The 6 Plateaus in Real Estate and How to Move Beyond Them
How many reading this post have hit a plateau in their real estate business and would like to know the steps to break through?
This past week I was teaching a training course and was reminded of all the different phases and plateaus I had faced in the past 2 decades in my real estate business.
As a realtor coach I am constantly reminded, I am not alone, we all come against and very often, struggle with each of these plateaus.
So I began to wonder... if knowing, having awareness and recognizing what the phases and plateaus in real estate were, before I was in them or before I hit the plateaus would have made a big difference in my own real estate journey.
My answer to myself was... YES! and Possibly... read on to find out why.
As a result of my pondering I decided it would be of benefit to my readers to share those phases and plateaus that I personally went through and what I did (and you can do) to breakthrough to that peak state in your real estate business.
I love this statement...
“when the student is ready, the teacher will appear”
...but I personally thought it was more like
“I am sick and tired and enough is enough”
Does anyone know why it takes most of us in this business to have to hit that point in our careers where we are so sick and tired of what is happening (or not happening) before we do something about it?
How to Breakthrough the "Survival Mode" Plateau in Real Estate
Everyone one of us, including myself began this journey in the first phase of real estate which I call “Survival Mode”.
This first phase is where you are struggling, kicking, clawing and fighting your way through this business. You find yourself making tons of mistakes and spending tremendous amounts of time and energy unsure if it will ever pay dividends. It usually seems to most they will never be able to breakthrough this initial phase of their career.
Are you someone or know someone that is in the real estate business and stuck in the “Survival” phase of the business?
I know agents in the business for many, many years and are still in this phase and never get out of this phase.
"So Wade what do we do to breakthrough this first phase or plateau in real estate?"
My first step is to design a plan. I know... I know... Many of you right now are ready to click away and go watch cute cat videos on YouTube but hear me out...
We have all heard this advice many times before and from my perspective there are 2 camps on this topic... Camp #1 - those who have done it, given it a fair chance and swear by it's importance and...
Camp #2 - those who have resisted and fought doing this tooth and nail or did it but never really worked at properly implementing it.
What camp are you in? This works... trust me!
Still with me? Good!
Write a plan for your real estate business and include important details like you would for any business plan like Mission Statement, Goals, Your Vision and Why, Budgets, Activities, Marketing, Lead Generation, Your Production Numbers and more that you would like to add to your plan.
Then take your plan and commit to that plan and share it with 5 people. These are people you trust, you know they have your back and would hold you accountable and help carry you on this journey.
Once you have the plan in place and you commit and share the plan, it is only time until you experience your breakthrough and reach the next level.
Breakthrough the "Implementation" Plateau as a Realtor
The next phase or plateau in our journey is taking our plan and taking action or what I call “Implementation”.
One thing I know to be true; only in the dictionary does the word "success" come before the word "work". Taking action and implementing on your plan is key.
Let me remind you that 21 days will not build a habit in anything, including real estate. Statistics say it takes 67 days to create a basic habit and 127 days to build a complicated habit.
So acting on the activities required to meet your plan need to be carried out for a minimum of 67 days and even more than 127 days until they just become a part of you and a part of your real estate business.
Breakthrough the "Success Mode" Plateau in Real Estate
The third phase and sometimes the deadliest phase even in my own real estate business is “Success Mode”. This is where you are experiencing momentum, the plan is working and the implementation is creating the success that you desired.
Wait a minute... where's the problem in that?
The problem, plateau and trap (which is all too common), comes when you buy into your success... you feel you have arrived now and the wrong ego sets in.
Have you arrived?
Do you know those agents where their ego has set in and they are too cool now for open houses, or too cool now for prospecting. They believe their business just comes in on it's own now.
Then all of a sudden, like for myself, the business becomes overwhelming because I was under planned and soon begins to die off because bad habits begin to creep into my business.
Phase 3 breakthrough is go back to the activities that made you successful. I am guessing most of them were face to face and voice to voice related. Look back at all the activities that you stopped doing because you thought you had arrived.
How to Overcome the Stabilization Phase in Your Real Estate Career
The fourth phase and plateau of my own career and for most agents experiencing great success in their real estate career is the “Stabilization” phase of the business.
Your business is somewhat in control, you have systems and checklists for everything now and you have strong communication plans in place. You have daily briefings and weekly meetings with your assistant and even have your marketing and business plans written out a year in advance but your income is close to being the same year after year and you end up stuck in your own success.
Are you stuck in your own success?
Do you know agents that have plateaued with their income and can’t break through the “Stabilization” phase of their real estate business?
When I hit this plateau in my own business (for a few years) we just couldn’t seem to increase our income like we wanted to. We wanted to hit that next phase in real estate which is the “Quantum Leap” phase.
What is needed to move past Phase 4 and enter Phase 5 is adding more streams of lead generation. Agents wanting to breakthrough this level need to have 10, 15 even 20 or more lead generation streams in their business now. Streams like direct mail, online marketing, expired listings and open houses are just a few examples.
This adjustment is critical to moving forward and will likely require developing your team to help create more streams of leads and bring on more help and more team members to convert the multiple streams of leads and truly make a “Quantum Leap” in your business.
It will also require you breaking through by delegating, systematizing and managing people, services and technology to handle all the leads you generated from the previous phase.
Moving Past the Quantum Leap Phase in the Real Estate Business
Once you have developed your team and created more streams of leads and brought on more help and more team members to convert the multiple streams of leads you are now in the “Quantum Leap” phase of your business.
This is the phase where you experience unprecedented, unpredictable bursts of results and have that big leap in your business that requires you to re stabilize and re organize.
Are you wanting to now move past the “Quantum Leap”? Are you the agent that needs to breakthrough even further and build the ultimate team?
Phase 5 breakthrough is when you iron out all the kinks and fine tune the machine so it all runs smoothly and productively without you in your business.
In most cases the business, team, systems and services run even better than when you are even around. That is when you know that you have built and own a business that you "work on" and not "work in it".
Enjoy the Fruits of Your Labour in the Significance Phase of Your Real Estate Business
The sixth and final phase of this whole journey in real estate is what I call the “Significance” phase in real estate.
When the deals and dollars show up with or without you.
You now own a business and not a job.
Where the income and business is not reliant upon you.
The beautiful time in your life where you actually get to make a difference and give your wealth away.
The one thing I notice with all agents in this level of mastery and significance in their career is they still hate making the calls, converting the leads and showing all the homes but they still do it anyway.
They never let their ego get in the way of their success and remember all the activities that got them to where they are today.
I hope and pray this post helps you identify where you are at in your career and helps you see a way to breakthrough to the level of mastery and significance in your real estate business.
Strength and Courage,
Wade
