Eugene is the Founder of The Litvak Team @ Compass — one of the top producing and largest teams at Compass.
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There was a moment last year when I became obsessed with the Dr. Wendy Rhoades character in the Showtime series Billions. If you’re not familiar with the show, Wendy is a trained psychiatrist and performance coach who — when she’s not skirting insider trading and ethics charges — spends her days motivating and counseling a ragtag gang of hedge fund managers. Around this same time, I met Gregg Sugerman through a mutual friend, and the path forward was clear. You see, Gregg is a performance coach specializing in the real estate sector.
I’ve spent several years building a team using strategic business practices like key performance indicators and key performance drivers. I strive to mentor every member of the group into a high-performing entrepreneur, but I also realize as the team grows, I can’t do it all. That’s where performance coaching comes in. Working with Gregg already had a pronounced impact on our work: In just the first four months of 2021, we are at 57% of last year’s already significant transaction volume.
For anyone looking to take their business to the next level and beyond, I’d highly recommend connecting with a qualified performance coach who can help you overcome obstacles and work effectively and efficiently. Until then, here are the top three lessons from my coaching experience that I’ve deployed to revolutionize our business and maximize our success.
For big rewards, think small.
The real estate industry is filled with high achievers — people with lofty goals and a lot of ambition. But what is also true of high achievers is that we’re often looking for a big impact from every action. That kind of all-or-nothing thinking can lead to stagnation when it comes to tackling unwieldy projects. A classic example is the contact relationship management database. Every real estate agent seems to have a CRM that needs 20, 30 or 100 hours of their attention to be maximally effective. And because no agent has that kind of time all in one go, it’s a project that remains untouched.
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That’s where thinking small comes in. Why not break your overwhelming project into bite-size chunks? Work on your CRM just 15 minutes a day, five days a week for six months, and you’ll have dedicated 30 hours to a project that can significantly improve your business. Or, to use another example, by following up with just one person in your sphere of influence each workday, you’ll have contacted about 250 people in a year.
Don’t let cumbersome projects slow you down and impede your success. Break them down into small, manageable steps to build momentum and reach your goals. For high achievers, that may not seem like a sexy, big ROI way to work. But compared to the zero progress you’re making otherwise, it’s huge.
Don’t be disciplined, be habitual.
Willpower and discipline are overrated. Everyone wishes they had more willpower, more motivation, more discipline. But those are finite resources, and frankly, they won’t sustain you over the long term. You can be fired up for a new diet or goal, only to lose momentum the instant your energy flags.
Habits, on the other hand, are far more powerful and sustainable than willpower. I like to say that willpower is like pushing a car uphill, while habits and routines are like coasting in a car headed downhill. We accomplish so much in our daily lives through habit, and it’s so effortless that we hardly even notice. When you can harness the power of routines with intention and strategy, you can be unstoppable. One of the easiest ways to do that is through “habit stacking,” or attaching one habit to another. Say you want to make hundreds of SOI outreach calls every year. Why not make one or two calls while brewing your morning coffee or walking the dog or whatever existing daily routine makes sense for you?
Creating habits works exceptionally well when combined with the previous tip of thinking small. One great way to structure these manageable efforts and soon-to-be routines is to remember the acronym STARS — small, tiny and really simple. By creating tasks within this STARS framework, you’ll be cultivating habits that are profoundly easy to maintain, making it possible to drive substantial momentum and get to the next level of your goal or project quickly.
Be proactive to be better at being reactive.
Just like you’d never jump into white-water rapids without a game plan, you should never start your day without a proactive strategy for success. Without a daily plan, you’ll quickly get swept up in a current of texts, emails and phone calls. The better approach is to create a schedule, preferably the night before, of everything you need to accomplish the next day.
New York City realtor Ryan Serhant likes to talk about the 1,000 minutes of awake time each of us has in a day, and it’s a great way to conceptualize this finite resource. I also like to think of the “time vacuum” effect, meaning that whatever time you have available will get filled with something. It’s up to you to make sure that something is productive and helpful, namely by proactively planning your workday.
Being proactive and reactive aren’t dichotomous choices, by the way. Instead, being proactive makes you better at being reactive when real-life challenges happen. But know that spending your days being reactive will never make you better at being proactive. Have a game plan, attack it with small, sustainable habits and then pivot into reactive mode when absolutely necessary.
If you want bigger biceps, you have to lift weights. If you want to improve your stamina, you have to put in the cardio. If you think of your brain as a muscle, a performance coach is like a fitness trainer for your mind. Take it from me that working with a coach gives you the tools, resources and, perhaps most importantly, the accountability to take your mindset to the next level.
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