Ok,
Like most of us I allowed myself to be distracted and took my eyes off the prize. Since it’s now June 2012 I am putting together my second half of the year goals. Stay tuned for a site rebuild!
I started this site and then promptly fell back into my decades old habits of being busy all of the time while not doing the things that needed to be done.
This site is my online diary if you will. A place for me to put my thoughts out there and on some levels hold myself accountable for my actions. Or more accurately; hold myself accountable for my NON-Actions.
I finished 2011 off strong with multiple closings on transactions that were not your typical run of the mill real estate transactions. Both had challenges that I had not had to face before. This made both of the excellent learning vehicles for me.
I learned:
- I need to be a day ahead as often as possible
- I need to have more things in the escrow pipeline
- People do not always do what they say they will do. EVEN if it benefits them greatly
- Pick vendors carefully and review their service levels frequently
In 2012 I will hire my first assistant. Do I need an assistant right this moment? No I do not. Do I want an assistant? Not really. I know I NEED an assistant. Someone to counterbalance my skillset which while strong does have some holes that allow water to come into the boat at a rapid rate. Bailing water is tough work. It really detracts from making sure you are on course. While bailing water you are working hard but not going anywhere. I spent the past few years bailing water and going in slightly larger circles. It is time I plot a course and navigate to my destiny.
At first my assistant will have a lot of little tasks that really are daily duties that I should be doing but always seem to find excuses to not do. As the role evolves though I see this assistant being the behind the scenes genius that makes it so I can go out and do what it is I am great at. Their duties will in many ways be more important than mine.
All of this will allow me to do less of the things that I am not good at and more of the few things I am really good at. If done correctly this will allow me to work my goal of four hours a day in 2012 and make my income goal as well.
What are you doing to make a difference in 2012?
Deliberate Practice meets the Real Estate Agent
In my quest to improve my performance and to reduce the amount of time that I am actually working I am spending time researching deliberate practice strategies.
Deliberate Practice and the four hour real estate agent
If you are not familiar with deliberate practice it is the concept that doing the right type of work will create enormous results vs. just doing work. I want to be a great real estate agent and not simply an average one. To get better I have been reading A LOT! There are a number of books that have been written that cover this topic. One of them Is Geoff Colvin’s Talent is Overrated. Another is Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Many of the strategies have been used by students who are trying to master their course work in as efficient of manner as possible Athletes use deliberate practice methods to improve their results rapidly. Both the academic and athletic results have been well documented. Since it has been a long time since I was a college student much less an athlete I have been looking to find more information on how it can help improve professional performance. Thus, I am dabbling in deliberate practice research.
Since I recently revisited the Four Hour Work Week I was exposed to the concept that working smarter not harder is one of the key components to reducing the amount of time necessary to accomplish my goals both personally and professionally. This awakening has lead me to reading the above mentioned books along with finding some new blogs to keep tabs on. One of the more interesting blogs that I have found is Study Hacks. Study Hacks Deliberate Practice is the blog of a 29 year old computer scientist and assistant professor at Georgetown University who is interested in finding out what makes some people so successful while others are not. I have spent a good amount of time reading the articles posted there.
Read More on Deliberate Practice
Reading the Four Hour Work Week has reminded me that focusing on the core duties are where I will make the most improvements in my business.
How is it that I can do more by dealing with less? Let me give you some examples of my recent efforts.
- Unsubscribed from 90% of the email newsletters I was receiving
- Removed myself from over 90% of the Facebook groups I was a member of
- Started using software to track my online activity.
- Cancelled 3 listings that were taking more of my time than any potential reward justified
It took me about a hour to unsubscribe from the emails and Facebook groups. I save at least 30 minutes every morning by not having to delete or wade through reading a bunch of stuff that I thought was valuable. Reality is I don’t miss any of it.
I am using Rescue Time to monitor my online activity. This is very new to me and I will be reporting on how it works moving forward.
Cancelling the three listings was emotionally challenging for me. However, at this time I need listings and buyers who are motivated and able to buy or sell. Just having signs in the ground really is a distraction. I will be revisiting listings when I get more of my systems in place.
Now, I am doing a lot more in much less time. I can highly recommend that you spend a few minutes and remove yourself from the online distractions that you have signed up for. Think of it this way. If you have not signed up with any of the vendors who are pitching you their services cancel receiving things from them. You get your time back and they get to market to the people that want to use them. You both win. Besides, if you ever realize you need to receive their sales pitches you can always sign up again.
Be Productive!
Hey thanks so much for stopping by. I know the invitation said we would start now but like most good plans things have gotten in the way.
You’re not early I’m late.
Please make yourself comfortable and let’s get this party started. Don’t mind your host who is running around with his hair on fire.
One of the many things that I am working on right now is taking the many things that I am working on and distilling them down to their essence.
No more work for work sake.
No more taking on new projects because I simply want to avoid doing the chores that I find unpleasant.
I am focusing on the top income producing opportunities that I am involved with. This site does not have any income aspirations but I do have great hope that it will have benefits for those who read about my adventures.
Pull up a chair, grab yourself a beverage of your choice. Let’s get this party started.
I LOVE my Gadgets!!!!
My love affair with gadgets almost ruined my business and my love life. Like millions of others I simply could not spend even a few minutes without checking one of my gadgets. Getting my gadget fix I would excuse myself from the room for a moment. Who the hell was I fooling? Only myself it turns out.
Email checking, Facebook lurking, Blog checking, Twittering, all these and more I was allowing to keep me from being engaged in what I was doing at the moment. My work never seemed to be where I wanted it to be. I was always wishing I had more clients or worse I wished I had different clients (more on that in a later post) my girlfriend was complaining gently that I was distracted all of the time. My girlfriend is a saint but even saints can only put up with so much.
Enter a conversation with a former employer who I met for coffee a couple of weeks ago.he thanked me for recommending that he should read
The Four Hour Workweek
I had completely forgotten the book!
I went home and purchased a copy. I read through it and was amazed that what was being said was exactly what I had been wanting! I started immediately to. Reduce the noise and the distractions. One new distraction I have decided to introduce is this blog. I know that I am not the only real estate agent who wants to wrestle control of their life back.
I immediately put myself on a low impact gadget diet. I turn my phone to silent at 7pm I do not check email after 7pm. I do not read my email until 10am. The results have been staggering. I will explain more in future posts.
I hope you will continue to read what I post here. I am promising I will post honestly the good the bad and the ugly. It would be great if you would comment on the posts, share the good posts, (I promise there will not be that many good ones) 
and help me spread the word as I experiment with my career as The Four Hour Real Estate Agent
The Four Hour Real Estate Agent
Just what the heck is The Four Hour Real Estate Agent?
Tacoma, Washington Real Estate Agent who is frustrated with the direction my business is going in. I just re-read the Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris and found myself thinking that I could do that!
Now, I am focusing my efforts on recreating my real estate business in Tacoma. I am laying it all out on the line here in this blog. The good, the bad, the successes, the failures, everything. Complete transparency. I want to build a business that meets my needs NOT what others think I should be doing. If you choose to follow along here, Twitter, or on Facebook you will see what my daily business is like. The complete chaos of my home office, the amount of time I spend in my car driving up and down I-5 chasing deals. All of this will be exposed. My goal is simple:
In 2o12 I will make over $100,000 in commission income while working four or less hours a day.
I am going to expose my professional career to the public. Why should you care? Are you tired of working for works sake? Do you want to make a break from your life and live the life you’ve dreamed of? Perhaps you’re a potential home buyer and you want to know why real estate agents make so much money? This can be your chance to watch as someone documents their efforts to make a radical change to the way they conduct business.
Will I succeed? Will I fail? Does it matter? What matters is that I am going to make changes that I feel will improve my life both professionally and personally. Think of this as your reality TV show online. Watch as I make the changes to my life that will allow me to work 4 hours a day and earn a comfortable living.
The rest of 2011 is the preliminary work getting ready to hit the ground running on January 1st, 2012. This will be the foundation that I build my 2012 business on. Comments are encouraged. Please feel free to spread the word on this project.
Until tomorrow.