There’s no sugar-coating the fact that to be successful in this business requires work and long hours—especially in your first year. As a new agent, you won’t have the benefit of an established referral base, which means you’re going to have to generate relationships with sellers and buyers as well as do the work to let those in your sphere know that you’re in the business.
That said, time-blocking and setting clear boundaries are essential to not living too far out of balance and burning out, as well as getting to the level of success you expect.
It’s really important that you set a schedule with clear boundaries that you never cross. Let’s use a real-life example! One of my good friends used to be a real estate agent. He sold over 100 houses a year for five years in a row. The amazing thing about him was that he never worked on a Sunday. To me, that’s just incredible, because Saturdays and Sundays are the busiest days of the week for most real estate agents. For him? His faith practices and family came first, so Sunday was reserved exclusively for that. I have a lot of respect for his ability to set that boundary and stick with it.
Your personal boundaries might include one day a week that’s reserved for family time, as well, or it might mean you commit to family dinner at least four nights per week—or date night with your partner every Saturday at 8 p.m or Little League practice on Tuesday nights. Draw your own lines as to what you hold sacred in terms of your family commitments.
Next, look at your professional boundaries. One thing that trips many agents up is they don’t draw a firm enough line around prospecting time. Why? Because prospecting scares a lot of people. Yikes! You’ve got to pick up the phone? So, what do they do? They usually keep moving it to the bottom of the to-do list. Guess what happens then? They find themselves out of business. Prospecting equals appointments which equals listings which equals commissions.
I always recommend that agents commit to at least one hour at least three days per week for prospecting.
As a new agent, you’ll want to increase those numbers. Set aside specific times on specific days and make committing to those hours non-negotiable. Prospecting is the closest activity to your revenue line. Treat it with the same reverence you would going to the closing table. It’s that important. Because without prospecting, there is no closing table appointment!
I would also recommend you don’t put it off until the end of the day. Why? It’s too easy to cancel that way. There’s a great saying, “Eat the frog first.” Yuck, right? The premise though is that if you have to “eat a frog”—or rather, do something you don’t really want to do—it’s best to just get it out of the way. Do that thing first so that you’re not spending your entire day dreading doing something. Instead, if you knock out the task (like prospecting) first, you head into the rest of your day feeling accomplished and more confident!
Set up good time management habits right from the beginning and you’ll help to set yourself up for a great career.
You’ve got this. I’m here to help, with a passionate community of Power Agents® that can be there for you as well. Learn more at www.ThePowerProgram.com/NewAgentSuccess.
Darryl Davis, bestselling author of “How to Become a Power Agent in Real Estate” and owner of Darryl Davis Seminars, has trained and coached over 100,000 real estate professionals around the globe for more than 27 years. He is the founder of the Next Level® real estate training system, The Power Program®, which has helped agents double their production over their previous year. For more information, and the new agent tools that can help take you to your Next Level®, please contact darryl@darrylspeaks.com or visit www.ThePowerProgram.com/NewAgentSuccess.
