Implement This: Master One Thing at a Time
The way to grow a successful and sustainable real estate business is to focus on one thing right now.
If you’re like me, you have multiple areas in your life and business you would like to improve.
For example, I would like to reach more real estate agents with my content, increase my flexibility, and practice mindfulness more consistently.
The problem is that even with the best intentions, we eventually slip back into old habits. Permanent change is hard.
So why do some habits stick while others fade? The answer is consistency, but the path to real consistency requires a different approach.
The key to Creating Consistency
Research shows you’re 2–3× more likely to follow through on a habit when you decide in advance when, where, and how you’ll do it. This strategy is called implementation intentions.
An example of this would be saying to yourself “This week, I will call at least 20 people in my database on [DAY] at [TIME OF DAY] from [PLACE].” An even more intentional step would be protecting this time on your calendar and/or preparing a tracking sheet.
But there’s a catch…
Implementation intentions only work when you focus on one habit at a time. When you try to tackle multiple changes simultaneously, commitment drops and your success rate plummets.
Here’s why…
New habits take significant mental energy, especially while juggling a busy, unpredictable schedule. Most of us only have the bandwidth to maintain a few new behaviors at once.
Over time, repetition of a behavior becomes easier, and eventually the behavior becomes automatic.
Researchers call this process automaticity: when a behavior becomes habitual and requires little conscious thought. And the only way to reach automaticity is through repetition.
How To apply this to your real estate business
If you have multiple areas of your business you want to improve, your most effective strategy isn’t to fix everything at once. It’s to choose one thing to improve this quarter, make it consistent, and build a fence around it.
Here’s the process I use with clients:
1. Identify the weakest link
Find the area where your business is quietly leaking revenue.
Let’s use this example: You have a solid database of past clients and sphere, but you haven’t reached out in over two years.
2. Start with the simplest solution
You could build a year-long nurture plan with emails, social posts, and events.
Or you could start with the most direct and effective action: quarterly calls.
Calling your database may sound “simple” but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. To see results, you’ll need to execute consistently.
3. Execute consistently
Quarterly calling requires structure. To make it sustainable, you need to:
Track who to call and when
Protect time on your calendar
Record notes you can reference next quarter
Allocate time for follow-up and appointments that result from the calls
This is where the habits and systems are built.
4. Repeat, refine, and document
Each round of calls teaches you something new which leads to better scripts, better timing, better conversations.
After several successful cycles, document what works. Save your scripts and templates. If you have aspirations to grow your team, having this documented will enable your admin staff to easily support you as things get busier.
5. Build a fence around it
Once the system is working, protect it.
That means keeping the time, energy, attention, and resources in place, and resisting the urge to chase something new too soon.
Every time you divert resources from what’s working, you dilute the result.
Change Your Business Without Changing Your Entire Business
Epic results don’t come from starting more.
They come from repeating one thing long enough for it to become automatic, and long enough for momentum to compound. Then, repeat the process for the next area of your business that you want to improve.
The way to grow a successful and sustainable real estate business is to simply focus on one thing right now.
