A good friend recently observed that “the hardest job in the world is being a successful solo agent.” He’s right. When your business kicks into gear and your opportunities to do business with buyers and sellers outstrip your ability to convert and service them, your life will get out of balance. You will feel the burn just as you feel the accomplishment of jumping to a greater level of success. That’s why we say that when you’re doing all you can, get help. And the first help you hire is always on the administrative side—an assistant executive.

The key is to hire talent, such that your executive assistant has the ability and desire to develop into an assistant executive, a larger role in your organization which paves the way for even more growth in your business.

Here’s a video of my coauthor, Jay Papasan, and I discussing the do’s and don’t’s of hiring your first assistant. Let us know what you think!

Most goals worth having don’t sit right around the corner. Really Big Goals require focused effort over weeks, months, and sometimes years. I’m always asking myself the focusing question: “What is the one thing I should be doing such that everything else would be easier or even unnecessary?” It’s about always identifying my top priority because when you really identify your #1, everything else becomes a distraction. Finding that resolve is one thing; keeping it is challenge. Life happens. It happens every day. Hopefully, this video, Big Rocks, will serve as fun reminder to stay focused on what matters.

In my last post, Focusing on Leverage, the Buyers Side, we talked about hiring and compensating a Showing Assistant. We had such great feedback and questions from that post that I wanted to share a video with you that Jay and I just completed, The 3 Key Hires and the Showing Assistant. In it, we break down the three key hires of a millionaire real estate team and how they evolve over time.

To get where you want to go, you’ll need to surround yourself with people who have the capacity, drive, energy, skills and desire to be their best. Ultimately, that’s what the journey of the Millionaire Real Estate Agent is all about. Enjoy the video and let us know what you think!

In The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, we declared you could be just three exceptional hires away from having the organization of a Millionaire Real Estate Agent. That’s still absolutely true. However, our ongoing research for both MREA and SHIFT has given us new insight into how these key positions evolve. Some of you got a sneak peak at Mega Camp 2009. For the rest, here’s a quick look at hiring and compensating a Showing Assistant.

Leverage is ultimately about focus. You hire talent to keep you focused on your most dollar-productive activities and they focus on everything else. After entrusting your admin and marketing chores to another person, you look for help on the buyer sales side of the business. Successfully showing homes can be extremely time intensive and help here should keep you focused on leads and listings. So who do you hire?

In the past, research pointed us to a licensed buyer specialist paid on a 50/50 commission split. Today, some successful agents are first hiring an unlicensed Showing Assistant to keep their costs of sale low and their productivity high.

Continue reading ‘Focus on Leverage – the Buyer Side’