Leigh Thomas Brown shows solo real estate agents how to take actual days off without losing business. Set clear daily hours, use calendar data to pick your slowest weekday, and find another licensed agent to cover leads for a referral fee. Schedule one before quarter's end and repeat.
Chapters
How do you get a day off in real estate, especially if you're a solo agent without a team? Mm. Well, this question that came in, I got lots of answers to, because it also goes into the request I get all the time from people asking for help on time management. I will say that time management was easier before we had these little rectangles here that I'm recording on right now, before we had 24/7 accessibility on cell phones. Before we had a 24/7 news cycle where we stare at the news all the time. We used to know how to turn things off. Well, friends, we're going to have to relearn that because the way we're living right now is so unhealthy. It's creating mental stress, it is creating physical toll, and frankly, we're killing our relationships. So, there's a lot of reasons to get your business under control to the point where you can get a day off. So, let's start with your day-to-day. You should have some guardrails on your day when it comes to when you start and when you end. Now, spoiler alert, in real estate, we all have to flex because we'll have a client that needs us. We might work with somebody in a different time zone. We might have a deadline on an offer or a repair request. There's lots of reasons that we have to flex. So we are not being rigid here, but what we're setting up are some basic boundaries. I'm a morning person. Some of y'all are not morning people, and that's good because we balance each other out, right? So for me, my workday starts at 7:00 AM. Monday through Friday. Prior to 7:00 AM, I have already gotten my run in. I have done my devotion. I have showered and fixed my hair. And now I am— well, 3 cups of coffee later, now I'm ready to deal with people. So at 7:00 AM, I'm ready to go. So now I can look at email and social media, and now I can start interacting with clients and other agents, and I'm going to be at peak efficiency and at peak communication. When I get to 7:00 PM, I'm drained. My battery's at zero or it's below zero. I am done, done, done. And I'm doing everything I can to stay decent. For some of y'all, 7:00 PM is your best time of day. And so you're going to set your guardrails based on when you operate best, because that's what's going to give the consumer the best experience with you as a real estate pro. If you are not a morning person, don't lie and say that you are, because the consumer who is one will drive you crazy and you'll drive them crazy.. But if you are a night owl and you encounter me, the sooner you tell me you're a night owl, the sooner I can say, I've got someone you should talk to because I'm dreadful at 9:00 PM. So when you set those guardrails on your day and you start thinking, well, Leigh, you just said you're available for 12 hours. Mm-hmm, I sure did. I think that's a reasonable workday. And again, I'm going to flex as I need to with clients. But this idea that we should be working 24 hours a day in real estate is so unhealthy, y'all. And then you wonder why, as a profession, the public doesn't necessarily respect our hours. We told 'em in our bios and in our marketing, you're available 24/7. What have we been doing? If you want to talk to your dentist, you know better than to call at 9 o'clock at night, 'cause the message is going to say, if you have an emergency, please call 911. Otherwise, we'll get back to you when we get back to you. And you don't even expect to get your dentist on the phone. But if you call your realtor at 9 o'clock at night, you kind of expect to talk to 'em. Now, we start thinking about this, well, maybe we are more important in real estate. I don't know about that. If you've ever had a bad tooth, you know you can't even think straight. It's just in the perception and it's in the way that we put forth in our communication what the expectations should be. That also means if you're talking to somebody, you get to let 'em know that you do flex based on their needs, but that in general, your day ends at 7 o'clock or 8 o'clock or 9 o'clock or whatever it is. Now, when I'm thinking about this in terms of how I get a day off, Once the public knows what their expectation is for when you start and when you finish-ish, then you can say to them, "I'm taking off on Wednesday of this week. So if you need me, let me know by Tuesday or reach out to me Thursday morning. And if you leave me a message on Wednesday, I'll queue you up for a quick return call on Thursday." It's amazing what happens when you tell people about what's happening in your availability. Some people will work with you and say, "That's fine. I'll catch you on Tuesday or Thursday, no problem." Some people will be ugly to you and say, "You can either deal with me on Wednesday or you're gone." Well, now as an entrepreneur, as a business person, you can decide if that's a client that belongs in your business or not. Because whether or not you realize it, you do have choice when you run a real estate business as to the kinds of personalities and attitudes that you're willing to put up with. Some people just don't gee and haw with each other, and that's okay. Because when we have such a competitive business, there is literally a buck for every saddle. And so if you know a lot of your great colleagues and you're just really having conflict with somebody, you should be able to say to them, I feel your needs aren't being met by me. However, I do have a professional who can help you. And then you guide the consumer to a place where they will be happiest, because our goal has always got to be, y'all, that we are focused on the outcome for the consumer and the protection of the consumer, which sometimes comes from them being connected to a different professional than yourself. So now you've got some guardrails day to day. You're thinking about how you communicate that day off. Now, here's another little secret for solo agents. It doesn't have to be the same day off every week. If you want a day off once a month, you can do that. It might be Tuesday of this week and Friday of next week. And if you're smart about keeping a calendar of your activities, you'll soon see what day of the week has the lowest amount of activity. And that should be probably your target for your day off, 'cause you'll have less stress if you, the control freak, are not really letting go of your entire business for a day. There's another really important thing to have ready though. If you're a solo agent, no team, make a friend with a real estate license who's professional. And all of you should have one. And if you're watching this thinking, Leigh, nobody in my market is worth a toot, they're all terrible. I'm going to tell you that you're wrong. Because one thing I love about real estate is that there are great professionals in every single market. And in fact, there's people in my market that are better at this than I am, and I love and respect them. And I'm so grateful because they mean the consumer has a lot of great options. And so if you're a solo agent, I want you to think back through the agents that you've met through doing cross-sales and co-broker situations. I want you to think about where you have volunteered at your local REALTOR® Association and who have you met that really impressed you with their knowledge and with their skill. And I want you to call that agent and say, "Hey, agent friend, what's up? Hey, I like you." I respect you. I think you're amazing. I love that you fill in every blank on the offer to purchase and you don't call it a contract until it is one. That's my favorite agent, by the way. And then I want you to ask them this, listen, when I'm taking a day off, would you cover for me? If a buyer comes in, you can have them pay me a referral fee. If a seller comes in, you can have them pay me a referral fee. But if you cover for me, then I'd be so grateful. You know what they'll probably say? They're probably going to say, "Absolutely, I'll cover for you," because there are more good people than bad in this business, y'all. And when we learn how to lean on each other, we can protect and preserve our own wellbeing and our priorities and our passions, and frankly, take a nap once in a while. And you know what? The day you come back after a day off is your best day of the week, because you'll come back refreshed and ready, and that's going to make you the best advocate for the consumer. When you're exhausted and burned out, it's just hard for you to be as all in as you should be to guard somebody else's largest financial instrument. So follow those few steps. And then the hardest part, bar none, you're going to do all these little steps, then you have to actually take the day off. And that's hard because somewhere in the back of your head, you believe that the world will end if you are not available on your phone 24 hours. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but it's just time you knew. The world is not going to end if you take a day off. And your business will not self-implode if you take a day off. As long as you are communicating and you are prepared for the day off, your business will actually get stronger. But you have to do it. And making all the excuses in the world for why you're busy and why you can't take a day off is still wearing you down to a nub. And when there's nothing left, how can you serve? And we all know that the best real estate pros are servant leaders first. So if you will rest, then you can serve. If you don't rest, it's harder to serve, and that's actually going to negatively impact your business. So, at the end of the day, here's my homework assignment for those of y'all that have not taken a day off in 4.5 years. Set one before this quarter is over. There's 3 months in any quarter. Take a day off, put it in a big red circle on your calendar, and it's going to be hard. It's going to be really hard. You are going to be in a panic the whole time. But when you come back in the next day, and you just go through and triage your emails and messages, you'll find your business is fine. And then in the next quarter, when you take your second day off, you'll find it's a little bit easier. And then you'll start building a habit that allows you to recharge so you can serve better. Now, for more tips, just follow me over here, watch some more videos. And if you want me to answer your own personal question, drop it here in the comments or send me a direct message. I'd love to share with you where I've screwed up and learned so that you don't have to make as many mistakes as I have. See you next time.
