Episode #33: Why Timeblocking is Important

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Consistency is a direct correlation in my opinion to time blocking. Some kind of time management system, where you are saying I have to do these things because they either make me successful, they make my business grow, they keep me at status quo.

[00:00:16] [SPEAKER_02]: So I can keep earning money and real estate or insurance. And that's that runs a little close to that as well.

[00:00:23] [SPEAKER_02]: So time management, most people just don't have a system. And I get it like it's hard.

[00:00:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to the podcast dedicated to real estate, insurance and everything in between.

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Join us as we take you along our own brokerage building journeys with additional wisdom from our network of business experts.

[00:00:50] [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to Bricks and Risk.

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Bricks and Risk. I'm Tim Gardy.

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm Sean Mooney.

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_00]: We'll be weeeeeeeem, big sea, Jimmy.

[00:01:10] [SPEAKER_02]: We've done that one before folks. That's actually from a private part, Howard Stern if you're unaware.

[00:01:17] [SPEAKER_02]: That's showing our age here because I actually saw that in the theaters.

[00:01:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Alright Sean, what are we talking about today?

[00:01:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Today we're going to talk about time blocking.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Ooh yeah, and how to get it done. And you're gonna be driving the bus on this one today because your truly is not a time blocker.

[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_02]: I know. We just talked about this.

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's okay because actually as we get to it, most people don't.

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_00]: We'll find out in chapter six of this podcast.

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Alright, so let me kick this one off. So let me start this one off a little bit more.

[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Let's define what time blocking is.

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_02]: So what's the definition?

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_02]: So time blocking is a time management strategy where you schedule out every part and it says,

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_02]: And we mean every part of your day.

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_02]: So let's think about that. It sounds psychotic, I know.

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_02]: And I guess I gotta be a little psychotic to actually do it all the time because I live and die by time blocking.

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_02]: I gotta be honest.

[00:02:24] [SPEAKER_00]: The first thing that comes to my mind is bathroom breaks.

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Bathroom breaks!

[00:02:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Are they on your block? Are they have a block?

[00:02:36] [SPEAKER_02]: They don't. That's just me getting older and having to go every hour.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm just going to understand. But if we're talking about actual time blocking, why it's important and why it can help the vast majority of people who don't do it,

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_02]: I think the biggest reason most people don't do it is just it requires a very high level in my opinion of self discipline.

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_02]: And that's just a hard thing to come by. Self discipline is hard. It's hard for everyone to hard for myself, it's hard for you.

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. So let me tell you a little bit about how I get into the time blocking.

[00:03:14] [SPEAKER_02]: So came from corporate America and when you're in a corporate America, you have a job.

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_02]: It's like they tell the jump, you say, how high I've said that before.

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_02]: So kind of your day is like planned out either through your corporate meetings or like your boss says,

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_02]: I want you to do A, B and C, or your area manager says, I would like this done by this time.

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_02]: So people are kind of telling you how to run your day, get these projects done, get these tasks done in a certain period of time or like these TPS reports or do by Friday.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_02]: That's right. Right. Great.

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_02]: So basically the reason I say that is that in corporate America, I felt like my managers were kind of like my time blockers.

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_02]: They would say to me, I want this done. I want that done. So my week was planned more by then less by me.

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. And then when you get into the wide world of business, which again, you run an insurance business, I run a real estate business like the only one holding you accountable technically is yourself.

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_02]: Yep. And that's why I feel like a lot of people struggle with this, not just in general because you can apply time blocking to your personal life as well as your professional life.

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_02]: But when you're the only one to set that up and hold yourself accountable to it, I just feel like that's a hard thing to do.

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_02]: And because it's hard, most people fail at it. That's just my opinion.

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_02]: So now that we're talking about this topic and you saying self admittedly, hey, I don't do that and I'm not good at it. What is it about time blocking for you? That's always it's just not something that's part of your routine.

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I guess it's a struggle with like, that's so much business or anything else. It's just like when when you have kids and stuff.

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well, you have three eyes. Those are like hand grenades that in my mind. It's like sometimes I plan. I'll try to plan and then that playing gets blown up.

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_00]: So I get divided or easily divided or pulled away from what was supposed to be. You're going to blame it on the kids.

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_02]: It's a man. I used to time block before I had children and now I don't what if I told you that time blocking also plays a valuable role in your family life.

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no. I think it's it's calendar management like broadly speaking and it can apply to your personal calendar, can apply to your business calendar and anything else that you want to incorporate into it.

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_00]: I think for you, maybe you had that background of like the corporate structure and the corporate calendar and scheduling. So maybe you had a little taste of that. Where is that?

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I really didn't. So I think that may be one of the reasons that I don't do it or haven't done it or don't do it more as not being exposed to that type of.

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I will tell you my corporate background both you know as a JPMorgan Chase for a couple years as a street loan officer. So even though that was kind of like real estate like 100% commission.

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER_02]: I worked for a big corporation. And they had some training and they had some management and they had some tools like you know I had things in my arsenal just for working with that company because they're just so large.

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and then when I worked for a pelty homes in their mortgage apartment, same thing like top notch training.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_02]: I used to travel for training. I had like public speaking. I had management. I had all sorts of things.

[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so I yeah, I do think a lot of that groomed me or real estate that when I got in. And this is also like when I first got in a real estate said this before I worked for two small independent brokerages before I started my own.

[00:07:07] [SPEAKER_02]: And that's not the path that most realtors real estate. And choose they usually choose the big brokerages because they see the brands, they see the signs.

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_02]: They join someone's team now it's very common to join someone's team and therefore they got lots of people around them like holding a accountable even though they're all entrepreneurial.

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_02]: So even my first two real estate brokerages, my first one was like six people when I first got there. Yeah, like no one. So I kind of had to like take it up your own.

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and also when I went there knowing it was only six people, I kind of didn't want interference.

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_02]: This was part of the reason why I chose smaller independent brokerages. I didn't want to walk in with a sign on my back that said like I'm I'm trainable. I'm coachable.

[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_02]: It's not what I wanted, not to say I wasn't. I kind of just wanted to go like I always say I kind of just wanted to go like follow my face a few times and then get back up and dust myself off.

[00:08:05] [SPEAKER_02]: And that was kind of the way I wanted to learn in real estate because our new real estate at the end of the day was very entrepreneurial.

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_02]: And I always thought about it when I first got in, which a lot of people didn't. It's not about the brokerage I work for. It's about me and my personal brand and what I bring to the table for that seller client, that buyer client, that rental client, that investor client.

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_02]: And so getting in my first place at Brown McKinney, like what did I do? I basically held myself accountable with my calendar.

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_02]: And even at the time this is going to date myself like 15, 16 years ago almost and it had Gmail. I think it was like Yahoo.

[00:08:44] [SPEAKER_02]: So I don't even remember where the hell I was storing this stuff. I was putting in a book. I just you know, almost like lack out that part of my memory because I was so busy and you know losing my job and getting into it.

[00:08:56] [SPEAKER_00]: It was a carbon copy one of those one had to press for oh yeah yeah I think it was actually.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_02]: But doing that day one, I think I got I just did committed to it and I was okay with the self accountability.

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_02]: So that as I got better at it and started seeing like results, I just kept doing it.

[00:09:19] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think that was reason why I still do it today. And I think it's.

[00:09:22] [SPEAKER_00]: You kind of want that structure because structure in a way does breed like the repetition and itself.

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you can almost think of results coming from that directly. Yeah, and they're predictable.

[00:09:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think that's one of the benefits that you're going to find doing it.

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_02]: I think also like more people than not again, just my opinion busy feels like you're productive.

[00:09:53] [SPEAKER_02]: So if you have a busy day and at the end of the day you're tired and you're like, I just want to put my feet up.

[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Just want to grab a beer or we're just talking about this. I just want to grab a glass of wine or you were saying, yo, I just want to just want to vodka drink maybe maybe Maria wants a glass of wine.

[00:10:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe.

[00:10:16] [SPEAKER_02]: You get to the end of the day and you're just like, I'm tired. Yeah, and if you're tired, you're almost saying like, what was a great day.

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and that's that's true.

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, here are three things I want to go over real quick about time blocking that I personally find to be valuable.

[00:10:34] [SPEAKER_02]: So the first one is it gives you focus.

[00:10:36] [SPEAKER_02]: So time blocking, let's break it down. What does that look like? Whether you're using a digital calendar or a written planner.

[00:10:43] [SPEAKER_02]: You're actually taking time out of that day. It could be a half hour. It could be four hours.

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_02]: You're taking that time and you're saying, I am doing this during this time. Yeah, and then you put it and you hold yourself accountable.

[00:10:57] [SPEAKER_02]: So focus is probably the biggest benefit. Yep.

[00:11:00] [SPEAKER_02]: The second benefit that I like to talk about, it really just allows you to be present.

[00:11:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Like we hear that a lot of podcasts, you read that and a lot of books people are talking about the secret of life. What's the secret of life?

[00:11:09] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, being present and joining the moment. Yeah, like don't be worried about the past. Don't be worried about the future.

[00:11:15] [SPEAKER_02]: Not that you can't, I mean, we all want to. We all want to get anxious about things.

[00:11:20] [SPEAKER_02]: But being present really allows you to stay within the moment and enjoy it and time blocking does allow you to be present because like I said and I'll get into it later.

[00:11:28] [SPEAKER_00]: You can time block for personal stuff, too. It's not just or work. Well, it's you're not getting dragged in another direction. Yeah, you're kind of saying to yourself, okay, whatever you have on that counter whatever you're scheduled out is like I'm going to be here for this at this time. Yep.

[00:11:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And so you don't have the the anxiousness of, oh, am I going to do this? I follow up with it. No, it's like, yeah, no, I have this mapped out.

[00:11:57] [SPEAKER_00]: This is what I'm doing. It's one of the concentrated on. Yeah, no, it's a really good point.

[00:12:02] [SPEAKER_02]: And then the third, the third reason that I believe time blocking is valuable, it really allows you to separate quality over quantity because again,

[00:12:11] [SPEAKER_02]: you can be busy with a lot of quantitative things. Yeah, like you could just do a whole bunch of things in a day or like I was busy you go home your tire.

[00:12:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Like and there's nothing wrong with that.

[00:12:19] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, what did you really do and what did it do for your business? What did it do for your personal life or your family?

[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_02]: And I think focusing on those three things. So the focus being present and quality over quantity, that's really what allows you get good at time blocking because let's look at time blocking in general, like, you know, there's only so much time.

[00:12:40] [SPEAKER_02]: So you look at your week, if you're a Monday through Friday kind of worker, you got a Monday through Friday and you're not working from, you know, 1201 AM to 1159 p.m.

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_02]: That's not what you're doing. You got to sleep. You got to eat. You got to have a life. You got to rest. We got to relax.

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_02]: So with that being said, you're going to look at your work week and you're going to say, okay, I have 40 hours to work with. I have 50, 60 hours to work with.

[00:13:05] [SPEAKER_02]: And within those hours, you start to section off parts of your day for certain things. Now I would say when I first got started in real estate, I used time blocking for work.

[00:13:19] [SPEAKER_02]: That's how I looked at it. It's like anything else I got going on. I'll just figure out your work schedule.

[00:13:25] [SPEAKER_00]: And then anything else. I was in. I also would just figure out when it comes and Nick.

[00:13:31] [SPEAKER_02]: And again, I was I was newly married. I was married for probably like a year and a half when I got in a real estate.

[00:13:36] [SPEAKER_02]: And I didn't have any kids. I had dog easy to manage. And I literally just said, I'm going to block out certain times my week or my business.

[00:13:46] [SPEAKER_02]: So I'm of the early things that I time block for that even got me into this. The number one thing I tell every real estate agent, I meet whether I know you or I don't know you. If you know me, you've heard this is I send a monthly email newsletter.

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Not only that, it's a very high quality monthly email newsletter. And I have not.

[00:14:06] [SPEAKER_02]: I've pretty much have not missed a month, maybe one or two in almost 15 years.

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think it was November of 2020.

[00:14:14] [SPEAKER_02]: And you do remember and you would.

[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_02]: But with that being said,

[00:14:21] [SPEAKER_02]: That was one of my best and earliest examples of saying this is one of the biggest contributors to my business.

[00:14:29] [SPEAKER_02]: Therefore it goes on my calendar and therefore I never miss it.

[00:14:33] [SPEAKER_00]: And what is that? That's like I'm going to devote this hour.

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_00]: So you see the value in the news.

[00:14:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, hey, this is this is very important to me. This is critical piece of my business marketing.

[00:14:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm because of that I'm going to ensure that in order to get it out every month, I need to have a space on my calendar that is devoted towards getting this out.

[00:14:58] [SPEAKER_02]: That's the thinking exactly what it is. And what happens is you start off maybe something like that in the beginning or like I need an hour.

[00:15:04] [SPEAKER_02]: You know how long it takes. Now, probably takes me like two to three hours because I have two different news letters.

[00:15:09] [SPEAKER_02]: I do one that's client facing and one that's agent facing because both of those matters to my business.

[00:15:14] [SPEAKER_02]: If you use chat GPT could be like, you know, I do use chat GPT for four minutes.

[00:15:19] [SPEAKER_02]: And actually here's another thing I used to time black for in the beginning, which actually complete was a part of my newsletter.

[00:15:24] [SPEAKER_02]: And I was a big blogger. And when I was blogging, again, we have chat GPT back then.

[00:15:29] [SPEAKER_02]: So I wrote all the content. I did all the research. I did all the editing. I did all the printing and putting out.

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_02]: And then now recently, it probably in the last like six to 12 months, I've gotten back into blogging because I do realize it's valuable.

[00:15:43] [SPEAKER_02]: I had someone doing it for me for a few years. He was great.

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_02]: But the reason I got back into it is I went to a real estate meeting from my local Realtor Association and the guy I was talking about,

[00:15:54] [SPEAKER_02]: I was talking about chat GPT. And he was like, there's one of those things. Like, I haven't really used it much yet.

[00:16:00] [SPEAKER_02]: But he got into the prompting.

[00:16:02] [SPEAKER_02]: Yep. And not only that, he was talking about prompting for a blog post.

[00:16:07] [SPEAKER_02]: So here it is presentation like an hour long.

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Prompting for a blog post was one section of it and he got into it and then after they were done, they shared the presentation.

[00:16:16] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, you know what?

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to try and get back into blogging using chat GPT.

[00:16:21] [SPEAKER_02]: And let me tell you, it is one of the best tools out there. It's great for social media content,

[00:16:27] [SPEAKER_02]: it's good for blog content, it's good for video content or like topics and ideas and questions.

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_02]: But it doesn't do all the work.

[00:16:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Like prompting is our work. You have to understand how to talk to it.

[00:16:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Not only that, you can't just take what it says and go with it because I do feel like some of the stuff I see out there,

[00:16:46] [SPEAKER_02]: I can already identify now that I think it's like some kind of AI.

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of like mid journey, right?

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_00]: So you create a picture and it's like, it's kind of good.

[00:17:00] [SPEAKER_00]: But you look at the like picture in detail and the guy has seven fingers.

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_00]: I gotta be honest, I don't know what the hell mid journey is.

[00:17:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, feeling mid journey.

[00:17:12] What?

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_00]: So you tell chat BGPT like create a kitten in a river on, yeah, I've got you.

[00:17:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I've seen the AI.

[00:17:25] [SPEAKER_00]: It's generated.

[00:17:26] [SPEAKER_00]: So you tell it what to do when you can create it.

[00:17:28] [SPEAKER_00]: But so my point is it'll get you close.

[00:17:32] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, it's not that you're like it's not believable.

[00:17:34] [SPEAKER_02]: And the same goes with text.

[00:17:36] [SPEAKER_02]: So that's, you know, I'm very interested in the text portion because I use it.

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER_02]: I've used it for video content.

[00:17:41] [SPEAKER_02]: We haven't used it for this yet, but I'm sure we will.

[00:17:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. And I guess what I'm getting to is that.

[00:17:48] [SPEAKER_02]: So the monthly newsletter, one of the first things, but in order to have a monthly newsletter, I had to do blogging.

[00:17:52] [SPEAKER_02]: And then my first couple years in real estate, I was probably blogging.

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_02]: In my first year, I was doing it five these a week.

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Just insane when I started.

[00:17:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Did you host that on Craigslist?

[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_00]: No.

[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_02]: Were people could find that?

[00:18:02] [SPEAKER_02]: Should've.

[00:18:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Actually, the first place I ever hosted it was was truly a really a dot com.

[00:18:08] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, they did.

[00:18:08] [SPEAKER_00]: They had a lot of sections for you could post in.

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, they had it had agent pages.

[00:18:13] [SPEAKER_02]: It was kind of social media like and then it had a blog kid building.

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_02]: You could name your blog.

[00:18:18] [SPEAKER_02]: You could put an images, titles, your content.

[00:18:20] [SPEAKER_02]: You could use keywords.

[00:18:23] [SPEAKER_02]: And dude, I'll search some stuff today.

[00:18:26] [SPEAKER_02]: And literally blog posts from like 10, 12, 14 years ago will literally pop up.

[00:18:32] [SPEAKER_02]: That still have my name on it.

[00:18:34] [SPEAKER_02]: It's literally like evergreen content.

[00:18:37] [SPEAKER_02]: So I was doing that like five days a week and I was doing one newsletter a month.

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Then I moved to three days, then I moved to twice a month.

[00:18:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Then I moved to once a month.

[00:18:45] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm like it's one blog post.

[00:18:47] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's one monthly newsletter.

[00:18:48] [SPEAKER_02]: And this goes back to my last value point.

[00:18:50] [SPEAKER_02]: It's about quality over quantity.

[00:18:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Like blogging five days a week is a really good way to stay busy.

[00:18:58] [SPEAKER_02]: But was it necessary to grow my business?

[00:19:01] [SPEAKER_02]: I would say the answer is no.

[00:19:02] [SPEAKER_02]: It was good to get it going.

[00:19:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And then you know, you might have five pieces of content.

[00:19:08] [SPEAKER_00]: But maybe you take the time to do one piece of content.

[00:19:12] [SPEAKER_00]: And that one piece of content is so much better than your five.

[00:19:17] [SPEAKER_00]: And you're going to get more engagement.

[00:19:20] [SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be looked at more.

[00:19:22] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, you might be able to go and depth more.

[00:19:25] [SPEAKER_00]: And really take a lot of the topics that you want.

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_00]: It's it could be better.

[00:19:31] [SPEAKER_00]: It's one piece than five pieces that you've tried to just.

[00:19:35] [SPEAKER_02]: I agree shovel out.

[00:19:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Hey, everyone.

[00:19:38] [SPEAKER_02]: This is Tim.

[00:19:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Your favorite bricks and risk co-hosts.

[00:19:42] [SPEAKER_02]: But don't tell Sean.

[00:19:43] [SPEAKER_02]: I hope you're enjoying this episode.

[00:19:45] [SPEAKER_02]: And I'll get right back to it in a moment.

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[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_02]: Now back to the show.

[00:20:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Here's two really good examples of us doing this podcast.

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_02]: We time block this.

[00:20:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, which I know I probably more initiated then said like let's do this every couple weeks.

[00:20:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Like let me put a calendar on Mr. Calendar and fight that's how it will.

[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_02]: So basically we said all right, every two weeks we want to try and get studio time.

[00:20:30] [SPEAKER_02]: Either us doing episodes like this.

[00:20:34] [SPEAKER_02]: We're talking about business topics that are helpful to our listeners or we're talking to a guess, which again helpful to everyone.

[00:20:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Not only that you and I meet every couple weeks talk about how's it going.

[00:20:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Like checking off boxes like hey podcast and cost money.

[00:20:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Like it takes time.

[00:20:52] [SPEAKER_02]: You got to be organized.

[00:20:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Like we're posting this stuff once twice a week.

[00:20:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:20:56] [SPEAKER_02]: We're doing social media.

[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_02]: We're doing YouTube.

[00:20:58] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean we're doing bus Sprout.

[00:20:59] [SPEAKER_02]: We're doing all this stuff.

[00:21:02] [SPEAKER_02]: We don't have any help.

[00:21:04] [SPEAKER_02]: You got three kids I got one.

[00:21:05] [SPEAKER_02]: We both got businesses.

[00:21:06] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:21:07] [SPEAKER_02]: We're doing that and without even realizing it, we're we're time blocking.

[00:21:12] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's what it is is like when I say I don't time block.

[00:21:16] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not I don't time block.

[00:21:19] [SPEAKER_00]: It's I don't have my weak map down.

[00:21:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Like you know from 7 a.m.

[00:21:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:21:27] [SPEAKER_00]: But there are definitely aspects that I'm incorporating into my work day or work week where there is time blocking.

[00:21:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:21:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Haring you have things that you know have to be done and you're just doing them in a way that works for you and how to keep yourself accountable.

[00:21:45] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's like I have every day is like my priority list.

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's that's kind of what I run off of.

[00:21:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:21:52] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's not like I'm doing between two and three o'clock.

[00:21:57] [SPEAKER_00]: It's more like okay you know, these renewals are coming up and then prioritizing you know what needs to be taken care of today or you know.

[00:22:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I got a list of 10 items that I need to get done.

[00:22:11] [SPEAKER_00]: These four need to get done today.

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_00]: And so for me it's more managing.

[00:22:17] [SPEAKER_02]: How many can I knock off knowing for as my minimum?

[00:22:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Yep.

[00:22:21] [SPEAKER_02]: And then I get six done eight done right.

[00:22:23] [SPEAKER_02]: I kind of thing.

[00:22:24] [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's you know, I work within I guess that structure and it's like all you know take time during the day I'll close my door you know and really just sit down and focus and say alright, you know.

[00:22:38] [SPEAKER_00]: These three applications need to go out these three renewals need to go out.

[00:22:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Whatever it may be for that day that need to get knocked out.

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And and that's kind of how I work through my day or my week ensuring that things are getting done prioritization.

[00:22:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Finally manner those types of things we always talk about we want to give like one or two valuable nuggets.

[00:23:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, like during each episode here's one really valuable nugget of time blocking and this is scientifically proven.

[00:23:08] [SPEAKER_02]: Do your tough time blocking tasks before lunch.

[00:23:14] [SPEAKER_02]: Meaning whenever you start your day you could start your day at six am you could start your day at 10 am a doesn't really matter.

[00:23:21] [SPEAKER_02]: But before you eat and maybe most people eat 11 30 12 want to clock whatever like figure out when that happens.

[00:23:27] [SPEAKER_02]: Let's call it your midday break even if you don't eat lunch.

[00:23:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Get all of your most important time blocking tests done before you get to that time because what all happened is that.

[00:23:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Most people whether you're a morning person or not you're most energetic in the beginning part of the day and then once you get past lunch whether you have no lunch a snack or a big lunch.

[00:23:54] [SPEAKER_02]: You're going to be more tired you're going to start looking ahead and be like oh man, it's already like two o'clock like I got to go pick up my kid.

[00:24:01] [SPEAKER_02]: I have to do this with my family. I have a listing appointment of five o'clock. Hey, I got to do a renewal have four 30 like whatever it is those are things that always happen in your day.

[00:24:12] [SPEAKER_02]: But if you were like hey, I need to blog and I need to get a newsletter done like two day because if I don't I'm going to miss my month they should be done in that first window of the day.

[00:24:22] [SPEAKER_00]: They say some people and to take that and spin it a different way well we have to because that's how we roll eat the frog eat the frog.

[00:24:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Explain that take your so there's something that you want to put off that you're like oh I'll get to that later because it's it's difficult to.

[00:24:42] [SPEAKER_00]: The difficult conversation and it's got to focus yeah put brain power into it.

[00:24:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Eat the frog do the hardest thing to start your day because it's easy to put it off and like oh.

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Get it down the road and they're like oh I'll just do that tomorrow. Yeah, you know I didn't get it to it now like.

[00:25:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Do it do it in the beginning of the day and then it's done and I think for a lot of reasons that work is beneficial for for anyone because number one it's.

[00:25:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Getting wins early in the day it's like all right I've already accomplished yeah and number two it's.

[00:25:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Get into a rhythm and a mood so it's like all right do this check it off the box.

[00:25:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Complete it yeah move on what what's next I think it I think works.

[00:25:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Best in that matter when it's early and done advice eat the frog right Dylan's gonna fact check that.

[00:25:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I don't know if I just eat the frog because Nonsiver said that to me before so now I have to really if I just made that.

[00:25:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Now I have to know.

[00:25:46] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah well go ahead and check it for me.

[00:25:50] [SPEAKER_02]: You know it's fine this this actually brings me back to one of our past guests episodes when we interviewed Ryan Petrucci and then we'll arrive in a second.

[00:25:57] [SPEAKER_02]: He's listing Lane he's like I only work with seller clients yep and this is why only work with seller clients and he's been doing this over 20 years and he's only been doing that for three of them yep and the other 19 years or 18 years he was doing everything yeah.

[00:26:10] [SPEAKER_02]: One thing he said if you remember this he's like I hit the phones every day every day that's his method of business building yep when did he do it first thing first thing in the morning until right around like 11 12 o'clock.

[00:26:24] [SPEAKER_02]: Every day yep and then after he would do that he'd probably take a break again whether you eat whether you don't need doesn't matter and then he would be like I go out on my appointments or I have to do certain.

[00:26:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Other like for the business I have I have to manage that in the afternoon outside outside I also remember him stating that his mom needed to make an appointment to see him I do remember that.

[00:26:48] [SPEAKER_02]: So Mrs. Petrucci if you're listening make sure you get on Ryan schedule before he not gone his door.

[00:26:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Very important.

[00:26:57] [SPEAKER_02]: All right let's get to the next one so.

[00:27:01] [SPEAKER_02]: One is why do some people struggle with time management so for someone who again you have a priority list you have your way of managing your day yep.

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Why do you think.

[00:27:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Time blocking is not like a regular part of your week.

[00:27:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I think I mentioned a couple reasons earlier but it's really.

[00:27:22] [SPEAKER_00]: It takes effort you need the latitude to be able to do it right I think there's a few reasons why it's not done by the vast majority of people yeah.

[00:27:33] [SPEAKER_00]: You know you could you'd say two different things we're trying to get better with stats on the show let's hear the staff.

[00:27:42] [SPEAKER_02]: 82% of people don't use any kind of time management system it's time blocking whether it's you know priority list whether it's it's 12 like however you're running your day money through Friday.

[00:27:56] [SPEAKER_02]: So and I think that's true like most people wake up and they're like they got all sorts of stuff running through their head like what do I what I have to get to first and everyone's priorities are different.

[00:28:05] [SPEAKER_02]: So I do believe that most people just they go through their day whether they're busy or not most people are busy and when they're busy they're like they're tired at the end of the day and I like okay that was that was either day a bad day a little day like it could be anything but I think that's that is legit because.

[00:28:27] [SPEAKER_02]: One thing also in real estate that I find one of the biggest problems the reason that 87% of agents will fail in five years or less are just going to get in and out of the business in five years or less.

[00:28:40] [SPEAKER_02]: Robby the number one reasons consistency you know and consistency is a direct correlation in my opinion to time blocking some kind of time management system.

[00:28:50] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, where you are saying I have to do these things because they either make me successful to make my business grow they keep me at status quotes I can keep earning money and real estate were insurance.

[00:29:03] [SPEAKER_02]: And that's that runs a little close to that as well so time management most people just don't have a system and and I get it like it's hard.

[00:29:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think it's number one.

[00:29:16] [SPEAKER_00]: A very important word that you use was discipline it's hard it takes effort to be disciplined to carve out the time during the day and I think that.

[00:29:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Probably your stat of how many realtors flame out is because of that it's you you're relying on yourself if you're a realtor you have to wake up.

[00:29:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And Patritchie's a great example is you've got to wake up you've got to make the calls you got to do the follow they're just so much.

[00:29:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that relies on you having to initiate the work.

[00:30:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that the vast majority of people don't aren't wired that way.

[00:30:09] [SPEAKER_00]: They they'd rather rely on someone telling them, hey you've got to show up at this time.

[00:30:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, you've got to follow up with this person.

[00:30:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, did you send out these postcards or newsletters and and that's where I think the struggle is for for the majority of people.

[00:30:27] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, I'll go back to another episode when we talked to Corey Schnabel.

[00:30:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Yep, and let me know if you remember this one.

[00:30:32] [SPEAKER_02]: One thing he said he's like he's like I attribute a lot of success in business to like let's say you want to lose weight.

[00:30:39] [SPEAKER_02]: We want to get healthy. What do people do they go to the gym whether you get a personal trainer or not whether you're on a diet or not doesn't matter.

[00:30:46] [SPEAKER_02]: He's like let's say you get a personal trainer and you go to the gym and that person's like okay you have to do this exercise you got to attend times and then you have to do this exercise you got to do that 10 times let's say.

[00:30:55] [SPEAKER_02]: And then you have to eat this way and then you have to get this much sleep drink this much water.

[00:31:00] [SPEAKER_02]: You and everyone knows how to do it. Yeah, everyone can figure out in today's day and age people can figure out how to be successful.

[00:31:08] [SPEAKER_02]: The hardest part about being successful in business or in life is really having the discipline having the consistency to follow through with it because you know there's some people that are jacked their entire life.

[00:31:23] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean look look what I'm looking at right here. It's like you know if you rip off a shirt right now, I get knocked out the door buys by set.

[00:31:31] [SPEAKER_02]: So it's like let's let's be honest like in order to look like that and feel like that there's a ton of work that goes into it.

[00:31:40] [SPEAKER_02]: Success in business is no different to be like I think you would say before a lot of people look at people who are successful like I can do that but they don't realize what that person has been through.

[00:31:52] [SPEAKER_00]: What their day looks like what their past years have like how many calls like that that's the other thing is like why can do that it's like really right you know but true she's probably made I don't know.

[00:32:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Well this is what it takes this is what he did and has done and continues to do are you able to do that now right yeah.

[00:32:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Some successes though like can you talk about alright this is how your setup is for the day the week the month whatever it is for your time blocking like what are some of those.

[00:32:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Successes and wins that you see.

[00:32:43] [SPEAKER_02]: You see the most vulnerable things yeah.

[00:32:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Here's a really good measurable thing the one reason I'm really big on talking about the monthly newsletter let's say the monthly email newsletter is because in the first probably like.

[00:32:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Seven to eight years of my real estate career I don't really track as much anymore it's just I'm just in a different place yeah I used to track where every single deal came from like and how did I get it yeah like did I get an email from them did I get a text that I got a call what did they say like I know you're very much into the you track big time.

[00:33:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah but you do a lot more transaction so I think it's it's more important like you really need to see those flows that you know fraction yeah what you do but the one thing I did was after about seven eight years I think it took me about eight years I used to see like.

[00:33:27] [SPEAKER_02]: You know monthly newsletter uh mentioned a blog post a friend of a friend okay well how that friend mentioned them they get my monthly newsletter yeah so I really it was really becoming like 80 or 90% of the business I was writing in a year and this is sales business.

[00:33:42] [SPEAKER_02]: It was just coming to me was literally through the content of the newsletter that I was putting out and I put out the newsletter was like the gate.

[00:33:51] [SPEAKER_02]: So they're like okay let me up at up the gate and then they would go to my blog or they'd see a video or they'd read my company's website or they'd go to my profile and zilla when looking my past sales or whatever it is you know they do a Google search for my name they want to learn more about me as a human being.

[00:34:07] [SPEAKER_02]: So tracking all that stuff so you said like how did I figure out how to be successful the blogging used to give me a lot of.

[00:34:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Predability when I would go out when I first got in this business because I was thirty when I got in and I'm working in the city on that from the city.

[00:34:22] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm from the burps so I'm breaking out in the city on 30 years old I'm working at a broker.

[00:34:27] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know anyone and I'm in like brewery town.

[00:34:30] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah so I'm like how do I go out and and your name out how do I beat that agent who's already doing 10 million in volume like how do I do that they're not blocking.

[00:34:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay they're not doing the newsletter most likely so I would stand out in different ways and then by doing that content doing more of a content marketing strategy.

[00:34:49] [SPEAKER_02]: Strategy I think was my strategy from day one and continues to be today that's how I've realized success and then a lot of my time management is around my content marketing strategy now it's like I know I have to do those two news letters.

[00:35:04] [SPEAKER_02]: I know I have to do video content. I know I have to do block content. I know I have to do podcast content.

[00:35:11] [SPEAKER_00]: So knowing all that it's I mean it's taken 15 years just like it takes most people you know let me extrapolate something from that and I think what people out there can have as a nugget.

[00:35:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I take away okay is number one you were doing things that other people weren't doing right by who are trying to find an advantage over the other agents right so what I would say to any business owner can be real estate insurance whatever is is find something that you know you can use as an advantage for your own business.

[00:35:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah number one. Number two make your priority list I think a lot of people struggle with the idea that I can block out my whole week right like that's you know how do you eat a whale.

[00:36:09] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm asking you yeah one by the time one by the time. You don't need to create your whole entire week I think that we're like eating whales we're eating frogs like what looks like you're eating bra.

[00:36:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe dick. What I think people should focus on is.

[00:36:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Prior find something that you can use as an advantage that someone else isn't doing number one number two.

[00:36:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Prioritize take take two or three things that you know are going to create real value for you your business that is going to give you that advantage and block those off.

[00:36:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah if you can start by dropping in you know just say it's one hour one day.

[00:36:56] [SPEAKER_00]: We're in the week yep so you've got five hours during the week that are going to create real value for you start there yeah now you got a you really do you have to start small.

[00:37:08] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah and that's that is definitely the way I started here's another quick statistic to kind of finish this one off is you know what kind of results.

[00:37:16] [SPEAKER_02]: This time blocking bring so it's like we're talking about these examples but let's get statistical.

[00:37:21] [SPEAKER_02]: So individuals committed to time management any kind of time management system priority list or time blocking.

[00:37:27] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. They're 57% more successful at completing tasks promptly which I think that's really what it comes down to because you can push off push off push off all day and then if you push that newsletter off to the next month guess what you missed a month.

[00:37:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Yep and and here's another to also go on the point you were just making about finding that advantage one of the pieces of advice I would always give a new agent that will come in to my team my brokerage is they're trying to figure out how to.

[00:37:57] [SPEAKER_02]: What to do okay Tim you're teaching me how to fish you're not giving me fish so for you teaching me how to fish what do I do.

[00:38:05] [SPEAKER_02]: So the simplest thing I would tell them that I think is always very memorable is I would say go with what you know and when I would say go with what you know there'd be like oh and I'll be like let's talk about a content marketing strategy.

[00:38:18] [SPEAKER_02]: Let's talk about shaking hands and kissing babies like if you like going out and looking people in the eye and you like to talk to talk and then you want to walk the walk like network that's the rod that fits you best go fish in that pond.

[00:38:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Yep and literally like go with what you know was something I'd like to just keep things simple I've always been like that and I try and make things relatable.

[00:38:40] [SPEAKER_02]: So that they feel achievable eat the whale one by a time that makes sense to most is like how would I ever do that yeah and you have to realize it is a marathon not a sprint.

[00:38:50] [SPEAKER_02]: And I think if you can find a way to be different in a way that works for you that separates you from the competition.

[00:38:59] [SPEAKER_02]: You and I've talked about abundance it's like there's plenty of business out there for everyone so find the people who want to be a part of your tribe and I think that's how you do it.

[00:39:06] [SPEAKER_00]: The one did we miss any cliches yet today yeah it's a year's like I think we got them all.

[00:39:13] [SPEAKER_02]: I think we did too so well that's all that's all we have for this one folks thank you for tuning into another episode of bricks and risk.

[00:39:24] [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for joining us on another episode of bricks and risk our goals that you walk away with one or two valuable nuggets and we greatly appreciate you sharing your time with us today.

[00:39:38] [SPEAKER_02]: You can find all be in our episodes on Spotify Apple Music YouTube and anywhere else you get your podcast content until next time keep learning and keep growing.