Process Power | How to Simplify Your Business and Avoid Overwhelm

In this episode of The Elite Agent Masterclass, Jack Durkin sits down once again with Holly Boylan — Head of Operations at The Avenue Estate Agents (and affectionately known as the "Queen of Process") — to deep-dive into one of the most crucial topics for any self-employed agent:

The power of systems, structure and process.

Whether you're launching your self-employed estate agency business, or you're already established but feeling overwhelmed, this is essential listening.

Inside this episode:

• Why structure gives you freedom, not restriction
• How to build a “Perfect Repeatable Week” that drives consistent results
• The difference between being an agent vs being a business owner
• Why most agents fail due to overconsumption, overwhelm, and lack of execution
• How to simplify lead generation strategies and stay consistent
• The role of DISC personality profiles in managing structure
• Why mindset, environment and accountability are critical to long-term success
• Why ‘outside noise’ is one of the biggest traps agents fall into
• How to avoid burnout and build a sustainable business model
• What Holly would do differently if she relaunched her business today

Holly and Jack also discuss how The Avenue’s onboarding, 90-day plans, and tailored systems have helped dozens of agents simplify their business, build momentum, and create long-term sustainable growth — while protecting time, balance and mental energy.

✅ If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by all the content, Facebook groups, podcasts, coaching groups and conflicting advice... this episode will cut through the noise and give you actionable clarity.

Whether you're at the start of your self-employed journey or you're hitting scale and need better systems, this is one of the most practical and valuable episodes we've recorded.

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Transcript

Welcome to another episode of the Elite Agent Masterclass. Today, we're joined again by none other than Holly Boylan. She is the Head of Operations at the Avenue Estate Agents and many call her the Queen of Process as well. Holes, how are you? I'm good. Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure. Thanks. It's a pleasure to have you back on. I think we obviously, I'm mindful of we had you on the pod previously, which was great and had very, very good episode. It had a lot of views, a lot of plays. So we thought it was really valuable to get you back on the pod. I was mindful that we want to try and make sure that we're covering different topics and different things. But I also believe it's a new day. It's another message. And I think this sort of stuff is so, so important for people to keep hearing on repeat constantly. So I'm a big believer in structure processes and you're the lead person at the avenue that puts those processes in place for the agents in the business. I'd love to know if you could summarise what you do in one sentence, what would that be? Oh, yeah. I know my tagline. What do they call it? An elevator pitch. I turn chaos into order. And that is the simplest way I can describe my role. Love that. As long as I remember that to be my focus, I'm in a good spot. Great. Love that. And it's very, very clear as well. Easy to understand. So great. So you help agents turn their chaos into order. Yeah, definitely. Because, you know, I too have been an agent and a self-employed agent, and I very much understand that you are wired to serve what's in front of you right now. So there is a lot that will slip on by to the next day or doesn't get done. But it's those foundational habits that I'm really set on building that will give you freedom in your business, but also allow you I heard a speaker at an event a few weeks ago talk about this, but leave opportunity in your day for new and exciting things to happen. And I think you can't achieve that without structure. But that really resonated with me when I heard it a few weeks ago. So, yeah. Nice. I like that. For the full transparency and for those that are listening, we are very open and real. in our values, both at the Elite Agile Masterclass and at a business over at the Avenue of Stat Agents. So, Holes, one thing I was keen, like I said, keen to try and do is make sure we don't cover too much of the last pod. So about an hour ago, I thought, gosh, I need to go back and listen to Holly's episodes of the pods she's already recorded. And I started listening to them. I checked the time and I'm like, I can't get through both of those episodes within the next hour. Lo and behold, AI and the power of AI now. I was able to use ChatGPT to read the episode for me and give me some suggestions and some summaries. So I have listened to your pod episodes a number of times, but I need to refresh the memory this morning, and AI really helped me with that. And the reason I mention AI, one, like I said, for full transparency, but also how can AI help people in their business And do you think, I know it's something that is a big topic at the moment and I'm sure many people are looking into. It's quite a big thing and it's probably quite complicated at the moment to understand. And we've only just probably scratched the surface on it. But how do you think that could help and have an impact on people's businesses in the future? Realistically, my point of view is that it can do anything for you, whether you want are willing to put in the time and investment to build certain things like automations, which we're obviously heavily looking into at the moment. But in its simplest form, it can do a lot of day-to-day tasks that mean that you have time better spent doing other things. Like for me, I never write an organic email anymore because I know what I'm trying to get across. I do that through AI. So even, you know, if you consider it roles within branches, it can help every member of staff for every point of business. But you just need to know what you want the AI to actually do for you. And it can do anything. But I think the main blocker with people and the likes of, you know, chat GPT, which is a word mass used across the agency, social media and LinkedIn, is they have an assumption based on some outcomes that they've seen. But the biggest thing to remember is what you feed the machine is what you're going to get out of it. So your prompt needs to be the best it possibly can be. Correct. And I know you've spent a lot of time using chat, prompting chat. So it really starts to pick up your tone of voice, your language, the message you want it to share. And I know if we put, we've both got our own chat GBTs. If I put something into chat and you put something very similar in, we probably get two different outcomes because of what we've taught it and what it's learned about us over time, which is important. Yeah. I mean, the other day at the time of recording this, it actually went down the other day. And I was just thinking, God, this was what it feels like to have your most efficient member of staff on leave. And I was just like, where do I go else? How do I do it? And I could still do the tasks, but it just took me so much longer. And at that point, I really realized how much I use it day to day. But I think agents are scratching the surface with just doing their property descriptions. But If you're like me, when I was a business owner, I wasn't that good with forecasting all the numbers or the measuring. But chat could now do that all for me. Chat could financially plan your whole year. Chat could tell you, you know, based on last year's business, when's the best time for you to go on holiday? You can remove every decision in your business if you know how to use AI in it. And like for me, for us, we're on a bit of a different journey now because we're so used to AI. So we're looking at a lot of automations to help our agents get things done for them rather than them doing it because it can allow a lot of flexibility, but it is an investment of time and energy. Agreed. And you kind of hit the nail on the head. It's interesting, isn't it? Because I was exactly the same when the chat went down the other day. I asked it so many questions today and I'm like, gosh, what should I do? I suppose it's like before phones, like what did people do before phones? It's crazy to think, isn't it? And AI has only come into a lot of people's lives very recently. And people are using it that much now and that frequently that, yeah, it feels strange. Like you don't know where to turn if you don't have access to it. So I think it's going to become so powerful. Yeah. What people are going to be using day to day in their daily lives, in their businesses. Yeah. And I suppose it's always like you said, if you prompt it right, it can do so, so much. And it's we haven't even really just got started. However, I suppose the main topic wasn't AI. The main topic of today was really to talk about the when when an agent first starts their self-employed estate agency journey. I think it's really important to make sure they get off to the right start and have the best chance of success. So at the Avenue of Start Agents, you've built an onboarding process, a week-long onboarding process, which is very structured and it really gives the agents the best opportunity and the best support and the best systems to get themselves off the ground. So I really want to understand from you, what do you feel? Firstly, can we give people a bit of an overview as to your part in the onboarding week? And secondly, what do you feel are some of the most important factors of getting started as a self-employed agent? Yeah, definitely, because, you know, everyone gets really excited about having a board design up and, you know, putting your logo on social media. But like that's just scratching the surface. So for me, the main goal of that week, it's quite an intensive week for the agents and they all are exhausted at the end of it. But for us, it's definitely the best way to do it where the education kind of follows on from each day. It's building those strong foundational habits, but then also knowing a lot about the brokerage and where to go for the support that we have on offer. Because we have so much that we've built over the last, you know, approaching four years that I can't possibly give it them an all in one day. So as long as they walk out of that knowing exactly where and who the right person is for the support, they then can refresh that. But for me, the main goal is to get everything set up and ready. So when they actually launch, it's then just about generating business. You don't want to be doing odds and ends. You need to be getting that out there and getting known. But something that the agents are always surprised at is how much process there is behind the scenes. Because You know, notoriously, business owners, they love to generate the result. They love that side of things, but they resist the process and the structure that comes with that. But it's kind of getting them to understand what that structure and process allows for them further down the line. And in that day, essentially, I go through the resources and tools that we have on offer in the brokerage and how to get the best out of them, but also building their funnel of trust. So how they get clients to know who they are, to like them, and then to trust them to transact. And that's something that, you know, I used to be very guilty as an agent. I'd rely on people liking me. And that would mean that when I'd lose, I'd find it hard. But it's them recognising how you can show your value and trust in other ways and not relying on that. Because, you know, I went from having seven valuations a day booked into my diary to go self-employed. I was on about one a week. so you need the results because you've got less to go from but it's just knowing what to lean into and what to kind of avoid in that mode I think. It's really hard isn't it to transition from being so reactive to then becoming proactive and in actual fact I know you said most agents resist structure I'm the total opposite and I think it's more down to personality profiles and I think it was mentioned on the pub previously, those who are an I probably would resist structure and process because they like to be free. Those who sit on the C or D side, they like to have structure and process. And I'm someone who, I don't like to create the structure and process. And that's why you're amazing at being able to build it. But I'm very good at following it. And I'm very good at making sure our action can stay consistent when I've got the right structure in place. And I think it's very similar for a lot of the agents we've got in the business as well. We talk about Bailey and Alice quite frequently. They've kind of absolutely nailed the night to day plan. So on the onboarding, we've got the onboarding week. We then give them the night to day plan and they followed it very, very closely and very carefully. They've been in the business coming up to six months, so they've changed it, tweaked it, and adapted it, but they've spent a long time making sure that they follow it to the letter because the structure's been built, the success blueprint, so to speak, has been built. So as long as they follow it and remain consistent around it, they will start to see results. So I think it's important around personality profiles, isn't it? But I do think everyone... everyone needs a little bit of structure in their life. Even if it's just a skeleton, even if it's just an overlay, and even if people need, you know, the ability to be a little bit flexible and have the ability to be free, then you can still leave your time blocks in your diary for those times and kind of just have yourself a skeleton. I think it's going to benefit everyone if you've got more structure to your day. Yeah, definitely. And like for me, you know, we're not saying... fill your diary with every moment that's not the point of why people transition from an agent to a business owner but it's just knowing what you need to do daily and weekly to generate the results that you're going after because it's exactly like that people appreciate the structure but they don't like building it and there's also a lot of questions and I also think because self-employed estate agency has now grown to such such the beast that it is, like the transition before COVID to now of how many deals are going through, being under self-employed agents is explosive. But there's also a danger in that, that they can easily over-consume. There's various industry pods like ours. There's so many Facebook groups. There's so many different letters you can send, different social posts you can post. But because there's so much choice out there, agents sometimes don't know where to start and end up procrastinating taking the action because they want to do everything but I think where we really focus is making it as simple as possible for them to know what to do and when because all manner of things will work but it's whether you do it to a level of consistency that is actually going to bring in results and I think that's what I've really recognized in the last few years since we opened the business was the overconsumption is a real threat to self-employed agents who are transitioning when they first transition. When you're a few years into the business, you have time and cash to kind of fail with. But at the start, that's what will really put you in the ground and you can't carry on. Because that transition piece from agent to business owner Not all good estate agents are business owners and not all business owners are good estate agents. But for me, you have to have the business owner mentality to make it sustainable. Anyone can be a burnout agent. Anybody. Me and you have both been there and it's easily achieved. But it's what you do to make sure that you're a business owner remaining in that seat. Agreed. You touched on something there around keeping it simple. And I agree, like overwhelm is so easy to face when you're running a business and when there's so many different ideas out there. And it's not only so many ideas, but because there's so many ideas, it's really difficult to get started because you've got to understand it. You've got to then put a plan in place what you've got then build it if you get a hurdle or you face a challenge then you've got to sit down and really dedicate the time to it and you're thinking is this the right the right um thing to be doing or should I be looking at a different idea could I implement a different idea quicker you might put the idea down and start a new one and it just that just goes on and on and on doesn't it so um I've got a question for you. If you were relaunching your self-employed estate agency, having experienced the processes and systems that you put in place, and you've seen a number of other agents now that have launched, and we've tweaked and changed the onboarding process, we've tweaked and changed a lot of the processes, what would be, where would you start? What would be your main lead gen strategies? What would that look like? Or what would you, if you were launching again, what would be your main focus around lead gen? So I'd only go down two routes and that would be social media for my hyper local audience. And then it would be our main lead gen strategy that we've built within the avenue, which is, if you're not familiar with it, the three point five, two point O. I feel like that is such a good way for agents to use their time in an efficient manner. So for anyone who's not familiar, it'd be where you'd film a video outside a property who's currently on the market with another agent. You promo that property across social media. And then you also interact with the houses that are on the street. So you're therefore getting a tout for someone who's on the market, direct mail out to homes that are not on the market, and you're getting social media done in one hit, but you're getting three things back. And for me, I use overwhelmed is very easily achieved for me I wrote a linkedin post about that the other day actually because it's like at every point I think agents they really care and they've got their name on the line so they care even more than when there isn't a branch hidden behind someone else's brand but at every point they question is this good enough should I be doing this down to a title and a font on a letter but because we've kind of laid out and tested these strategies we can comfortably say to agents that this is the best use of your time So that's quite important when you're at the start of your journey. Of course, you want to get yourself out there as much as possible, and sometimes budget's limited, isn't it? Just to go back to that, three point five, two point O, and just to give props as well to Chris Watkins, who came up with the three point five method. We just added a couple of things onto that that has kind of changed it a little bit, but it's all came from Chris Watkins concept, which is a brilliant one. Just want to give props to Chris Watkins on that. That's a brilliant example, isn't it? Because you can easily see things in the industry that are shared. And like, okay, but how do I make that mine? How do I change that? You don't need to reinvent the wheel. You just need to do what works in your style and double down on consistency. And I think agents get blocked in that mentality. And something that I really appreciate seeing in our agents within the network is they're so open to collaboration with other self employed agents or other you know traditional models. Because they recognize that they're not a mass market leader, so they do need to lean on some other agents for some collaboration, you know to close chains or just to network just to feel some presence in their patch and. think that's really key takeaway for anyone listening you know you don't need to reinvent the wheel just take what you've seen work but really double down and make it your own because it's easy to do things once or do things consistently and they consistently will definitely get you the results a hundred percent I think it's like you said once you start to see once you start to implement a strategy you can change that but use the strategies that have worked previously and then add your own own twist that I think is a really important message um really good answer holds the other question I was going to ask so we know now what you would do if you launched your agency what would you avoid doing I'd avoid listening to outside noise I'd avoid listening to oh is that going to work oh really why would you leave your security of a job for that which I used to hear a lot and by outside you mean those negative Nellies who yeah and people doubting you can do what you know to be true and I think the there's so much noise out there and like LinkedIn for me oh my god it's a platform I would never be on if I had the choice but I recognize that people I want to connect with are on LinkedIn because it's almost I see a lot of agents nowadays you know bashing agents who charge cheap fees or bashing agents who are doing volume based businesses. But to me, I think, you know, fair play that they're doing what they know. They don't know that higher fees is a possibility. So as the agents who have cracked that, we should take them on a journey. How nice would it be for you to go out as an agent and all be competing at two percent and the client choose who's the best fit for them and who showed the most value rather than one competing at two percent, one competing at a thousand pounds and one competing at one percent? You know, I've even heard stories of zero point seven five percent. And it's like, how nice would it be if we could all compete on the same platform? And just really recognise the value that we bring to that customer and know that the customer has chosen us on value. Because we've got to take agents like that on a pathway. They deserve to be paid the effort that they're putting in. You know, I used to work for a very low fee agent, but I can guarantee if you got me to sell your house, you were winning because of the effort that I was putting in was not reflected by my fee. So I'd avoid the outside noise. I'd avoid trying things once and then putting it down. If you get knocked back, you just get back on the horse. You just keep going. You don't let that negative setback, you know, kind of dwell. I remember this very fondly from one of our agents had a negative experience doing a lead gen strategy. Natalie Freeman, if you listen to this, this is a quick shout out. And she just cracked on and she was actually going to go home after that attempt anyway. But she was like, no, no, I'm going to stay out. I'm going to do one more. I'm going to do it again just so I know I go home on that positive feeling of what I've done today. And that actually generated having a result just by carrying on because it's so easy for us to crawl back and dwell on what's gone wrong and see other agents hitting those fees that you want to achieve on social media. But you can only control what you want to control. And I do think that the biggest threat to self-employed agents when they transition is their mindset. And it's having someone really know what that's like. to help you in that moment. Like we warn our agents when they join us, you're going to hit a point where you're going to be questioning it, but we want to get you there quickly so we can get you out. And we foster that environment where they feel comfortable to tell us that. But it's hard when people don't believe, you know, and you have a partner that's maybe not really seeing the full-time vision or how it's going to work. That's really hard to, you know, come by. So I think joining like a brokerage setup that's aligned with you, will help you with that. And that's the main thing that I would avoid is the outside noise. I think it can go one of two ways, can't it? Oftenly when you launch a self-employed business, and we've seen both scenarios. One is you're putting a lot out there, but not getting a lot of results back. So you're questioning quite early on Like whether you're doing the right thing, whether things are working well. So you've got that voice in your head saying, is this the right thing to do? Should I change strategy? But like you said, you've got to give it a long enough period before you stop or you change what you're doing. And then you've got the other people who they get out of the traps really, really early. They get some real quick results and they get some quick wins. and they think gosh this is you know this is fairly easy like running self-employed actually I've got leads coming in this is great and then all of a sudden the leads dry up because they've been so focused on looking after those leads that they've got they haven't done enough lead generation and their business slows down and then they go into that little pit and it's interesting isn't it because you've got two sides of the coin but everyone's going to go through at some point um challenges and it's making sure that they're aware that it you know self-employed agency is difficult it's not easy um and you have to be willing to put the hard work in and you're going to have to think about not just how to be an agent, but how to run a business at the same time as well and how to spin so many plates. So like you said, we do make sure the agents are aware of that, don't we, before they join. Yeah, it's hard. It's not the dream that people sell, you know, on the likes of LinkedIn or social media. It is hard, but the reward is very high too. But you just have to know what triggers are going to be needed when. And it's like, you're a combination of the people that you spend most of the time with, aren't you? And I really reflect on that. Like I look in the transition that I've gone through the last six years I've been in the industry and I've been around, you know, you and James and most of our agents for most of that. And I would always sit back and reflect. I would never have gone through this transformation if I wasn't around those sorts of characters. I was traditionally someone who would stay in my comfort zone, resist change, resist putting myself out there out of the fear of rejection. Because I'm not saying it's not fearful. It's hard. There will be days where you go home and think, God, can I do another day like this tomorrow? But it's knowing what your driver is will keep you going. And if people around you understand your driver, whether it be, you know, the ability to go to the kids' extracurricular activities without begging for time off, the ability to take, you know, your parents to a doctor's appointment without having to book annual leave or to be at every kid's school assembly. Or just for me, I like that I've got flexibility in my week just to really choose what tasks I want to build around my week and where I prioritize. So everyone has a different driver, but it's really recognizing that that's why you're doing it, not just the financials, because I think that will keep you going a hell of a lot longer than the goal of the six-figure estate agency ever does. Yeah. And putting smaller measurables and milestones in place that, you know, even just getting that first conversation, if you knock a door or that first call when you send a letter or that first lead that comes through an ad on your social media campaign or the first people that start commenting your business in a local Facebook group. Those are the small wins that people don't really... reward themselves for or give themselves a pat on the back for and you know if you always focus just on the instructions and the numbers in your business then if you're not achieving those results it's going to and you're not seeing those results coming as quickly as you'd like then it can be deflating so I think it's really important to celebrate those smaller wins in your business as well hundred percent and like recode what you've seen as a celebration before you know if you've got a branch background it's all on the figures You have to reframe that mind. That's something I did with one of our agents last week was kind of feeling similar. And I said, OK, an exercise that I'd like you to do each day. And I caught up with her today and she was like, that's actually really been helping me was one thing that went well from the day, whether that be getting contact details or a good conversation that you've had. Second thing was one thing that she was grateful for in her personal or business life. And then the third thing was one thing that she wanted to achieve tomorrow. But I said the one thing that you want to achieve tomorrow, make sure you can control it. That's not a result. That's not an instruction. It's not a sale. Yeah, it's one action. I know I can get to tomorrow without anybody else. And focusing on those things and taking time to reflect will really keep you going until the results start generating. Agreed. I think I'm a big believer in as well. And I think a lot of agents will try and take the easy route. and I I strongly believe that and we spoke speak about it and it's been a bit of a phrase um across our business for quite a while get comfortable being uncomfortable if you can do the thing that is really uncomfortable then all those are the tasks that you'd actually prefer doing are going to become far easier to do and if you if you're able to do that and you know you've done it you tell yourself I can do that if I want to do it it's easy you know it's not easy it's uncomfortable but like I can do it if I put my mind to it so once you can overcome those hurdles everything else becomes a lot easier um again another question for your holes so you've worked with a number of agents now over the past few years um and you talked earlier about agents resisting structure and processes have you had any experience where you've seen agents resist that structure and process um and I suppose, having put the structure and process in, seeing them generate better results after doing that. Because you can achieve results without the recommended process, but it will be painful. So one of our agents who's been with us since launch, absolutely unreal business that she's built around her family, still juggling every single plate that she commits to. But there was a point where you could just see that she was tired. And I always want to get to them before that happens, before they start resenting their business. And I call it the Sunday scaries. You know, another week starts tomorrow. You should never feel like that in your business. That's not why you've opened the business. So then to kind of meet up with her and her staff member and put in some processes that are really simple for me to build, but they make such a big impact. And the first thing that I did with them was research their weekly diaries. Monday is no appointments. You don't need to be seeing valuations and viewings on a Monday unless it's a one-off for a special reason. Just give yourself that time because she was like, well, actually, that's really good because I've been prepping for my week on a Sunday night. And then I feel like I've got to get the kids ready for school. I've got to get the kids to football. And then I'm working and I should be spending time with my husband. So let's just make that change. No one's going to not instruct you because you don't offer an appointment on a Monday. Most businesses are closed on a Monday, to be honest. And like just the simple things that people resist doing for so long can make the biggest impact. And now she can enjoy the weekend with her family. She can plan everything on a Monday and she can be ready for what's coming into the week because we don't know what's going to happen. The industry, you know, you can get a survey drop on your desk and think, God, my whole day is gone. But it's just allowing for that and giving it space. I think that's important, isn't it? And I know the agent you're talking about, and I know they work Saturdays as well. So having to work Monday to Saturday and then having to prep and work on a Sunday to get themselves ready for the following week. Where's the downtime? Where's the time off? You know, especially this agent, Emma has, you know, like you said, a family, three boys, that It's very, very difficult to manage and juggle. So we've noticed and I've seen holes of a huge difference in her business and also her personally, since you've helped put those systems and processes in place. People need a little bit of space to actually enjoy what they've built for themselves. You've built this business that gets a consistent cash flow. You've built this business that's getting consistent leads coming in and referrals and people shouting about you. So go and enjoy it. Go and really reflect on how hard you've worked and go and have that time off. Go and have the early afternoon and having lunch with your partner. Go and treat yourself to a day of shopping. If that's what you want to do, you shouldn't feel guilty because you've become a business owner to have that freedom of choice. But people get so bogged down in just being reactive when the processes will give you the freedom because you're proactive and that's the difference. Mm-hmm. I think it's probably very important to mention as well that Emma has built a very successful business. So she has become very reactive because she's been within self-employed with the Avenue Estate Agents for four years and she gets a lot of referrals, recommendations. There's going to be a lot of other people that are on their journey at the very start and they aren't as busy, they aren't getting as many leads, it's a little bit more difficult to generate opportunities. And for those people, it's more about having the dedicated structure in your diary, isn't it to make sure you can go out there and find those opportunities. And it'd be great for a lot of people to get into a position where Emma is where you know, you're having to maybe say no to a lot more stuff. But I'm sure for a lot of people, more opportunities is probably something that they need. And lead gen is probably a big part of their their business. Yeah, a hundred percent. And it's also what is talked about the most, but in a softly way, like everyone talks about what you do in an appointment, but no one actually talks about how you generate the business to be in the appointment. And I think that is such a big thing that people kind of launch and they go, okay, well, what do I do to get in living rooms? And we come in with, you do this, this, this, and only this, this, this, and you will see you getting in some living rooms and getting invited out to the type of houses you're going after. But It's such like a murky water at the start. People don't know where to start at all. And that's why, you know, I think this episode is going to be brilliant for anyone who is nervous around starting, who doesn't know, like you said, where to start. then look, there's plenty of brokerages out there and, you know, there's more and more popping up across the UK. And it's great to see the self-employed movement really, really taking flight and so many people moving across to self-employed estate agency. And I think it's really important for people to be in the environment that suits them best. So, you know, the business that we're part of, it's a great environment for the twenty five or so agents that we've got within our business. But it's not the same for everyone. You know, you've got your bigger brands out there that it would be much more suitable for other people. So I think it's also about finding your environment and understanding what sort of support you need. Like, do you need some support in terms of planning and process? And do you need more support around the structure of your business? Or do you want to completely go alone? And I think that's that's important, isn't it? To find the right environment for you. yeah you've got to find your tribe and you've got to find with where you fit in like after speaking to our agents about you know why they're with us and why they enjoy where they're building their business it always comes down to the people around them so you've just got to find where you fit in and it'll be a lot easier for you but I would always encourage people that if you feel like it's not going to be the right fit just go with your gut and don't try force it because it's much harder to start for the second time than it is for the first time, because you wreck your mindset within that. So just kind of really know that where you're going is going to give you the right environment. I think environment is such a big thing for men. And I really recognise that with our agents, that it's the environment that's key for them to take the action needed for them to get the results. Yeah, they've got to feel like they're around the right people, haven't they? So what would you say is the biggest traps that agents fall into? Or could fall into? Questioning whether they're doing the right thing. Questioning whether they're doing the right thing, a hundred percent. There's so much space and time in the diary when you first start because you're not packed with appointments and viewings and surveys and all of that jazz. that you question every little thing and you shouldn't question it. You should just go do. But the quicker you can get into the fire, it will be a lot easier for you. But the minute, because I used to question everything down from like the font that I'd use on direct mail, the wording I'd put out on social media, the way that I was, you know, conversing in videos. I've said, I've said like a few different times at start again. done is so much better than perfect and people are really going to respect seeing that because they want to see business owners that they align with they want to use an estate agent that they align with so you need to disqualify people well by just being you don't question it just go for it it's like if you're ever like I always remember like jumping in the pool as a kid And the longer I'd be on the ledge, the worse it would get. And then I'd be like, no, I'm not jumping in the pool. And then I remember one year my uncle just pushed me in. And I was like, oh, my God, that was amazing. Can I do it again? But it's so simple because it just didn't have time to think about it. You're better off just building your structure, building your diary for the next day. Get up. Don't question it. Just go at it. Because the minute you question it, you're letting that negative thoughts creep in. And they're only coming from your own limiting beliefs. It's no one else telling you you can't do it. It's you second guessing yourself. You just got to go for it. I read something somewhere and it stuck with me and it's something I do. most mornings I'm not going to sound perfect um but it's the five second rule and make your decision the first five seconds as soon as you wake up in the morning you've got five seconds to get yourself out of bed if you start overthinking it or you know putting it putting it off or listening to those thoughts in your head you're gonna stay in bed and roll back over and have another hour in bed. Whereas if you make that decision in the first five seconds, I think it's the same for a lot of decisions throughout life. Make those decisions quickly before you start to overcomplicate them, overthink them and start putting them off. Five seconds, I've got to do it within the next five seconds. I'm just going to do it now. That's a really great tactic for people. Game changer. It kind of leads on quite well too. You talk a lot about the perfect repeatable week Can you give some context around that, what that is for those people that are listening? Yeah, so people shouldn't question what they're doing each week. And what I mean by that is you should have consistent actions that you take daily or weekly that will mean your business continues to generate at the level you want it to generate at. So that should be set time and set strategy for lead gen. That should be set time and set strategy for sales progression. That should be set time and set strategy for admin and so on and so forth. So basically, if you do that week, fifty two times in a year, you'll be in a good spot. And again, I mentioned it earlier, but I mentioned it again just to really reinforce it. It's not about filling your diary with every colour code and having every minute accounted for. Leave some space for opportunity, but I always encourage agents not to see appointments until early afternoon because most people are more creative and more on the beat in the morning. So use that for your harder tasks. You'll always show up for a client once you're sat in front of them. But I used to always structure my diary that I'd never see an appointment until half two. So then once I'd go out the house, I'd stack my appointments back to back and then I'd be out once because the worst thing you can ever do in self-employed agency is is leave the house at nine, be back by half eleven, then leave the house again at half past twelve and then come back before school run. And then you've got fifteen minutes in the house where you can't really do anything because you've got school run. Then you've got to drop the kids off and then you've got another appointment. You've actually been a busy fool all day rather than committing to focus blocks. So if you put your work into blocks and only focus on that task in that block, you will get a lot more done in that time than you ever would with sparingly doing it throughout the day. So like obviously I'm not client facing anymore. So in my diary, I don't have to leave so much choice for opportunity because I always leave an admin section top and tail at the end of the day where I catch up on calls or messages that I may have missed. But those blocks that I commit to, I just turn my phone off and do not disturb and I crack on with what I need to do. You say that, Holz, but I suppose it's been a journey for you recently as well, hasn't it? Over, say, the past twelve months, you, as part of the business, you've had a lot of the agents reach out to you and call you phone you message you and you're very used to be very very quick to respond um but it also used to sidetrack you from some of the important tasks that you were doing so I know that over time you've been able to develop this skill where you can really dedicate the focus time to tasks that you need to get done um and I noticed your post today actually around the the timer sheen timer yeah so Again, that's something you mentioned really helps give you the set focus time and putting stuff away. And, you know, you can be so much more productive, can't you, when you haven't got one hundred and one thoughts in your head or one hundred and one messages that you're trying to deal with or one hundred and one jobs to try and focus on when you've got dedicated time. But you've got to get you, in my opinion, I'm someone that struggles with that. You've got to get yourself in a clear headspace. You've got to do something, go for a walk or, you know, do something that's going to relax you and calm you down to get into that right headspace to focus. yeah a big thing that I'm an advocate for is that focus music so like I always put my phone in my office drawer put my laptop on do not disturb because obviously it's apple so everything's linked and screams at me I put once I know that focus music is on in my headphones and the door's shut no one's get into me then like you'd have to call me on teams if it was an emergency but we don't work in a life or death business and then the agents know I will get back to them And everything will be dealt with in the day. It's just that that block is a lot easier for me to get through. Because on average, I think it takes the average human about twenty minutes to get into flow and into a focus state. Well, I'm pretty sure that I have ADHD. I'm pretty much self-diagnosed at this point. And I know it takes me a hell of a lot longer to get into flow. So once I'm in it, I don't let anything pull me out. But also the time is a good tactic for putting myself under a little bit of pressure to get something completed in the half hour or the fifteen minute segment. So then I'll stack things. So I always go, I usually go for a dog walk on my lunch and at that point I'll get back to my messages and my voice notes and my voicemails and things like that because I enjoy doing that when I'm walking the dog. And it's like two in one things. But you have to know what your triggers are. If you know that you're easily distracted, you really need to get on top of that as a business owner. Like close your tabs. You only need the tab open that you're working on. Tell everyone, listen, I'm unavailable until two p.m. I will get back to you. You can put an away message on WhatsApp business saying, look, I'll be back to you. But this afternoon I'm in appointments. How nice is that for a client to have their expectations managed? for them to know when you're calling back rather than you answer on the fly and you're not actually ready for the conversation and you're not prepared either. No one wants to feel like they're on the back foot with a client. I think that's so valuable as well. I think anyone, even lead gen strategies, if you're going out to send letters or if you need focus time to create a series of ads for your business, dedicate the time to it. And like you said, when you're under that bit of pressure, that's when you're most successful. If you've got a time that you need to do it in, Be disciplined around it. Be dedicated to it. Make it an appointment in your diary that you're not going to move or adjust and focus on that time to dedicate to that one particular task, which I think is really, really important. And I think my my last tip on that is swallow your frog first. If you resist the lead gem piece or you resist the sales progression piece, do that first in your day. Get that out of the way. Because you're going to feel so accomplished by the fact that you've already done the hardest thing of the day. You're going to run into the next things that you've got. And over time, if you keep doing that thing first, it will become a lot more comfortable. Agreed. And Holls? I feel like that's a really good way to round off today's episode. I think it's been really, really valuable. Like I said at the start of the pod, I'm a big believer in systems and processes that will give you the time back and give you more freedom around your business. And you're someone that has built those systems and processes into our main business. And the amount of success that the business has had since that has been unbelievable. I think it's really important to anyone listening, business owners out there, self-employed estate agents, you need to ensure that you build those systems and processes. And if you don't, make sure you find someone that can help you build those. So thank you very much for joining us again today. Thank you for listening. And that's another episode of the Elite Agent Masterclass. We'll see you again next week.