“Strategy and timing are the Himalayas of marketing, everything is the Catskills.”

                                                                                                                        –Al Ries

            Time management is a myth.  Time is the province of God.  No matter how hard you try, how many resources you dedicate, or how capable you are, you’ll never control it.  The real key is Task Management, which, when it comes to systems management, needs to hinge on your values.  When Chris Pollinger was in college, he had a sign taped to his ceiling which read; “Why are you getting out of bed this morning?”.  Simple concept, but easily forgotten.  Without being attached to your values, a goal will never be accomplished commensurate with your ability (if at all).  Although you can’t control the march of time, you can certainly decide where it will be spent in your life.  If you know what you want and who you are, time will be an asset and a gift vs. a stressor.  This article will focus on how to integrate proper timing into your infrastructure vs. how you should spend it (that comes later).  When allocating time towards a future task, exercise the following three principles;

            1.         Sufficiency:    Probably the best piece of advice I’ve ever received on task management was from my pastor Rick Warren (author of The Purpose Driven Life).  He advised us to put a 15 minute buffer between scheduled activities throughout the day.  Make sure that you account for the “oh shoot” moments throughout the day, especially if you have children.  If you have a staff or team under you, please ladies and gentlemen, allocate proper time towards their own planning process.  The Marine Corps uses the 1/3 to 2/3 rule from senior to subordinate.  You already have the vision, now they need the time to understand it and come up with a course of action, which they’ll later brief you on.  One thing we keep seeing at Mastery Coaching is well-meaning leaders getting involved in the “guts” of operational planning.  As a result, the joy is sapped out of the creation process.  What’s also lose is an opportunity for the rest of the team to be empowered intellectually and vocationally.  We’ve found that if junior executives begin to feel unchallenged, their mindsets will quickly devolve into believing they’re unworthy of significant responsibility.  The same applies to older executives, yet instead of staying on and feeling insignificant, they’ll just pick up and leave.  Give others the time (puls a little extra) that you yourself would appreciate for the same task (despite if you know you could do it sooner).  And by the way, sufficiency (in terms of time allocated, not so much planning) is especially important for your loved ones, especially children, who in the words of Pastor Warren, spell love; “T-I-M-E”.

2.         Sequencing:    Not only do things have to have the proper amount of time to happen, they must occur in the right order.  The more “moving parts” your operation has, the more important this principle is.  Take D-Day for example.  Gen. Eisenhower wisely decided to pound the beaches of Normandy for several hours to soften up German defenses in order for the infantry to establish a beachhead.  Once that was done, the support services would show up and the infantry and armored forces would move inland.  A few hiccups, costly ones at that, but the right order got the job done.  If the infantry would’ve landed before fire support was executed, they would’ve been massacred on the beach.  Perhaps the best depiction of proper sequencing in war is the battle scene at the beginning of “Gladiator”.  The enemy is showered with arrows and other missiles while the infantry advances, Roman legionnaires close with and gain the barbarian’s attention (called “fixing” in the military), and the final step is for the cavalry led by Maximus to take them in the rear.  Bad guys are surrounded, cut off from escape and reinforcements, and slaughtered.  Sequencing was just as important then as it is now.  A marketing plan designed to edge out a competitor in your tract or the unraveling of a larger advertisement campaign is just as important. 

            Although there are many offshoots to these two principles, they all relate back to having enough time to do what you need to do (Sufficiency) and doing things in the right order (Sequencing).  If you can figure these two out, then when you must strike will be a given.  Mastery Coaching has the tools and templates available for you to properly identify and quantify the timing requirements in your business and personal life.  We also provide the services which will liberate you from tasks which are not the highest and best use of your time.  Always remember that when you’re running a race (a timed event), it’s difficult for any runner to tell how they’re doing.  Don’t let your only feedback be victory or defeat.  Learn where the next opportunity lies before your competitors do, and get there before anyone else.  As Wayne Gretzky once said; “Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it is.”.

            Stability is the most important quality of your emotional, financial, and business infrastructure.  Without it, risk-taking becomes gambling, and your sense of confidence will constantly be infected with anxiety, anxiety which your clients may pick up on.  If you want your infrastructure to be stable, you must exercise the “Four Rs”:

            Reserve:  YOU MUST HAVE A STRATEGIC RESERVE.  We can’t emphasize this enough.  You should have six months of income set aside.  Don’t wait until you’re exhausted to stop working.  Have a little left over so you can finish strong and go over the top if need be.  It’s common sense, but also a common problem.  Let’s look at blackouts.  When a section of a city’s power grid goes out, the power requirements of that section is placed upon the adjacent grid.  However, without regular, real-time upkeep, this handoff will overwhelm the grid next to it, which collapses as well.  As each grid collapses under the snowballing power vacuum from the previous ones, the result is a “cascading failure” and you get a blackout.  The key here is consistency and self-awareness, both of which have to be conducted with the assistance of an outside, objective observer.  Otherwise, you’ll be vulnerable to your biases.

            Review:  Let’s say that Saturday is your day off.  Every Friday around noon, conduct a cost-benefit analysis of your systems (in terms of cash, time, energy, etc.).  If you’re great at open houses but spend 8 hours a week without any offers or solid leads, you have to invest elsewhere to get your listings sold, perhaps even delegating it to another agent.  Marketing plans for each listing have to be intensely reviewed and constantly reassessed.  I’ve had clients who’ve insisted on having their homes in “Dream Homes” magazine.  Usually, people who’re drawn in by “Dream Homes” are dreamers themselves.  If a listing is over $800,000 and is reasonably priced (by reasonable sellers) then several hundred dollars a month may be worth it.  But you need to ensure that your cost-benefit analysis is based on current assets, NOT forecasted income, no matter how solid.  Also, a reserve needs to be flexible.  Whatever you have set aside, it won’t involve penalties for access or result in cannibalizing yourself.  HELOCs are an excellent example of this.  As Chris likes to say, the equity in your home is not income.  Cash is cash, period.

            Reboot:  When you reboot a computer, you’re essentially refreshing it’s capability to function optimally.  Friday afternoons should be spent clearing out the waste/residue left over from the operations of the past week.  Take your staff out to lunch (i.e. get out of the work environment) and have a “what’s working, what’s not” session (this is also a powerful method for your marriage).  Delete all unnecessary emails, text messages, refill your flyer boxes (better yet have your assistant do it).  Reviewing and Rebooting tend to overlap, but at the end of the day, you can expect only what you inspect.  I like David Allen’s (“Get Things Done”) endstate for each week; get clear, get clean, get current, and get complete. 

            Reposition:  It’s vital to take a day off between rebooting and repositioning.  Ladies and gentlemen, a day off means your cell phone is off, the laptop is shut, and you’re out somewhere with your significant other.  If you don’t have one, then spend this day to court one.  Just like a real reboot, you need a complete shutdown for awhile in order to enjoy the benefits.  On the following day seek to implement or reinforce the things which seem to be working.  Make sure you haven’t missed anything before the reboot stage (Maintaining focus on Friday afternoons can be challenging!).  So if you took Saturday off, by Sunday morning your systems are in alignment, in their proper place, and focused.  The time to prepare your materials and set aside your clothes for your Sunday open house is Friday, not Sunday morning (but check your comps shortly before leaving to make sure there’s been no significant activity in the tract).  Also, your refreshments have been purchased and chilled, your gas tank is full, and you have something to do during any lulls (work-related, not recreational reading).    

            Achieving stability is one of those things which sound simple, but is difficult to do.  Not because the actions required are hard, but because you won’t see the benefits in the short term.  Perhaps the hardest thing about achieving stability is engaging your faults and choosing to take them on.  These are difficult times.  “The last thing we need” is to discover yet another chink in our armor, or worse yet, finding out that what we do well isn’t producing results.  But that’s exactly why we must go for it and get help in doing so.  Don’t get caught in the “busyness” trap.  Concentrate on being effective, not productive.  Don’t strive to fix the same problems year after year.  You’re too good for that, and your clients expect more from you.  Exercise the “Four Rs” and you’ll have a business which works for you, not the other way around.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”— Leonardo da Vinci

            Despite being in the so-called “Information Age”, we’re confused now more than ever.  Life has become increasingly complex, and your career is no exception.  We aim to operate from the “K.I.S.S.” principle which implies that we must become stupid, or dumb ourselves down, in order to cope and adapt.  However, “K.I.S.S.” actually stands for “Keep It Short and Simple”.  The term originated with Kelly Johnson, the brilliant Lockheed engineer who oversaw the development of the Lockheed Skunk Works (Area 51) and over 40 different aircraft.  He knew that in the pursuit of simplicity, we must not become simple ourselves.  Being an engineer, he was also very aware of The Law of Entropy which states that any system will deteriorate over time unless it is injected with a) a new energy source and b) a template for the organization of the new energy.  If there’s any principle which affirms the need for outside counsel, this is it.  The Entropy Law applies to all things, including organizations, infrastructure, and relationships.

            At Mastery Coaching we’ve not only witnessed the effects of the Entropy Law, we’ve experienced it.  We’re here to tell you that Entropy can’t be avoided, no matter what your market share is, or how solid your foundation may be.  It can look like a marriage heading towards stagnation, a small business becoming bloated as it grows, or an agent failing to adapt to a new market.  Our clients who’ve adopted the new energy/template approach were the only ones who were able to pull out of a dive or even stay the course without losing steam.  So what’s the answer to avoiding the inevitable slowdown of our business and increasing level of friction in life?  What does “new energy” and a template to focus and deploy that energy look like?

            “New energy” is something which serves as fuel for you to continue towards your goals.  An example would be hiring a great personal assistant.  The first thing I invested in after my first escrow, was an able and intelligent assistant.  We recommend posting an ad on the “job board” of your local college’s website.  College students tend to be tech savvy, flexible in their outlook, and can work odd hours.  New energy doesn’t have to be acquisitional in nature.  It can be trimming cost by reducing overhead or adopting a healthier lifestyle by eating right and working out more (a very effective and efficient method of energy cultivation).  New energy is not rushing out and buying the latest gadget the moment it come out (it’ll be full of bugs and frustration anyway).  It’s also not assuming an adrenalized lifestyle fueled by stress, caffeine, or working even more hours doing the same thing.  At the end of the day, the point of new energy is to fuel your course of action and, to ensure that you’re in integrity with your goals.

            A template is nothing more than forethought applied to moments of serendipity.  Communication: Know what to say before you have to say it.  Writing an effective and emotionally evocative cover letter is critical to putting a human face on your client’s offer.  Yet we’ve seen so many agents produce obviously scripted or boring letters, or worse yet, no letter at all.  Mastery Coaching can provide very effective and proven cover letters for offers (as well as requests for repairs).  All we need is a quick brief on the situation and you’ll have a “leg up” on the competition as well as the seller’s emotions.  A template could also be a plan for your staff.  I had a wonderful assistant for over two years.  However, there were frequent moments of frustration and friction because I would often fail to produce a hard schedule for her the moment she walked in.  I was so busy putting together escrows that she was on the business end of “seagull management” (swoop in, provide droppings in the form of drive-by taskers, and swoop out).  Income: So you made an extra couple thousand dollars this month?  Great!  Know in advance which bills you’ll apply your windfall to.  And when it comes to energy, by far the most powerful form is time.  Unless you’re God (in which case you’ll probably have no need for Mastery Coaching), you can’t make it, buy it, or even find more of it.  So when a client cancels at the last minute, know in advance how you’ll be spending that free time.  And ladies and gentlemen, we know that free time discovered during the work day is applied towards your work.  We’ve already established that how you spend your free time is indicative of your maturity level.  Use it wisely.  Free time is like Tofu.  It assumes the flavor of whatever you mix it with.  If you waste it, that flavor will leave a nasty aftertaste that’ll be difficult to get rid of.

            Let us help you with the level of creativity needed to ensure that your offers rise above those of your competitors.  Let us help you discover who you want to be and where you want to go.  Ultimately the answers lie within you, but the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.  Our templates ensure that you stay straight on the road to victory vs. bounce off the guardrails of life.  Our methods for creating and obtaining energy will ensure that when you bounce off a guardrail, you’ll have enough fuel to recover from a spinout and get back on track.  The staff at Mastery Coaching understands Entropy.  We’ve been through it, but we’ve developed the experience to excel in the face of it and, we’d be remiss if we failed to share our methods and coping skills.  It’s ok where you are, you’re just too good to stay there.  Refuse to be “stupid” to make your dreams come true.  Be simple in your values, but not in your outlook.  Albert Einstein perhaps said it best; “Things should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.”.  If your infrastructure and the systems within it can be simplified, so will your life.  We want your income streams to be free of pollution and unnecessary obstacles so that you can enjoy what simplicity is supposed to offer: love, life, and purpose.

          Systems.  The Holy Grail of any business owner, salesperson, or individual who desires a more simple life.  Systems enable us to get out from behind our desks and do what we do best, namely, connect with others, engage prospects, and take care of clients.  But how effective are your systems?  Is there a central authority or framework which manages them?  Ladies and gentlemen, systems must be subdued, controlled, and coordinated.  Your systems are here to serve you, not to occupy your time in maintaining them.  All of us have a few aces up our sleeves, which by themselves get results (a particular script, your website, your mailers, etc.).  But without an overall plan for maximizing the potential of each one, you’ll wind up having a stable of one-trick ponies vs. a herd of stallions.  Which one would you rather ride into battle on?

          What we need is infrastructure which is defined as “An underlying base or foundation especially for an organization or system”  Usually, the term infrastructure applies to a country’s roads, airports, energy sources, sewage systems, communications, etc.  However the term also applies to the connectivity of systems in the fields of IT, national defense, buildings, or anything else which contains multiple parts marshaled towards a common purpose.  Without a solid foundation from which to operate , your business will be subject to the ebb and flow of the market, and therefore, so will your emotions.  Indeed, what separates the good agents from the great agents are the ones who develop a sound infrastructure to fall back on when markets change or their personal lives are dealt a crushing blow.  So where do you stand?  Sit back and grade your infrastructure along 4 lines:  Synergy, Simplicity, Synchronicity, and Stability.  This article will address the principle of Synergy.

          Synergy is defined as “when different entities cooperate advantageously for a final outcome”.  Ancient rope makers discovered that when you weave two strands of fiber together, what results is a strand double the strength of one. However, three strands woven together produce a strand ten times the strength of one by itself.  The symbol of Ancient Rome was a bundle of sticks tied together because snapping a twig over your knee is one thing, snapping a fistful of twigs over your knee is quite another.  There is strength in numbers, but in order to have your strength expand exponentially, your systems have to pointing in the same direction, not merely operating parallel to one another.  In short, your infrastructure should resemble steel cable, not building blocks.

          What made the Romans great and allowed them to expand beyond the borders of Italy was the synergy of their infrastructure.  Without its’ amazing road system, the Roman army couldn’t have been deployed quickly throughout the empire to quell revolts.  However, revolts were uncommon because shortly after a city was conquered, the first thing to show up after the soldiers left were Roman engineers. People who had to dig their own toilets suddenly had running water which would carry away their waste, nourish crops, and easily proved hydration (vs. walking back and forth from a well).  Suddenly, commerce, trade, and travel were much simpler and safer.  As a result mere villages within the empire became cities almost overnight. 

          So what does synergy look like for today’s salesperson?  First of all, your systems must compliment one another.  If you have an assistant, he or she must enable you to be at more than one place at a time.  They should have the intelligence and common sense to be able to handle incoming leads, or soothe angry customers until you can address the issue.  If you’ve invested in having an awesome website, spend the money to have a professional photographer to display your listings on it. Synergy also demands structure.  You must have a schedule.  Resist the urge to interrupt what you’re doing to jump on a new lead.  Give yourself 15 minutes in between tasks to regroup mentally before the next one.  If you can do something within two minutes, do it immediately.  Work out first thing in the a.m.  Master the morning, master the day.

          At Mastery Coaching we know that a team has to be on the same page, or you’ll have a bunch of individuals doing their best but feeling alone.  Your systems are no different and require someone from the outside to critique their value and assist you in making a “team” out of your systems.  Mike Tyson had a wonderfully integrated system of combinations and defensive skills.  When he chose to rely on his lunging left hook and uppercut, he lost to a 40 to 1 underdog who had a 12” reach advantage and a jab like a telephone pole.  Don’t be that guy or gal.  You’re not lazy.  You haven’t forgotten what made you great to begin with, and you’re certainly not a 40 to 1 underdog.  But you have to stop relying on your power shots and one-trick ponies to carry the day.  Don’t focus on your faults, but keep them in check by ensuring that they’re woven into your strengths.  If you can do that, your Achilles heel(s) will disappear, and you will conquer.