Good morning, and welcome to another Real Estate First Friday. My name is Matthew Hodge, Executive Vice President, and, I'm joined by Louis Fuhrman, my Co VP here at LPG Realty. And, excited to be with you guys this week. It is January thirty first, last day of the first month. And, for all of our dry January people, you are at the stretch. You are just This is it. Twelve hours away. Just twelve hours away to that sweet nectar. And and that's probably the best introduction we've had on real estate very far. We we have the whole room laughing here. It's so funny, man. I would never do something so ludicrous. I'm not a quitter. But if you have decided to make that part of your January, routine, we're proud of you for making it through. So, you guys are just right there. But speaking of routines, that's what we are gonna be talking through today. We are gonna be walking you through, of course, just at a high level overview of how to start building a routine that maximizes your efforts inside of, inside of your real estate function. And that could be, you know, things that you time block. It could be, okay. Now that I've got into rhythm of time blocking, what do I do with inside of those, periods of time to to have the most, I guess, impact from from that time. And then Christina Griffin, is also gonna be joining us, giving us a high level overview. If you're on from LPT plus, she will go deeper inside of this at your twelve o'clock, meeting. And, of course, that is a annual subscription that is available through LPT, where you have, masterminds and different things. And so, she will go deeper into that and kinda break down some of those topics at even a further level. But because we have so many different, people on the call that are running different levels of business, we just keep it high level. To give you the concepts on what you need to do to implement inside of your business and then give you some actual items you can walk away with, but then again, LPT plus, if you want that to be a little bit more broken down for you and a little bit more, spelled out, like, hey. On Monday, do this. On Tuesday, do this. Christina will have that available for you, for that was right in front of the camera. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He did switch it, but it's okay. The, we'll show up that for you at twelve o'clock. So with that being said, Louis, what are your initial thoughts? Yeah. Absolutely. So first and foremost, I I just wanna say that everything has a purpose here on Real Estate First. So even though we at times, you know, make jokes during our introduction, it does tie back to our themes that we wanna discuss. So for some of you who maybe haven't caught on to that, like, go back to the previous real estate first Fridays and see how we've, interweaned, you know, all of the inter interwoven all of the introductions. You know, today, we came off the rails with with a joke, you know, right, in terms of dry January. But at the end of the day, you know, the real theme is, you know, from from a place of motivation and, you know, being motivated to accomplish this task that maybe you created a goal during the beginning of the year and being motivated to just finish it. And today's, you know, topic is, you know, six you know, structuring your day very effectively to create a successful routine. And, you know, at the end of at the end of the years, we set our goals. Hey. We're gonna be organized. We're gonna do these things. And right around the time when we're getting ready to cross into February is kinda that first test of this organization. You know, we start getting, you know, hit from different angles, you know, production or workflows or we start falling off the rails regardless of what the goals are that you established. Whether it's fitness, whether it's these, you know, dry January type of goals that you've set for yourself, for goals inside of your business practices, after the first thirty days, it tends to be the hardest part to keep that journey on the rails. And I think today, you know, the important conversation is, you know, how do we get it back organized? You know, are there things that we can look at inside of our practices to just stay focused, stay organized and keep that structural approach because it is very important. You know, we talk about so frequently how as, you know, entrepreneurs inside of the space, it's very easy to be derailed. It's very easy to not have the mindset. It's very easy to not stay focused. And sometimes we need to have that organized approach. And, you know, there's different, you know, ranges of timeframes that we should be organizing these approaches. You know, we have our daily organizations, we have our weekly, our monthly, our quarterly, and there should be goals established in each and every one of those frequencies for you to ultimately meet. So excited to dive in, deeper on this theme here today with, Christina. Yeah. So let's go ahead and bring, Christina in. Alright. And and and I have to say, consistency, in dry January, It it is the middle of the day, but this is one of my favorite drinks. It's called Recess. It's magnesium. So I dry January. I I and, yes, I'm drinking this at twelve o'clock. I highly, highly recommend it. So just with the theme That's alcohol free just so you guys know. And full disclaimer, asterisk. Yeah. Alcohol free. It's it's magnesium, which is super, super good for you. So and and I'll tell you, consistency, I, I didn't wanna get up at five to go to boot camp. I kept pushing it off and but I went at seven o'clock this morning. So being able to know, exactly what you're committed to and being on fire to to do it is is so incredibly important. So I look forward to diving into this topic with you guys. Yes. Absolutely. And, you know, to your point, Christina, you know, when you first have, like, a milestone or there's a there's something that gets you motivated, It's a lot easier to to create the action. Right? You can create whatever you're going to do. You can do it without a lot of, like, results from it. Hey. I'm excited to get into the gym at the beginning of the year, but I'm not necessarily gonna get the benefit right away, but I'm still motivated to go. And then eventually, you hit this wall where you're like, okay. I'm not getting the results that I want, and so now it's harder to go because the motivations are starting to to run off. And that's where that consistency piece has to come in, and that's where having that daily list of, like, hey. I'm going to do these things that keep you on track. And you stay consistent to those things because it gets you past the point of motivation. Motivation gets a is a great starting, you know, kinda jolt. Hey. It gives you the energy to get things to step number one. That's most important. But after that, you really have to rely on something else to keep going because motivations will, you know, kind of temper as you as you continue to do the same thing. We talk about this all the time. You know, Real Estate First Friday, Motivational Mondays. We love doing this, but not every single day you've had a long week. Not every single time you're motivated. That's not always gonna be the thing that gets you through. It has to be that consistency and that discipline. And once you get past that hump, it's a lot easier to stay in practice in whatever you're doing. So And and I didn't wanna go this morning, and I got a PR and front squats of sixty five pounds. And, you know, I so, like, it I never thought I'd be that girl, but I'm that girl now. So I I say that with you guys is consistency when you're on fire for it, whatever. It it's it's a beautiful thing. So alright. Let me dive let me dive in. So we're gonna dive in to I'm gonna give you ten key simple points that you, could go follow to really truly just have a great action plan. Before I dive into establishing a structure of daily routine, here's something I want you to think about. If you don't know right now on the thirty first how many calls you made, how many houses you dropped, how many properties you mailed, your personal commitments, how how much you worked out, and at the end of the month, you're not able to reflect on what your activities were and what those results were, tracking and being able to keep track of what you're doing is very important. So consistency leads to predictable success in real estate. So you gotta have a clear daily schedule that ensures you're spending time on high value activities that generate leads and close deals. Now what does that look like? You need to time block key activities, dedicate time daily to prospecting, marketing, lead follow-up, and client meetings. Now I'm a big fan of having the task you need to accomplish because a lot of us get lost in the time blocks. And when when you say lead generation, it takes you longer to figure out what you're gonna lead generate for than actually doing it. So you have to set realistic those realistic goals. How many homes you're gonna visit weekly, homeowners you're going to connect with via door drops, number of social media posts per week, marketing pieces you're going to distribute, and you need to put those activities in a digital planner. I use that, and I use something called the time box method, which you could look it up on Amazon. It keeps it simple, and it allows you to stay focused on the task. Now key point number two, we need to master lead generation. Now why the heck is that important? The real estate business depends on a steady flow of leads. Without leads, there are no deals. The more you connect with daily, the more successful you're gonna become. So you may be here thinking, Christina, that's rudimentary. I know I have to lead generate. Well, sometimes we have to hold a mirror up and actually look at what we're doing. So I'm gonna keep it super simple for you. As an example, empty one prospecting pack per week. If you've got a new listing, have a focus to empty the entire box. Do one a week. Use the five five five door method. That means go five houses to the right, five houses to the left, and five across the street, or walk the entire neighborhood. Engage in community networking, chamber of converse meetings. But getting consistent as an example around lead generation emptying one box a week, you're going to start to see consistent results. So lead generation, consistency. Number three, build a strong online presence. Now a lot of what I'm gonna share with you here today, and we go much deeper in LPT plus, this is gonna help you create that foundation. So build a strong online presence. What does that mean? When a homeowner looks you up on social media or all the at Zillow realtor dot com, your website, and they cannot find any information that you're an agent, that credibility goes down. So here's an example. Maybe you're gonna post five social media updates a week. You're gonna share one video. You have to be consistent and do the same thing every week. Strengthen your brand, number four, and create brand awareness. What does that mean? You need to be the go to agent in your market in your market. It could be farming a specific neighborhood, hosting one to two open houses per week and emptying a box. Being that go to agent strengthening your brand, that creates multiple consistency. Now I'm not gonna dive into number five. It's implement a multichannel marketing strategy. We're gonna dive deeper in in that with LPT plus. But if you're not doing multichannel marketing, if you're not taking and repurposing your content and putting it on all the different platforms, including door drops and mailing, it will help you create more success, even things like partnering with local businesses. Now this one's my favorite. We can lead generate, but if we don't master lead follow-up and nurturing, then we're not going to convert and stay in a relationship with people. So use your CRM. Track what you're doing. Follow the at least once a month connecting with people in your world. Make sure that you maintain a follow-up routine, because if you don't have consistent follow-up with everyone you lead generate and connect with and your sphere, it is not going to create those success and those conversions. I want you to think about how many past due tasks you have in your CRM and how that's benefiting your business. If you get into that consistency and it just becomes one of the things you check off on your box every single day, you're going to see results. Alright. Number seven, build referral partnerships. Strong partnerships bring in repeat business, and provide a steady stream of incoming income. So if you don't have referral partnerships, one of my favorite are attorneys. A a lot of things we do are cash offers and working with investors and LPT plus and the divorce, probate, and bankruptcy attorneys. They create repeat and referral business. So do you have those type of partners? Working with investors to expand opportunities. If you are someone that deals with maybe first time homebuyers, but right now you're seeing them not execute as quickly on contracts, investors will buy regardless of what type of market it is. So who do you work with that's going to buy multiple properties from you? And expanding those relationships are going to be helpful. Now this is a given. We need to deliver a five star client experience, so what are you doing to do that? Today, even if it's as simple as sending out with your prospecting packs or or your your just listed or open house boxes, there's cards inside of those, and you're writing ten personal notes to neighbors in the area. It helps build trust and rapport. Now we need to stay committed to training and development, and why it's important is it's going to help you grow. So let's put a bow on what I just went through. You're gonna empty one box a week. You're gonna com complete the five five five door drops for each new listing on a minimum. You're gonna post five social media posts a week consistently. Get back in the habit of open houses. Host one a week on a minimum and follow-up with all your leads. Consistency, visibility, and follow-up are the key to success. Did I do that quick enough, guys? Yeah. No. That was great. We're waiting for hold on. Hold on. There we go. Alright. Dave, had us out after a second. Yeah. That was great. Christina, I love that that high level overview. You know, when I hear those type of lists for me, I always think about, okay. What she talked about, that was taking ten steps. Right? Doing that consistently is ten steps, and that can be overwhelming if you think about it that way. But those are ten very necessary steps, but it starts with step number one. And step number one is saying, okay. Here's maybe something that I'm comfortable with. I'm gonna put step number two is maybe something I'm less comfortable with. Like, you're gonna figure out what how you're going to attack, you know, attack that that project. But most importantly, what you have to do is start with something. Like so it's like, hey. You know what? I'm gonna get the prospecting box. And I've never used a prospecting box before. Maybe that seems scary to me. Maybe I'm not quite sure. At this point, while I'm waiting for the prospecting box, I may reach out to other agents and see how they're utilizing it. What are some of the best things that they've done to get some value from from that? Like, I'm going to do the research while I'm putting these things in motion. And once you have that plan together, it's really about time blocking and being consistent about that. And that's how kinda how we started the the call off, which is, hey. There's a lot of things that are gonna make you feel motivated. You may feel even more motivated after this Zoom. You'd be like, yeah. I'm gonna go do something. And then it requires the actual action, and that's where you see people drop off. But if you want to have a thriving business, if you want to reach your version of success, which means that you're likely going to have some financial number associated with that, you know, with that version, that number will be up to you, but it's likely going to be a thing. If you wanna accomplish those things, you have to put some real things in place. And what's, I guess, I would say most difficult about about entrepreneurs is that there's no right way to do it, but there's really no wrong way to do it as well too other than not doing things consistently. Like, there's no manual book that says, if you just do this, you'll be successful, and that may work on a nine to five job. But in our world, where it's a very personal business and people are interacting with you and they're making decisions based on their interactions with you and liking you and trusting you, that means that you can approach it so many different ways. And so, again, it can create this murkiness where you're not quite sure where to start. So I love that high level overview, Christina, that you gave. I love that breakdown. I know you're gonna go deeper into that inside of LPT plus where you're gonna give them more actionable items and really kind of walk them through what to do with each one of those steps. And if that's interesting for you, if this is like, hey. This information makes sense for me. I'd like to get more information about it. I would strongly recommend thinking about some of those things that can help you move along your journey. Yeah. Absolutely. So you you said something important. You know, something that makes our industry so special is that, you know, there is no right or wrong way to do something. You can truly do things that work for you. And you can really figure figure out like what are the things you're passionate about? What are things to incorporate inside of your business that bring you joy and excitement? And we we oftentimes get caught up with just creating what that starting thing is. Like, hey, I'm gonna go start door knocking. I'm gonna go start hosting open houses. I'm gonna go start doing these things in my practices. But what we fail to do is create as as the theme of today is the consistent journey. You know, what is this frequency going to look like? What is this cadence going to look like? And we gotta put focus on that, you know, regardless of what plan you are developing. Don't just stop it with, you know, I'm gonna incorporate this idea. It's I'm going to incorporate this idea and then here's how I'm gonna use this idea for the foreseeable future. Here is going to be my cadence of plan of attack, you know, for the next x amount of time. And you may not know the answers of what you're actually going to do when those times come but at least create the plan for when you're going to figure that out. You know, that is not planning, right? Like, I'm going to go, you know, prospect on this day through these actions. And then on this day, I'm gonna reevaluate my plan. I'm gonna use this to then redo that again on this day. Like you're creating the frequency. You're creating the cadence. And I love how during LPT plus, we're gonna get much more granular with like, you know, hard ideas that that you guys can implement immediately. There's gonna be handouts that Christina's gonna share with the group with actual actionable items that you'll be able to incorporate inside of your business. But in addition to that, like, you guys can, you know, the slate is clean. Right? Like, you guys can go out there and, like, create your own plan that suits your what your visions are and what you feel are appropriate for you. And as as Matt mentioned, like don't have the fear to start something. Like you're always gonna have to start something. You're always gonna have the first day of starting something new. Like just go out there and not have the fear and just try it. You never you never know and we always we we very frequently motivate in that regards and sometimes, it feels like we're beating a dead horse when it comes to, you know, that motivational piece of it. But oftentimes, we see that as the biggest thing holding back agents. I am fearful to go host an open house. I'm fearful to go, you know, door knocking. I am fearful to have a conversation with a customer. I'm fearful to reengage my database. Like, whatever it is, like, oftentimes fear is like level one. And once you can overcome that, you can accomplish so much. And and as you're planning to overcome that fear, plan the consistency and frequency that becomes the tail end of all of that. Yep. That's right. And, you know but go ahead, Christina. I so I I wanted to I call it simplify a few of the key things we we've all talked about. Today is January thirty first. If you do not know for February exactly what you're going to do to plan your personal and and your business, I want everybody to start with a piece of paper and do a brain dump. And I want you to get it out of your head for your business and your personal life. It could be you've gotta mail your bills, you've gotta take care of taxes, you've gotta meal prep, whatever it is, your com your commitments personally, I from from, community involvement to your steps to when you're gonna work out, and get it out of your head. Do that for your business as well. We all should have I I'm under the preface because I've been in this business for twenty plus years. I believe that you need three to five levers of business to be able to hit and attain that big six figure plus goal, and and decide what those levers are. We even if it's just as simple as the open house, calling probate attorneys, and and doing an, emptying a box a week, you should know exactly what you're going to do walking into the month. So just plan it, and, the more you plan it, and you know that this week I'm doing my open house and the task it's going to take to do it, it's going to help you consistently achieve your goals. That's right. And, you know, Christina, one thing that before we kind of end this, and I wanna also ask the chat a couple of questions. What I want you to be thinking about so I really like doing the challenges with Robert. I won't have the opportunity to do that every single Monday. But if there's something that you want him to try to script on or answer, please put that question in the chat. We will review it. And, when I have the opportunity to do it with Robert again, I will I will make that available. I don't know if it'll be this Monday or not, but I wanna give you guys the opportunity. This will be our little think tank area of where those questions come from. But to your point, just a second ago, when you're when you're planning out those things, right, you get it out of your head, you put it onto paper. One one when I've done those exercises because I do that frequently. I really kind of start my day almost every single that way. What ends up happening is that it ends up becoming much smaller on paper than what it feels like inside of your head. When it feels like it's in your head, you've got a thousand things, and then you, like, you go to write it down. You're like, wait a minute. What were all things I was thinking about? And it's, like, five. You know? But it just feels overwhelming when you don't do that. And then when you think about that too, like, she said, hey. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna do my open house. What do I need to do to be to have the best open house? When you plan it from beforehand, when you've got this structure, you can say, okay. Well, the best thing to do is to make sure that it's at the third party portals so that I have a bigger reach inside of the audience. I'm gonna make sure that I promote it on social. When should I do that? Oh, probably twenty four to forty eight hours beforehand. Okay. I'm gonna send out an email to all of my database and let them like, you can check out all the things that would make that open house the best use of your time, and that becomes your workflow. And what ultimately ends up happening is is because you do that and you take the time to do that, you do get the business that you're looking for from the open house. Some people just say, hey. I'm gonna do the open house, and that's all they do. Then day of, they're like, okay. Well, I guess I gotta put you know, they scramble into it. It really becomes a waste of their time. Or if they do have some success, it's really by luck. But if you do it as an organized approach, you're saying, how can I make the most from this effort? That becomes the work hours for your week. You do get the return that you're looking for from the for the efforts that you put out, and then it starts to create a pattern. And then you understand what works for you and what doesn't. But that little point of clarity is just so elusive for so many people that I would love to just make sure that that is clear. And if I I use the open house example because that was a great reference that Christina said. But it's everything that you do. If you approach it that way, it will start to build a rhythm, and then you will start to define what your work week looks like, and then you will start to see their fruits of your labor. And and we've all and we've and we've all been there. Like, it's so gratifying. Like, when you organize your day in that structure, you get to the end of the day and you realize what you've accomplished. You know, you take your morning, you memorialize your day, you have your plan, you're landing planes, you're checking things off. You get to the end of the day, you feel like it was a success. Like, you've accomplished your mission. That adrenaline carries over to the next morning versus a day where you're just, you know, scrambling to put out fires or you're scrambling to run around. You have your day disorganized. You really didn't think through your day. You really don't know where you're gonna be at any given time. And by the time you get to the end of the day, how did What did I accomplish today? Yeah. What what did I accomplish today? What did I do today? And I'm I'm just ready for, what do you call this, sweet nectar? So you get to the day. Like, that that that ends to be the the summary of your day. So and and and then you don't have that adrenaline leading into the next thing. You fall into this pattern where you're always just scrambling. Like, take that moment, organize it, and you will see how much impactful that that causes your business to move in a positive direction. I I wanna say one last thing on that. And the beautiful thing, how many of you have said I'm ADHD or I I get sidetracked or I never have enough time in the day? If you plan your task personally and professionally out, focus on the task at hand, not even the time blocks, it's gonna allow you to take the emotion out of the activity and stay on track. Because I know many of you task switch and maybe it's squirrel and and a client needs this and oh my god, I gotta go show a house. But if you have those tasks, it'll allow you to stay on on top of what you need to do. That's right. Okay, guys. Well, we're gonna end it here. Remember, takeaway from today, one of the key things that you can do is, one, create that list. Think about all the things that you need to do personally and professionally. Write that down. It's gonna give you a great gauge at the end of the day on what you accomplished or what you did not accomplish, and that will help you kind of gain momentum into the following day. And as you start to get more and more efficient with throughout your day and accomplishing more of those tasks, it does start to pay some forward energy into the next day, and you will start to build a rhythm of higher productivity and better efficiency and ultimately moving towards a goal of growing your business and whatever version of success that is for you. So definitely looking forward to that. We'll scan the chats, and I'll go e leave it open for just another minute or two. If you've got a question, again, on Motivational Mondays, we ask Robert, you know, a question where he has to answer in either thirty to sixty seconds. And, so some of the topics that we've done before was, hey. If someone has the objection of they wanna wait, because of inflation, that's not a strategy, and I wanna convince them that waiting is not the appropriate thing to do right now, what would that look like? Or, hey. If I wanna talk about the box and talk about how creative ways that I can utilize it in a way that a seller is gonna understand it and say, hey. This is valuable to me. You know, what would that sound like? So those are the some of the challenges that we've done so far. And then there's other things that we can just ask them to explain. Hey. Why is it important when we hear people talking about the treasury, the ten year treasury, and then all of a sudden it equates into interest rates moving? What does that whole thing mean? Like, I don't wanna fully, you know, become a PhD, you know, about it, but I wanna get some loose understanding about some of those things. So those are the type of questions that we ask him. So encouraging you to ask your question inside the chat, we will pull from that list, and that will be, the list that we ask, Robert on motivational Mondays. So looking forward to seeing you guys there. Christina, thank you again so much for all of the information. Have a blessed and prosperous weekend, LPT family, and we'll see you Monday. See you soon. Have a great day.