How to Real Estate Today
Raw, unfiltered real estate conversations about how to win in real estate today. We're here for real estate agents, investors, flippers, buyers and sellers.
How to Real Estate Today
20: The Entrepreneur Mindset in Real Estate
Calling all real estate pros who’ve wondered if “winging it” counts as a business plan—this podcast’s for you. Join industry powerhouses Rebecca Green and Kim Borcherding as they dish out real talk on the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship, dropping gems on how to build a business and a life that doesn’t burn you out. Hit play, laugh a little, and leave with real strategies (and maybe a mentor or two).
In this episode, Rebecca Green and Kim Borcherding pull back the curtain on the real real estate hustle—spoiler alert: it’s not just about selling houses and looking good on Instagram. They get real about the entrepreneurial chaos agents deal with, from juggling CEO-level decisions to feeling like you’re building the plane while flying it. If you’ve ever felt isolated, burnt out, or like you need a business degree just to keep up—this convo is your lifeline.
How to connect with us:
Rebecca Green and Company-https://www.rebeccagreen.co
Kim Borcherding- @heykimborcherding
Takeaways
- Real estate agents are entrepreneurs and business owners.
- The feeling of isolation can be prevalent in the industry.
- Agents wear many hats, including CEO and CFO roles.
- Continuous learning is crucial for success in real estate.
- Selling more houses isn't always the solution to business challenges.
- Emotional support is vital for navigating the ups and downs of the business.
- Building a sustainable business requires operational knowledge.
- Seek out mentors and communities for support and learning.
- Understanding financial management is key to success.
- It's important to set boundaries and prioritize self-care.
Rebecca Green (00:01.853)
Hey there, I'm Rebecca Green. I'm here with my co-host Kim Borcharding. Welcome to our next episode of How to Real Estate Today. We are excited to chat about being an entrepreneur. As real estate agents, I don't think people think of us, or I don't even think sometimes we think of ourselves as entrepreneurs, but we are entrepreneurs. We're totally business owners, even if you're a solo agent working under a brand or under a company.
You're still an entrepreneur, you're still a business owner, and we're here to talk about how friggin' hard that can be some days. So Kim, what do you have to say about that?
Kim Borcherding (00:42.606)
I think this is a great topic, Rebecca. I just got back from a real estate conference in Savannah, Georgia, and I would say that is very much a common theme I heard amongst conversations with many of my peers, just about.
how hard this business is. mean, and I don't think that people recognize that. People don't recognize it, but we are small business owners and what you, you you take your license, you take a test, get your license, and here you are running a business. And the market conditions the last few years have even proven even harder. And if you weren't running a really good business,
Even if you were, mean, people are struggling. And so, and I think in my opinion, the feeling of isolation and loneliness when things are hard. I mean, lots of takeaways from this conference I just got back from. But one of those is how important community is and to be having conversations about this. And at least I'm glad that we have a place that we can talk about it between you and I, hopefully, and hold those values. is that a...
Rebecca Green (01:28.924)
Yeah.
Rebecca Green (01:41.276)
Yeah. Thousand percent. So I wanted to say one thing about you, you mentioning, you know, you get your license, you take a test, you get your license and like, boom, you're a business owner. Nowhere in any real estate book anywhere, prove me wrong people, if you're listening, does it say you, as soon as you get your real estate license, you have just become a CEO, a CFO, a CMO, chief floor sweeper, you know, marketing assistant, house painter.
Gardner like you name it the number of hats that we have to wear as real estate agents is crazy And no one talks about that, right? We have brokerages that we got to work for it They kind of teach us how to sell a house But that is one element of running a real estate business and boy the market has continued to get more complicated and Agents are operating at such a high level
Like, I don't know, this whole entrepreneur thing is something that people should be leaning into so much more. And not only trying to hone their skills at being a better real estate agent, but honing their business skills. Like, what does it take to run? Because it's hard. It is definitely hard. It's hard to wear all those hats and be successful at it. I suck at taxes. I suck at the finance component of it. I'm great at like evaluating profitability, but
Rebecca Green (03:11.729)
You know, I haven't made that investment in having a really good tax professional, you know, for all these years. That's high on my list. I should have done it a gazillion years ago. I don't ever remember a broker saying, hey, by the way, find a great tax person. Why is that?
Kim Borcherding (03:25.998)
And a tax, and Paul's there, a tax person that does strategy and proactive and like, no, I mean, that's the thing. yes, the strategy proactively, how you should be setting up your business, what business decisions should you be making that are advantageous paying taxes? That is your biggest expense as a business owner and nobody talks to you about taxes. generally,
Rebecca Green (03:30.227)
Not just like file the damn taxes. Yeah. Yeah.
Rebecca Green (03:40.743)
Yes.
Rebecca Green (03:47.645)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. And that causes the burnout. Yeah, sorry. That causes the burnout. Like you're like so overwhelmed with all of these things that you have to all of a sudden be good at. And I think that's where agents get to the point where they quit, right? Or they're so burnt out, they've lost the luster for the business, whatever it might be. But
Kim Borcherding (04:06.414)
Mm-hmm.
Rebecca Green (04:12.421)
Yeah, I I think that's problematic. I'm glad to see certain brokerages and certain teams and communities like you talked about. We talk about it inside of the communities that we've built all the time. We talk about it amongst each other. But boy, a lot of agents that come to me from a coaching standpoint, I started talking to them about the entrepreneurial business component of what they're doing. And they're like, yeah, whoa, that's not what I need from a coaching standpoint. I need to know how to sell more houses. No.
You need to know how to run a good business because selling more houses isn't always the answer.
Kim Borcherding (04:47.214)
And I will say, also if being an entrepreneur is not for you, that's okay too, because again, in my opinion, here's what you need to be good. A, you need to be really self-motivated. You need to be like a thirst for learning. Nobody's gonna show you how to do this. You have to figure a lot out on your own.
Rebecca Green (04:58.344)
Yes.
Kim Borcherding (05:06.094)
And you just have to have a whole lot of hustle and grit to do it. Like you really have, has to be, the fire has to burn so strongly in you to do this work and to do this successfully. And if you don't have that, that's okay. Like I was just, I don't know if I mentioned this, but I was talking to a friend who's, you know, she's a recruiter for,
she recruits and places executive assistant and you know, and they're making a couple hundred thousand dollars a year being executive assistant. And again, a really successful agent, like a couple hundred thousand dollars. That's a great living and doing this job because maybe it's not for you. And, and that's okay too. And I think that people feel bad. I know there's a lot of shame and guilt amongst the real estate industry. you are running this business well,
Rebecca Green (05:40.499)
Mm-hmm.
Rebecca Green (05:53.38)
But yeah.
Kim Borcherding (05:57.038)
because it's difficult, but I think you should give yourself grace because if you've been in business for more than five years and you're successfully navigating difficult markets, like kudos to you. Actually, I also tell people this as well. Real estate agents are highly, let me tell you, it's a person who, if they're doing it well, it's a person who bet on themselves, who took a risk.
Rebecca Green (06:20.859)
repeatedly bet on themselves. Like sometimes every single month I had no deals, I'm still betting on myself. So it's not like you bet on yourself once, you're betting on yourself every day. So, so true.
Kim Borcherding (06:26.69)
Holy.
Yeah, so the person that bets on themselves takes 100 % commission is helping people navigate really complex decisions that have a big financial, and they do it with confidence. Do you know how special that person is, guys? It's like, like really special. When I look at like in my world of all kinds of people I know, the talented real estate agents, man, if I was gonna start a business, start a company, that's the first person I'd pluck.
Rebecca Green (06:46.545)
Yeah.
Kim Borcherding (06:59.542)
because you know what, they have a lot of skills and talents that are not easy to replicate. So let me ask you, Rebecca. Yeah.
Rebecca Green (07:06.343)
Yeah. But I'm going to flip, I want to flip the coin on that just a little bit because I know a lot of agents that are amazing at the interpersonal skills. They're amazing at absorbing, you know, the stress and the trials and tribulations and helping their clients through emotionally draining situations, but they never learned how to run good businesses and they are financially in bad places.
They are financially upside down tax wise, right? And listen, no shade. I have been in all of these places. So it is no shade, right? But they're still getting up. They're still betting on themselves, you know? And so I think there are a lot of different camps around this, right? You can have that agent who's betting on themselves and who's eager and who's continuing to work their tails off, right?
Kim Borcherding (07:49.294)
So.
Rebecca Green (08:03.035)
If you're not running a good, like, I guess one of my biggest regrets about my real estate career, and for anyone who's new here, I've been selling real estate for 33 years. One of my biggest regrets is not fully understanding until recently the importance of running a smart business and being an entrepreneur and what that looks like, right? Like, I can, I know that I can go out there and make a ton of money, butbut making good decisions with it is something and making good decisions for the structure of the business, evaluating the structure of the business. I'm so grateful that I've leaned into that, you know, really hard over the last three to five years, but I wish I had had somebody who armed me with that information 15 to 30 years ago.
Kim Borcherding (08:53.556)
Absolutely. Well, let me ask you, Rebecca. So for those of like, this is so important. Where does somebody go? Because the truth is, this information doesn't really exist easily for people to find. How do you recommend real estate agents learn how to run a good business? from the from entrepreneurship business owner? Where did they go? Because most brokerages don't teach you this. So where would somebody find this information or get these skills?
Rebecca Green (08:54.887)
Yes.Rebecca Green (09:05.233)
Yeah. Yeah.
Rebecca Green (09:13.203)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, great question. Yeah. First and foremost, like not getting into this business thinking it's all about selling houses because it is, it is like that. It's like a, it's like, like shoes, right? You hear me talk about shoes a lot. If you owned a shoe store, you might like shoes, but to run a successful shoe store, it's not just about the shoes. Right? It's not.
It's not, you're probably like meeting with small business associations. are, you know, understanding marketing. You are understanding operations. You have good systems in place to run that business. In real estate, it should be no different, right? And then in fact, because we are not selling a $200 pair of shoes, we're selling at, working with people in their highest investment. You know, I, yeah. I mean, I think there's a hesitation in me.
Just because I feel so passionate about how super important it is and how often it's missed in our industry, I really think it gives our industry a bad name. It gives our, and maybe rightfully so, right? You know, we're working with executives running massive companies and, you know, real estate agents have like got a great relationship with those people, but you know, are they really, are they really running an operation where they really have like contractually, you know, everything covered? Are they storing all of the information in the right places? Are they eliminating liability for the client? Like, I don't know. I think it's continual education. Listen, no plug. This was not meant to be a plug, but I'm teaching agents about operations all the time. And I boil it down to the simplest things like structuring your files and storing contracts correctly.
Rebecca Green (11:14.929)
being efficient with your email and being efficient with your marketing and evaluating your profit, right? As a business owner, all of those things have to be a part of your day to day.
Kim Borcherding (11:30.238)
Absolutely. And, and if you're not willing to learn those skills, get those skills, then you maybe shouldn't be a business owner and being a real estate and also maybe figure out what the right seat on the bus like you want to do real estate for whatever reason, fine. Going on a team, you know, going on a team where you're not running the business because if you're running a small team and or a solo agent, that is your responsibility. What
Rebecca Green (11:40.477)
Totally.
Rebecca Green (11:57.415)
And to that, one of the things I say all the time is there's a huge difference between building a business and running a business and doing the job, right? Like you're either in the business to run a business or grow a business, or you're in the business to do the job. And if you're gonna do the job, fine, no shade on that, right? Do the job, do it to the nth degree, but...
you have to surround yourself with somebody who's taking care of all the other things like a team or a brokerage, right? You know, and also I would say like, I mean, health insurance and all of these things, there's so much that goes into it, right? Like, do you have health insurance? What does the health insurance situation look like? What about taxes? What about your own homeowners insurance and your deductions? You know, I mean, so much goes into it that I guess there's part of me that's so pissed off that I paid all of these brokerages so much money over the years.
and no one ever talked about it.
No one ever talked about any of those things, right? Do you have disability insurance? What does your retirement look like? One of the things that drew me to Real was they talk about being entrepreneur-centric, not agent-centric.
Kim Borcherding (13:15.883)
Yeah.
Rebecca Green (13:16.627)
I love that. I love that because the people who are out there trying to build the businesses, you really are an entrepreneur, right? And that comes with long hours, late nights, heartache, financial losses.
Kim Borcherding (13:18.414)
for.
Kim Borcherding (13:25.325)
Yep.
Kim Borcherding (13:31.774)
yeah, let me ask you Rebecca right now. How hard are you working in your business?
Rebecca Green (13:35.951)
my God, I mean, can you see my eyes are like bleeding?
Maybe that's why I'm pissed off. I'm working my tail off and I pivoted, right? And that's another thing about being an entrepreneur is understanding that sometimes you're on a path and you're like, okay, I've got to shift gears. You have to be able to, you talked about betting on yourself. It's a daily reminder that the...
you might turn the right corner, you might be one step away from that, right? So like keeping yourself motivated. Yeah, I'm working so hard. I went from really high personal production and a year and a half ago decided I had been coaching agents and mentoring agents. I wanted to really formalize the coaching business. It's been successful in a lot of ways, but I'm not hitting the home runs that I'm used to hitting. I'm not there yet.
So I'm pivoting and I'm editing and I'm tweaking and every day I get up and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna do it. Today's gonna be the day. And it just makes me think sometimes like how many people are there and they're like, look, I'm just gonna quit. I'm out, I'm tapping out because they didn't have the resources or they didn't seek out the education or they didn't understand the full scope of the work or they just got tired, right? And they quit and you could literally be like,
one phone call away from everything changing. As an entrepreneur, you have to have that within you because no one's coming to rescue you. You've just got to know you got to keep going. But yeah, it's hard. It is really, really, really hard. So what would you say to an agent, Kim, that really wanted to get into the business and came to you and said, hey, I'm a brand new agent. I'm just licensed. I love architecture. I love design and I love houses. Because I hear that all the time.
Kim Borcherding (15:31.726)
Oh my god. Well, mostly Rebecca, I think I'm pretty known. probably talk, try to talk most people out of real estate. If you've come to pick my brain or have coffee about going to say mostly I'm going to probably try to talk you out of it because I don't think people get it. So that's mostly I'm going to tell them the real information you want. Oh, you want it because it's flexible. Let me tell you what flexibility really means.
it's your on call like seven days a week. you know, again, so I really try to just be very direct and upfront, because I don't want them to waste their time and and be surprised about how much effort and this is very common. What I do hear from people, it's it's way harder. Actually, I was just talking to agent last week, she's like, this is so much she was considering quitting after he issues like this is so much harder than I thought. That's pretty common, guys. It is harder than you think.
It is harder than you think. So mostly I try to talk people out of real estate. I know, I just don't want to waste their time. And I'm just really upfront and direct. Like it's going to, you're going to have to work your tail off for the first two years. Like just really, and then if you make it, you know, then maybe at year three, you're like, is this working? And then once you get to year five, okay.
Rebecca Green (16:33.203)
you
Kim Borcherding (16:54.848)
So most I talk people out of it and then, if I feel that they, and then I go, you like houses? It's not about the houses at all, at all. Actually, it's like a joke. Like, I like houses. I was like, I don't give a shit about houses. Like what I care about is people. What I care about is helping people build wealth. What I care about is all these other things. Totally, yeah.
Rebecca Green (17:02.355)
I'm really full.
Rebecca Green (17:14.195)
Understanding the transitions, understanding the nuances of how to help people with the timing and the puzzle pieces and their life.
Kim Borcherding (17:23.79)
Totally you're like a project manager. You're a consultant You're an advisor with the one the most important decisions that in their life for sure at that time That's going it's like a big deal for people again. I joke. don't hate I just I don't Like I mean I joke like I don't know sure I like houses fine what I what house is for you versus not for me I like helping people solve that problem But mostly if you tell me you like houses as like nope not the job for you because it's so much more than a house
Rebecca Green (17:44.914)
Yeah.
Rebecca Green (17:49.658)
not in the right space.
Kim Borcherding (17:53.862)
And maybe they'll be into your design if you like houses. I don't know. And after a while, you might get a little sick of looking at houses, but you're in the business of people, your business of solving problems, your business of, you know, walking alongside people during important stressful decisions. I mean, it's part therapist, part project manager, part salesperson, and then from the business owner, the operations, the admin piece about the financial piece, guys, so.
many agents really lack the financial acumen to run this business from from managing their expenses to valuing their P &L to the tax strategy to all this. And again, I mean, when you look at like, when you think when you look at people, and the thing that makes me crazy when they talk about GCI or units sold, like I don't give a flip what that means, but I cares about how profitable you are, because I do know
For some people, they may have these big numbers, but they probably make like 15 bucks an hour, which is fine. But like, don't know. It's so hard to know. And if you were like, hey, you're gonna work your weekends and your nights and you're gonna like absorb, for me, I always absorb the energy of my clients. That was something I was really not good at turning it off. Cause I care so much. I want to help, I want to solve. And so like when we have sticky negotiations and repairs, like I'm absorbing that, you know?
Rebecca Green (18:55.141)
Yeah, totally.
Rebecca Green (19:12.189)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Borcherding (19:18.732)
And that's impacting me or when I'm texting on my phone nonstop in front of my children, I'm there but I'm not really present. Would I trade that for whatever I was making? Maybe, maybe not. And then you just start going on this hamster wheel where you're just not even evaluating. just kind of get, I don't know if addicted to the dopamine, but you just can get addicted to the hustle and then the accolades. And then for sure for me,
Rebecca Green (19:42.269)
Yeah.
Kim Borcherding (19:44.494)
being a top producer was a big deal for a while. Like I cared about that top producer title. It mattered to me and I was trading away my health, my mental health, my physical health, my time with my children for the top producer and I would have done things a lot differently. You don't know what you don't know.
Rebecca Green (20:03.527)
That's interesting. Yeah, you don't. And you touched on two things. First of all, one thing I would say is I do actually believe that the industry is moving more towards being strong business owners. Like when I look at the agents, even just, you know, going to real, I mean, I was a top producer. I've been a top producer my whole life. Like I've always been in the one. I mean, I was.
19 years old selling 40 to 45 houses a year. I had two babies under two 33 years ago selling 40 to 50 houses a year. I've always been really good at that part of the job. I moved, but, and I've also run really good teams. I've run good businesses, but there was more to learn.
You know, when I moved to Rio, one of the things that I was immediately blown away by is, wow, there are agents within our community that are operating businesses, I mean, next level operations, right? And it talks to, it speaks to getting into the right rooms, right? But.
What I am seeing that I think I'm grateful for is there is a shift, I believe, to more agents really understanding that this is a business and I have to run it like a business. And, you know, I'm liking that, right? I like seeing that. But there is, there's just so much that goes into it. That's the piece, right? So in listening to what you were saying, I immediately thought, yeah.
There are people operating at really high levels. And if you're an agent who really wants to make a business out of this, seek those people out. Try and learn as much as you can from them because that's gonna create the longevity, right? And then the other thing that you tapped into is the sacrifices that you made. That's an entrepreneur thing, right? That is like, definitely you have to be willing to make sacrifices if you're gonna run your own business. But...
Rebecca Green (22:11.343)
If you run your own business in a smart way and you set boundaries, you can have both. It's just that most people don't get into the business seeking that out.
Kim Borcherding (22:22.348)
No, mean, most people get the best, also they like helping people. Most real estate agents really like helping people. And when you have these really important transactions going on that are important to your clients, most agents value that and they recognize that and they wanna be there for their clients. also some...
Rebecca Green (22:41.331)
But you don't have to answer the phone 24-7. You can set boundaries and you can be a business owner with those boundaries and still be successful in real estate. It's just that a lot of people haven't talked to you about it for all of these years or aren't really talking about it. You have to seek it out and you have to emulate the people who are running a business. Because if you think about it, if you plucked a real estate agent that was successful, if you pluck them just and drop them into
Kim Borcherding (22:55.425)
Rebecca Green (23:10.757)
a CEO role of a company, most of them are going to fail.
Kim Borcherding (23:17.326)
So
Rebecca Green (23:17.403)
Right? But if you took like a, it's just like, such a weird business model, I guess is what I'm getting at. It's such a weird business.
Kim Borcherding (23:21.87)
Totally. Yeah. It's weird guys.
Rebecca Green (23:28.093)
Right? Because what you go in, yeah, I mean, you take a successful real estate agent that, you know, has been paying somebody just to do all of their whatever, their administrative work. They don't understand how the operations of everything work. They're only good at selling the house. Could they really run a different kind of business? I think the answer is no.
Kim Borcherding (23:51.682)
Yeah.
No, I would agree.
Rebecca Green (23:54.781)
I don't think they'd be successful, right? And I always want, I wanna coach agents to being, and I'm continuing to seek out that education. Like I wanna be a good business owner. You also talked about like, the things that we have to do, the things that we absorb, HR, hiring people, having other agents on your team. That is a whole different skill set.
Right? Yeah. You know, you've had people on your team. Was that a positive thing or negative thing or something you weren't really prepared for?
Kim Borcherding (24:20.344)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kim Borcherding (24:28.974)
I was not prepared for, know, I was not prepared for it was not the best leader. It was not the best manager, you know. Yeah, I you know, I do actually know it's funny. I used to work in the airlines and I was in the man and I was in management position and I hated managing people I did just mostly I like to be a sole producer, you know.
And I just found myself frustrating me and but also good, not the best leader giving clear expectations a lot to being a leader. And again, nobody gives you how to be a leader. I don't really have the skills and the tools to be a leader. You know, I'm just coming up with like whatever I learn on a podcast. don't know like where am I learning to be a leader? Who's teaching me to be a leader on my team? So, you know, high hired people to get lovely great, but probably should have hired some someone's extremely strong operationally.
Rebecca Green (24:58.483)
a lot.
Kim Borcherding (25:20.866)
You know, I hired people I knew or just people I like. Again, I like them, but I really needed somebody with a very strong opp because that is where I am so weak. And when you meet people like you had an opp, you have an opps person that is so strong. And that is a mistake I made in my business. I should have had a really strong opps person. That should have been my first hire.
Rebecca Green (25:38.918)
Yeah.
Kim Borcherding (25:49.452)
because I am great at driving business, I'm great serving this business, but operationally things can fall apart pretty quickly. And then that's where I like get overwhelmed, stressed out, burnout, all that. And had I had better systems and better operations, I would have had a different experience, you know, but.
Rebecca Green (26:07.719)
That's that whole entrepreneurial application. Who said that? At what office meeting did you go to? And they said, listen, if you're gonna start a team, you need to know that you have to have structure and systems in place. You have to be able to train that person. You have to be able to have clear expectations set. And here's what it takes to be a leader. I mean, it's just not something that has happened over the years.
Kim Borcherding (26:13.195)
No!
Kim Borcherding (26:33.942)
No, I was winging it. was always winging it. so wasted a lot of time, energy, all of it again. So that was some different like, so what would you, what advice would you give right now if somebody who's in real estate, they're struggling, they're finding it really hard. Again, also being this entrepreneur and doing it well, what, what should they do? What advice would you, would you give to them?
Rebecca Green (26:36.402)
Yeah.
Rebecca Green (26:54.759)
Yeah.
Rebecca Green (27:00.595)
We say this a lot, find the right rooms, evaluate what you feel you really need help with and go seek that education out. I mean, that is definitely the first and foremost. And then decide if you want to build a business or if you just want to do the job. Last year, let go of an agent that was on my team, we probably talked about this. I recognize that for me, I wanted business builders.
I wanted to coach business builders. I wanted agents on my team that were business builders. I wanted to help them craft a business that worked for them, right? I didn't want people that were just there to do the job. And what do I mean by that? They're just looking for the leads. They're taking the leads. They're working through the leads. They're closing that one out. They're moving on to the next one. They're not really, you know, business centric.
So I think evaluating whether or not you really wanna build a business or you just wanna do the job because those are two different trajectories. Seeking out the right rooms. mean, first and foremost, go find a great financial person. Find a financial mentor, somebody who is not just preparing your taxes, who can advise you to make the right decisions. That would be high on my list also.
being operationally smart, astute, that is really big and near and dear to my heart. But also having that emotional support, I talk a lot about operations and I love it and it's important and I believe in it 100%. There is also that emotional component, You said to me today when we first connected, how are you doing? And I was like,
I was like, there's so much going on. It's so hard to keep going. It's so hard every day just to be like, today's the day I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna hit the marker. I'm gonna hit whatever metric it is that I'm seeking, right? You know, having that emotional support and a family behind you that is like, go, go, you can do it, you can do it. That's really important, I think, in any entrepreneurial journey.
Kim Borcherding (29:10.136)
Yep. And I would say an important that I'm always preaching. And if you're finding it's really hard, also, maybe it's it. You should take a break like a mini break, myself, whatever my self care talk like.
Rebecca Green (29:18.705)
Yes.
Kim Borcherding (29:22.516)
If everything is feeling so hard and you have so much resistance, that's where I'm always like, okay, I need to step out. I need to take a day. I need to take a couple hours. I need to take a week. I need to take a break because my nervous system is on overdrive. At this point, I feel like I'm not even thinking clearly. Maybe I'm not making the wisest decisions. Like I'm just in a highly activated emotional state and
I need to unwind from that. So whatever that looks like for you, for me, like it's breath work where I can like just get back in my body, out of my head, back into my heart and create a little space in your life and in your schedule to really look at things clearly.
Rebecca Green (30:07.153)
Love that. Love that. Okay, so we're getting about ready to wrap it up. What are the three things you would say to an entrepreneur or somebody who's trying to build a business right now? What are the three top tips?
Kim Borcherding (30:23.054)
Three top tips, number one, always be learning. My number one way that I learn is podcasts, guys. I listen to a ton of podcasts, probably 10 hours a week of podcasts. I, personal development, business owners, like one of my, I'll tell you my favorite one, guys, is probably Gary Vee's, Gary Vaynerchuk, if you don't know him. I love him, I'm from New Jersey, he resonates with me, he may not be for you. But I'm constantly learning, so I like to learn from podcasts.
I think number two is gonna be just taking space, creating space in your schedule and in your life to have time to think, to step outside your world, step outside of your business. This conversation working in your business or on your business, creating some space so you can really think clearly.
I think the number three is you've taught, you've touched on it, but it's also getting in new rooms, meeting new people, putting yourself in new places, whether that's a mastermind or it's like, I just went to a conference for many reasons. But one of those is I just wanted to be around other people, other people who are thinking about real estate differently. I always learn a ton from conferences. So just put yourself in different rooms.
to look at the business in different ways and know that and this business is ever evolving but also in your career ever your seasons of life change. So for me again what was relevant seven years ago when I was like hard charging gung-ho production to like now with the needs of my families and I'm making some shifts that's different and that's okay too. So but having conversations with different people helps me have a better perspective.
Rebecca Green (31:39.793)
Yeah.
Rebecca Green (31:51.15)
huh.
Kim Borcherding (32:06.332)
on what makes sense for me. then, and then with that, and then do what makes sense for you. Don't, don't, you know, learn from other people, but also don't have the courage to blaze your own trail and do what makes sense for you. I know so often we get on this hamster wheel, our ego, the pressure, like a million reasons why we're doing what we are, but is that a line from you or not? So take the opportunity to really evaluate that and make sure that still makes sense. Anything I'm missing, Rebecca? Anything, advice?
Rebecca Green (32:12.591)
No, I'm
Rebecca Green (32:32.531)
Now those were good. I'll give you a few of mine. First of all, if you're new in the business or you're newer in the business, is not about selling houses. That is one element of it. That's it. Running a real estate business is the houses are just one small element of it. So that would be one thing. Don't say that. Don't say that I'm in it for the houses, right?
And then from the entrepreneur standpoint, my gosh, just keep going. It's so hard. know, make sure you have people that support you in your vision and your dreams and your goals, but keep going. You really never know when the win is the next one up, right? You know, I always say that every no gets you closer to a yes. So the no's are as important as the yes.
Kim Borcherding (33:26.978)
Mm-hmm.
Rebecca Green (33:29.787)
So, you know, keep going, right? That would be another thing. And then the third thing, I think, specific to real estate operations would be understanding that if you are going to build a business, and what do I mean by that? I just want to clarify, building a business is something that you can grow and you can retire on, you can make passive income off of, you can sell at some point if you want to.
You know, there are a number of different things. You're building something that has value as an entity, right? A real estate agent that keeps all of their systems in their head and they're just hustling and grinding. There's no business to transfer to someone else. There's no retirement in that. That's not really building a business. That's doing a job and collecting the check. And so understanding those two differences
are is huge. And then along those lines is operationally being responsible. Understanding the operations are so such an important part of what you're doing. Be responsible with that. know, yeah, marketing is way sexier than being operationally astute. Right. But you need both. You got to have both. Right. Yeah, that would be it. It's a hard it's a hard road to travel.
I admire and respect the hell out of agents who have these operations and these businesses that you know they could turn around and sell for millions of dollars, right? They've done all of the right stuff. And they've surrounded themselves with the right people in order to learn the right, you know, in order to arm themselves with the right tools. So I will agree with you on, you know, finding the right rooms for sure. Okay. All right, people.
Kim Borcherding (35:25.228)
Yep. All right, guys. So if you're finding it hard, you're not alone.
Rebecca Green (35:31.591)
No doubt. No doubt. No doubt. I hope that that was helpful for anyone. If anyone is interested in a one-on-one conversation, we're definitely here. Shoot us a message, leave us a comment down below, but thanks for listening. Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.
