Last week I was invited to San Diego by one of my friends and mentors, Mike Heckman, broker-owner of Seven Gables Real Estate in Orange County. Mike was hosting a mastermind session with approximately 60 badass brokers from across the U.S.
It was quite humbling to stand in that room. There were brokers selling thousands of homes and over a billion in volume annually. There were folks who had been building their brands and businesses for 50 years.
By most measures, I was a small fish in a big pond. What brought me there was the fact that my business model is quite different from most of the others in the room. Just about everyone there was what we would consider a legacy broker, while I’m a teamridge.
So, I was asked to speak about our lead gen and conversion program.
Because while they may have more agents and sell more homes, I have a higher per person productivity level along with a higher rate of profit.
For about 90 minutes, I had the opportunity to present what we do, challenge the preconceived notions that they had about online leads, and make my case for where I believe the future of the industry is headed.
It was fun. I am passionate about this stuff. It fires me up and it truly excites me to help others accomplish the same things. But at the end of those 90 minutes, I could see the overwhelm on the faces of these elite level operators.
The last 15 minutes were reserved for Q and A— lots and lots of questions. There were questions about the leads, about the systems, the budgets, accountability and more.
But my dear friend Mike saved my favorite question for last: “Chinatti, if you were one of the people sitting in this room and wanting to build this out within your own company today, what is the first thing you would do?”
My response was simple, and I didn’t even need to think about it.
“When starting something new, you have to start small.”
You can’t go from not doing something to doing it at scale. You can’t learn something you’ve never been taught before and become an expert overnight. You would be setting yourself up for failure.
You’ve got to stop, assess things, figure out how you can break it down into manageable chunks, and come up with a plan.
Given that we are coming upon the season of business planning for 2025, I thought the same message would be super relevant to share here—in two different ways.
First, one of the things I tell people about business planning in general is that it is almost impossible to complete an entire business plan in one session.
It takes time. It takes thought and methodical planning, each bit connected to the others—the goals, the budgets, the time, the collateral. In order to truly create an effective business plan, there is no way to do the whole thing all at once.
Second, one of the things I love most about business planning season is that most of us start to think about the things we’re going to accomplish next year. We start to set goals for ourselves and our businesses.
Maybe you decide this is the year you will finally sell a hundred homes in a single year—or you’re going to commit to adding $50,000 to your retirement account by the end of the year.
Maybe this is the year you lose 25 pounds. Or if you’re my friends Byron Lazine and Tom Toole, maybe 2025 is the year your team finally cracks that elusive 100 agent mark.
All big goals can feel daunting, but all are also doable.
Three Steps to Eating an Elephant
Desmond Tutu once wisely said that there is only one way to eat an elephant: one bite at a time. What he meant is that everything in life that seems daunting, overwhelming, and even impossible can be accomplished gradually by taking on just a little at a time.
I’m going to get all cliche with you and share a quote from Mark Twain as well: “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small, manageable tasks and starting on the first one.
But here’s what happens with big old elephant projects:
- We bite off more than we can chew, and we choke.
- We get lost, overwhelmed, frustrated, and impatient.
- We want instant results, but we haven’t broken it down to understand the milestones that tell us if we’re on track or off track.
- We’re unclear about the actual goal or we don’t know what result we’re working towards.
- We’ve run out of energy or time—or we mismanage both.
And so with that, here are three steps to eating an elephant.
#1: Allow yourself some grace.
Take a deep breath, clear your mind, and allow yourself the time to really come up with a plan of attack. Ninety-nine percent of the time, there’s no huge rush to start before you’re truly ready, though you may have to give yourself a deadline so that you don’t keep pushing it off.
#2: Step back and get some perspective.
Clarify the result or the outcome that you’re truly seeking. Ask yourself:
- What goal are you trying to achieve?
- What does success look like?
- What are the benefits?
#3: Start breaking it into small chunks.
To help figure out how to chop up that elephant, ask yourself some key questions:
- What’s really needed in order to accomplish this? Is it people, tools, or time?
- How can I chop it up into smaller bites if it’s still too mammoth and overwhelming?
- How can I chop it up further?
- How long is each piece going to take to finish?
- Which tasks can you do quickly?
- How can you give yourself some small quick wins to help you stay motivated?
- What’s the most efficient way to tackle this—meaning, which items should come first?
- Do you need someone else’s help? And if so, which chunks do you need them to do?
A few more quick tips.
Think of all the ways that you’ll fail. Shocking, right? But it’s good. Know bottlenecks or challenges you can face because you will hit them. And if you think about it ahead of time, you might know how to overcome them or maybe even prevent them.
Report in regularly. Accountability buddies are key.
Lastly, remember that the final bites of the elephant are always the hardest. When you’ve been eating that elephant for a long time, you will inevitably grow bored and maybe even feel burned out, but that’s when you need to push harder.
That’s when you need to give it all that you’ve got to finish that last 10%.
