EP 61: Joanne's Top 10 Boundaries To Avoid Burnout 😊
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Welcome to The B Word, the podcast for women in real estate who want to unlock the clarity needed to put your big girl panties on and rock your career like the true boss you are. I'm Joanne Bolt, your host, and together we'll dive into the things your broker doesn't teach you in order to own your own path, disown the things getting in the way to finding your place, and stop apologizing for the obstacles you had to overcome along the way.

If you're ready to stop playing small and take action in your professional life, this is the place for you.

As hard as it is to believe, in the business world, we're currently winding down 2022, and so my team and I are ramping up and setting goals already for 2023. In fact, I challenged my coaching clients just last week to begin looking at their goals for the next year so that we can unpack them together and start building a plan of success for them in 2023.

Now me, I love setting goals because I'm a competitive person. And when I get to beat my own goals, it has a lot of personal satisfaction there.

And I break down the goals into attainable things like achieving a certain number of emails in my email list or growing this podcast audience to a certain level of monthly downloads. By the way, we recently hit 10,000 downloads a month and I am so excited. You guys can all help me out by sharing this podcast with a friend because my goals in 2020

2023 are pretty darn big for this podcast. But I've also learned that without setting boundaries along with those goals, girlfriend, you're going to end up in burnout land. And when we hit burnout land, we find ourselves at a season of lackluster performance, and that could have huge consequences and financial ramifications on you. Let's face it, folks.

Being lackluster in your lead generation, regardless of what type of business you run, for 30 days can impact sales and revenue for the next 90.

I'm coming in hot today on the B word with 10 boundaries for you that I personally use in order to create those walls to which I contain my little world. Don't worry about writing them all down frantically or memorizing them while you drive. I want you to focus on what you're doing, but I'll pop a link in the show notes that you can go to to get a PDF with my boundaries. Or if you want, if you're a texting person like me, you can text the word boundaries to 678-736-8000.

eight zero five five, and I'll shoot you the download link. While my boundaries have evolved over the years, as my business has grown and changed my commitment to establishing them and adhering to them has never faltered. So I know you're asking yourself right now, girlfriend, what are boundaries? And I am so glad you ask for me, a boundary is any set of rules you establish for yourself to keep your personal or business life in check.

Think of them like a little fence you build around your space to make sure you don't stray too far off the beaten path. So are you ready? Let's dive in. Boundary number one.

It is protecting my phone number. Yes, I use a number that is public and it feeds my community. I'll openly say that I actually use a texting platform to host my texting world so that you can text me all day long. Want to get regular tips? I send those out. Want to ask me a question? Text away.

Text away, my friends. And yeah, it really is me that answers them. I want to grow my audience and community, and I love being in touch with you all. However, I also have a personal cell phone number that I don't hand out like candy. And yes, if you are not as saved as a contact in that particular number, I will not answer the phone. Period. End of story. Do not pass go. That's it, folks.

I feel like not one of us needs another useless voicemail from a salesperson trying to have us purchase a guaranteed lead source from our real estate teams or to opt in for health insurance. And I can guarantee if you're calling me about an upcoming political vote, that is not going to actually change my mind on who I'm voting for or create a calendar invite to remind me to hit the polls.

I have a hard stop at listening to voicemail, by the way. If you happen to land in my voicemail, then I can pretty much assume you're a salesperson to whom I did not give my personal phone number. If you actually know me as a friend, then you know to just shoot me a text message. In fact, I did a personal study a year ago where I changed my voicemail message to flat out tell people to only text me for an answer. And then I chose not to listen to voicemails for three solid months.

When I finally did go back and listen to them, I was correct. Not one voicemail was important. All of the important information came to me from a text message. And so now not only do I protect my personal number to hand out, I also have a boundary that I do not listen to voicemails. So please don't leave me one unless you understand that, well, you're wasting your breath. I know as real estate agents, you are probably asking yourself right now, how can I possibly not listen to voicemails? I'm going to miss something.

Girlfriend, we do want you answering your phone in real estate. You need to be accessible to co-opping agents or your clients, but set the boundary on how you want them to reach you. If you know you're not going to listen to the voicemails like I knew, teach your people just to text you. Or if you know you don't want the texting, teach them to voicemail you. It's really up to you. Now, number two is,

This is one of my favorite boundaries because this one literally changed the trajectory of my career. And it's my boundary of the word yes wins. As painful as this may sometimes seem, I have a hard pass on the people around me that tell me no when my big ideas and visionary brain take over.

really like to lean into my creativity and I like to think outside the box on growing my business. And I learned a long time ago that the people around you who constantly tell you no, they're not the people you need in your tribe.

I had a coach a couple of years ago, and this coach was fantastic at pushing me to really be a better real estate team owner, a better person, a better leader. However, I came to them one time and I said, I'm going to start a podcast.

I want to share my voice with the world. I want to educate more agents. I want to train more agents. I need agents to know that however they want to do the business, it really is okay. And to know that they're not alone. And that coach told me not to. In fact, he went on to tell me all the ways that starting a podcast would actually help my business fail.

He literally convinced me to hold off on the podcast. And I did, I held off on it for three years. You know why I started the podcast? Because come to find out that coach had already started his own. And so he was really not leaning into the no in the true sense of this is not going to help you. He was more leaning into it because it's what he was currently doing. And I don't

really know why he couldn't envision that it would help my business. But can you guys imagine what would have happened if I had never started this podcast? What my world would look like without pouring into yours for little bites of business two times a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I love it when I hear back from listeners and

On the advice I gave and how it helped them or asking me other questions or yes, sending me referrals because they've gotten to know me on the pod. I also had a mentor recently, like the last 18 months. Tell me Joanne.

You cannot start a broker agnostic community for women in real estate. Yes, women in real estate need our worlds, but keep it within your broker. Make sure that you're pouring into the women at EXP Realty. And I, you know what? I mean, clearly my answer was no, I'm sorry. I hang my license there. I love that broker. I love that brokerage.

But I also know that there are women across the world in the real estate industry who are asking the same things. They're having the same pain points. They're getting the same frustrations. It doesn't matter what brokerage we're at. We're all in this together. And the faster we learn that, the harder and harder we'll go in our business and the better it will be. So I let go of that person in my life because her immediate reaction to me was, again, the word no.

And right now, Real Boss Women is a thriving business and a thriving piece of my world where women come together. They ignore competition. They love and embrace collaboration. And oh my gosh, I

I cannot even imagine where we're going to be in the next five years. So what if I had listened to the person who told me no? Where would I be today? Folks, that's a boundary for me. If you're not telling me no for a solid reason, and you're just saying no because you can't fathom how it would work, you got to walk away from me because I'm going to sail.

My third boundary, I set boundaries on when I do and do not work. Now, every real estate agent listening to this podcast, I guarantee that boundary statement just sent shivers down your spine. Is it really possible to not work on Sundays? Can you consistently do that and not lose your business?

Besties, the answer is yes. About five years into running my team, I made a decision that if Chick-fil-A can close on Sundays, a time when a lot of people want to be able to drive through and pick up a quick meal, then so could I.

I had been finding myself receiving showing requests via text message while I was in church with my family or responding to work messages while I was attempting to watch my kids' sports events on the weekend. Let me tell you, folks, it's not fun to be dressed to show homes while standing on the sidelines of the ballpark.

and knowing that you need this game to end quickly just that you can make it to see your client on time. Or knowing that you have no clue what the preacher talked about during the sermon, because try as you might to not see the showing request message that came in, your darn Apple Watch showed it to you anyway. And boom, your mind went into work mode.

When you're not present for your personal life, you begin to resent your business life. So establishing an upfront boundary with both my team members and my clients allowed me to create that bubble to live in. And it really was as easy as letting the clients know that if they needed to see homes on Sundays, it was best to work with another agent on my team or quite frankly, another team altogether. I found it raised the bar on my clients when I stopped accommodating and started setting boundaries.

If I'm not the agent who can meet your needs, I'd rather know that up front so that you can work with one who can. Boundary number four, setting a boundary around my social media scroll time.

Well, okay, I'm going to admit, this is one I am tempted the most often to break. I am fully aware that I can get caught up in the scroll trap. It is so easy to start looking at a funny reel from the Holderness family or one about adorable puppies and find myself still looking through those darn reels 45 minutes later. My kids are guilty of this as well, and even my husband Jeff is too. He

He claims he's not. I mean, he doesn't have social media, but then again, he sends me funny memes from Twitter. So I know he does in fact spend some time perusing the socials. My boundary for this one looks a little bit like this and you're going to laugh and that's okay.

I only watch reels standing up. I find that if I am watching them while I'm standing up, I'm more likely to want to sit down after about 20 minutes or so and keep watching them. And the minute I realize I want to sit down, I cut the reels off by standing only. It shortens the amount of time I actually watch reels and pulls me back to the present of what I'm doing and helps me keep my calendar on track.

Okay. You still with me? If you're not, focus back in because we're on boundary number five and it's a good one.

Setting an 80-20 financial boundary. Okay, this one may not seem as obvious as a boundary to set to avoid burnout, but it really has made a huge difference in my business. I am a strict keeper of my P&L, that means profit and loss statement, and in fact, I date it monthly. While looking at the numbers, your business may not seem sexy, understanding where your cash flow goes is.

Years ago, I established the 80-20 financial rule, which means that 20% of every dollar that came in had to go in a separate bucket, which I called the reserve bucket.

The reserve bucket isn't for spending. It's to be available when you need to run your business during times of stress. And I take times of stress very seriously. Times of stress is not like when I kind of took the day off when the Queen of England died in mourning. No, it's not a time when there's a month of no real estate closings. No, create a business that is sustainable.

It is saved for economic times of stress, like when COVID hit and suddenly every contract our team had was canceled as people panicked. Or as we shift out of one market into another, like we're experiencing right now with a move from it being a seller's market to a buyer's market. Those periods of time when the market is a stalemate. Yep, those are times of stress. I also consider a time of stress that moment when I realize that

That in order for me to grow the business, I need to bring someone else into my world. Someone who may need a contract or a salary like another admin or recently my marketing and brand manager. So by keeping my 20% rule, I had that money necessary to run the business in the bank.

And as long as I've been building the reserve bucket, I know I'll be able to make payroll for the company, cover the credit card bills, and I don't panic. I've set aside for these situations. Boundary number six is semi a continuation of boundary number five. Never spend what you don't have.

My dad taught me with this one from an early age and his rule was never use a credit card as a way to pay for things I couldn't afford. He taught me to only put on a credit card that which I could afford to pay off at the month's end. This boundary has served me and my family very well over the years. Yep, there are times when it actually makes more sense to carry over a payment or to stretch something out.

But I look at purchasing anything, regardless of if it's for personal or business, with the lens of, can I pay this off next month? If the answer is no, then the boundary is there to keep me out of bad debt.

And when you're not in bad debt, you don't find yourself overworking and you do in fact avoid some of that burnout. Let's move on. Boundary number seven is don't give up too soon. You guys, I'm a visionary at heart. You know this by now if you've been listening to the pod for a while. If you're also one, then you understand that means we tend to have big, massive goals all

Wild and impossible ideas that we sincerely think are quite doable at the drop of a hat. And we need integrators around us to help bring our creative thinkings to life. This has also led me in the past to jumping into purchasing lead programs or starting a marketing tactic on a whim, only to be discouraged by it quickly and want to pivot and change directions. You could say that I was a point of sale kind of girl. Watch out exhibition halls at conferences. I am your best friend.

What I've learned over the years is anything you do has to be done with consistency. And that also means over a period of time, I've established a business boundary that all new projects, ideas, marketing programs, et cetera, et cetera. You get the idea. Well, they have to have a minimum of six months to begin to see an ROI, which is a return on investment. That fancy new Matterport camera that cost a fortune is

Is my team actually going to learn to use it? And if so, can we do a 3D virtual tour on enough homes in six months to justify the time and expense of doing them ourselves versus just adding that option onto our photography package that we currently pay for? The years one through three business me would have said, heck, buy the camera. It's so awesome.

course we will use it. And in fact, I'll admit, I think I did buy the camera, but the more experienced me, the one that has learned to set good boundaries now ask, can I implement this idea consistently over six months to determine if the money I spend on it is worth it or not? I don't always have the answer right away, but I do have to be willing or someone on my team, AKA my integrators can

They have to be willing to give it a good run for six months. If not, then it becomes another no. And that's why you have boundaries, folks, to establish those yeses and nos. All right, we're coming up on the end now, so stay with me. Number eight is contract boundaries.

This is a super goodie that I apply to both my personal and business life. Does something require a contract? I'm a firm believer that when a company doesn't fully believe in their product, they force you into contracts. Sorry, not sorry. If you're listening to this and you run a business with a contract,

However, I found over time when I get into stuff that I need to get myself out of, it causes way too much stress on me. And that stress then takes away from my ability to actually work on the brand or business in a positive manner. It also causes me to be irritable and that affects my family as well.

Now, I'm not talking about a one-time contract like the one we signed for Gaylord Opryland in order to host our annual focus conference in February. I'm talking about reoccurring charge contracts like a CRM or database or a lead generation source. Something that promises you something in exchange for your money. You know, like paying realtor.com $300 a month to have a quote unquote guaranteed certain number of leads come your way. Yeah, that's the one I'm talking about.

Those are a hard no for me when they need up front of a year contract or longer. I need the flexibility to leave and pivot when I need to, and I've found over the years that companies not requiring contracts are the ones I've used the longest in any given situation. Number nine, protect your time off.

I vacation with enthusiasm. I'm not ashamed to admit that and giving up vacation time is an absolute non-negotiable in my world. I honestly didn't realize until we got my white Labrador retriever just how much time I do take off. Until we had to schedule time with the trainer who also boards her for us, did I realize how much I value and plan for that time. We as a family will schedule weeks during the year when the kids have breaks and we'll also plan a lot of

lot of like long weekends together.

This means I have to budget in advance for vacations, which can get expensive and ensure that my team knows in advance when I'll be gone so that they can plan for me being unavailable. Because another boundary I have is that when I'm gone, I'm gone. It had better be a darn good reason to call, email, or text me when I'm taking time to be off with my family. A well-organized team or admin can and should be able to handle your business when you're away, folks. I can promise you that.

And really being on the vacation versus working on vacation means that when you come back, you're more relaxed, ready to dive back into the grind. And you can often increase your business due to the infusion of energy you have. If you don't have a team like I had, grab one or two other agents in your area, in your brokerage that you feel confident can cover your business while you're away and be willing to do the same for them when they're away. I

I do recommend if you have kids of school age, though, you make sure your vacation agent buddy is not one that has the same age kids because you're both going to want to be gone on spring break at the same time. Let's just face facts as they are. Now, my last boundary so that you can avoid burnout. You're going to laugh at this one too. Emails are only open during certain times of the day.

This one probably also sent shivers down the spines of some of our listeners. I'll give the most rock solid reason for this boundary. I have the attention span of a gnat.

So if I'm sitting in a carpool and I open my inbox and there's something there that needs to be addressed, I will forget about it the minute my kids jump in the car and I head off school campus. Or if I'm sitting at a restaurant waiting on someone to join me and I open the dreaded inbox, same thing. As soon as the person arrives I'm meeting with, I'm fully present there with them and my mind leaves the message in the email. I've missed more deadlines and important return emails by having my inbox be available at all times.

When I set a boundary for myself that I only open during set times of the day, then I know I can process the emails and return the ones of highest priority. And I am way more productive doing that. It also relieves my anxiety level. I've seen my husband open emails on the weekend or late into the night, and I know the burnout that causes. So for me, I won't do it.

But please don't ask me to show you the current state of my inbox because, well, my phone shows over 7,000 unread emails, which I know most are spam. And that's why they sit there silently mocking me unopened until I clean out my spam box, which happens once a month.

I hope, hope, hope that these boundaries are ones that you might take, I don't know, one or two and implement into your own world. I promise you that establishing boundaries will in fact make your business better. Don't try to establish 10 at one time. If you currently have no boundaries, pick one, implement it, rock its world, and then move on to setting another one. You can't establish all the boundaries all at once.

That's it for today's entrepreneurial goodness. I'll see you next Thursday. Same time, same place. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Before you go really fast, would you please take a second and go and leave me a review here on the B Word podcast? It really does make a world of difference to how we show up for new people. And to give you a little thank you, because my mama always taught me that you send a thank you note or something in return for a gift.

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