The Elevated Agent’s Burnout Prevention Plan

Picture this…

You’re two hours from walking down the aisle and your phone rings with a client call they insist is urgent. They know it’s your wedding day, they just don’t care about that as much as their needs.

Your heart sinks and you’re immediately overwhelmed by how much you hate that your business creeps into every aspect of life like this.

You used to wake up loving everything about your work but now you’re filled with dread every time a client calls.

You used to be so excited about new deals but now they just feel like more work.

You used to feel like you were making a positive difference but now clients just see you as a means to an end and you find yourself fantasizing about burning it all down and running away.

That is what burnout does to you my friend…and I know because that was MY story.

Burnout is one of the leading reasons 4 out of 5 agents fail their first year but it isn’t going to take you out! 

So today I’m sharing the biggest lessons I learned from burning out in 2020 and burning my business down before healing and learning what it takes to build a business around your life rather than building your whole life around your business. 

You’re going to walk away from this week’s edition of The Elevated Agent with:

1. The easiest approach to outsourcing for control freaks

2. The mindset shifts that will prevent you from hating your business more than any boss

3. Actionable tools and trackers you need to immediately improve your quality of life & work

Make sure you save this post and subscribe so you can go from burned out to blissful as an Elevated Agent every time you get overwhelmed or frustrated. 

Prevent Burnout At Work

Obviously, the first place we need to start as we prevent you from burning out is your actual work life as an agent and entrepreneur.

Audit Your Schedule & Track Your Tasks

Before you sit down to plan another week of work, you owe it to yourself to actually audit your time management by tracking. This article breaks it all down for you. But just as it is important to get that birds’ eye view on your productivity using the tracker, you need to zoom in close to examine how you’re pacing yourself as I demonstrate in the video below. 

Pacing Your Workday to Prevent Burnout | Executive Functioning Skill-Building Series

Document Your Workflow & Repurpose It

One of the easiest ways to create content that will help you scale is to screen record yourself as you work to create SOPs and workflows that can be further optimized before becoming the training manual for your team. I am obsessed with using Loom Ai for this and strongly recommend it. You can also polish this style of content and publish it on your channels or package it into courses or done-for-you products. For example, I work with some brokers to create a “Brokerage in a Box” that includes templates and SOPs for everything they do to start and scale their brokerage. 

Put Systems On A Pedestal

The quality of your systems determines the quality of your life. We often put sales on a pedestal but without systems, sales just create expensive bottlenecks that can destroy a brand in a single transaction. Not to mention, the burnout you experience when your sales outweigh your systems like mine once did. If you’re going to obsess about one thing in your business, let it be your systems! 

I recently spoke with all-time real estate systems expert Lynea Carver (video below) about this and how it once led to my own burnout and even ruined my wedding day. It’s a conversation you can’t afford to miss and make sure you subscribe to her channel too!

https://youtu.be/S17Ac4aoI3o?si=OX-ju8c_CHQE0RNu

Outsource Yesterday

Every elevated agent should have at least one trusted transaction coordinator they can rely on but ideally you have a backup as well. You will also want a virtual assistant for menial admin tasks - NOT branding, marketing or graphic design! Next, invest in fractional experts like myself that can arm you with marketing assets, elevated branding and sales strategies that make sense for your unique business.  

Prioritize Evergreen Content Marketing

I know it is easy to get sucked into reels trends and TikToks but that disposable content is going to keep you spinning your wheels forever with content. Instead, invest upfront in developing an evergreen content strategy with clearly defined content pillars. When you invest in creating high-quality evergreen content, you can repurpose longform content like blogs and podcasts endlessly into smaller pieces of content for social media like I did with this post. 

Start Selling Digital Products For Passive Revenue

One of the biggest mistakes most real estate agents make as they attempt to scale is they never prioritize passive income streams that empower them to make savvier moves as an entrepreneur. The best way to do this is to follow my strategy for bottling your services into digital products that allow you to serve your ideal clients at scale. It’s actually easier than you think to start making an extra 4-figures of passive income per month as you can see in this article. 

Take Your Exit Strategy Seriously

I feel like this is a soap box I can’t escape but that’s because it is such an important one. Very few real estate agents think about an exit strategy until it is too late and wind up still trying to work transactions into their 70s+. One of the many reasons I am so passionate about helping agents develop an offer suite of digital products is it goes a long way toward empowering an exit strategy that will allow you to sell your business for 6-7 figures one day and retire. I break all of this down and explain it here. 

Implement Boundaries & Communicate Expectations

Boundaries can be extremely challenging but go a very long way in helping us prevent burnout. The key is to set clear expectations and clearly communicate our boundaries with people before expecting people to respect them. This is where a lot of unnecessary conflict that typically makes new boundaries so challenging can be avoided. 

It is important to set clear expectations before upholding boundaries with:

• Your work schedule and tasks

• The amount of energy you devote to work

• Clients (especially around work hours and acceptable times to call)

• Team members

Getting more intentional about setting these expectations and boundaries can create a nearly instantaneous improvement in your quality of life and work which will begin bleeding into other areas positively. 

Get Ruthless About Client Selection

Speaking of challenging boundaries, one of the hardest for the average agent is turning down business. Especially when the market feels volatile or stale. However, elevated agents like you understand that those vampire clients cost more than they ever really produce and they can completely degrade your quality of life and work for weeks or months. No client is worth that. You deserve better and so does your team so don’t be afraid to be ruthless about referring clients that don’t meet your standard - that’s what paid referrals are for my friend. 

Prevent Burnout In Your Personal Life

Sometimes it isn’t our work that is sucking us dry but the circumstances of our personal lives and if you’re anything like me, you find it easy to get lost in your work when your personal life is stressful. 

That said, running away with our work doesn’t fix any of our problems does it?

So let’s explore a few practical strategies you can implement right now to reduce your risk of burning out before the end of the year.

Audit Your Relationships

The pandemic definitely reminded us all of what really matters most; our relationships. They have a profound impact on our health and happiness and when we neglect them it can create an overwhelming amount of spiritual, emotional and psychological distress that quickly trigger burnout. 

Now is a great time to take stock of:

• Your personal relationships  

• How you are showing up in those relationships

• How others are showing up in those relationships with you

• How your energy levels are impacted by that relationship

As entrepreneurs we are constantly evolving and adapting and that applies to our relationships as well. 

Track Your Energy Doing Chores

This is one of my favorite practical, everyday tips for improving your productivity and learning to outsource. Start by tracking how you feel and how much time you are putting into your chores. If you know you could pay someone an hourly rate significantly below what yours is to do those everyday chores like grocery shopping (Shipt, Uber Eats, etc.), cleaning, laundry (fluff +fold services average $1/lb). 

What if your hourly rate is $150/hour and you figure out by spending an extra $200/month you get back an extra 20 hours!? That is a huge ROI on outsourcing your chores and learning to let go of control and delegate. 

Put Your Health First

If you are anything like the thousands of real estate agents and brokers I have coached over the years you have built your entire business around you.

So when you go down, so does the ship.

You can’t afford to keep putting your health on the back burner!

In fact, the first hour of your day should revolve solely around your health, mindset and self-care as a non-negotiable boundary. That is the best thing for you, your business and your family so take it seriously. 

Cultivate Hobbies & Try New Things

The best entrepreneurs are the most adaptable entrepreneurs.

The wealthiest are the best connected.

A great way to become more adaptable and connected with your local community (a.k.a. Your client base) is to push yourself out of your comfort zone to try new things and cultivate hobbies you’re passionate about. 

In today’s interest economy, the most successful content creators are those that simply document themselves doing this. As a real estate agent, you have a tremendous opportunity to dominate your local market starting a YouTube channel where all you do is go around the local area and try all of the new things from restaurants to clubs to events and attractions. But beside what it can do for your digital presence, it will enrich your life and help prevent you from getting bored and burned out. 

Journal Regularly

Entrepreneurship is lonely and there is never going to be anyone else that will totally understand what it feels like to walk a mile in your shoes with your business. That said, using a journal is a therapeutic and scientifically proven way to cognitively process everything you are experiencing as an entrepreneur and it can give you tremendous clarity and relief. This is why I have invested years into designing and developing hundreds of guided journals on every topic from self-care to marketing. Journaling is one of the most powerful free things you can ever do to create tremendously positive changes in your life, business, and relationships and if you just start; you will see the results very soon. 

Mindset Shifts Elevated Agents Use To Prevent Burnout

• Prioritize systems over sales: The quality of your systems determines the quality of your life. Without strong systems, sales can create expensive bottlenecks and lead to burnout. Obsess about your systems.

• Embrace outsourcing: Learn to delegate and outsource tasks, especially those with a lower hourly rate than your own. This includes administrative tasks, chores, and even specialized marketing assets.

• Invest in evergreen content marketing: Instead of constantly chasing trends, focus on developing a strategy with clearly defined content pillars to create high-quality, long-form content that can be repurposed endlessly.

• Prioritize passive income streams: Implement strategies for bottling your services into digital products to create passive revenue, empowering you to make savvier entrepreneurial moves and build an exit strategy.

• Take your exit strategy seriously: Plan for the long term by developing an exit strategy that allows you to sell your business for a significant amount and retire, rather than working transactions into your later years.

• Implement and communicate boundaries: Set clear expectations and communicate your boundaries regarding your work schedule, energy devoted to work, client interactions, and team member interactions to prevent unnecessary conflict and improve your quality of life.

• Be ruthless about client selection: Understand that "vampire clients" can degrade your quality of life and work. Don't be afraid to refer clients who don't meet your standards.

• Audit your relationships: Regularly assess your personal relationships, how you show up in them, how others show up, and how they impact your energy levels, as these have a profound impact on your health and happiness.

• Put your health first: Make the first hour of your day revolve solely around your health, mindset, and self-care as a non-negotiable boundary.

• Cultivate hobbies and try new things: Push yourself out of your comfort zone to become more adaptable and connected, which can also benefit your digital presence and prevent boredom and burnout.

• Journal regularly: Use journaling as a therapeutic way to process your experiences as an entrepreneur, gain clarity, and find relief.

• Daily goal rewriting: Take time every morning to rewrite your annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals to stay focused on the most urgent and important tasks that move you toward your true objectives.

Embrace the Elevated Agent Mindset to Conquer Burnout

Burnout doesn't have to be the end of your real estate career. By implementing the strategies and mindset shifts outlined in "The Elevated Agent’s Burnout Prevention Plan," you can transform your business and personal life. From prioritizing robust systems and smart outsourcing to cultivating passive income streams and setting firm boundaries, these actionable steps empower you to scale your business effectively while safeguarding your well-being. Remember, an elevated agent builds a business around their life, not the other way around. Start today to reclaim your passion, prevent burnout, and build a truly sustainable and blissful real estate career.