Jess Lenouvel

Looking for real estate business tips to grow like crazy?

You’re in the right place.

Because let’s be real…

You can live and breathe real estate.

You can know your market inside out.

But the most successful agents out there aren’t just real estate obsessed.

They’re masterful business people.

They’ve honed in on their messaging, their marketing, and their niche.

They’ve learned how to leverage social media so that their lead flow never drys up.

And they’re constantly evolving to keep up with the times and stay relevant in the eyes of their ideal clients. 

Ready to become the go-to agent in your market?

Read these four expert real estate business tips to learn how.

Consider Your Sphere of Influence

Many people will consider your sphere of influence to be your friends, family, and immediate contacts.

But I look at the sphere of influence a little bit differently. 

I consider anyone who’s engaged with me on any sort of platform to be included in my sphere of influence. 

That engagement is the start of a relationship.

And anyone you’re able to build a relationship with is someone you’re able to influence.

It’s time to start expanding what you consider your sphere of influence. 

And when you do, you’ll experience so much MORE.

• More referrals
• More clients 
• More opportunities
• And more brand evangelism 

The bottom line is this.

People don’t necessarily have to have worked with you in order to refer you. 

When I was selling real estate, I had TONS of people who referred to us but had never actually worked with us.

They were in their forever homes and didn’t have a need for our services. 

But even though they weren’t moving, they were following along with what we were doing. 

And so whenever one of their connections – be it a friend, a family member, or a co-worker – said they were moving?

They’d tell them – you should really talk to Jess.

The ONLY reason we were doing that is that we were consistently showing up online to influence others. Not only were we striving to influence our hottest leads – we strived to influence anyone who had influence. 

Because we ALL have influence.

Think about the six degrees of separation. We’re all interconnected. 

And even more so with the rise of social media platforms. 

You never know who’s keeping tabs on you and ready to say your name in a room full of people. 

Keep Up With Technology 

Keeping up with technology is probably every business owner’s biggest challenge. 

Especially when it comes to social media platforms, things just change SO quickly.

But this is not an excuse to throw your hands in the air and give up.

When you refuse to grow, learn and adapt – you become obsolete. You become irrelevant to your ideal clients.

This is a HUGE reason why I insisted on giving lifetime access for our signature program, The Listings Lab. 

We originally started out as a 90-day program where agents would come in and out.

But I quickly realized the limitations of this model.

Marketing is constantly changing. 

When you enroll in The Listings Lab, you have access to an entire team who’s keeping the pulse on real estate marketing trends.

I’m not teaching people techniques like cold-calling, that haven’t changed since the seventies. 

Social media changes by the minute. 

So what we’ve done is this.

We’ve taken on the role of us keeping up to date so that we can keep everyone in our programs up to date.

As an agent you’re busy. You might not necessarily be watching trends, and updates and keeping up with algorithms changes.

But whether you have support like that or you’re on your own – you HAVE to keep up. 

It’s simply science. It’s natural selection. 

The businesses that will survive and thrive are the ones that are the most adaptable. 

What happens to many agents is that they resist technology for so long that it becomes impossible to catch up and it gets away from them.

Don’t be that agent. Don’t put an end date on your business.

Become A Masterful Marketer

As an agent, you really have two jobs.

Being an agent.

And being a marketer.

When so many agents get into this business, they think they’re going to spend ALL of their time selling real estate and doing traditional realtor work.

When in reality, the client generation side is JUST as important (if not more).

Your lead flow is the lifeblood of your business.

And it always amazes me how so many agents fail to give marketing the serious attention it deserves. 

You could be the best agent in the world, but if you’re not a good marketer – you won’t have any clients.

And no clients = no work.

You can’t rely on your immediate network for all your deals.

Many agents mistakenly assume their friends, family, and connections will ALL hire them simply because of familiarity. 

But think about it.

Buying or selling a home is one of the biggest financial decisions your clients will ever make in their lives. 

They’re going to always choose the person who they think will get them the best results. Personal connections won’t necessarily just work with you because you’re friendly. 

These days, it can feel like everyone and their dog has a real estate license.

I’m from a market that has 60,000 licensed agents, so trust me, I get it.

But what you need to know is this.

In any given market, 10-20% of agents are going to get 80-90% of the business. 

Want to be in that top 10%?

Then you HAVE to start taking your marketing seriously. 

Niche Down

So many agents hate me for saying this.

But if you want to be successful in real estate, you *have* to stop trying to appeal to everyone.

And you have to pick a real estate niche.

The worst messaging you can have as an agent sounds like:

“Call me for all of your real estate needs!”

Or:

“ I can help you buy, sell, rent and invest from here to Timbuktu!”

Believe it or not, there’s an element of scarcity in that sort of messaging that you may not even recognize, but that comes across to other people. 

Those of us in the real estate industry have become so used to hearing certain verbiage that we’ve lost track of what it sounds like to the public.

And what does it sounds like?

It sounds like “I’ll take whatever I can get”.

The reality is this.

If you want to be treated like a professional, you have to act like a professional. 

So many agents tell me they want to be treated like a lawyer, or an accountant. They want to be offered the same respect and esteem.

But think about it this way.

You would NEVER go to a criminal lawyer when you’re looking for support with contract law.

You would NEVER go to a pediatrician when you need brain surgery.

There are specialties in every high-quality field.

Realtors love to be generalists when in reality, it only hurts their business. 

So if you truly want to stand out in your market, you have to answer the questions:

• Who do you serve?
• What is the problem you solve?
• How do you solve it?
• What is your expert methodology, or specific process, to help your clients get to where they want to go? 

The more specific you are, the higher chances that you’ll stand out to that group of people. 

You’re able to break through the noise and create an opening for yourself. 

And that opening allows you to develop a relationship with prospects and nurture them – taking them from stranger to client.

The way you do this is to embrace marketing and sales psychology so that you become the #1 choice in your ideal client’s eyes.

Want to learn more about how to do exactly that? 

Download The Listings Lab Method Guide to learn our methodology to fill your calendar with appointments. All without time-consuming tactics or sleazy marketing gimmicks.

Get the guide here. 

Are you a real estate team leader on the brink of burnout? 

Let me guess…

You started your business for freedom. For impact. For unlimited income.

But in reality, what’s happened is that you’ve created a system where you’re trading hours for dollars – and where nothing happens unless you do it yourself.

Sure, you might have a couple of team members or even a VA.

But you’re still the one sailing the ship. 

And every single microscopic decision rests on YOUR shoulders. 

When many of our members in The 7-Figure Agent came to us for support, they were in the exact same position. 

But through mastering the art of delegation they were able to transform from busy and burned-out team leaders to calm and in-control CEOs.

Take Justin as an example. He was able to take all of the free time he gained and put it towards building an ice skating rink for his kids.

Or Heather, who went from being glued to her phone and computer 24/7 to having plenty of time to spend with her new partner and kids.

If you want to get results like them, keep reading to figure out the first steps to regain your time and sense of peace in your business.

Limiting Beliefs That Keep Busy Real Estate Team Leaders Stuck

If you’ve brought on a team, but still find yourself bogged down in piles and piles of work…

You might be caught up in a limiting belief around leadership and delegation.

Do any of these sound familiar to you?

• “No one is going to do it as good as me”
• “It’s going to take too much time to train someone”
• “It’s easier for me to do it”
• “I wish there were two of me”
• “I wish there were 36 hours in a day!”

There are dozens of limiting beliefs that might be preventing you from scaling a real estate business, but these are some of the most common ones. 

And trust me, I’ve said every single one of these things at some point as well.

But when you’re able to ditch these mindset traps and start embodying a real estate CEO, everything changes.

• You’re able to clone yourself and work in your zone of genius 
• You’re able to continuously gain 1 hour/week of free time (or even an extra hour a day!)
• You’re able to triple your business working only HALF the time (and  only on things you love)

Are you ready to become a master delegator? Let’s get into the three steps to start freeing up your precious time!

1. Identify Your CURRENT Job Description As A Team Leader

In order to start getting tasks off your plate, we first need to identify where your time is currently going. 

The best way to do that is to conduct an energy-audit in your business.

Here’s how that works. 

For one week straight, I want you to log and record ALL of the tasks you spend your time on.

Get brutally honest. If you log in and check your email 15 times a day, write down that you’ve checked your email 15 times.

These tasks don’t only have to be related to business.

They can also be things like laundry, preparing meals, running errands, or picking up and dropping off your kids.

We want to get a holistic view of where your time is going.

By doing this exercise, you’ll be able to determine:

• How much time each week is going to certain tasks
• Whether you’re spending your time efficiently and on CEO-level tasks
• If there are certain tasks that are consuming your time that could either be automated or delegated

The summary of these tasks make up your current real estate team leader job description. 

But now, it’s time to move on to step number two where we’ll create your CEO job description. 

Let’s go! 

2. Create Your New CEO Job Description

There’s a reason I’m using the term CEO rather than team leader. 

You have to understand…

You’re the CEO of a company.

It is your responsibility to set the vision of the business.

The traditional team leader in a real estate model is broken. Many of the ways agents have been taught to delegate and leverage are outdated.

Many agents fall victim to ‘unicorn syndrome’ thinking that their real estate business is different compared to any other type of business out there.

But they’re not. 

In reality, a real estate business functions just like any other business. 

And one of those foundational pieces that’s needed across any industry is a leadership team. 

You as the CEO sets the vision, and then your leadership team carries out the implementation of that vision. They make it happen!

I’m at a point in my business where although I may have my fingers in a lot of things, I’m not so involved in most day-to-day operations.

Your job as the CEO is mostly to stay in your zone of genius. 

Your zone of genius is the things that you’re great at and that you love doing.

They’re the $1000/hour tasks that are going to produce the highest ROI from your time.

To get clear on your zone of genius, try this exercise. 

Categorize the tasks you’ve brain dumped into four different categories.

1. Things you love doing and you’re great at
2. Things you like doing and you’re good at
3. Things that you don’t like doing but you’re good at
4. Things that you don’t like doing and you’re not good at

Category one is your zone of genius – this is where you want to be. 

Category two are tasks that you enjoy doing and you’re good at, but they still don’t necessarily need to be done by you. These are things that you plan to delegate in the next 90 days or so.

Category three are things that you should work on outsourcing sooner rather than later. Even if you’re “good” at something, if you don’t actually enjoy it, it’s most likely a task that drains your energy.

Because at the end of the day, you have a choice.

You can either fill your energy tank or deplete it. 

As a CEO, you must commit to energy elevation.

We want to have you ending your days buzzing with energy – not flopped down on the couch watching Netflix because you’re so exhausted.

And category four are tasks you should never, EVER be doing. If you are currently doing tasks in category four, you should try to outsource or automate them ASAP because they will massively slow your business growth. 

The other thing you want to keep in mind when creating your CEO job description is the type of tasks and their true value.

For example, before members join The 7-Figure Agent they’re often spending a ton of their time on $10/hour tasks. 

No matter how much you love doing it – any $10/hour task needs to come off your plate. 

A $10/hour task should always be automated or given to a VA.

Because the sooner you outsource these tasks, the sooner you can get to the work that will truly move the needle and drive revenue in your business. 

Here are some examples of task values in business: 

• Low – $10/hour tasks. For example…basic customer service, basic graphic design, monitoring your inbox, etc.
• Medium – $250/hour tasks. For example…content creation, SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) creation, project management, etc.
• High – $1000/hour tasks. For example…Creating new videos, strategic partnerships, sales calls, public speaking, etc.

Ask yourself –

How much time am I spending on $10/hour tasks?

On $250/hour tasks?

On $1000/hour tasks?

Routinely spending time on $1000/hour tasks can be the difference between a $100,000/year business and a million dollar business.

3. Start Delegating Like A Pro 

Once you’ve got clear on all the tasks on your plate…

The high-value and low-value tasks…

The tasks that fall outside your zone of genius and the tasks that drain your energy…

You can start figuring out what you need to document and then delegate.

The first step to delegating any tasks is to make sure you’ve documented and created clear instructions for how this task needs to be done.

This is often referred to as an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure).

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when documenting and delegating.

Don’t Overcomplicate It 

Many real estate team leaders will try to spend hours and hours perfecting their SOPs.

When in reality, there is no need to overcomplicate the process.

If you tend to get caught up in perfectionist tendencies…remember.

The first version doesn’t have to be perfect.

In fact, the person to who the task is being delegated can spend time on it to make it perfect!

Use The Right Tech

The two tools you’re going to use to document your tasks are:

1. A project management tool
2. And a screen recording software

The ones we recommend are Asana for project management and Loom for screen recording. 

But really, as long as you have a project management tool that integrates with Zapier, you’re good to go!

A project management tool is so important because you want your task instructions to be stored in a place where your team is executing the tasks. You don’t want them to be stored in some obscure folder where no one’s ever looking!

Give All The Key Details About The Task

In your SOP, you want to answer the questions:

• What is the task?
• Why is the task important?
• How should the task be completed?
• How do you know when the task is complete?
• On average, how long should the task take to complete?
• And any additional resources, logins, or tools required to complete the task

In The 7-Figure Agent, we teach our members to share both a video (using Loom) AND written instructions in a Google document with their team.

People learn in different ways, so having the task SOP’s in both formats will make sure that each team member has what they need to get properly trained.

Give Proper Feedback

This is the part of the delegation process that SO many real estate team leaders neglect.

Even if you put time and effort into your SOPs, your team members are human and they will still make mistakes.

You can’t expect someone to complete a task perfectly the first time they do it.

You have to continuously give someone feedback until they know exactly how you want it done.

Whatever you do – don’t get angry and frustrated and take the task back.

Eventually, with proper training and feedback, your team members will be able to completely own the task.

Another thing to remember?

Delegation is a continuous process. 

If you want to transform from busy, frazzled real estate team leader into a calm, collected CEO, you have to constantly monitor your time.

I close out all of my days by journaling on how I spent my time.

I ask myself…

Were there any tasks I spent time on today that could’ve been outsourced? That could have been automated?

And if the answer is YES, I’ll discuss a plan with my team to get those tasks off my plate as soon as possible.

Your time and energy as CEO is precious.

And when you learn to guard it and only spend it on the things that drive momentum, you’ll see the incredible business growth I know you’re craving.

Want to learn more about building a 7-figure real estate business?

Book a call with our team to see if our real estate mentorship programs are right for you. 

It’s the question on every agent’s mind…

How can I get more listings? 

You can read about all sorts of methods, but the reality is, most of them have a ceiling.

Sure, cold-calling and manual prospecting might get you to six figures, but will it get you to seven? 

What got you here won’t get you there. 

If you’ve hit the 6-figure mark and you’re ready to scale to the multi-six or seven-figure mark, you have to approach marketing your real estate business in a completely new way. 

Read on to learn more about how millionaire real estate agents approach things differently in order to increase their success with listings.  

Consider Scalability, Always 

A lot of the time, six-figure agents think that if they want to get to seven figures, they just need to work harder. They just need to do more of what they’re doing right now.

But this is very untrue. 

Getting to the next level in your real estate business isn’t about doing more of what you’re currently doing. 

It’s about doing LESS.

It’s about being strategic and only focusing your efforts on things that are truly scalable. 

Any time I’m making any decision in my business, I ask myself two things:

1. Is it unlimitedly scalable?
2. Do I enjoy it?

If the answer is no to either of those things, it’s not happening.

I don’t add anything to my plate that isn’t required for growth and doesn’t bring me joy or fulfillment.

At the end of the day, you’re building YOUR business. 

So often, people will build their businesses off of a bunch of stuff that they *think* is necessary, or because someone told them they *should* do it.

But when you dig deeper, you realize that a lot of these shoulds aren’t adding to your bottom line. And they’re wasting your energy. 

Your energy is everything as a CEO, so don’t waste it by building a business that you hate. 

Switch To A 1-1: Many Model 

Let’s say your main strategy for getting more listings has been prospecting and referrals.

Sure, you might post a social media post here or there – but for the most part, your business is built around you hunting for clients and word of mouth.

If this is ringing true for you, let me ask you a question…

If you wanted to DOUBLE your business this year, would you be able to DOUBLE your sales and marketing efforts?If your current strategy is prospecting and spending three hours a day manually calling people – do you have six hours a day to get double the number of leads?

While on top of that, still having enough time, bandwidth, and energy to be able to handle twice as many clients?

99% of the time, the answer will be no.

So what’s the solution? 

You have to switch from building your business on a 1:1 model to a 1:many model.

Back in the day, the only way to do a 1:many model was to host a seminar.

But nowadays, with the internet and social media platforms, it’s easier than ever to implement a 1:many model in your real estate business.

Manual tactics will only get you so far. If you want to truly learn how to get more listings without working more hours, you *need* to start leveraging your time by implementing 1:many marketing strategies. 

Be Ruthless With Your Focus

One of the biggest productivity killers in your real estate business is split focus.

If you want to increase your success with listings, you have to go all in. 

All in on one strategy.

All in on one avatar. 

All in on one offer.

Experts stay in their lane rather than getting caught up in shiny object syndrome.

Become A Master in Human Psychology

Human psychology drives absolutely everything you’re doing in business. 

And if you’ve been successful in real estate up until this point, you probably already have skills in this area. 

You know how to talk to people. You know how to listen deeply to their needs. You’ve essentially played the role of therapist to hundreds of people.

(Because let’s be real, buying or selling your home is one of the most stressful and emotional experiences your client may have in their lifetime).

But for some reason, when it comes to applying that same human psychology to their real estate marketing, a lot of agents put blinders on and forget how much they really know.

Do you want to start leveraging human psychology in your marketing?

Read this post about the nine cognitive biases in marketing agents can leverage to start getting more listings. 

Nail Your Content Marketing Strategy 

Building a real estate business that brings in consistent leads isn’t just about being a good agent.

It’s about being a good marketer.

And one of the best ways you can practice doing that is to nail down your content strategy.

This doesn’t have to be difficult.

In fact, there’s a good chance you’re probably overcomplicating your real estate content marketing strategy.

When people tell me, “I’ve run out of content ideas!” 

The problem is often their perspective.

Because when you begin filtering your life through a content marketing perspective, you realize – everything is content.

Every time you see a client, meet a prospect, or get on a call with someone and they ask you a question…that can become a piece of content. 

The answers to these questions will help you fill your authority content bucket. 

Next, get out a pen and paper and do a brain dump of your entire life.

I mean it!

• Where you were born?
• What’s your family like?
• What’s your favorite childhood memory

Write it all out, in chronological order, in point form.

Just from doing that one exercise alone, you could probably create hundreds of posts to fill your personal content bucket. 

Next, you want to gather up all of your case studies, testimonials, and PR to make up your social proof content bucket. 

If you don’t have PR yet – that’s okay (but it’s definitely something to work towards because it can contribute to explosive growth in your business!).

Maybe you don’t even have a ton of testimonials – you’ve been forgetting to get them from clients. 

But what you do have is deals.

Say, for example, you’ve done 80 transactions in your career. 

Every single deal that you have ever done has a story. 

And those stories can become case studies. 

When you start looking at your content like this, you realize it’s actually incredibly easy to come up with content ideas.

If you want a more in-depth guide to these content types, be sure to check out our detailed post on the three types of real estate content for social media. 

When it really comes down to it, more hustling is not what’s going to get you to seven figures. 

It doesn’t matter how hard you grind.

Believing that you have to work yourself to the bone to find success is an incredibly old-school mentality. 

Learning how to get more listings does not come down to figuring out how to pack more hours into your schedule. 

It comes down to working smarter, not harder.

To creating an audience and building a business based on 1:many.

To leveraging human psychology and content marketing to start having leads reach out  to you – rather than you having to hunt them down. 

Ready to build a scalable real estate business so you can get more listings without putting in more hours?

Be sure to download our free The Listings Lab Guide so you can start filling your calendar with appointments without time-consuming tactics like door-knocking and manual prospecting.

Get The Guide Here