The Top 1% Life. Kathleen Black

to divorce, to teenagers, to having to let people go, so many aspects of life and business can unravel you and leave you questioning your next move. I also watched clients rebuild better, stronger, and faster using the power that comes from pain properly harnessed. Most leaders are said to rise from the ashes. These leaders face the mirror of truth in crisis. They decide to carve their own face of leadership in the place they previously and recklessly left for the world to define. They decided who they were and what they would and would not stand for.

      I know what it feels like to build a business from nothing, the burn when a team member leaves, the shock when you find out someone is sabotaging your business. The deep feeling of violation when someone you supported steals from you or lies to you. The feeling when people leave and use your content, when you find out you were lied to, locked out, and even when others take credit for your work. I know what it feels like, and I know the hardest part is facing it all and moving forward. Because the world needs strong business leaders like you, who are true and spread a different message.

      I stood in these difficult spaces as I built seven-figure companies with countless clients, and as I did the same for myself. I struggled with exactly the best way to transfer what worked for me to my team. I had unbelievably high expectations and little room for lowering them. I had to up my game knowing we would take a hit as a business to make those changes. And I have had to stand for the truth, more than once despite, massive costs. Why did I make the changes anyway? Because a company that runs without an abundance mentality and without aligned guiding principles is doomed to fail. You can take a 75, 50, or 20% hit now or risk losing it all later. I stand in hard decisions because if I don’t, who will? I believe that by standing in hard decisions, I discover exactly who else will. You will, our clients will, and everyone impacted by all of your hard decisions will have the courage to make them too. We live what we see. Doing the hard things right matters.

      It is not if these difficult things will happen. It is when difficult obstacles present themselves in your business. And when these difficult things happen in business that challenge your vision, heart, and soul, I want you to know others went through this, how to keep going, and when to limit your time energy and resources so small acts do not cost you big in the long run.

      Sure, it’s just business, but it feels personal when that business involves people who you helped and the resources sacrificed to build that business. I built my business to systematically reduce the odds of anything negative ever repeating that could compromise my team, clients, or ability to be of service in this world. I also built hundreds of teams and the businesses of thousands of agents and helped them to avoid ever hitting the common pitfalls. If the acts of one sabotage the true gift of helping and serving others on a local or global scale, it is costing us all. We need to build our businesses to protect the people we serve, and in your business, that is you and your team.

      Some things require a burn. Some lessons only happen when the world gets hot enough to forge the lesson in your skin. Then, you get to work building better, and ensuring the small acts of one person never cost you or your team the whole.

      Chapter 3

      HOW DO I GET MY TIME BACK?

      Myth: Teams take too much time and money to develop.

      Truth: The function of a team is to provide more time and money with less expense and effort put in by the team leader. In fact, when done properly, effectively, and systematically, creating and running a team is highly profitable and frees up time for all team members, including you.

      That admin support you hired took more of your time than your clients. I hear this reality every day from people who have tried to get help. Our team hears this hundreds of times a week. Hiring her added to your to-do list because you were walking an uphill battle before you started.

      Trying to hire, build a job description, the systems and tasks associated with that job description, and train, all at once is basically impossible. People are told, every day, hiring support is the answer, and it is when you are prepared.

      The buyer’s agent needs you constantly because he wants you to be happy. He wants the clients to be happy. He wants to know how to win, how to do a good job, and what to avoid, but lacks the deliberate strategy and clarity that duplication of values and standards requires of your team’s business. You’re always trying to keep deals together. You are busy enough. Eventually, if you have tried to hire, you may have decided that it seemed easier to just do it on your own, but now what?

      It is true that it may be easier to run your business on your own in the short-term. Servicing clients yourself in your custom way is quicker than creating the tasks, job description, hiring, and training it takes to expand your team. But what happens to that same time trade-off after one, two, or three years—heck, even three months?

      Just for fun, write a list of all the tasks that a support position could do for you. Now, write how long each of those tasks takes you per week. Now, add them up. You can now compare how many weeks of you personally doing those tasks it would take you to do it to equal the amount of time you are estimating it will take to hire, which will likely include creating the task list (which we just started), creating the job description, interviewing, and training. Your hiring process should be no more than two to three weeks at most. Beyond that, the amount of time to accomplish those tasks on your own becomes indefinite.

      Over and above the time factor or the money factor, the reality is that doing it on your own is not going to help you make it home for dinner on time. If you want time to spend your nights and weekends with your children, spouse, and loved ones, you are going to need someone to help with the business. Most sales and service industries do not shut down in the evenings or on the weekends. There is more demand than ever for after-hours options in all industries. Do you expect timely answers when you need them from a lawyer, doctor, accountant, or when you need to make a business decision? Your clients feel the same way about wanting access to your level of wisdom and resources when they need them.

      While you could develop a business model around the nine-to-five workweek, you will have some clients deciding to go elsewhere, which will be an overall hit to business volume. For most of us, this is not a realistic solution. We want to elevate client experience, not reduce it.

      You will need help that actually makes a difference for your business and helps get your business organized and self-sufficient so everything doesn’t depend on you anymore. This relief will free up time and energy to do more of what you love and do best. The ability to do more of what you love, when done right, will increase your overall business earnings even after you bring in and pay support staff. Am I saying you will do less and make more? Yes, that is exactly what I am saying.

      To have the time to confidently hire, and expand, and do less, you will need to get yourself to a place where you stop being on call 24/7. After you get some help, you will be close to taking an actual vacation—without your phone. The truth is that your business will likely be ready for you to take a vacation without your phone before you will be. You won’t need to be there for everything that comes up. You need to be able to let some things wait, condition your clients on when they can expect to hear from you, and free up your time so you can work on what is of the greatest importance that hour or day.

      Right now, the ability to get some time back, get organized, and find some help you can rely on is of greatest importance. This is your eye of the storm. This is your moment to get the resources you need to step into a future version of you that already has more time, meals with your family, a life away from your phone, an organized office, and a business that does not rely on you every second of the day. This future version of you exists. All you must do is access the resources while they are available to you.

      I am your guide on this journey to your future self and future business. I will take you through the steps to building this new reality sequentially. Don’t bother jumping ahead steps or chapters as this journey builds upon each step as we go. For example, you don’t want to use your current eyes to read the chapter on “No