How to Make More Money with Less Hustle and Become a 7-Figure Real Estate Agent

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About This Episode

You want to take your business to that million-dollar level, but you’re already working around the clock. What if you could earn seven figures and work less? This week on The Walkthrough™, Jess Lenouvel shares the system that will help turn your business into a machine that operates without you while you keep earning millions.

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Links and Show Notes

• The Listings Lab Website
• Link to request The Listings Lab Guide to 7 Figures
• Jess’s book – More Money, Less Hustle
• The Listings Lab Facebook Group
• Jess’s Instagram Profile
• Join our Facebook mastermind for The Walkthrough™ listeners
• HomeLight’s Agent Resource Center
• Follow and listen to The Walkthrough™: Apple Podcasts/iTunes | Spotify | YouTube

Full Transcript

(SPEAKER: Lisa Johnson Smith, Host)

Lisa: I wanna ask you a serious question. How many spaghetti moments have you had?

Oh, you don’t know what that is? Let me explain.

I’m talking about the moment you are sitting across the table at a fancy restaurant with your loved one, and you get that phone call

[sound effect: phone vibrating]

that you have to take, mid-chew. So, you spit your food into your napkin, you hop up

[sound effect: pulling chair from table]

from the table and you walk out,

[sound effect: walking away fast]

only to find out that the lead was useless.

That spaghetti moment.

Or maybe it was a taco moment, or a burger moment, or even a steak moment. The point is, you had to take the call because you’re the only one who could.

Well, our guest this week had one too many of those moments after scaling her business to seven figures, when she realized she just couldn’t keep living this way. So, she created a system that would sustain her business, and allow her to live her best life while earning seven figures, but without working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Today, she lives in The Bahamas and makes seven figures, and she works just two to three hours a day, and she’s gonna tell you how she did it, and share her seven pillars to success right now. This is The Walkthrough™.

(INTRO MUSIC)

Hi there, I’m Lisa Johnson Smith, and welcome to Season 4 of The Walkthrough™. I am so happy to be here. This is our first episode of 2023, so Happy New Year to you. This is a weekly show. New episodes come out every Monday. And this is the show where you’ll learn what’s working right now from the best real estate agents and industry experts in the country. At HomeLight, we believe in real estate agents. We’re here to explore how great agents grow their business, stand out from the crowd, and become irreplaceable.

As a real estate agent, I know, it is really easy to get stuck in the old ways of doing things. I mean, it’s a lot of work, but it’s worked well for you. But what if you could make more money, with less hustle? Well, Jess Lenouvel, literally, wrote the book about it. Her book is called “More Money, Less Hustle: Becoming the 7-Figure Real Estate Agent.” Jess is also an agent turned coach, and founder of The Listings Lab, where she helps other real estate agents implement life-changing business strategies, and with a unique approach that she says will give you back your time and freedom without sacrificing growth or peace of mind, by following her seven pillars to seven figures.

So, in today’s episode, we’re gonna talk about how you can always be in the right place at the right time, why mindset and finding your niche is so important, how to create a signature system that will work when you do decide to scale to seven figures, because Jess says it’s for everybody, and how to turn your operation into a machine that runs by itself. All that and more coming up. Here is my conversation with Jess Lenouvel.

(BEGIN CONVERSATION)

Lisa: I mean, who doesn’t wanna make more money with less hustle? I know I do.

Jess: Well, and honestly the book right from the beginning was a bit of like a labor of love. I was never the person who was, “I wanna write a book one day.” There’s absolutely zero part of me, whoever thought that I would do that. But, I really felt like it was becoming a necessity. You know, I live in The Bahamas. There is absolutely nothing that I think of, that I think, “Oh wow, that would be really cool, but, not in this lifetime,” because I don’t feel like I have that…I don’t have that luxury. And so, the way that I teach business building is you get to have all the things, and that there’s no compromise, that you don’t have to spend that time… Yes, okay. There’s certain, times that you are gonna work hard in order to build that business, but it’s not forever.

Lisa: Right. And I love that the way you started out your book, that pivotal moment where you talk about being at dinner with your husband and then, spitting the spaghetti in the napkin to take that phone call. I’m sure so many people can relate to that, just being on call 24 hours a day and really wanting to be with the person that you love, but just, “Oh, but I gotta take this lead,” and being a slave to your business.

Jess: Yeah. And it’s this idea, this crushing-it mentality, this over-glorification that working hard and being busy is the goal. And it should be the opposite, but we tend to glorify… It’s, first of all, a very masculine way to run a business, but also, we are coming out of this crushing-it era where everybody wants to work harder, and, “I’m working 16-hour days,” because we have an entire generation of burnt-out real estate agents, and it serves no one.

Lisa: So, you came up with, through trial and error, as you said, through mistakes that you’ve made and tons and tons of research, and dollars spent on research, with these seven pillars, essentially, that will help to scale a business. Is this for everybody?

Jess: Yes.

Lisa: And why?

Jess: Because it’s a framework. I will never tell anybody there’s only one way to scale a business, but the immutable principles of business scaling, whether you’re in real estate or you’re in e-commerce, or, it doesn’t matter – they are fundamentally the same. But real estate is its own animal, because we’re so far behind in so many ways. It’s such an antiquated business and industry and we really lack a tremendous amount of trust with the general public.

We, actually, in a lot of ways, have a harder time than your typical new business because we’re fighting against stereotypes, and we’re fighting against all of this messaging that is geared toward us that we have to work harder, that we have to answer our phone 24/7, because a lot of that messaging is coming from people who have been successful (brokers, broker-owners), but that were successful in the ’70s, the ’80s, and the ’90s. And we, today, have access to tools and technology and all kinds of things that didn’t exist before that make our lives easier, but agents aren’t using them, because they’re not being put in front of them on a regular basis.

Lisa: So, do you think…?

Jess: The people who are doing all the teaching aren’t showing them to them, because they don’t know how to use them.

Lisa: Got it. So, let’s talk about your seven pillars to success. Marketing is your first one, but I love what you said about the goal of marketing is to always be in the right place at the right time. How in the world can you always be in the right place at the right time?

Jess: You have to niche down.

Lisa: Tell me about that.

Jess: I think, especially now that the market has shifted, we’re in a different economy than we were a year ago, right? And so, being a generalist was, you could still get away with it when the market was hot. Now, we’re in a situation where there are fewer transactions being done, the weight of those transactions are different. And in order to break through all of this, in my opinion, nonsense noise, you have to have targeted messaging, and in order to have targeted messaging, you have to have a target demographic.

And the way that we niche down, just like I mentioned two minutes ago, the way that so many people have been taught to do certain things in the industry is antiquated, and is predicated on the way that the industry was in the ’80s and the ’90s. Marketing and the way that people niche down has also shifted and changed, but so many agents are still only geo-farming.

Now, we live in this incredible age that we have this thing called the internet. And if we’re gonna use the internet, we actually have the ability to target human psychology, and to actually use psychology as the primary marketing tool that it is within the real estate space. So, what I mean by that is you can create a journey, a psychological journey, from stranger to client for a specific niche. But if you try to do that for anything and everyone, again, your messaging will not be specific enough, and it will get filtered out into the rest of the white noise.

Lisa: So, how does one figure out what one’s niche is? How do you know…?

Jess: There’s a lot of different ways. You wanna be focused on a human-based niche, but a lot of human-based niches will also be determined by: What is the demographic shifting look like in your market? What is the data saying? Are people upsizing? Are they downsizing? Are there more first-time buyers in your market? Are there more first-time investors in your market? Where is the most opportunity in a particular marketplace? But, also: What have you done in your life? Where are you in your life?

I don’t see a lot of 21-year-old, brand-new, agents being super successful working with downsizers. They don’t relate to them, right? So, it’s not only about how will the client relate to you, but it’s how will your audience that you’re growing, this online SOI that you are growing, how will those people relate to you? Because, people make decisions emotionally before they make them logically. Someone has to feel a human connection to you before they’re going to trust you with their biggest investment, especially if you want the marketing to be inbound.

Lisa: That’s true. So, break down those three ideals (relevancy, intimacy, and omnipresence), because that’s your answer to being in the right place at the right time. Can you give me a brief description?

Jess: Absolutely. So, relevancy really comes down to your messaging. Is your messaging relevant, or is it not? Which is having a niche, understanding the human psychology, doing the market research to make sure that your messaging is right, and putting it in front of the right people. Everything that I just talked about is, fundamentally, relevancy.

Lisa: Okay.

Jess: Omnipresence is frequency (consistency and frequency). Being omnipresent just means having that relevant message, and being in front of people so that they feel like you’re everywhere. Now, you can do that physically. It is incredibly expensive to do it through billboards, and bus ads, and mailers and all of those things. And it’s almost impossible to get an accurate niche if you’re doing it that way, because in one zip code, you could have upsizers, downsizers, first-time buyers, and investors. It’s almost impossible to nail the psychology if you’re not using online targeting.

It really just comes down to: Do they feel like you’re everywhere? So that you are top of mind, you’re building trust, because you can build trust online through consistency and frequency. When people see you all the time, there is just this wall that comes down. And when they think real estate, they immediately think you. They’re reading and consuming your content because it’s relevant to them, and they feel an element of a human connection. It’s a human-to-human business no matter how big your business scales, right? No one’s gonna work with you if they don’t like you. So, a lot of that “know, like, and trust” is actually built through this element of omnipresence.

Lisa: Got it.

Jess: And, it helps you look more successful.

Lisa: I wanna step in here, because we didn’t get to the third element of marketing that Jess talks about in her book: intimacy. It’s all about being open and vulnerable in your marketing, like sharing personal stories (the good, bad, and even the ugly if you care to), which creates a deeper connection with your audience. Now, let’s get back to the conversation where Jess is talking about the second pillar, which is mindset.

Okay. So the second one you talk about is mindset. Again, one of your quotes, you said you have two accounts you can fill: your bank account or your ego account. I love that. What do you mean by that?

Jess: So, this is something that I got from a mentor that I had a long time ago, and he always said that every decision you make will fill either your ego account or your bank account, but never both at the same time. Most of us in real estate are consistently trying to fill our ego account, right? You wanna see your name in lights. You wanna feel successful, so you buy a $10,000 billboard that you’re probably just gonna break even on. Is that a good investment? No. That’s filling your ego account and not your bank account.

A lot of the time, people make decisions based on ego or based on a bias that they have, versus making a decision that is actually going to result in increased revenue for the business. That’s why, so often, I talk about making sure that you understand that you are not your business. You are in a relationship with your business, but you are completely separate entities.

Because if people start to internalize their business (when their business is successful, they are successful, or when their business is struggling, then they are struggling), it’s very, very difficult to separate the two. It’s really important that we understand that we can be in a healthy relationship with our business, and when we are, we will choose the bank account over the ego account.

Lisa: That makes so much sense. And I really wanna try to get to all seven of these pillars.

Jess: Go for it.

Lisa: Let’s go right to the next one: the signature system. And one thing you said that I love: the cornerstone of your marketing. But, walk me through an agent. How can an agent develop a signature system?

Jess: So, agents…

Lisa: I mean, what if you already have a signature system in place?

Jess: The biggest mistake that agents make is they market themselves instead of a product. There is no… If you are your business, and you are the product, then your business is not scalable. If you are magic, and you cannot scale that magic, and no one else is you, then you don’t have a business – you’re a salesperson. The signature system becomes the product or the service. Once you map it and it becomes the solution to the pain points, or the problems, in your initial marketing, you actually create (or you identify) the problem in your marketing and you position your signature system as a solution.

Not only are you, then, able to leverage, and scale, and grow a team (and do whatever else you need to do within the business), you’re also able to take a step back. And 90% of the agents that I talk to eventually wanna get out of production. If you don’t have a signature system or you don’t have a product that you’re selling, then you can never get out of production. You have created a trap for yourself within your business.

Lisa: So, what do you need to do to know how to develop a signature system?

Jess: The simplest way to think about this, or look at it, is: You do market research. You figure out your niche, and then based on that niche, you need to understand what the major pains and problems are. What are the things that are holding these people back from actually making a move? How can you make them feel, not only the most comfortable, but also the most taken care of, and the most understood, within your services? It allows you to have a unique value proposition that sets you apart from being just in the pool of every other agent: “So, I might as well use my cousin, Sally, because you both have a real estate license, right?”

So, your signature system is a consistent and predictable way to make sure that every single client who comes into your world, whether they work with you, or they work with your team, has a consistent experience. There are standard operating procedures that are part of every… Basically, what you’re doing is you’re creating a business, right? There’s a consistent product, and it’s not just based on you.

Lisa: It’s basically a machine that works ,whether you’re there, or whether you’re not.

Jess: Which is what people want.

Lisa: Right.

Jess: They want consistency.

Lisa: Okay. So, number four is: sales conversations. One thing you said was, “Handle objections before they occur.” How do you do that?

Jess: Every time you get an objection, write it down, and deal with it in your marketing. So, the number one thing that I love to push people on is: I had an agent, the other day, send me an email, “How much is your program?” And, I said, “We’re not a fit to work together.” And he was, “What do you mean?” And I was, “Basically, what you just did to me is the equivalent to someone not asking you any questions about what you do, but asking you what commission you charge.”

Lisa: Oh, wow. That’s so true.

Jess: And he was, “Oh.” And I was, “It’s the wrong question.” The question should be, “What is the cost of inaction, and what is the ROI? What can I expect from my business?” Would you spend (and my program is not this much) $100,000 to make $1 million? The answer, for most people, is yes, but most people are only focused on the cost.

So, I think a lot of the time it really comes down to: Are you focused on the right things? And being able to say: Let’s say that the number one objection right now, in a market like this, is interest rates. Okay? (Just as an example.) So, how can you explain to someone, how they can take advantage of a down market, and the opportunities that are available. What are the mortgage options that they have…? Every market’s gonna be a little different, of course, but, what are the mortgage options that they have, so that they can take advantage of, maybe, lower price points right now?

When we think about it, a year ago, everyone was complaining that the prices were too high, there was too much competition, on and on and on and on. Now, they’re like, “Oh, but that was great.” It’s like, “Yeah, but you told me a year ago that you didn’t wanna compete. Now, you don’t have to have to compete, but you want your cake, and you wanna eat it too.” So, we have to choose…you get to choose your hard here. And so, a lot of the time, it really just comes down to: What is the objection? How would you handle the objection in a one-on-one conversation, and then turn it into a marketing piece?

Lisa: Being proactive before it even gets there.

Jess: Be proactive.

Lisa: Yeah.

Jess: Don’t wait until the objection comes at you to handle it. Handle it in advance, so that you don’t have to deal with it.

(SHORT MUSIC TRANSITION)

Lisa: Hi, this is Lisa Johnson Smith. HomeLight Settlement provides modern title and escrow services to simplify your closing. Our dedicated escrow officers ensure your clients have a seamless closing every time. Contact your HomeLight agent experience team or go to homelight.com/agents. After you sign up to use our settlement services, a HomeLight rep will be in touch to help get you started. HomeLight Settlement is currently available in select states and will expand to more states in the future.

(SHORT MUSIC TRANSITION)

Okay. So, number five is: operations and systems. One thing you said was, “Agents don’t understand systems,” and then you went…

Jess: No, agents think that systems are a checklist. A checklist is not a system. A checklist is a checklist. We can get super granular here, but the idea behind operations and systems, is you’re building your machine. You’re building something that is predictable, and scalable, and efficient, and doesn’t rely on you turning the wheel every day.

Lisa: Right.

Jess: And some of that is team, which we talk about again: There’s the team and hiring section. But the operations and the systems part of it is: How efficient are you at using your time, using your team’s time, and how much automation is actually being used? I hear, so often, people are paying a full-time administrator $20 an hour to do a job that a piece of software can do for $500 a year. That’s both time inefficient, you’re wasting the time of that poor administrator, but you’re also…it’s financially inefficient, right?

And, again, it really comes down to: How can we look at your business and operationalize it? Do you have standard operating procedures for every single thing in your business, so that you cannot be there, and the job will still be done the way that you would do it? This is how you actually give people on your team, or pieces of software – you actually get those jobs off of your plate. The number one issue that we find with people, once they hit a certain level in the business, is they’re wearing 800 hats, and they have no more time. They’ve become the bottleneck of their business.

And I say to people all the time, “If I dropped 100 deals on your head right now, what would happen? I don’t mean 100 leads. I mean 100 people who are ready to go right now, what would happen?”

“Well, everything would fall apart.”

“Well, then we have operational issues, because your business should be able to handle anything that you throw at it, at scale.

The only issue that you should, necessarily, have to solve is the human part, and then when you know that (and everything else in your business, leading up to where someone deals with a human being), you get to hire as you need, so the rest of your business is unlimitedly scalable. We had someone in one of our programs who just went on vacation for 12 days and left his phone at home.

Lisa: Oh, really?

Jess: And everyone was, “Oh, my gosh. That seems outrageous.” And he’s, “Yeah, team was fine. Everything was fine. Deals got done. Everybody was handled. Everyone was happy.”

Lisa: How long did it take him though…

Jess: Some of…

Lisa: …to get to that point though?

Jess: A year.

Lisa: A year. Is that the average length of time that you…?

Jess: Depends on the person. Depends on the person.

Lisa: Okay.

Jess: I mean, once you actually nail the systems, you customize them for your signature system and the way that you do things – it can be six months. And, most people who are doing six figures are a year, two at the most, away from a seven-figure business, with scale, if they focus on the right things. There’s just so many shiny objects in the real estate space that people get distracted, right?

Lisa: So, what do you suggest? How do you avoid those shiny, or saying, “Yes,” to those shiny objects? Because they are shiny.

Jess: Vision, which is the seventh pillar. Yeah. Every single decision that you wanna make…

Lisa: The first door you wanna go to… Yeah.

Jess: …is based on where you wanna end up. We use a system called the 10-3-1 R, which is: Where do you wanna be in 10 years? What’s the 10-year vision? Get really, really clear on it. What does your day look like? What does your business look like? What does your team look like? Where are you located? Really paint that picture in as much detail as possible. That’s your 10-year.

Then you get to break it down and go to three years: Where do you need to be in 3 years to be on track for that 10-year?

Then you break it into one year: What does one year look like of that three-year target?

And then we break it into 90-day rocks: So, for every single quarter, what are the two to three things that you absolutely have to get done, and have to be focused on, in order to be on track for the 1-year, the 3-year, the 10-year? It creates focus, and it keeps people from fussing around and getting distracted, and working on things that aren’t actually going to get them to where they wanna be, ultimately.

Lisa: Before we get to the one we just skipped (number six), I just wanna talk more about the vision, because it is such an integral part of your business and everyone’s business. How important is it for you to share your vision with the people that are working for you, or working with you, in your team?

Jess: So, your personal vision will be different from your business vision. But, your business vision is the vehicle to your personal vision. They’re not the same thing. There’s not very many people that you’ll ever cross paths with that will say, “My purpose in life is to sell real estate.” Real estate is the vehicle to what you want in your life. It is what’s gonna make what you want in your life possible.

So, what we wanna do, is figure out: What does the business’s vision look like, or what’s the business’s targets look like in 10 years, so that on a personal side, the visionary or, the team lead (or whatever you wanna call that person) is accomplishing their 10-year life vision, with the business essentially being the vehicle for them to be able to do that?

Lisa: Another huge part of this is, “Who is in this with you?” So, you talk about how important the hiring and the leadership is that you work with. For number six: team hiring and leadership. And you said, “Get honest, and hire A-players.” Can you talk about that a little, and the five stages of hiring that you recommend?

Jess: So, people tend to hire people that are cheaper. And, you don’t get real talent, normally, when people are cheaper. My leadership team, (the three people, four people who are on my leadership team, who take care of the heavy load in my business from the day-to-day), every single one of them is making what a doctor makes. And, they are compensated very well, because a lot is expected from them. And, they love their jobs. They love what they do, and they will pretty much do anything for this business. That’s because they’re A-players.

So often people hire for the wrong reasons. They hire people that they know. They hire their friends. They hire their family members. They think that they’re just assigning tasks. In a really good business, you assign outcomes. And so, to my marketing department, I can say, “Hey, I’ve been looking at the marketing numbers, and I want you to get the cost per lead down to this number, and with the same amount of budget, or the same amount of ad spend, I want you to increase the number of inbound appointments that are being booked by 7%.” I don’t have to tell them how to do it. That’s their problem, because they’re amazing at what they do. And, I can say, “This is the outcome that I want. Figure it out.”

Lisa: But so…

Jess: And they’re like, “Cool. Challenge.”

Lisa: Well, that’s great, but what about the agents who aren’t there yet and they don’t have the budget to pay for the A-players?

Jess: Well, most agents need to figure out what needs to come off their plate first. We do what’s called “energy audits” on a regular basis. When someone comes to work with us, it’s the first thing that we do. We do an energy audit, which is basically: What does the average week look like? What are you spending your time on? And then we assign numbers (like values) to each job, and we rank them from, “Is it in your zone of genius, or is it not?” Right? “Is it something that you like doing, and that you’re good at? Is it something that you don’t like doing, but you’re good at? Is it something that you don’t like doing, and you’re not good at?” We take all of this data into consideration, and then we figure out what needs to be removed from that person’s plate first.

And a lot of the time, you don’t need a full-time assistant, and you don’t need buyer’s agents, and you don’t need a marketing department. You need a VA. And the other thing, too, is when we look at hiring, a lot of the time, people look at hiring the wrong way. It’s: Okay, I’m making $400,000 a year, and I need to hire this person who’s gonna be $25,000. So, I’m then only keeping $375,000, and I’m paying this person $25,000. That’s a bad hire, because every single person you hire should have an ROI.

So, if you are making $400,000, and you’re paying someone – you bring someone on – and you pay that person $25,000, then you should be making an extra $50,000 to $75,000, because you made that hire. So, there should be an ROI on every single person on your team, because you’re creating scalability, and you’re freeing up your time. So, I’ll give you an example, right? This is a conversation I have with my mom all the time.

My mom’s been an agent for 35 years. She drives me mental. Love her so much, but she drives me crazy.

I’ll call her, and I’ll say, “Hey, mom. What are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m driving a deposit check from here to here.”

And I’m, “Oh. So, you are worth $15 an hour.”

And she’s, “What?”

And I’m, “You could have paid a courier. You’re gonna spend 2 hours driving this deposit check to that office, and then driving home, and you could have paid a courier 30 bucks to do that. So, you are worth $15 an hour.” It drives me crazy because I’m, “You could have spent that 2 hours on $1,000 an hour task, and you would’ve been up $1,940.” The way that we look at it is: We don’t understand the value of time.

Lisa: Right.

Jess: And, why would we pay someone to do something that we could do?

Lisa: Yeah. So, it’s really important who you hire, how you hire them, and then requiring of them results. It has to be results.

Jess: Results, yes.

Lisa: Results.

Jess: Results, and being able to take things off of your plate, so that you can work on higher-leverage activities that are gonna make the business more money. So, there’s a lot of responsibility when you’re bringing someone on to give them standard operating procedures for every single thing that they’re gonna be doing, so that they are being given consistent feedback. There’s responsibility that comes with building a team and hiring. And, a lot of agents aren’t good at building businesses, because they’re good salespeople, right?

Lisa: Yeah.

Jess: They’re completely different roles. They’re completely different skillsets. And so, if that’s the skillset that you want to develop, then you have to take it seriously, and you have to work on it. You can’t just wing it, and you can’t just hire someone in a state of desperation because you’re too busy. We, actually, have to take a systematic, and clear approach to: What do you need? What is the role and responsibility? What are the key performance indicators for that person? And, then, go out and find the person who is perfect for that role.

Lisa: Well, I’m sure that everyone… You said you work two hours a day.

Jess: Sometimes three.

Lisa: Sometimes three. You poor thing, you. So, I mean, how do you get to that? And what is a normal day, an average day, like for you? How do you get to work two to three hours a day and still have this huge, scalable, massively successful business?

Jess: I have a team of 14, and only five of those people are in delivery. The rest of them are in operations, and marketing, and finances. Every single part of my business is handled without me, by someone who is more competent than I am in that role. And that’s key, right? Every single person who is on my team is better at what they do than I am. And it allows me to sit in the role that I’m best at, which is visionary, and face, and voice of the brand. And that’s what I get to do.

I get to do podcasts. I speak on stages. I write books. I create content, and I get to dream about what this business is gonna do, and who we’re gonna serve, and (as a big, picture umbrella), what we’re gonna accomplish in the industry. And that’s my role. Whereas, everything else: I mean, yes, I review things, and I look at things, but I don’t create anything from scratch anymore, because someone else is gonna get it to 95%, and it’s only my job to get it from 95% to 100%.

Lisa: And, how long did it take you to get to the point where you could actually work two to three hours a day?

Jess: Two years.

Lisa: How long?

Jess: From scratch, two years.

Lisa: Two years from scratch.

Jess: Because I move very quickly. I make decisions quickly. I don’t sit in indecision. If someone puts a decision in front of me, I can usually make that decision within a matter of minutes, as long as I’m given all of the information that I need. And so, I think that speed of decision-making is incredibly important for any kind of entrepreneur, but I also think that being able to delegate, and understand that there will always… again, ego account, bank account. If I think that no one can do something as well as I can, then I’m filling my ego account, but I’m not filling my bank account, because my business stops being scalable. So, what I’ve done, is I’ve gone out, and I’ve either found, or trained, people who can take on everything that I shouldn’t be doing, so that I can focus on what I should be.

(SHORT MUSIC TRANSITION)

Lisa: You might be wondering, “Is this really possible if I follow these seven steps?” Jess says, “Absolutely.” But she also says focusing on mastering them one at a time in a systematic way is key. And she spells them out step by step in her book “More Money, Less Hustle.” I’ll definitely leave a link to that in today’s show notes. If you’d like to get more information about Jess’s program, you can go to thelistingslab.com. You can also request to join her Listings Lab community for real estate agents on Facebook, and she offers free trainings there. Of course, I’ll leave links to those in our show notes as well.

Now it’s time for our takeaway segment. Here’s what stood out to me in Episode 107, How to Make More Money with Less Hustle and Become a 7-Figure Real Estate Agent, with Jess Lenouvel.

Takeaway number one: It is possible to always be in the right place at the right time, by what Jess calls niching down. And this means figuring out what your unique value proposition is that sets you apart from every other agent.

Takeaway number two: You have to use target marketing for a specific demographic if you wanna be effective, as well as a message that is both relevant and consistent.

Takeaway number three: Mindset. Jess says you can either fill your bank account or your ego account, but never both. So, choose the bank account over the ego account every time, because that’s what’s going to actually grow your business.

And takeaway number four: If you want to scale to seven figures, you need to develop a signature system with SOPs that anyone in your business can use, so that running your scaled business doesn’t solely rely on you. It becomes a machine that, once it’s in place, allows you to make more money with less hustle from you. And those are your takeaways for this week.

Well, if you have any questions or feedback, please send us an email to walkthrough[at]homelight.com, or you can find me in our Facebook mastermind group. Just search: HomeLight Walkthrough™.

Well, that about does it for this week. Thanks to Jess Lenouvel for joining me, and thank you for listening. Hey, do me a favor? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen, and hit that follow button, so you can get all of our future shows automatically.

My name’s Lisa Johnson Smith, and you’ve been listening to The Walkthrough™. At HomeLight, we believe in real estate agents. We’re here to explore how great agents grow their business, stand out from the crowd, and become irreplaceable. Now, go out and make some moves. I’ll talk to you again next week.

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