According to the Guinness Book of World Records, some of the largest collections of items ever recorded have included Star Wars Memorabilia, unopened Coca-Cola bottles, salt-and-pepper shakers, and rubber ducks.
For a lot of us humans, it’s in our nature to collect or group things together. And while I would hope that you don’t have so many Smart Lists that your agents are thinking about calling Guinness – and if you do call me so we can help you – being able to collect our Smart Lists together is the next phase of organizing our work well so that we can turn more leads into closings.
Lee, Jake, and Tiffany got together and went on a deep dive into this new Follow Up Boss feature that allows us to standardize our processes easier, give more context to the lists so that our agents can trust them, reduce clutter, and establish better workflows for leads.
Watch the video below to learn all the ins and outs of this fantastic new feature!
“It’s faster if I just do it myself,” I would think. “By the time I sit someone down and teach them all this (waves hands,) I could have done a thousand other things!” Making the time to teach others and delegate effectively can be challenging and one that I can still struggle with. Knowing the long-term positive effects of taking the time to do this, has certainly helped me to overcome my resistance to it!
Delegating is key to leading effectively and by setting your team up to truly work together as a group is a move that can propel your organization to new heights.
It’s not just about lightening your workload so that you can spend your valuable time on higher-level things, it’s ensuring that each person is operating at the highest and best use of their personal knowledge and skill set, making the team stronger as a whole.
You wear an enormous amount of hats: marketing, sales, finance, recruiting, admin, lead generation, customer service…and that’s not even including production! Strengthening your delegation muscles will allow your team to help more clients each year by developing repeatable systems and allowing your team members to become masters in their own areas of focus. Or, said another way, whole-ass one thing.
Here are some tips to help you delegate more effectively:
❤️ Know Your Team Understand the strengths, skills, and preferences of each member of your team. Tailor your delegation based on their individual capabilities to ensure the tasks align with their expertise. This not only enhances efficiency but also boosts team morale as members feel valued for their unique contributions.
🗣️Clearly Define Responsibilities Provide clear and specific instructions when assigning tasks. Clearly articulate goals, expectations, and deadlines associated with each delegated responsibility. This helps eliminate ambiguity and ensures that your team members have a solid understanding of their roles and a clear path to success.
📐Set Realistic Expectations Be mindful of the workload you delegate to avoid overwhelming your team members. Set realistic expectations considering their existing commitments and capabilities. This prevents burnout and maintains a healthy life-work balance within the team.
🙋Encourage Open Communication Foster an environment where team members feel comfortable expressing concerns or seeking clarification. Effective delegation involves a two-way communication channel, ensuring that everyone is on the same page. Encourage questions and provide constructive feedback to enhance understanding.
📚Provide Adequate Resources Ensure the team has the necessary resources, tools, and information to complete their tasks successfully. A lack of resources can hinder progress and lead to frustration. Remove obstacles and help them to be a success!
👔 Delegate Authority, Not Just Tasks Empower team members by delegating not only tasks but also the authority to make decisions within their assigned responsibilities. This cultivates a sense of ownership and accountability, motivating individuals to take initiative and demonstrate leadership in their roles. If you can’t trust the person to make the right decision on their own, then find someone else or retain that responsibility until you have someone who can. Consistently overruling someone’s decisions that they were tasked with can be demoralizing for the people you depend on.
☎️ Follow Up Regularly Schedule regular check-ins to monitor progress, provide support, and address any challenges or questions. Effective delegation involves ongoing communication to ensure the team remains aligned with goals and timelines. Adjustments can be made if needed, preventing potential issues from escalating.
👩🏫 Provide Training and Development Opportunities Invest in the professional growth of your team members by offering training opportunities related to their delegated responsibilities. This not only enhances their skills but also increases their confidence and effectiveness in handling delegated tasks.
🏆 Acknowledge and Reward Success Recognize and celebrate the achievements of your team members. Positive reinforcement boosts morale and encourages a culture of excellence. Acknowledge the contributions of individuals who have completed delegated tasks, to foster a sense of accomplishment and motivation.
🧘♀️Learn from Experience Assess what worked well and also identify areas for improvement regularly. This ongoing self-evaluation helps refine your skills and adapt to the evolving needs of your team and the industry. Regularly evaluating your own decisions will help you grow as a leader and further develop others on your team.
The magic of the holiday season can also bring unique challenges, especially to our mental health. Many of us are already navigating the pressures of being leaders in this industry, and adding colder weather, shorter days, and holiday planning can tip the scales leaving us feeling anxious and stressed making it harder to enjoy time with our loved ones.
It’s especially important this time of year to be proactive about maintaining our mental wellness so that we can continue leading at work and showing up for our loved ones at home.
Here are some ideas to help you stay on top of your game this holiday season:
Look ahead for your seasonal stressors. Planning ahead can help you minimize rushing around and last-minute pressures. Take a look at your current transactions and holiday commitments and plan accordingly.
Prioritize movement and daylight. Taking a quick walk outdoors, even if it’s cold, and ensuring that you get some daylight each day will help you keep your mood on an even keel. If you struggle to find time outdoors or your climate doesn’t allow it, adding an inexpensive light therapy lamp to your desk may be a great tool!
Set healthy boundaries. Social obligations abound this time of year both personally and professionally and it’s easy to get excited and overcommit. Say no to the activities that drain you, limiting after-hours work emails and calls, and carving out downtime with loved ones without interruption will help you shore up those boundaries. These boundaries also include setting a budget to avoid overspending. Your 2025 bank account will thank you!
Lean into your routine. Real estate schedules can be unpredictable and, at times, chaotic so a consistent routine can work wonders. Establish set times for healthy meals, exercise, and sleep and stick to them to help you stabilize your energy levels and mood, making it easier to handle (waves hands) all the things.
Stay connected to avoid feelings of isolation. Attending community events like holiday markets or industry networking events, scheduling a coffee date with friends, or virtual visits with long-distance loved ones will help you engage and fill your cup!
Reflect on all the good the year has brought to you. Gratitude helps you shift your focus from perceived things that are missing to those that are abundant. Take a look back at the year as a whole and reflect on everything you are thankful for and all the positive things that happened.
Embrace rest. Sleep isn’t the only type of rest we need. Give yourself permission to pause, say no, or scale back on commitments that don’t make you feel great or align with your goals.
Seek professional support, if needed. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we need an outside perspective to give us a leg up. If you are feeling overwhelmed or stuck, seeking the guidance of a mental health professional is a sign of strength, not weakness. There are plenty of private, low-cost resources available to help you get through a challenging time.
I love real estate events. The energy is always fantastic and I love hearing from others about their approach to real estate and what is working for them. With so many ideas being shared, it’s a really exciting and energizing place to be, even virtually!
This event was jam-packed with great insight and actionable items and I took notes for you, in case you couldn’t make it or want to revisit a few topics. Be sure to check out the table of contents on the left-hand side to jump from session to session.
Mark Twain said, “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first”. While this advice is evergreen, it’s especially important during the summer months to ensure that you are accomplishing what you need to and still have time for fun activities. Here are some things to consider as we refresh on this strategy:
🐸In the long run, this approach will help you overcome the fear of difficult tasks or stop procrastinating on them. This leads to a boost in productivity and a reduction in stress levels as you will feel more in control of your day.
🐸More challenging items require more effort, and if you leave them until the end of the day it is highly unlikely that you will be more motivated to complete them at the end of the day than the beginning. Decision fatigue is real, and knocking out your important work first will take less of a toll on you mentally throughout the day.
🐸In real estate it’s wise to leave time in your day for the almost guaranteed reactive items that come your way. If you have already completed the must-do or most challenging item, you will be in a much better mindset to tackle the whirlwind than if you are still trying to complete a project.
🐸Summer schedules, especially for those of us with school-age children, can often be challenging even though they are jam-packed with fun things. Different drop-off and pick-up times and weekly shifting schedules with camps or childcare often leave either us or people on our team feeling frazzled as a baseline. Knocking out your most challenging or important items first allows you to have more ease in the rest of the day knowing that the heavy lifting is done.
🐸Take a look at your work management system and while you are listing out everything you need to do during the day, begin to prioritize the most challenging and must-be-done-today items first. Knock those out very first thing and create a habit of doing this every day so that it carries you throughout the entire year.
🐸 More effort doesn’t always yield more results. Figuring out how to accomplish the work you need to do within working hours is important not only for your business but your mental health. Many of us believe that adding hours to our work week will help us accomplish more, but that will take a toll mentally, emotionally, and physically ultimately leading to lower production and other unwanted side effects. Rather than more hours, most of us just need a re-set to our approach to work and how we manage our time.
From client meetings and property tours to strategy sessions and team management, leading in the real estate industry requires you to wear a lot of hats and use a lot of energy each and every day. The instinct might be to cram every minute of your calendar with activities, believing that a fuller schedule equates to higher productivity. But what if I told you that scheduling less could make you more productive?
Consider the concept of “time blocking” – while it’s effective to a point, overusing it can lead to burnout and reduced efficiency. The key is not just to manage time but to manage energy and focus. By reducing the number of scheduled tasks, you allow yourself more mental space to tackle unexpected issues and capitalize on new opportunities.
Research shows that our brains need downtime to function optimally. Studies have found that periods of rest are crucial for memory consolidation and creative thinking. For real estate leaders, creativity is essential, whether it’s in negotiating deals, designing marketing strategies, or solving complex client problems.
By scheduling less and allowing for breaks, you give your brain the necessary space to process information and generate innovative ideas. This “mental whitespace” can lead to better decision-making and problem-solving abilities.
In real estate, the quality of interactions often trumps quantity. Instead of trying to meet with as many clients as possible in a day, focus on deepening relationships with a few key clients. This approach builds stronger, more meaningful connections, but also leads to higher client satisfaction and loyalty.
When you schedule fewer, more intentional meetings, you’re able to prepare thoroughly and engage more effectively. This leads to more productive conversations and better outcomes for your business.
When you’re constantly moving from one meeting to the next, it’s challenging to maintain focus and productivity. Multitasking can lead to errors and omissions, which are costly in real estate. By scheduling less, you reduce the need to multitask and can dedicate your full attention to each task at hand.
Consider adopting the “80/20 rule,” or Pareto Principle, which suggests that 80% of results come from 20% of activities. Identify the tasks and meetings that truly drive your business forward and prioritize them. Eliminate or delegate non-essential activities to free up your schedule and enhance your productivity.
Working long hours and sacrificing personal time for professional obligations is an unfortunate habit many of us have fallen into in an effort to build our businesses and show our potential clients what great service we can provide. However, a well-balanced life is crucial for sustained productivity and well-being. By scheduling less, you create more opportunities for personal activities and self-care, which in turn improves your overall performance.
Remember that your health and happiness directly impact your effectiveness as a leader. Taking time for yourself can lead to increased motivation, better work-life balance, and a more positive outlook.
When you’re ready to start scheduling less and boosting your productivity, here’s how you start:
Evaluate Your Current Schedule: Review your calendar and identify non-essential meetings and tasks that can be eliminated or delegated.
Prioritize High-Impact Activities: Focus on the tasks that contribute most to your business goals. Schedule fewer, but more significant, activities.
Incorporate Buffer Time: Allow for buffer periods between meetings to handle unexpected issues and recharge.
Schedule Downtime: Intentionally block out time for rest, reflection, and personal activities.
Embrace Flexibility: Be open to adjusting your schedule as needed to accommodate new opportunities and challenges.
Scheduling less isn’t about doing less—it’s about doing more of what truly matters. By focusing on high-impact activities, allowing for downtime, and maintaining a balanced life, you can enhance your productivity and effectiveness as a leader in real estate. Embrace the power of less, and watch your success grow.
I’d be insane to think that you don’t understand the importance of time management, but there is an aspect that is important for us to consider this week that we don’t normally talk about. The importance of practicing what we preach. Our staff, our agents, and any other professional that comes into our orbit learn so much more from observing what we do and how we do it than what we tell them to do. So if we, ourselves, aren’t masters of time management, how can we expect those we coach and lead to be?
The subject of practicing what you preach always makes me think of my Dad. He never talked to me about the importance of showing up, but this is something that has served me well both personally and professionally and I learned it from watching him. Yes, we stayed home if we were truly sick, but observing him never missing a piano recital, a sporting event, a Girl Scout meeting, or work – even when he was going through chemotherapy – taught me infinitely more than what he could ever say to me on the subject. I learned that the act of showing up is important. It builds and strengthens relationships, develops you as a leader, and helps you to get that promotion or land that big client.
So using this same theory here – what are we indirectly saying to the people we lead and influence? Are we telling them that we cannot manage our time and our work during the 40ish hours allotted for it during the week? Do they see us burning the midnight oil, choosing work over our friends and family on weekends? Are we telling them that the expectation is for them to be overwhelmed and reactive with their responsibilities? You may be able to say, “Well, I never TOLD them they had to work nights and weekends!” but the indirect implication that this is expected or encouraged can lead your team toward a path of burnout, careless mistakes, and poor customer service.
Happy staff and agents = happy clients. By modeling amazing time management, you will help them to excel in their responsibilities and achieve that highly coveted work-life balance so that they can feel great about their career and stay with you for many years to come.
Do some self-reflection and try out some of these tips. If this is something that your organization struggles with, you have the power to change it!
💰Understand Your High-Value Activities. High-value client interactions, strategic planning sessions, networking with potential partners. Prioritize the tasks that strengthen and grow your business the most to ensure you’re focusing your time and energy where it matters.
⚖️ Use the Eisenhower Matrix to help you categorize your responsibilities. Draw four boxes and enter your items accordingly:
Urgent and Important: Complete these immediately
Important but Not Urgent: Schedule these on their appropriate dates
Urgent but Not Important: Delegate these to someone else
Not Urgent and Not Important: Don’t waste your time or anyone else’s on these
🗣️ Delegate to Empower Your Team. Delegating not only frees up your time, but it builds trust and fosters a sense of ownership, which boosts overall productivity. It also helps your organization to grow. If you are the lone person within an organization that can do something, they will be completely handicapped if you need to take leave, get sick or injured, or God forbid, go on vacation. Be sure when you are delegating that you give clear instructions and deadlines and be flexible on HOW these items are done. Your way may not be the best way. Replace yourself and watch your business grow!
💻 Leverage Technology. Tools like Asana, Trelly, or Monday.com can help you organize tasks, set deadlines, and track progress. They facilitate collaboration and keep everyone on the same page, reducing the time spent on meetings and following up.
🚀 Automate Routine Tasks. Use tools to automate repetitive tasks and create slides instead of stairs for things like routine email responses, appointment scheduling, and data entry.
🏗️ Have a Structured Schedule. One strategy here is to dedicate mornings to strategic planning and afternoons to client or staff meetings. Blocking your time helps you to maintain focus, minimizes distractions, and allows you to schedule work according to when you can perform your best. If you like to crush it in the mornings, keep your strategic work and big-thinking items early in the day. If you need a while to warm up and rock the afternoons, flip it around. Bear in mind, though, that this strategy only works if you protect your time blocks. If you are regularly breaking your own rules, you’ll soon be back into chaos. Find something that works and commit to it.
🤝 Optimize Your Meetings. Every meeting needs a clear purpose, an agenda, and a strict time limit. Similar to our item above, you have to stick to the agenda once established to avoid wasting valuable time. If you can’t build an agenda, cancel the meeting and actively practice not running over on time. A meeting that runs late sends everyone into reactive mode for the next day and a half and can easily be avoided by sticking to the planned agenda.
🧘♀️ Practice Self-Care and Work-Life Balance. Incorporate short breaks. Drink water. Eat lunch. Regular breaks and taking care of yourself boosts your overall productivity and mental well-being. Be sure to set boundaries between work and personal time. If you’re taking time off to relax and rejuvenate, you will prevent your own burnout and maintain that crusher level status you have for a long time. Modeling this for others will help the overall organization to achieve it as well.
👂 Ask for Feedback and Adjust. It’s easy to get into patterns and habits, regularly review your time management strategies and their effectiveness, and ask for feedback on ways both you and the overall organization can improve. Your team will offer valuable insights from their own experience on how to streamline your processes.
Staying organized and efficient is crucial to your success and there’s no better tool to achieve this than a solid CRM system. We install Ferrari engines into Follow Up Boss Accounts every single day, but our efforts would be lost if the agents fail to understand how to use the system that we installed.
One way we combat this is by building a manual for the team to unite behind, and we’re here to show you how to build a similar one for your team!
Understanding why you need a handbook for your CRM will assist you in creating one. It will ensure that everyone, from new hires to seasoned veterans, is using the same definitions for stages and tags and managing the database of leads in the same way.
Having this also streamlines your operations, reducing the risk of errors and missed opportunities. It also helps your team have the knowledge and confidence to work independently and excel in their roles. If they have a reference point for troubleshooting, they will experiment more with advanced features which fosters a culture of continuous learning and innovation.
Work to clearly show all processes, best practices, and tips so that your team is harnessing the full power of your CRM. Cover how you want your leads managed, follow-up protocols, and client communication strategies so that you can feel confident that no matter which member of your team receives a lead, they will know exactly what to do with it.
Do not assume that everyone will understand a basic description. Go into as much detail as you can, likely more than you think is necessary, and be sure to use screenshots and links to a quick video tutorial wherever possible.
Approach this project as something ongoing, it’s definitely not a set-it-and-forget-it scenario. With every change, new lead source, and tool you integrate you will need to go back to update the document and re-circulate it for your team. Best practice here is to update one live document and ask your team to bookmark it rather than having to circulate updated .pdfs over and over again. This will ensure that they are always viewing the most up-to-date information.
