December 10, 2020
Today’s incredible guest, Chris Bello. Chris is a college graduate that quit his corporate job 3 years in. He wanted to take hold of the reigns of life and write his own story.
After struggling with one side-hustle after another, he went all-in on residential real estate, where he has quickly caught momentum. Chris is also the host of the top-rated business podcast, the Entrepreneur Motivation Podcast, where he documents his journey and interviews incredible guests.
Chris’ motto is “Less dreaming, more doing.”
And that’s what we’re gonna be talking about today! DOING – how to do more in less time to live your dream life. So basically, we’re talking ALL things productivity today. From the benefits of time blocking to screwing time blocking, utilizing a scheduler tool to help manage your calendar, structuring your week for maximum productivity, all the way to morning routines, and more.
Chris’s entrepreneurial journey started three and a half years ago after he got his “dream job”. Going through the motions of going to college, getting a degree, and then working in the oil and gas industry. Thinking that was his dream. Three and a half years in and decided he wasn’t excited about what he did every day. Not feeling fulfilled and starting to question is there something wrong or is he supposed to be enjoying it?
Turns out there are many entrepreneurs and self-employed people that have felt the same way and taken a similar leap of faith. That’s what he did, tried a bunch of entrepreneurial stuff that didn’t work out and landed in real estate. Now seeing momentum take place in real estate and his podcast!
For anyone who can resonate with having a day job with structure and then quitting. Then finding yourself on that first Monday and thinking, “Well what do I do? Do I read a book, watch a Youtube video?”, “I want to be an entrepreneur, where do I start?”. That is the hardest part. Now all of a sudden you have all this free time and what do you do with it? How do you hold yourself accountable?
These tips will help you take advantage of your schedule and create a structure when you have so much flexibility.
Hack One
Use a booking link such as Calendly. It may not be a hack necessarily, but a software, but can be utilized as a hack to create the ideal schedule.
What would be your best schedule?
You don’t have to make a call at 10 am if you don’t want, you can change the schedule link where it only lets people book you during a set time. This forces people to work within the time window that YOU prefer.
Think of your workday like a manufacturing floor, where each machine has to be set up for the specific thing to make. You start making one hundred units of widgets A and then you must reset everything to make one hundred units of widget B. The more you are switching between tasks the more time it takes to reset. And that is the same thing with the tasks that you are doing. If you focus on one project and then halfway through switching tasks, you’ll scramble your mind from switching back and forth. Your brain will be all over the place. Versus if you completed your first task all the way through when you are in that state of mind.
Hack Two
Time block. This kind of coincides with Calendly. You can literally use a timer so that you don’t get easily distracted. Set the time for twenty-five minutes to focus solely on one task and once it goes off give yourself a little break and then onto the next task! Uninterrupted minutes of completing a task will help you accomplish so much more in your workday.
Hack Three
Create boundaries. This will look different for everyone depending on their business. Before working in real estate Chris would never have phone calls, but now he receives calls about listings, rental houses, or asking questions about a property. To prevent all those calls from distracting him, he lets most go to voicemail. His voicemail then tells them to text him for a quicker response or head to his link. Which has everything they could need— information on properties, how to book for a call, how to listen to his podcast, and more.
You would be surprised how many people don’t leave a voicemail once they hear his voicemail that says to text him. They end up texting Chris and following his processes in place. It’s because he has created boundaries. Doing this with all his clients, they learn to appreciate and respect his system so that he can get the most done for them.
Another way to set boundaries is by sending out a welcome email. In it, include the hours that you work and if they need to reach you after those hours which is the best way to do so. If you let your clients know upfront they won’t be caught off guard when maybe it is not what they expected.
There will be different expectations of boundaries depending on what you do. Hold firm to your boundaries, otherwise you will create expectations that are unsustainable for you.
Learn from other people, see what they are doing, and don’t be afraid to try out a new structure for yourself. Constantly tweaking your schedule is normal as you go through different seasons in your business.
What’s your ideal schedule for the season you are in NOW?
One system that Chris has used each week is the daily time block schedule. Allocating a set amount of time for certain tasks each day. Creating a morning routine with a workout and then moving into the “Learning” block from 11 am-12 pm following a lunch break from 12-1 pm and so on throughout the day.
With his clients that are interested in buying a house, he wants to be more readily available than a random person interested in a quick call. Prioritize the high-profit tasks that will bring in that income.
Your process and schedule will always evolve.
Scorecard Method
His newest weekly method, he calls, is the scorecard method. Assigning points to various tasks and keeping track of how many points you accumulate throughout the day. If you earn five points in a day, even if it happens by 11am, you can feel accomplished and that it was a productive day. Identify the things that are most important for your business and growth.
This method has helped build in the lifestyle freedom so that you don’t feel guilty taking breaks or not working 24/7. We all fall prey to that, feeling guilty taking downtime. As high-performers you may find that you want to fill all your time. Even if there is space in your calendar doesn’t mean you should fill it. You can’t’, otherwise your schedule will be packed, and have no time to recharge or space to think.
There will always be another call you can do. Always another podcast. Always another virtual event these days. Try the scorecard method of giving yourself points and allowing yourself grace if you need a break or a day off. You can visibly see the boxes you checked off and see the needle moving in your business. Even if it’s not working eight to ten hours a day. Granted if you finish early and still want to work on things, keep going!
Make sure to build into your business the lifestyle that you want now.
The book The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod has changed how Chris starts his day. Before he had no morning routine, had tried a five-minute morning routine but never stuck. Then reading Elrod’s book where it talks about the SAVERS method which stands for silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and scribing/journaling. He has now not missed a day ALL year! Finding time on trips in planes, cars, even taxis. Making sure to get it done and it doesn’t have to be one hour every morning. You will feel so accomplished in the morning after you finish that time for yourself.
The book explains it more but realizing it doesn’t have to be a full hour every morning. You could do six-minute SAVERS where you do one minute of each. That is a good way to ease your way into it. It can be hard to give up something cold turkey like caffeine or working out four days a week if you’ve never worked out before or drink coffee every day. The book gives you tools and a printout sheet where you put an X for each day. There is some science behind it that after you check 5-6 days you start to develop a habit. You want to get this thing checked off today and you don’t want to miss it, but if you do that’s okay. You can and will miss a day now and then, but don’t miss a day and then throw in the towel again. Just forgive yourself and restart.
Having a consistent morning routine has increased my productivity and overall enjoyment in life. There are so many ways it can impact you to become a better learner and will help kickstart your day. Once you finish your morning routine you’ll feel accomplished and ready to jump into your day and conquer it!
To delegate. Eluding to it earlier that anything Chris receives, whether someone wants to see a house or someone wants to write an offer on something. He has different people in place so he doesn’t have to do it. The best example is last month he had a client that wanted to see a house (that was an hour away from him), ended up paying someone sixty dollars to go show it. The next day they wanted to write an offer (while he was at the gym), so he texted the offer terms to his transaction coordinator who wrote it up. They got the offer accepted three weeks later. It was a 650k house and the check was 19.5k dollars and Chris went to the house twice, maybe spending five hours total because he delegated. Delegating, you gotta let go of the reins. Focus on your highest dollar producing activities. You have to spend money to make money. You are buying yourself time.
How much is your time worth?
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WASSUP FRIENDS. We’re Evie + Lindsey, co-founders of this wild partayyy called The Heart University. Our goal is to empower entrepreneurs to kick freaking BUTT in their businesses, dive down into the heart of their why and how, and serve you with all possible tools you’ll need to up-level your business game and CRUSH those goals of yours.
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