An important coaching topic and a point that we all need to remember is that building a business as a real estate broker comes in stages, or as I like to call them “episodes.”
An episode is defined as an "event or a group of events occurring as part of a larger sequence.”
We normally think of episodes as part of our favorite Netflix or streaming TV drama. We watch them in sequence starting with Season 1, Episode 1. We’d never go to the final season, last episode and work backwards, right?
Apply the same logic to yourself. Your business has to reach different levels of execution and performance before you move to the #nextlevel.
Take, for example, what is required to become a doctor today.
- First, you have to graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in an accepted field.
- You have to take the MCAT and receive a score that will get you acceptance into medical school.
- You have to pass 4 years of Medical School.
- You work and train for 3 to 7 years of Residency.
- You have to pass a test to get your license to practice medicine.
- In some cases, special certification is needed.
- After all of that, you need to build a reputation over the life of a career and maintain your professional expertise to treat patients with the highest quality of care.
So, it’s obvious that it takes a sequence of events to build a career in medicine.
In real estate brokerage, the episodes go something like this:
Year 1 is getting licensed and deciding whether or not you like the business. Do you like the entrepreneurial vibe of not knowing the when the next commission check is set to hit? Maybe you are working with an experienced agent to learn first-hand the critical steps. You need to learn your market and the market needs to learn you.
Years 2 and 3 are spent learning your craft, building the first stages of your database of clients (probably around 40-50 people in your Top 100), getting into the flow of the business, and creating the first of your referrals. By now, you’ve got a decent grip on your market. If you have executed consistently, you’ve started to build a decent income for yourself. To move to the next level though, marketing and database and relationship management systems need to be in place and consistent.
In Years 4 through 7, with consistent execution, you’ve started to develop a personal brand as an expert in your market. At least 50% of your business is through referrals and past clients. The remaining 50% is coming from the marketing of your listings, your 3 rocks of marketing, and continuing to let your SOI know what you can handle. Systems and processes drive your business. You know you are ready to go #nextlevel when you physically do not have the time in your schedule to manage your business in a manner that is in keeping with the quality of service you want to provide. Your marketing is focused on getting new clients.
In Years 5 through 10, if you have executed consistently over the life of your business, at this point your income is not your worry. Maintaining balance and servicing your clients has become the priority. By this point, you have a group assisting you. It could be a group of personal assistants, partners, referral partners or maybe a team of brokers and assistants depending on your business model. You have hit critical mass. Your personal brand is synonymous with your hyper-local market. 90% of your business is from introductions from past clients and their referrals. The remaining 10% comes from your marketing efforts within your hyper-local market. Most of your marketing is focused on reaching your past clients and improving your personal brand.
After Year 10, if you have executed consistently, your focus turns to one simple question: Do I want to continue to grow or do I want to change the boundaries of the type of business I want to do and/or with whom? Based on how you choose to answer that question, your marketing strategies and your model change.
Why are we talking about this now?
- I want everyone to understand that it takes consistent effort over the long haul to move from one phase of our business to another.
- I want you to understand also that it does take time. To become a doctor, you’ve got 8 to 12 years of education in front of you before you can even become licensed to practice medicine.
- You need to master one level of brokerage by executing consistently before you earn the #nextlevel of the business.
You need to protect yourself from the “get rich quick” schemes that are being sold to you. Their promised outcomes don’t exist. Nothing replaces the compounding effect of building a business based on a database of raving fans that are “selling you" to their personal spheres of influence. As you move through these episodes, your business grows with experience and the increasing number of clients that know you, like you, and trust you.
Nothing worthwhile happens overnight.
Commit to the long haul and the consistent effort that is required to create generational wealth for you and your family. As we move into 2020, a new year and decade, take stock in your real estate career up to this point and ask yourself the following questions.
Have I been consistent?
Have I been patient?
Have I built my business the right way?
Am I trying to jump ahead in my business before I have mastered the level that I am in?
What do I need to do in 2020 to jumpstart the next decade?
It’s really that simple.
