Jess Lenouvel

5 Ways You Might Be Overcomplicating Your Real Estate Content Marketing Strategy

Are you feeling overwhelmed when it comes to your real estate content marketing strategy?

Scratching your head, staring at a blinking cursor, wondering what to post on social?

You know you need to start creating and adding more videos to your marketing, but you don’t even know where you’d start? 

If this is sounding familiar, there’s a very good chance you’re overcomplicating your real estate content marketing strategy.

Because here’s something you might not know…

When you’re so in tune with your ideal clients, marketing gets to feel EASY.

Messages flow to you easily.

You no longer stress about what to post.

And you become magnetic to your ideal clients.

 If you’re ready to have your real estate marketing feel simple and intuitive, read on to learn where you might be overcomplicating things.

You’re Making It All About You 

If you want to eliminate a lot of the stress that comes with marketing, here’s the #1 guiding principle you need to embrace…

Your marketing is not about you. 

Your Instagram posts aren’t for you. Your videos aren’t for you. Your emails and blog posts aren’t for you.

And they’re not for other agents, either. 

You need to stop asking yourself the question, what do I want to post today?

And instead, start asking yourself the questions, what does my ideal client need to hear from me today?

It can really be that simple when you decide to go ALL IN on what your clients want to see.

You’re Worried About Repeating Yourself

When many agents first start working with us in The Listings Lab, they tell me things like, “I’ve already done a post on [X], I can’t talk about it again!” or “I’ve talked about that topic enough, now I need to come up with something new”. 

But here’s how you need to reframe your mindset to help you eliminate your resistance towards repetition:

Repeating yourself, i.e. delivering the same message over and over isn’t a weakness…it’s actually a strength.

Your clients don’t have 500 different problems. If you’re trying to create content for hundreds of different pain points of course content creation is going to feel difficult. 

Your clients just have a few problems that you’re qualified to help them solve. 

When you create content that addresses your ideal client avatar’s problems and pain points, then of course you will have to repeat yourself.

Embrace it. 

You’re Letting Perfectionism Hold You Back

If you want to create content that attracts your ideal clients, you have to check your ego at the door. 

When you’re committed to serving your ideal clients at the deepest level, there’s no room for perfectionism.

When you put all of your energy into addressing your ideal client’s needs, pains, problems, fears, and desires, you never have to worry about what you’re going to talk about. 

You don’t have to get caught up in worrying about your brand style and voice, or whether or not you’re the best writer in the world.

And you certainly don’t have to stress about your hair being done, your makeup being perfect, or worry about that time you stumbled over your words.  

None of that matters when you’re delivering VALUE to your ideal clients. 

As long as you’re sharing a message that resonates, your ideal clients could care less about you being “perfect”. 

In fact, showing up as the perfectly imperfect human being that you are will only help them connect with you on a deeper level. 

You’re Not Listening To Your Ideal Clients

If you take anything away from this post, let it be this…

Your ideal clients are telling you what they want to hear from you. 

They’re telling you when they get on sales calls with you.

They’re telling you in your comments and DMs.

They’re telling you in the form of frequently asked questions, objections, and hesitations.

If you’re truly listening and tuned in to your ideal clients, you should have a wealth of content ideas at your fingertips.

When you prioritize market research in your business, your real estate content marketing strategy gets to be simple. 

Remember, as an entrepreneur, your content should solve problems. 

You’re not an influencer. You don’t need to show your followers your outfit or what you made for lunch.

You just need to listen to your ideal clients, and post accordingly.

You’re Waiting To Feel Confident To Start 

You don’t need to be confident to start marketing your real estate business.

Yes, I said it.

All of these stories and beliefs you have around the need to be more “confident” is just an excuse to keep you from starting.

In reality, showing up on social media doesn’t need to be complicated.

You feel nervous, but you show up anyway…because getting results is too important to let the fear stop you.

It’s that simple. 

If you’re waiting to feel confident to start, remember this:

Confidence is not the prerequisite, it’s the reward. 

None of us are good at anything the first time we do it – you have to embrace the suck.

But just remember, the more you do it, the better you’re going to be. That’s why it’s so important to not overthink your real estate content marketing strategy when you’re first starting out. Begin by getting into the habit of creating and posting content, and over time that content will improve.

Content creation is as much of an art as it is a science. 

A lot of the time the people who are the most confident are the ones who’ve been consistent the longest.

So stick with it and don’t overcomplicate it, and watch as you reap the rewards down the line. You’ve got this. 

Pssst. Want more tips on how to magnetize ideal clients through your content so you can STOP prospecting and hustling for clients? Download the FREE  The Listings Lab Guide here to learn the marketing strategies needed to fill your calendar with appointments.

9 Cognitive Biases Agents Can Use To Supercharge Their Omnipresent Marketing

Did you know there are certain cognitive biases in marketing that YOU can exploit to become the go-to agent in your market?

Here at The Listings Lab, we’re huge proponents of omnipresent marketing.

Establishing Omnipresence is actual a core part of The Listings Lab Method (detailed here in our free guide!) to help agents scale from six to seven figures.

Picture of a Venn Diagram Showcasing The Listings Lab Method - Relevancy, Omnipresence, Intimacy

Omnipresence is where you seem to be everywhere to your target audience.

This is what happens when you appear in someone’s life consistently. It’s the key to really dominating the newsfeeds and screens of your audience and therefore, making your prospects feel like you’re everywhere.

Are you curious to dig into the science that makes omnipresence so incredibly powerful?

In this post, we’ll dive into buyer psychology and learn about the nine cognitive biases so you can supercharge your omnipresence marketing strategy.

Let’s go.

1. The Red Car Effect

The red car effect is when we’re trained to see something, something is top of mind, or something is important to us, we begin to see it everywhere.

That thing now sits at the forefront of your mind, and you’re more aware of it. 

You begin to see it everywhere, and you’re more aware that you’re seeing it everywhere.

In reality, you’re probably not seeing it more often than before, it’s just that now your brain has picked up on it.

On any given day, your brain is constantly filtering things out that aren’t relevant.

The name of this cognitive bias comes from the phenomenon where you’re thinking about buying a red car…and all of sudden, you start to see red cars everywhere.

The same thing goes for your ideal clients.

If they have a problem in their lives, they’re going to start seeing potential solutions everywhere.

When you use omnipresent marketing, you can make sure you’re putting the right content in front of them at the right time.

2. The Bandwagon Effect

The next cognitive bias is the bandwagon effect.

The bandwagon effect speaks to our desire to do something just because everyone else is doing it.

When you harness the power of the bandwagon effect, your ideal clients will be eager to work with you, because they believe all of their peers are. They don’t want to miss out.

You start to be seen as the trendy person to work with online!

It’s simple to use this effect in your omnipresent marketing. All you need to do is talk about your clients.

Share stories, case studies, and testimonials. Re-share your clients’ stories where they mention your services. Show your prospects the incredible results your clients are getting, and they’ll want to be part of the in-club, too. 

3. Attentional Bias

Attentional bias states that what we pay attention to moves forward.

I talk about this from a mindset perspective all the time. 

The next time you go on a walk, pay attention. Whatever you choose to look at, whether that’s a tree, or a statue, you will automatically start to move towards those things.

That’s why, when we’re taught to drive, we’re always taught to keep our eyes on the road. If you focus on something too closely that’s off to the side, you might find yourself veering off the road and ending up in an accident.

The attentional bias works really well when we’re talking about omnipresence. What ends up happening is that you’re gaining more and more attention, and therefore someone is actually feeling an internal pull towards you. 

4. Barnum Effect

The next cognitive bias is the Barnum effect, and that’s the tendency to accept certain information as true, such as personality tests or horoscopes.

The Barnum effect states that people want to be pegged a certain way.

Even if you’re inaccurately describing someone, even if your marketing isn’t exactly bang-on, they’ll still think that you’re the one for them if you’ve positioned yourself correctly.

Of course, no one wants their messaging to be slightly off. You want it to be 100% magnetizing to your ideal clients.

But if you’re taking advantage of omnipresent marketing and constantly getting in front of your ideal clients, they will see themselves in your content. 

If you’ve got four out of five things right about your ideal clients, they won’t notice that they’re not quite resonating with that fifth point. They’ll feel your marketing was meant for them anyway, thanks to the Barnum effect.

5. Mere Exposure Effect

The fifth cognitive bias, the mere exposure effect, is the one that I probably talk about the most and relates the most heavily to omnipresent marketing. 

The mere exposure effect states that the more familiar you are with something, the closer you feel to it. 

When you see something or someone over and over again, you build trust with them. 

This is a horrible example, but Stockholm Syndrome operates on this principle.

Over time, people feel comfortable, trusting, or even emotionally attached to someone who’s kidnapped them. 

That’s because, over time, the kidnapper is the only person they’ve been exposed to.

When we apply this principle to the online marketing world, you can see why repeatedly being visible to your customers through omnipresent marketing is so important.

The more someone’s exposed to you, the more chances that person will build that know, like, and trust factor with you.

6. The Context Effect

The context effect operates on the principle that if we understand the context of something, we believe that we understand the whole thing. 

When it comes to your marketing, the context effect plays out in so many ways.

For example, even if your prospect doesn’t read your entire ad, but you have a super enticing headline…they’ll fill in the blanks and assume they need what you’re selling.

Or even if you go through a piece of your process, without showing them the full step-by-step…they’ll still believe it’s the solution for them. 

The context effect allows you to give little snippets away in your marketing and have your potential clients assume they need what you’re offering!

7. The Skim Effect

For a second, I want you to think about HOW much time we spend online consuming content.

Most of us don’t read or listen to anything in full – and that’s where the skim effect comes into play. 

It doesn’t actually matter if your audience isn’t consuming your content in full. As long as you were the one that delivered what they skim on a regular basis, you will be remembered for it.

8. The Third-Party Effect

We all know that endorsements and social proof go a long way. And that’s largely in part because of the cognitive bias referred to as the third-party effect.

When you use marketing materials like:

  • PR features
  • Case studies
  • Testimonials

They largely rely on the third-party effect for influence. 

This effect refers to the phenomenon of when people overvalue what others have to say about you. 

This is why guest features, being on podcasts, and being featured in the media have such a powerful effect on your audience. 

And when you’re able to put those things in front of your prospects, they’re going to overvalue the opinions of others and see you as being third-party verified.

9. The Spotlight Effect

Now, the last cognitive bias I want to talk about is the spotlight effect. 

This describes how people THINK that other people are paying more attention to them than they actually are. 

This effect actually holds people back from implementing omnipresent marketing strategies. 

When you fall victim to the spotlight effect, you shy away from getting visible on all  platforms.

You might worry you’ll annoy people or that they’ll get tired of seeing the same message over and over again. 

When in reality, your audience is not noticing as much as you think. 

The spotlight effect can have a different effect depending on the situation.

For example, maybe you deliver a presentation and you overestimate how much you impressed your coworkers. 

Salespeople can be notorious for this, telling themselves things like, “I nailed it! They’re totally sold. I’m 100% getting this listing!” 

But on the other side of the spectrum, if you feel like you bombed a presentation, you’ll most likely overestimate how much other people care… or even notice. You might say things like, “Everyone’s laughing behind my back! They probably think I’m a total fraud!” when in reality, that’s just not true. 

Beware of how this cognitive bias could be holding you back from fully embracing omnipresent marketing. 

Whether you’re afraid of your audience noticing certain insecurities, or you falsely believe you’re already getting enough attention through your current marketing platform, the spotlight effect could be preventing you from embracing omnipresence. 

 

Want to learn more about how you can tap into the power of becoming omnipresent to your ideal clients? 

Learn about this key step in The Listings Lab Method by downloading the free guide here – and start attracting and converting prospects on autopilot. 

5 Ways To Build Trust With Clients As A Real Estate Agent

How do you build trust with clients in one of the least trusted industries out there?

That’s the question I want to answer today, because sadly, it’s true…

Realtors have one of the worst reputations out of all professionals when it comes to trustworthiness. 

When it comes to our perceived integrity as an industry, the odds aren’t exactly in our favor. 

Only one in ten consider realtors to be trustworthy.

Yikes. 

So how did we end up here?

A lot of agents will go their entire career feeling victimized by this fact, when in reality –  we’ve done this to ourselves.

I believe a BIG part of why people don’t trust agents comes down to how we market ourselves as agents.

  • The cheesy tag-lines
  • The way we bombard people to work with us 
  • The old-school marketing tactics that consumers are just so sick of 

It’s time for a shift.

If we want to build trust in the markets that we’re in, it actually requires the opposite of what many of us think. 

Let’s dive deeper into how to stop giving off that sleazy salesman vibe and instead start to build trust and connection with your ideal clients.

Understand That Trust and Credibility Are Not The Same

Before we get into how to build trust, let’s start with an important distinction. 

Trust and credibility are not the same. 

You can be considered credible, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve built trust with your clients. 

Credibility often refers to whether or not people think you’re good at your job.

But trust is a human connection. And human beings are emotional creatures. 

Building trust comes down to not only showing your credibility but building an emotional connection with your ideal clients. 

Stop Trying To Be “Perfect”

However, what holds SO many agents back from making this emotional connection is inauthenticity. 

There’s no way around it – agents lie in their marketing.

They lie in their marketing by trying to pretend that they’re perfect, and they’re not.

Agents hide in their marketing by refusing to share what’s real. They resist showing up with vulnerability. 

Effective marketing is the opposite of this. 

The phoney image associated with real estate agents has created deep levels of mistrust among the public. 

If you’ve ever run an ad to cold traffic, you’ve probably noticed this based on the mean comments from strangers.

Agents get trolled because often we haven’t put in the work to build real relationships, or to show up as real people. 

In a way, the perfectionism coming through in your marketing is a form of lying.

And human beings are lie detectors. 

They can sniff out inauthenticity from a mile away.

If we ever want to change the public perception of the real estate industry, we have to stop putting forward this shiny, “perfect agent” image and start showing up as our true selves.

Understand The Science of Connection

If you’re truly committed to building trust with your clients, it’s helpful to know how the brain works. 

Our brains have two parts.

  1. The prefrontal cortex
  2. And the limbic system

And what part of the brain you choose to connect with matters. 

The way that you market yourself actually has to work with both sides. 

The thing is, human beings process and engage with the world based on emotions first.

It’s only after something resonates with us emotionally that we activate the rational part of our brain. Only then do we justify and integrate something into our value system and behavior. 

As much as we love to think of ourselves as perfectly rational, we’re not really rational beings at all.

None of us are. Not me, not you, not your clients.

If you fail to establish that emotional “click” with your clients, they literally won’t be able to trust you. 

And if they don’t trust you, they’ll never like you enough to actually hire you as their agent. 

It doesn’t matter if you’re highly credible, if you’re brilliant or if you’re one of the top agents in your market.

If you’re not resonating with them emotionally, none of it matters.

You’re messaging won’t resonate – it won’t stick. Your potential clients will feel like something’s off, and so they won’t take action. 

When you market emotionally first, anything is possible. Because you’ll have created an authentic, accepting relationship with your audience. 

And with that kind of relationship, that kind of connection – that is where trust is built. 

Prioritize The “Emotional Click”

When we talk about The Listings Lab Methodology, (covered in detail in our free guide!), it’s often the intimacy piece of the framework that is missing from a lot of agents’ marketing.

This goes much deeper than just having the intimacy piece dialed in with your past clients or long-time followers.

You also need to understand how to build intimacy with the people you don’t know – the people who just followed you, the people you haven’t even had a conversation with yet. 

So how do we establish that?

It all goes back to the “emotional click” I mentioned above.

Emotional resonance is the difference between content that feels preachy and out of touch and content that builds connection.

If you want your prospect to take action, they need to feel enough of a pull that they take that first step to reach out to you.

Successful inbound marketing starts with emotions. 

When you master the emotional click, you’ll see an increase in audience growth, engagement, and best of all – conversions.

Understand The Law of Reciprocity 

So by now, you’re probably wondering, how do I make sure that this actually works?

And to put it all together, you need to understand that marketing is all about the law of reciprocity. 

The law of reciprocity states that when people receive something, they’ll feel compelled to return the favor. 

This is why it’s so important to give more than you take in your marketing.

If you’re still posting stuff like, “Referrals are the biggest compliment you can give” and “Give me a call for all of your real estate needs”…

It’s time to change your strategy.

It’s time to stop focusing on yourself when it comes to your marketing and put all of your energy into your audience.

If you find yourself constantly saying:

  • I hope this gets more views!
  • Not enough people are reaching out to me!
  • The algorithm has been screwing me over lately

Then change your thoughts to:

  • How can I connect with one person today?
  • What does my ideal client need to hear?
  • How can I offer ‘X’ person in my audience some encouragement or inspiration?

When you change the energy from which you’re putting out content, you’ll change your results.

The bottom line is if your content isn’t landing, your business isn’t growing, and people aren’t coming to you…

A lot of the time, it’s because you haven’t successfully been able to build trust with your clients.

By prioritizing authenticity, emotional connection and reciprocity in your marketing, you’ll be able to change the way real estate agents are viewed, one client at a time.

 

Want to learn more about building a marketing machine that gets clients lining up to work with you?

Be sure to download our FREE guide, The Listings Lab Method, where you’ll learn how to set up marketing systems that effortlessly attract your ideal clients at scale.

These 9 Things Will Kill The Momentum In Your Online Real Estate Business

Are you trying to grow an online real estate business, but you feel like things just aren’t moving? 

Maybe it feels like no matter how many hours you put in, you just can’t seem to get the ball rolling.

Or you might be making decent money, but you’re trying to scale beyond your current income goals – without success. You feel like you’re trying every strategy in the book, but you’re just NOT able to break past where you currently are.

You’ve hit a plateau, and you have no idea how to break past it.

If this is sounding familiar, what you need to do is build momentum.

Momentum is the KEY to exponential growth in your online real estate business. 

When you build momentum in business, things start to pick up at a faster and faster pace. Eventually, you create this snowball effect where your business is growing FOR you without you having to put in so much effort!

But right now, at this very moment, there are things you are doing that are actually KILLING your momentum.

Specifically, there are nine things that might be stopping you in your tracks from scaling your real estate business.

And if you’re currently working your way towards seven figures, or even if that’s just a goal right now…you WILL encounter all of these nine things along the way. 

If you didn’t know any better, you might not even realize what’s happening in the moment. And before you know it, they’ll be slowing you down or stopping your growth altogether.

So in this post, you’ll learn to not only recognize these momentum killers but also how to deal with them head-on – so you can build the successful online real estate business you deserve.

Let’s get into them!

Mindset

If you’ve been here for a while, you’re probably not shocked to hear me say this…

But mindset is ALWAYS going to be the #1 thing people have to face if they want to bust through their current situation and build momentum. 

Mindset issues can rear their head in so many ways.

Often, this sounds like agents telling me things like:

  • I only want a referral-based business
  • Everyone else is growing faster than me
  • I should just be grateful for what I have – I shouldn’t strive for more
  • I don’t want to hire a team

While some of those might seem like valid beliefs, a LARGE majority of the time, they’re just mindset issues in disguise. 

We develop these mindset blocks based on preconceived notions, that often come from what we see others in our industry doing or from what we’ve done in the past. 

For example, if we hired someone in the past and they were completely unreliable, we might have mindset blocks around hiring.

Or if our only experiences seeing real estate agents market themselves were seeing sleazy ads, we might have a block around showing up authentically on social media. 

If we ever want to take the actions necessary to grow an online real estate business and reach that next level, we must identify the beliefs that are triggering us and holding us back.

Lead Generation

The second piece that trips so many agents up is their lead generation. 

Most agents have no real SYSTEM when it comes to generating leads for their real estate business.

Or if they do have a system, it’s really more of a luck-based system. It’s not predictable or automated – it feels a bit more like throwing spaghetti against the wall, hoping something will stick. 

If you don’t have a system that brings in consistent leads, your business is always going to be difficult.

You NEED predictability in order to scale. 

If you’re trying to grow your business based on old-school tactics like manual prospecting, you will eventually become your own bottleneck.

Say, for example, you prospect for two hours a day.

And one day, you decide you’re ready to double your business.

Well, based on your current method, you’re going to need FOUR hours a day in order to hit your business goals.

As the CEO, you simply don’t have those hours! It eventually becomes impossible to break through your current income levels.

Instead, focus your efforts on creating a non-luck-based system, that allows for consistency, predictability, and unlimited scalability. 

(Pssst. That’s exactly what we teach agents how to do over in The Listings Lab!

Creating An Audience

When you take the time and effort to build an audience, a community, around your business – it’s like having built-in insurance. 

And when you DON’T take the time to build an audience, you’re leaving yourself vulnerable and unprotected. 

My husband and I talk about this all of the time. If our house got burned down, our bank accounts got cleared out, and ALL of our business systems got destroyed…

…we would still be okay. 

Because what we’ve built over the years is a loyal community. 

And that cannot be taken away from you.

There are a lot of people who say, “But what about if Instagram goes down? What about if Facebook goes down?”

But even if one social media platform went under, we’d still be A-OK. Because we have our audience spread across different platforms and channels – Instagram, Facebook, our website, email list, and more.

This is not just about lead generation. A lot of agents know they need to generate leads.

But so many of them feel like branding and building an audience are somehow separate from lead generation. They’re not.

YOU are your brand. Whether you have a team or you’re a solo agent.

So if you’re creating a community around that brand and creating an audience, you’re giving yourself the gift of built-in insurance…and making sure that you will always be okay, no matter what happens. 

Your Mental Ability To Part With Money 

This tip ties in with the mindset piece, but it’s a little different. 

This is something that I’ve dealt with myself over the years and helped many of my clients work through as well. 

If you want to build momentum in your online real estate business, you must work on your ability to part with your money.

If you’re someone who’s a big saver or loves to have huge amounts of cash sitting in the bank, this might feel tough at first. 

But here’s what you need to know…

Growth requires cash. Especially fast growth. 

When I first started The Listings Lab, I was able to scale the business to seven figures within just 30 days.

A huge reason why?

Because we invested HEAVILY from the beginning. 

It was the same thing with my first online real estate business, ShopCondos.

Some of you might not know how that business came to be, so here’s the story (and if you like, you can read more on my story in this article). 

I was working for a builder at the time, and making good money working for him.

But then, I got engaged. And he didn’t like that one bit.

So he fired me. 

On the spot, like that.

I was terrified! 

But at the same time, I had a wedding to plan. So from a financial standpoint, I knew I needed to do something, and I needed to do something FAST.

I was forced to rebuild my real estate business from nothing.

We didn’t have any cash, so I took out a line of credit and invested the full amount of that line of credit into building my new business.

And from there, we were able to scale it to seven figures in just six months. 

A huge part of the reason we were able to do that was because we were able to invest and make financial decisions quickly. 

When you hesitate to invest, or you need to think about financial decisions for ages, you lose your competitive advantage. You’ll never be the fastest in your market and your unwillingness to ACT will kill your momentum. 

At its core, money is really just energy. It’s a tool to be able to build the life and business of your dreams. 

You need to release your attachment to holding on to it, and instead invest freely knowing it will ALWAYS come back to you when you make strategic business decisions.

Operations & Systems

You need systems and someone to MANAGE those systems

The fifth thing that will bog you down is faulty operations and a lack of systems.

You can’t do it all in your business. You need efficient systems and operations, and you need someone to MANAGE those systems. 

Even if you’re not quite ready to hire, you want to make sure you’ve got your systems down pat so that when you do bring someone into your business, it’s easy to get them trained. 

Another thing you can do if you’re not ready to invest in team support right at this moment is to start to automate as much as possible. 

A lot of the time, we have a mental block against automating our business, because we feel automation will make our business feel cold and impersonal. 

But in reality, it’s actually the opposite.

If you want to serve your clients at the highest level and be incredibly attentive, it’s going to be way harder if you’re spending all of your time on mundane tasks.

I like to call these $10/hour tasks.

You’re spending all of your time on tasks that aren’t even worth your time and could easily be outsourced to someone else!

The goal is to systematize and automate as many of these tasks as possible, and then when you’re ready – delegate whatever can’t be automated. 

More often than not, WE are the bottlenecks in our business.

Often, agents think the reason they’re not growing is that they don’t have enough business. But if we just put in systems that freed up time and energy, they’d have the space to go out and create more business for themselves.

So don’t neglect this important area of your online real estate business!

Your business will grow when you spend more time on $1000/hour tasks rather than $10/hour ones. 

Burnout & Overwhelm 

When you DON’T prioritize systems, automation, and delegation in your business, the sad reality is that you’re headed straight for realtor burnout.

Creating systems to minimize overwhelm isn’t just about using a project management tool.

It’s about creating a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for every single area of your business. 

  • Lead generation
  • Your sales process
  • Client onboarding
  • Client offboarding

The whole deal!

Even the smallest things – like how you respond to text messages – should be documented and recorded. 

Because guess what?

When you have everything documented, down to the smallest details, that’s when team members are able to swoop in and take things off your plate.

I’m willing to bet that 50-75% of the things you’re doing on a daily basis can be systematized, automated, or delegated.

Branding

Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. 

Your brand is SO much more than colors and logos.

It’s about how people perceive and understand your brand.

A quote I’ve heard about how to think about your brand that I absolutely love is:

Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. 

People tend to minimize the importance of branding, thinking their brand can be summed up in a simple tagline. It can’t. 

It’s so much deeper than that.

  • It’s your client results
  • Your story
  • Your values
  • Your mission

When you take the time to build a powerful brand that deeply resonates with your ideal clients, you will always be okay.

Again, just like building an audience – your brand is your built-in insurance. No matter what happens in your business, if you have a strong brand, you’ll be able to weather whatever storm your business brings. 

Long-term Decision-Making

Most businesses that haven’t reached the seven-figure mark are still making 90-day decisions. They’re mostly looking ahead to their next business quarter, and not much past that.

If you want to create long-term, exponential growth, you *must* start making long-term decisions. 

You have to start looking at your business in terms of where you want it to be in ten years. 

It’s not to say that quarterly goals are not important, because they are. But we need to shift away from the short-term thinking that’s so prevalent in our industry.

Your quarterly goals are actually one of the LAST things you should be deciding on. 

You have to start with your ten-year vision and then work backward. 

The way that we do this in The 7 Figure Agent program is through a process we call, 10 – 3 – 1 – Q.

  • 10 stands for your 10-year vision
  • 3 stands for your 3-year plan 
  • 1 stands for your 1-year goals
  • Q stands for your quarterly rocks (AKA your bigger 90-day goals)

When you use this process, you make sure that the small actions you’re doing on a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis will actually get you to where you want to go. 

Financial Awareness 

You can fill your ego or your bank account. 

Do you know your numbers…or do you bury your head in the sand when it comes to your finances?

I get on WAY too many calls with agents who are totally in the dark when it comes to their numbers.

It’s really important that you recognize that your commission cannot equal your income. 

You need to start making that separation between YOUR money and your business’s money. 

While yes, you may be the face of the business, you may be the heart of the business…your business is a totally separate entity from you. Especially financially. 

If you’re truly committed to growing an online real estate business, you have to make sure you keep enough money within the business so you constantly have enough profits to reinvest back into business growth. 

If you’re treating your business’s revenue like your personal salary, you’re essentially acting like an independent contractor. 

And if that’s what you want to be, no judgment!

But if you want to be a CEO of a seven-figure company, you need to start treating your finances differently.

I pay myself out of what the business earns as a whole. And even if the company earns seven figures, that doesn’t mean I’m paying myself that much. I really don’t even pay myself that much! Because at the end of the day, I’m reinvesting BACK into the business so it can continue to grow.  That’s my top priority. 

If you find yourself struggling with any of these nine core areas, I encourage you to join us in The Listings Lab. 

We’ve taught hundreds of agents how to bust through these momentum killers and scale their business to the multiple six and seven-figure mark. Hustle and burnout not included. 

Browse Our Mentorship Programs For Agents Here

5 Limiting Beliefs Stopping You From Scaling a Real Estate Business

Are you ready to bust through your current production and start scaling your real estate business?

Scaling a real estate business is no walk in the park.

Not only does it take high-level strategy and tactics, but there are also some serious mindset issues to tackle. 

You can have all the strategy in the world.

You can have the best Facebook ads strategy, a perfectly mapped-out sales funnel, and be a rockstar at converting prospects on sales calls.

But none of it matters if you have deeply rooted beliefs that are not compatible with the business you envision for yourself. 

Along my journey of building a 7-figure real estate business, there were MANY beliefs and habits I had to undo. 

And now as I  mentor other real estate agents, these are the some of the most common limiting beliefs I hear time and time again that will prevent you from scaling a real estate business.

Let’s get into them so you can see if YOU hold any of these negative beliefs – and if you do, help you swap them for something more empowering!

“If I want to make more money, I have to work harder” 

I’m going to tell you something that might surprise you.

It can actually be a lot harder to make $250,000 than to make a million dollars. 

I know that sounds counterintuitive – but it’s true. 

If you’re an agent and you’re making in the $200-300k range, you’re most likely still doing the majority of your work yourself.

Sure, you might have an assistant or a VA. You may have even started to build a small team.

But you don’t have a leveraged team. 

You’re still the one responsible for almost everything. Every process, every decision, every strategy…it all still goes through you.

And that, my friend, is a recipe for burnout. 

If you choose NOT to go beyond that income range, you’ll stay stuck with the pain of doing everything yourself forever. And eventually, you’ll lose the love you have for the real estate industry. 

BUT when you decide to scale your real estate business past that mark and aim for seven figures…you’ll have no choice but to master systems and automation.

And rather than having a team you have to babysit, where you’re constantly the bottleneck, you’ll have a team that actually gives you back your time.

Start to come around to the idea that building a million-dollar business is going to help you work fewer hours, not more. 

Building a big, automated, profitable business is the best thing you can do for your peace of mind.

My mental health, the quality of my relationships, and my peace of mind all significantly improved once I committed to building a 7-figure business.

“If I want to build a million-dollar business, I’ll have to sacrifice my personal or family time”

Have you ever thought something along these lines? 

“I’ll only be able to hit [X] number…because that’s all I have time for”

“Building a million-dollar business isn’t for me, because I really value my family time” 

Or…

“I’d love to scale my business, but I’m not willing to sacrifice my personal goals to get there”

I understand the sentiment, but what if I told you that you didn’t need to?

That an increase in time (especially quality time with loved ones!) could be a result of scaling your real estate business?

At one point, I told myself similar stories as to why I could never hit the seven-figure mark.

I was claiming I valued my time and therefore didn’t want to focus on growing my business bigger. 

While at the same time, spending hours and hours:

  • Scheduling calls
  • Doing showings
  • Writing offers
  • Doing paperwork
  • Having partnership meetings

Every single message that came in HAD to be answered by me.

Now tell me…does that sound like someone who would have the time, space, and mental energy to show up in full force for her personal life? For her family?

I couldn’t. 

If you refuse to put in the work to scale your business, you’ll actually spend years of your life as a real estate zombie. Someone who’s constantly busy and stressed, always answering emails and taking calls. You’re not able to truly be present for the other parts of your life when real estate consumes you.

Scaling a real estate business *is* the path to a more fulfilling personal life and higher caliber relationships with your loved ones. Take it from someone who’s been there!

“If I automate, systematize and delegate, my clients won’t be getting high-touch, high-level support” 

I think when a lot of people think about growth, they think the desire to grow is somehow greedy.

Or they feel putting in the systems to scale their real estate business will somehow hinder their clients.

They believe that doing fewer deals with a smaller group of clients will give their business a more luxurious, high-end feel and that their clients will be getting better service.

I understand the mentality.

But I want you to consider something…

You’re a big-hearted, genuine person who truly cares about your clients.

You do your best on every single deal, and you get your client incredible results. 

The people who get the opportunity to work with you are freakin’ lucky!

So why would you limit that to just a handful of people each year?

You owe it to your community and your future clients to grow and scale.

Because if it’s not you, it’s someone else.

And let’s be real…there are a lot of agents out there who DON’T care. Who DON’T do a great job for their clients.

If you choose to stay small, well, you’re giving your clients to that agent.

You’re not helping your clients by limiting your growth. You’re doing them a disservice. 

If you are good at what you do and you’re someone who truly cares about your clients, it’s your responsibility to grow your business and help more people. 

This *doesn’t* mean you have to grow by doing it all yourself and burning out.

Setting up the proper systems and automations SERVES your clients. Delegating tasks outside your zone of genius HELPS your clients. 

You actually have more time and energy to provide that high-level support when you’re not running around frazzled, trying to do all the things. 

Let go of the myth that scaling your business is somehow a disservice to your clients. When in reality staying small is. 

“No one can run my business better than me” 

Nothing will kill your dreams of scaling a real estate business faster than this belief. 

And I get it, because it held me back for years, too.

In fact, I used to pride myself on being a “lone wolf” in business. I thought the fact that I could do it all was one of my biggest strengths. I told myself being independent and self-sufficient was part of what made me so successful.

But in reality, it was a crutch. It was a story that I hid behind so I wouldn’t have to get over my fear of trusting others and letting go of control. 

If you ever want to scale to multiple six or seven figures, you need to let go of the idea that YOU are the only one who can run your business properly.

There are many people who can do the tasks in your business just as well as you…if not better!

I believe a huge part of the reason my team is so successful is because I’ve hired people who are better than me in their respective roles. Bringing on a team to take over parts of my business elevated our results…not weakened them.

Not only does having a team who are all working in their zone of genius increase the quality for our customers, but it allows ME as the CEO to have more space.

Now, the only things on my plate are the things that I excel at and enjoy doing.

Everything else I was able to hand off.

Allowing yourself to trust in the capabilities of others is what will give you true freedom WHILE skyrocketing your business results.

 

“If I build a team, it has to look like everyone else’s”

When it comes to scaling a real estate business, you already know you need a team.

But maybe you’ve been holding back because you’ve seen an outdated team model that doesn’t feel aligned.

Here’s what I want you to know…

There is no one way to build a team for your real estate business.

If you’ve looked around at other agents who have a team, and it doesn’t seem like that model would be a great fit for you…don’t write off having a team altogether.

Your team doesn’t have to look like everyone else’s.

Yes, there’s the typical Millionaire Real Estate agent model. And sure, it works for some people.

But that is not the only way to leverage a team and hit seven figures in your business.

Part of the reason why I’m so excited about my book, More Money, Less Hustle: Becoming the Seven-Figure Real Estate Agent (available for pre-order here!) is because I explore alternate team models for success.

Please know…

Your team DOESN’T need to be hierarchical. 

You don’t have to be a babysitter or responsible for every decision in your business. 

There is a different way.

Don’t allow your resistance to building a traditional real estate team make you decide team growth isn’t in the cards for you.

I want you to know – 

No matter which limiting belief you’re experiencing, whether it’s around growing your team, your income, or automating your business…

Our deep-rooted beliefs aren’t always easy to shift.

But awareness is the first step.

Now that you’re aware of these patterns that are preventing you from scaling a real estate business, you can begin to shift them. 

Do you want a deeper level of support when it comes to scaling your business to seven figures? 

Ready to uncover what’s keeping you stuck and put in the systems and strategies for predictable, automated growth?

If so, apply to join us in The Listings Lab and learn exactly how we’ve helped hundreds of agents scale to the multiple six and seven-figure mark! 

Pssst. We’ve got receipts. Read about our client success stories here!

Avoid Realtor Burnout, Regain Your Time And Scale To Success With These 6 Tips

Are you on the fast track to realtor burnout?

If you find yourself:

  • Working long hours
  • No longer having time for the hobbies and passions you used to enjoy
  • Constantly prioritizing work over your relationship, friends, and family
  • And maybe even feeling like you’re falling out of love with real estate…

Then you very well might be. 

I know, because back when I scaled my first real estate business to seven figures, I completely burned myself out.

I tried to build a million-dollar real estate business on my own.

And let me tell you…

It was not pretty.

I was completely drained and exhausted. I even ended up on medication due to my stress levels and anxiety.

That experience led me to prioritize sustainability in business going forward. Because getting to the million-dollar mark means NOTHING if you’re too burned out to even enjoy it.

Unfortunately, there are way too many agents hiding behind being “booked and busy” to even realize they’re headed straight down a one-way road to realtor burnout.

Here’s what you need to remember…

If you want to build a profitable real estate business, YOU are your greatest asset.

You’ll never be successful scaling a real estate business if you work yourself to exhaustion and fail to protect yourself from burnout.

So without further ado, here are six tips to help you regain your time and avoid realtor burnout so you can scale to success.

Stop the glorification of the hustle

How many times have you taken pride in the fact that you’re busy?

That you have a full calendar?

That nearly all of your time is occupied by your clients?

We’re SO used to seeing busy as a badge of honor. But what if I told you that being busy was actually being lazy? 

You might feel shocked to hear me say that, but it’s true!

When you constantly use being busy as a crutch to avoid doing the real work of:

You’re avoiding the work needed to TRULY grow your business.

You’re not just “busy”.

You’re unprepared. You’re controlling. And you’re unwilling to accept support.

Which together, will have you on the fast track to realtor burnout.

Once you can finally stop glorifying your packed schedule, and instead commit to creating space and freedom, you’ll be able to create the big, automated business you deserve!

Get Support To Accelerate Your Success

One of the FASTEST ways to lose passion for your real estate business is to buy into the false belief that you have to do it all on your own.

Successful business owners pay to collapse time.

They recognize that no matter what they’re looking to achieve, there’s someone who’s walked the exact path before them – and they have a map of the route they took.

The power of mentorship is exactly why I created The Listings Lab. 

There is no better investment than having coaches, mentors, and teachers in your life that can help you shorten the path to success.

Imagine not having to struggle with something for five years, and instead be able to minimize that journey into just six months?

While sure, you might be able to figure it out on your own, you’ll save so many hours along with the stress and headache required to get the results without support.

So why not invest in people who can help you get there faster AND with more peace of mind?

Overcome Your Hiring Mindset Blocks

Not only is it incredibly important to get support in the form of coaching and mentorship, but if you want to avoid realtor burnout…you *must* put in the work to build your real estate team.

Because here’s what you need to know about growing a team…

The amount of success that you experience in business is directly correlated to how willing you are to accept support.

Go back and read that sentence again, because it’s THAT important.

I talk to so many agents that have resistance around hiring a team.

They’ll say things like:

“I tried that before and it didn’t work for me”

“I’m just not meant to lead a team”

“I already tried to scale my business with a team but I’m not cut out for it”

But just because you tried something once and it didn’t work doesn’t mean you should never try it again!

The reality is, every entrepreneur has made mistakes with hiring. I’m willing to bet every single business owner could tell you about a time they made a wrong hire and it didn’t work out.

But imagine if every single entrepreneur out there let a bad hire get in the way of scaling their business? We wouldn’t have some of the most successful companies in the world if their CEOs had thought that way.

Think about it like this.

We’ve all gone out and had a bad meal at a restaurant at some point or another, right?

But when that happens, we don’t swear off going to restaurants for the rest of our lives, do we?

So why on earth would we do the same thing when it comes to growing our teams?

If you’ve ever hired someone who’s made you feel unsupported, I want you to know…

There are incredible people out there who would add amazing value to your team.

People who you can count on, who do good work, and would give your business their all.

Just because that wasn’t your experience in the past doesn’t mean it can’t be your experience in the future.

Become The Visionary of Your Business

For a quick moment, I want to come back to the idea that being busy is actually being lazy.

When you glorify the hustle, you’re actually stepping further and further away from your role as CEO…and closer and closer to being a burnt-out real estate zombie.

If you’re responsible for every single mundane task in your business, then how can you possibly show up as the visionary?

Michael E. Gerber covered this concept in his book, The E-Myth Revisited. While it’s not specifically related to real estate businesses, I highly recommend it to ALL agents looking to scale their business.

And although he originally published the book back in 1986, the principles in it are still ones that remain relevant to this day.

Essentially, the E-Myth states that there are different roles that need to be filled within any type of business.

You have:

  • The Entrepreneur (AKA the CEO/Visionary)
  • The Manager (the person who oversees the day-to-day)
  • The Technician (the implementor or the doer)

What Gerber explains is that the reason so many small businesses struggle is because they’re trying to fill all three seats within their business.

When you stretch yourself too thin and try to do every role yourself, not only will you be severely limiting your growth and impact – but you’ll also find yourself headed straight towards realtor burnout.

The reality is if you’re reading this and you KNOW deep down that you’re the bottleneck of your business…

…then you’re probably not treating your business like a real business.

If you ever want to step into your CEO shoes, to truly become the visionary, you need to allow yourself to let go of being the manager and the implementer.

Create Scalable Marketing Systems

I want to ask you a question…

How burnout-proof are your systems?

If you’re scratching your head, wondering “huh?” – then allow me to explain.

SO many of the conventional strategies and systems taught to agents are not scalable.

It’s entirely focused on cultivating relationships with people on an individual level.

  • Making phone calls
  • Sending emails
  • Organizing a lunch with a potential lead

Essentially, relationship-building activities.

But what I teach, on the other hand, is 1-many.

The reason why is because, unlike 1-1 marketing, 1-many marketing is scalable.

You want to make your marketing as efficient and as leveraged as possible.

Ask yourself:

How can you do something and get 500 results instead of 1 result with relatively the same amount of time, energy, and effort?

How can you be more efficient and less busy?

How can you delegate and leverage?

How can you implement systems and strategies that will give you more freedom, more income potential, and more impact?

Because when you start asking yourself questions like this, everything shifts.

Recognize the current limitations on your marketing efforts, and take the time to set up systems that will help you scale and avoid realtor burnout.

Reconnect With Your Why

Often, I ask members in The Listings Lab why they got into real estate in the first place.

And without a doubt, the most common answer I get is for the freedom. 

  • We want financial freedom – to have unlimited earning potential
  • We want time, freedom, and flexibility – to work when we want on our own schedule
  • And we want the freedom to create a bigger impact and feel like the work we’re doing is making a REAL difference in people’s lives

But what ends up happening is people severely limit their ability for freedom in all three areas.

They’re so busy micromanaging, controlling their team, and feeling like no one will ever be able to do it like them.

They’ve bought into false beliefs that are preventing them from scaling their real estate business.

So while people start out with all of these intentions around freedom, they gradually lose sight of their why. 

And they end up with a business that looks TOTALLY different than what they’d originally envisioned for themselves.

This is why it’s so important that we shift our perspective around being busy and realize that being super busy isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Having a busy team *can* be a good thing. But even in that case, you have to be careful not to burn your team out, either.

Nobody – and I mean, NOBODY – wants a team of burnt-out agents working under them.

If you’re reading this right now, and you’re working ten-hour days…

I want better for you.

I want better for your family.

I want better for your business, and for your life.

The truth is, you can have a highly-leveraged seven-figure business while only working four or five hours a day,

You can even take a month off! And no…not a “vacation” where you’re chained to your phone or laptop.

If you want to, you CAN do all of those things that translate into real freedom.

But you must get over the idea that “busy = good” and stop glorifying the hustle.

Are you ready?

If you’re ready to create a scalable business that gives you back your time AND allows you to break past your current production, apply to join us in The Listings Lab.