Are you working 24/7 in your real estate business?

"I know the rules," he said laughingly, "you don't make phone calls before 10 am." I smirked and glanced at the clock on the bottom corner of my computer screen. It was 10:23 am. He did know the rules, my business rules, and I couldn't help but smile.

My seller was a great client and a strong-minded businessman. I enjoyed his stories from his life and that he was somewhat of a risk-taker, but not extreme. He was never boastful and was a humble man in all my dealings with him. I admire these types of people and was thankful he was my client.

I strive to be this kind of person daily and enjoy learning how other business people like this think. We tend to deal with a lot of egos in this real estate business sometimes, so I'm grateful when people like this are drawn into my world.

I laughingly replied, "Yep, you know the rules!" On the inside, I also personally reveled in the fact that I had come to a point in my career where I understood clearly how to maintain a healthy work-life harmony and this rule was part of that process. It had been a long-standing rule in my business, still is, and I let my clients know this so it sets their expectations. They won't hear from me before 10 am.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Businesses open before 10 am and real estate agents are expected to be "on" 24/7, so how can you do that? Well, let's dive into that a bit more.

To begin with, this is my real estate business, just like you have your own real estate business. The beauty of us running our own individual businesses is that we get to play by our own individual rules, right?

In that, we get to learn how to establish a business, nurture a business, grow a business, market a business, and that doesn't even begin to touch on all the legal aspects we get to learn on top of it from our real estate transactions. The curve for working as a real estate agent is a high steep incline. An incline that we all have to climb. The great thing about the incline though, and also the toughest aspect, is that we get to learn all this while doing it.

Unfortunately, this also is most likely the reason that 80-90% of real estate agents fail within their first 2 years and quit the business. It's hard and the gross majority of agents aren't prepared for it.

Honestly, I wasn't either, but thankfully my story didn't end quickly like so many others and here I still stand after 20 years. I attribute this to pure perseverance, solution-driven thinking, resilience, an extremely tolerant family, and God lighting a fire under me every once in a while ;).

I point this out because what I know today was learned through the process. It wasn't some special skill I had above anyone else or because of some rich husband or parents that paved my way. Quite the opposite actually.  

Originally I'm from Michigan, so not only did I have to start my career once but twice, as I knew only 6 people when I moved to South Carolina and none of them were buying houses. The good thing when I restarted here though was that I already had gotten my feet wet for a couple of years, so I at least had some semblance of what to do.

As I restarted my business, I also became much more aware of business gurus and mentors. I read books, researched as much as I could learn, tried to learn from others, and incorporated more of my own authenticity and education.

My business grew exponentially and before I knew it, I was working incessantly. I worked 7 days a week from 7:30a - 11p without batting an eye. I had clients on both the West and East coasts so I figured I could cover all my bases by being accessible to them as they needed. I honestly thought being there for them constantly was what I was supposed to do.

My family helped me with some of the aspects of my business too, as yours might, and it kept me in the frame of mind that it was "quality time" with my family. My business kept growing and I kept pushing, never once realizing what was actually happening. 

As my business grew, and as I pushed harder, I constantly felt like I couldn't get everything done. I had a never-ending to-do list and my mind raced constantly, jumping from one transaction to the next.

Truthfully, looking back, I don't even know how people could conversate with me during that time. I switched gears lightning-fast from one property to the next and one thought to the next. I literally was training my brain to have zero focus and didn't even know it.

A few years in and I started to feel different. I started to internally resent the beast of a business that I had created. When I wasn't in my office, if I was out with friends and someone brought up real estate, I hated it. I literally dreaded any form of real estate conversation in my social life. I never wanted to talk about it. I hated my phone ringing. I hated the emails. Inside I was miserable. I had created a monster and felt trapped.

What was happening to me? It didn't make sense. I had tons of business, my clients were mostly all great people to work with, I was getting awards for being in the Top 10 for production in the State for multiple years, my brokerage loved me, and people were literally calling me trying to buy my book of business and yet I cringed when I had to talk about real estate with anyone. 

It didn't make any sense to me and yet I kept pushing myself more. I figured that it would pass. After all, none of those business books addressed this. No one talked about things like this. It was all "Ra-ra-ra sell more! Sell more! Sell more!" 

Then one day, it began to unravel. I began to unravel. I was sitting at my desk in the late afternoon and my phone was buzzing. I was cold-hearted glaring at it like it was a cheating boyfriend that just got caught. It literally had rung over 100 times that day from clients and leads. (Btw, it's not humanly possible to call all those people back for one person in a day, just so you know.)

Overwhelmed, overworked and anxiety-ridden was an understatement for me. I remember that moment so well like it was some kind of breaking point. Now, looking back, I can call it a "breakthrough" point, but it took me a couple of years to really see it that way. I was slipping and had no idea how to fix it. It was the starting point of a slow slide into a very dark depression.

I won't delve into my depression details, but it's a very ugly place to be in life and in business. If it wasn't for my family and God, I would have never gotten through it. During that time I learned so much about myself and how to control my business, how to time leverage like a magician, have healthy boundaries, stellar systems, and a life I love and enjoy.

It was a process that was extremely difficult to go through, but one that I am so thankful for now because it put me in a position to be able to help and positively impact others. I NEVER want anyone to ever feel imprisoned by their business or get to the point that I did. (NEVER EVER!)

I never want anyone just to quit because they didn't know how to handle the business or have a resource for help learning to develop their business healthily. I can't tell you how deep I feel this in my heart, there just aren't enough words to describe my passion for it.

Just like you, I had originally become a real estate agent to be happy and have freedom. I started a real estate business to help others while doing something that I loved. However, it became a cage for me and almost destroyed us both.

No one told me that could even happen, much less, ways to avoid that happening or how to fix it if it did. That's exactly why I'm doing what I do today, teaching other agents what nobody taught me. So you can healthily and simply grow a business that you enjoy. That's the career of your dreams. Not one that eats at your mind daily or that makes you lose sleep. A business that gives you the freedom to enjoy the life you want and one that you should have.  

This brings me back to my 10 am rule. As I mentioned before, during that period of personal growth, I learned tons of ways to have healthy work-life harmony and how to control my business. One of those was having business hours that I myself abide by.

There were a few different reasons that 10 am came into play for me personally with clients, but it works well for me. As my evenings end around 6 pm, this accommodates time zones well for clients and also helps me get my bearings in the morning as I'm not much of a morning person.

I would recommend you set hours that work for your schedule. If you're a morning person, make earlier hours. If you're nocturnal, do later hours. This is your business, there is no right or wrong. Whatever times you choose, just make sure to enforce them.

I don't mean just enforce them with clients either, I mean enforce them internally with yourself too. You need time away from your business to think, to process, and to relax. It's not healthy to constantly work and worry about work.

I know we're engulfed in the "grind" or "hustle" culture, but that mentality is "totally like 5 minutes ago!" (just like my Clueless movie quote :D ). Yes, we may have moments of "hustle," but learn how to thrust and throttle. Instead, in this day and age, we need to be about having healthy minds, bodies, souls, and businesses! 

I urge you strongly to implement, what I call, an "on" schedule. It's healthy and it's needed. You can't be 24/7 forever. It's not humanly possible and it takes away from other areas of your life. The "always-on" lifestyle will only lead you to potentially resenting your career, burnout, and possibly quitting altogether.

We cannot be everything to everyone and when we start feeling that way then we need to do some reevaluating. We can, however, implement systems and frameworks that give us the careers that we enjoy. Yes, it's possible and it will make your real estate career much more sustainable over the long run while also providing a better quality of life personally and in business. 

Keep Shining On ~ Your Real Estate Coach,
Amanda