor the struggle, and just have a willingness to get out of her comfort zone. If you're at the point in your journey where time and money and stress, it's overwhelming. You don't have the path. Come spend 21 days with me. It's our Time Freedom Challenge. It's thetimefreedomchallenge.com or click on the link below. If you like the video, hit the like button. Give me the thumbs up. It motivates me to create more videos for you. Hit the subscribe buttons and also click on notifications and make sure you leave comments so I can interact and see what you're thinking, where you're falling short, where I might be able to pick you up. You know, this is the kind of thing that it's a hard conversation to have when we talk about, like, the whole industry failing in, you know, one area successful in one, in that they're selling homes, and in other areas of their life, they're not successful. So I'm luckily willing enough to have those conversations with you, even if I get some crap from time to time, to speak truth into this industry that I love on the one hand and is jacked up in so many ways. We will see you on the next video.