Jen
If you have not ridden large stuffed animals around the mall before, I highly recommend it.
Mike
No, unacceptable.
Jen
The holidays. Just relieve some of that holiday stress. You know, listen, if four year olds can do it, so can So can I.
Mike
Jesse, when you saw that slack from Jen, what thoughts went through your mind?
Jessie
Okay. It wasn't the slack. It was the video. Like when she posted the video of she and her daughter and the get goes and the laughs in the background. Immediate FOMO. Like, I was like, yes, I want to be there. So that's me. But that's not you. I can tell.
Mike
Just like Jen said, a four year old can do it. And I was like, But they're lower to the ground. Jen has a history of falling off of things.
Jessie
Were you concerned for her safety.
Mike
I was concerned.
Jen
Well, well, well, well, well. Okay. All right. I hear you loud and clear. Mikey boy, safety first. Okay. Hey, everybody. My name is Jen Barkin, online sales coach and convert. And welcome to online people talking. This is the only podcast that is dedicated to enhancing the careers and the lives of the new home online sales specialist. We'll talk about real life challenges, stories and solutions.
Jen
Just for you. Oh, my gosh. I am so excited because I am here with my friends, the one and only Mike Lyon. Oh.
Mike
Hello.
Jen
And Jessie Suggs !
Mike
Greetings.
Jen
Yes. Greeting. Greetings
Mike
Season Greetings.
Jen
Season's greetings. And if you're watching this on YouTube, you see that Mike has Buddy the elf. Buddy the elf in his office ready for the holidays. He is excited and Jessie is got her festive shirt on. And listen to this. Yes. If you're listening to this, this is a special edition right after the holidays. This is launching. So hopefully you had a wonderful happy holidays.
Jen
We are we are so excited to be talking to you today about something really important. Really important. Okay. So let's get into it. What are online people talking about right now? I'm hearing everybody talk about, okay, we're setting our goals. We're in goal setting mode. And what how should we view our numbers right now? Like taking a look at what we where we're currently at, looking at what the benchmarks are and should we be trying to outperform those numbers or should we be trying to stay consistent with those numbers?
Jen
What do you guys think?
Jessie
I am. You know, I always like to push the boundaries, so I always say try to go look. But, you know, you have to be kind of realistic with what your goals are. So, yeah, I've been hearing that too. Jenn So when people are prepping their reporting document, they're putting their goals in there and they're like, okay, what should they be?
Jessie
And so when I am talking to people, I'm like, Go look here every year. Look at what the trends have looked like and use that as a reference as you're going into it. But don't use that necessarily as like what it needs to be. Same with benchmarks. When you come and you look at do you convert benchmarks, that's just to watch the trends.
Jessie
So when you're making your goals, set it based on connecting with your leadership team on, okay, what's our sales goal for next year and what was my contribution this year? And then do that reverse math exercise that, you know, we have on the blog that talks about here are the goals here, how many sales I need. This is how many appointments I'll need.
Jessie
And then going back to marketing and saying, Hey, realistically, this is how many leads I'm going to need a month to meet these goals. Is that realistic?
Jen
Mm hmm. I loved a lot of things that you said there, Jesse. Mike, what are your thoughts on this?
Mike
Well, we get this, you know, you get some top performers you just want to talk about, like, I want to hit 60 appointments a month or 70 appointments a month or 90 or a million, whatever the number is. And I always just like to say, hold on a second. Like, where did how did you arrive at this magical number?
Mike
Mm hmm. And it's usually just well, that's what I did before. And I want to try and do more that may or may not directly correlate with sales goals and and the benchmarks. So my biggest piece of advice for doing this for a minute is get your get your target for next year from your sales leader, which I know some sales leaders were still talking about, like, wow, we don't have that figured out yet.
Mike
Get an idea, get a range, get that number. That's one of the most important numbers. What is our company's sales goal? And then tied into benchmarks which we've got data on that and figure out how does that relate to your benchmark? Because someone may have a little bit higher contribution or a little bit higher appointment, a sale or a little bit lower appointment to sale or a little bit higher, you know, lead to appointment.
Mike
It's all you know, you don't want to go backwards in your numbers, but you also don't want to try and make a huge leap of a 10% boost that may not be even achievable. So sales target and goal first from the from the company and tie that into your benchmark and look at your benchmark average, just like Jesse was saying, and that's where you set your goals.
Mike
Be realistic. But also put a little bit stretch in there. Don't mind a little bit of stretch, just like my pants over the holidays.
Jen
I need a little bit of stretch. Oh, we ain't talking about that. Do you guys see the the joke about the latest meme that's out there that's like I put my husband sweat pants on because I wanted to feel like, comfy. And I realized they actually fit me pretty tight and it's like somebody's crying. Anyway, anyway, sorry. Side note, side note.
Jen
But you might be listening to this going, Oh, that sounds clear as mud. You didn't tell me what my goals should be because we can't tell you. Everybody's different, right? Everybody's program is different where you're currently at as an online specialist differs too, compared to if you're just starting out and you're looking at the benchmarks that are released going, Man, I'm not hitting those numbers, am I?
Jen
If my failing, am I not doing a good job, why am I not at that at that benchmark? It really depends on where you're at and where you need to go. So one of the first things as you got to know your numbers and you'd be surprise guys or you guys probably wouldn't, but you know, talking with some online sales specialists and they're like, I don't I don't know what my numbers are like.
Jen
We don't we don't track that. Like we don't track lead to appointment or we don't we don't track appointment to sale. And I have no idea. Somebody tracks that for us. Right? And so one of the important things is that you should always know where your your numbers are. And if you don't go to leadership and ask and find out like if somebody else is tracking that, like you need to know so that you know where to grow and you know what to focus on.
Jen
So I love that. Know your numbers, work with sales, do the reverse engineering. So you can kind of work backwards because those numbers can fluctuate. You don't want to just look at baseline and go from there and be realistic. Be realistic about your goals. You know, we're really big on the smart goal approach. Make sure it's attainable, relevant, realistic.
Jen
And those numbers that you set out to start with in January, like those goals, you might have to read, adjust those depending on what happens in Q1, Q2, whatever. You may have to go back and and readjust. But that's the great thing about it. Okay. Which leads us into kind of the topic of discussion today. We thought it would be great to do like a year end wrap, like let's, let's reflect.
Jen
And one of the things when you set your goals is to go back and reflect what are.
Mike
You wanting to do a year and wrap? But I stopped myself. I almost started beatboxing.
Jen
Yeah please do.
Mike
I can't beatbox. So then I was like, No, Mike. And then I realized I'm being recorded and I got stuck.
Jen
I can't either, man.
Mike
That's a do a year end wrap and just wrap some.
Jessie
You know, We heard you like hip hop.
Jen
Yes.
Jessie
Make it happen.
Jen
While that is true.
Mike
Just think about that year in rap with Jen barking.
Jen
Oh, man. Okay. All right, Listen to it.
Mike
Don't worry.
Jen
Yeah, okay. This is happening. This is happening. Year end rap. One of the things it's important to do when you're setting your goals is to do a victory lap. Like, you know, what are some things that you were really proud of this year? Does anything in your mind stick out, Jesse, and make like from an online sales standpoint in the industry as a whole that you thought, Man, I'm really proud of online sales or I'm really you know, this really stood out to me.
Jessie
Yeah, it's just incredible. From the coaching perspective to watch new programs establish over time to watch existing Aussie's just continue to progress in their career. But from a big picture, you know, something that I'm really proud of or a victory lap that I've seen is just the people who are in the seat really care about what they're doing and they really care about turning this from just a job into a career.
Jessie
And so watching them get creative with their pre-sale launches and with their prospecting specifically, as you know, lead count diminishes and opportunity changes, creating new not new processes, but new ways to approach a process that's already in place, just really like streamlining, figuring it out, and then executing what they're doing.
Jen
Mm hmm. It's Mike. Yeah. Mike, Anything from you?
Mike
Yes. I love and loved. I do love it. Still watching seasoned veterans get excited about hard The hard part of being an online sales like prospecting I hate. We always use the P word when we talk about hard things, but just getting involved in like getting amped up and using that and even their successes. Look at what happened.
Mike
And this person did this and I really got involved in this side or we really revisit in the handoff. I these are things they've been doing for a long time. I mean, five years of online sales feels like a lifetime and just getting enthusiastic about it as the market returns to a more normal and even sub normal market here towards the end, they had to do the hard things, but they did it with enthusiasm.
Mike
So that was a huge victory, like watching that happen. What about.
Jen
You? Yeah, yeah. Hearing some of the online sales specialists say this is the fun part. Like when it gets harder and I can we'll talk about challenges in a minute. But when it gets harder and I actually have those challenges and I have to overcome those objections and I have to prosper and try to talk to somebody 28 times when I when I get that appointment, the sweet victory of it and hearing them say this is the way the job was meant to be, like, Well, that just that gives me chills.
Jen
Yeah, that gives me all the chills and the goosebumps. And I just want to echo to like I think a lot of we saw a lot of online sales specialists really double down and embrace the suck of the prospect prospecting part of it, right? I mean, let's be real. Like I'll be the first to say that was always last on my list.
Jen
Like I, I wanted to do everything else other than that.
Mike
Like, well, listen, listen, here's the reality. Prospecting is hard anyway, where you are trying to prospect leads that were submitted when interest rates are at 4%.
Jen
Yes.
Mike
And you're like, I mean, we're at six now with an incentive or five with an incentive. It's just the people are out and have taken themselves out. So they have to find other ways to get themselves amped up in that process. And they're doing it. And that's it's like, All right, good job, everybody.
Jen
Yeah. So on that on that note, what did we what were the challenges this year that everybody saw? Let's let's go down that lane for a second. Objections, as you know, consumer sentiment like, okay, people, we're in a different headspace this year as far as buying a home than they have been in the previous last few years. What are some other things?
Jen
Interest rates, What are what are some other challenges that you guys have seen with beeps?
Jessie
Man, I feel like there is a long list of challenges that we we really did have to overcome. Whether you're a leader online sales specialist, when it comes to this. And going back to what you said about prospecting earlier and tied in is we watched a builder start tracking in their data. The as their lead count went down, watching their appointments from aged leads go up and watching.
Jessie
The success of that was really, really neat. So one of the challenges was, okay, we don't have very many leads like what are we supposed to do? How do we fill our time? What do we do if we're burnt out from calling the same people with no message and so as that's a challenge, a success from that same builder, watching you know them fill in the void is that leadership was totally connected and knew what was going on.
Jessie
And that same leader said, Hey, here's a script, here's what you can talk about when you do call if they connect, because that's like one of the psyche things, the challenges. Okay, I'm calling them. And then what am I supposed to say? Like, I'm just, Hey, it's me. I'm just checking in. How's it going versus giving them something of value?
Jessie
Not only helps the customer communicate, but it helps the online sales specialist feel like they have a message and they feel like they're serving a purpose. And so that leadership by and helped with that challenge with that that program. Mm hmm. So that was fun to watch.
Jen
I think to one of the challenges that kind of came up this year that hadn't really been present in the last few years is like sales was, you know, kind of looking back at online sales and saying like, hey, you know, give me the leads. I can maybe do it a little bit better or like, hey, my my walk ins are kind of priority versus the online appointments.
Jen
I know that kind of started creeping back, back in a little bit. Did you have you guys heard that or what do you think about that? Yeah, it's a.
Mike
It's the desperation move. Yeah. Of a market where you just don't have the same at bats or momentum and, and that's what a lot of people do when they get stressed is like, just give me what while I could. Yeah. They think that you're managing 200 leads for their community and they don't realize you might only be managing 20 leads for that community and converting a high amount to an appointment.
Mike
But they're like, Well, just give it to me because it shifted one direction to the other. So that definitely was happening. And then we saw, you know, from a challenge perspective, even two other things where you had people who were hired during the hot market realized this isn't the job for them. And so they either had to realize it or someone else had to realize it for them.
Mike
And leaders not even knowing what to look for or what to benchmark their people against. So the challenge of like a disconnection. And so they don't have the they don't have that confidence to stand on a sales or team or sales rep going give me my leads or whatever. You know, I have the phones ringing to me because I don't have anything going on.
Mike
They don't know how to confidently go in and say, Well, no, Jessie's got it because they're not in touch with that. So they were learning that. I mean, I think there was a shift in that and a refocus on understanding. Online sales is a critical piece. It's not going anywhere. They're better managing the front end. So a little bit of a challenge there as the market shifted back to a I don't call it homeostasis.
Mike
You're the biologist. Jen. Homeostasis.
Jen
Yeah, homeostasis. Yeah.
Mike
What's the definition of homeostasis? That's. Can I look that up? Oh.
Jen
That's a good question, Mike. I'm I have to go back into my archives of biology.
Mike
That here we go. The tendency towards a relatively stable equilibrium, stable.
Jen
Equal.
Mike
Between interdependent elements. So I mean, that's what is happening in the market. We are lead count dropped 15% return to normal customers weren't throwing money at us, signing up for priority reservations. We actually had to start selling and, you know, turning around objections. That's that's a normal market with normal homeostasis.
Jen
Yeah.
Mike
And so as we got back into that, people had to figure out how to operate in that new ecosystem. Man, we're science nerds.
Jen
And hey, in a normal market too, there are objections. There are I mean, like, yes, yes, there are objections. And just learning how to. I'm proud of the online sales specialist that really said, help me figure this out. Like, what are my torque tracks like help me pivot through these regarding interest rates, regarding incentives. Here's what I'm hearing.
Jen
So, you know, we encourage you to continue to do that. Whatever you're hearing on the front line, go sit down and talk with your leadership, your sales leadership, and say, here's what I'm hearing. Help me come up with a way to pivot this conversation in order to get a discovery tour, a community visit, an informational session. What did I not say?
Jen
What word did I not say? I didn't say appointment. And it's say appointment. Okay.
Mike
So 30.
Jessie
Well, Jen, that's a good point. When you're talking about using the less pressured verbal verbiage, what these customers leadership has to tell the sales team, because you were talking about how it's like walk ins or are converting at a higher amount because right now in all my sales, it's when in doubt send it out. And that might change when the interest increases again.
Jessie
And so it's just the communication piece that is lacking to understand that. And then also the finger pointing, you know, you talk about things are slowing down a little bit. I'm going to say why is online sales not sending me more than when they send me more? I'm going to complain about the quality, but I want to send all of my, you know, see your worst leads back to online sales to nurture because they should be doing that.
Jessie
It's like this push and pull of like what's going on with these leads. And it's important to establish those like boundaries of what what we should be doing with them.
Jen
And boundaries.
Mike
We're going to use boundaries.
Jen
We're going to get into that here in just a second. We are. Oh, yeah. Okay. I'm we're in need to talk to you about presenting somebody some boundaries service.
Mike
I'm going to set boundaries of you slagging me videos, riding animals on a Saturday.
Jen
Hey, that again. If anything.
Mike
I was nervous.
Jen
It if anything. Yeah. Get rid of your boundaries and go do that My that's homework for you. Okay, let's shift gears a little bit and talk about you know, we were talking about metrics before and what online people are talking about, but where are we at for the current metrics? I just wanted to share those with you so that you kind of know and we're you know, probably towards the end of January, we'll we'll be releasing our kind of year end metrics once we get all of that stuff in place.
Jen
But right now, the average for 2023 is a 40% lead to appointment. I kept a 20% appointment to sale and an overall contribution of 46%. That's where we're at for the year.
Mike
Oh year?
Jen
Oh yeah. Not the fourth quarter. Not the fourth quarter. That's just like the first.
Mike
Time hearing this. So I like this.
Jen
Yes, I'll say it again.
Mike
40% leads to appointment.
Jen
Yep, 20% appointment to sale and overall contribution of 46%. This is a 2023 average so far. Okay. Now when we pull out some top performing long standing programs, established programs, those kinds of things, it's actually 49% for the year lead to appointment. Wow. 19% appointment to sale and 49% overall contribution. So make sense. Setting more appointments you would you know 1% dip in the appointment to sale so you know if you're if you are a long standing experience O.C. who's had a program and you know that 50% is still I think the goal that's the stretch goal, like 50% online sales contribution seems to be where we're still out.
Jen
Any thoughts on that, guys?
Jessie
I love it. I mean, there has been you know, we talk about this when we look at or on leadership calls, really, hey, it's hard time right now. This last quarter's really challenging. And then you compare it to the same time frame last year and you're pleased with it. And so it's just kind of figuring out where it's at.
Jessie
So I'm pleased. I love it.
Mike
Yeah, I like that. Yeah. I'm also pleased as well.
Jen
Okay, good. Okay. Thrice we are. We are pleased. Hey, Spin, incorporate that into the wrap.
Mike
Yes, Thrice, please. Just so you guys know, Jen, try to get out of this podcast. I'm just going to outer right now.
Jen
Thanks.
Mike
Because she said she wasn't feeling good and her throat was scratchy. But Jen, I just want you to know I'm thrice pleased with your performance right now. Thank you. Doing a great job. High energy. I enjoy it.
Jen
Hey, listen, I'm. I'm here. I'm here for this. This is my favorite thing that I get to do with these people right here. And I had a green smoothie with all kinds of. I'm just. I'm just up like I'm. I'm ready to go. I'm just. Okay, so that's where we're at for metrics, right? But metrics is only part of it.
Jen
Like when you look at the behaviors and the skill set that online sales specialist have, that's kind of the second part of your goal setting is you've got to look at where you're at on the skills side of things, your behavior is what are you doing? Because those behaviors affect your numbers. Whenever when I was in the seat and I had one of my numbers dip, it was usually because I wasn't doing something that I should be doing.
Jen
So I'd I'd go and I'd pull up my skills assessment and I'm like, Yeah, you know, I'm cutting corners on maybe doing personalized video email or my response time has slacked a bit and you know, increased response time. I guarantee you you're going to increase your lead to appointment percentage. So what are you guys seeing? Jesse, we'll start with you because you been you've been doing the skills assessment with your online sales specialist.
Jen
Where are you saying we need to work on overall?
Jessie
It's some of the harder things. It's the things that you can really get away with not doing. You know, it's the it's the personalized video emails and not defaulting to just a standard template email. It's the attending sales meetings and not just being present, but speaking and sharing what's going on and helping with that communication and then really establishing a cadence for and we're going to say the P word again, but prospecting of like, okay, we're sending out this blanket email check, we check the box.
Jessie
That's that's not the intent intended purpose. It's like there is a purpose behind this email in my let's go after it And like making outreach to your realtors, making outreach to your VIP lists and making segmented lists for your prospecting. And it's just again, taking kind of the easy approach to, okay, I sent my email, now I'm done.
Jessie
That doesn't get you a ten. If you're rating yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 that get you, what do they say that's mid that you get that mid range score, you know that 15 year old all weekend.
Jen
I said that one time at an online sales academy and everybody laughed at me. They loved it. What do you think they were laughing at? You thought that I was saying it?
Mike
Yeah. You're both you're both a little judgy, so, you know.
Jen
Oh, burn, burn, burn. Okay, Love it. That's. I echo that. I've been having everybody do those skills assessment and the three things that are popping up consistently and that everybody's like, Yeah, I know. I needed that video email. Mm hmm. Prospecting? Yep. And speaking at sales meetings, I like those are the three things.
Mike
So it's kind of a universal issue.
Jen
Yeah. What are what are your thoughts, Mike?
Mike
I do better now. My, my thoughts are when, when we go over skills assessments, number one, everybody grades themselves on a curve. Naturally. That's just human nature. We're usually grading ourself 30% higher than we're actually doing. So if I see a six or a five, they're really probably like out of two. And so it's like, all right, let's just stop pointing it out, because they're usually pretty vulnerable and open with us.
Mike
It's like we identify the issue now what are our steps to change it and make like, listen, make realistic steps, like just get involved for a few minutes at the sales meeting. Just start on a basic level of prospecting, which we know today takes about 40 calls a day, not 20. So that freaks people I know. Well, what about making 30?
Mike
I want to say 30. Let's be consistent or, you know, do the things that we know that we can achieve. Because that little habit stacking and the micro tiny habits, those build up. And so a lot of people do like they do it in January and go, I'm losing £100. And it's like it was wanting to start with like five or something, you know, something we can do.
Mike
We feel good about it. Get those stretch pants off, get your husband's stress, man.
Jen
Get your husband's sweat pants off, people.
Mike
That's called a call back. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to call back.
Jen
And go ride some freakin stuffed animals at the mall. That's your homework. Is Jen barking.
Mike
And stretch pants on stuffed animals?
Jen
Well, listen, that that kind of brings us to the next thing. Once you look at your network. Yes, it does. I am. I am. I am segue weighing on because we want to keep this short and sweet and and succinct. Okay.
Mike
Yes. Happy holidays, everybody.
Jen
Yeah. After you've looked at your metrics, after you've done your skills assessment, you go, okay, what do I need to focus on next? Right? You kind of map that out and make sure it's realistic and you set yourself up for success. But also I want to encourage you to look at the other things that recharges your battery. I think focus it.
Jen
Okay. What am I going to focus on? Definitely. You have your work things. I think discipline is a word that we don't often we need to talk about it more because the key to any of this is being disciplined right. And being consistent and showing up every day with a plan and executing it versus just thinking about it or wishing it to happen and investing some time in yourself, investing or in education, making sure you're staying up to date on the latest things, staying relevant.
Jen
Listen to this podcast. Hey, like attend webinars, do all those things to insert yourself back into the industry and stay relevant. And I want to play. So we've been asking you guys for video mail, video, mailbag, and so that.
Mike
We know we're getting official this at time for our next segment.
Jen
Okay, the video mailbag. Okay, Time for an encore again. There you go.
Mike
There we're going is going to tighten it up a little bit. That's right.
Jen
Video mailbag. This is exciting. So I listen, we're getting people sending these in. And so we're going to attempt to play this recording for everybody to listen to. This is from Leah casting Leona from Red Door. Holmes And I'm going to share this right now and we're going to listen to her question, guys. Ready, coaches, Let's do it.
Jen
Ready? Hello? Hello, My name is Leah with Red Door Homes of the Carolinas. My question for you is how do you keep your work life balance balanced? I am a single parent of two humans and a dog, and I'm an author and I'm a full time online sales counselor. So my life is busy and full and it can be a little bit crazy sometimes.
Jen
So what are your best practices for making sure that your work life balance is balanced?
Mike
MM Very good. Thank you. Leah.
Jen
Yes. Thank you, Leah, so much. Right. She sent this in via video email.
Mike
And that's how you roll it. Like if your video mailbag were weren't online sales were superstars. So you got to send that stuff in and general send you a treat if we use it, right?
Jen
Jenn Yes, and it's a good one too.
Mike
Oh, it is.
Jen
Yeah. It's a gift certificate to go ride animals at the mall. Oh, this kidding. Okay, so this this is a question. This is an age old question. So I love that she asks us because balancing I don't know that there is such thing as a balance. I don't know. I'm going to I think you ebb and flow like sometimes you're super busy at work and your personal life kind of takes a backseat.
Jen
Sometimes you have personal life that kind of takes the forefront and work, you know, and trying to balance it. I don't know if we balance it, but we come up with a plan to maximize as our efficiency is, I think is is where we need to go. So, Jesse, what are your thoughts on Leah's question?
Jessie
Yeah, well, having been in the see, you know, years ago with just a team of two and then it growing to a team of eight, I kind of learned how to manage work life balance in between all of those different seasons of managing 100 calls a day to managing 25 calls a day and weekend rotations or working every weekend and the one thing after I was thinking about this for quite some time that proved beneficial for me then and still does today, is getting your inbox down to zero, getting your tasks down to zero, and like having a system and process to say, okay, I've clean my hands, I've done everything I need to do
Jessie
so that when you do take some time off, whether it's an hour to go outside and walk your dogs or a week to go to Hawaii, you mentally go, okay, I've done everything that I need to do now. I can be 100% present, 100% here and not worry because, I mean, I don't know if you guys agree with me, but if you leave something sitting there, it's like plays on repeat in your head, like, oh, I have to get back to that plus everything that's coming in and then all of the other things for catch up.
Jessie
And so if you leave clean and you come back to all the new stuff, you have this confidence. And okay, here's what I got to do now let's go do it. Yeah. So that's my piece. I love that. I still do it today.
Jen
Well, I think what you're I just want to add to what you're saying, because I love that. I think that one of the first steps is to get organized and map out like, what are your first priorities as an online sales specialist? You have first priorities and then you have second priorities. And then you have things that you kind of want to do or you might want to do.
Jen
I think mapping out and getting organized this these are the things that I have to do and nothing else happens until that happens. So it's like getting your work organized and time blocking your day. Once you do that, it helps you create efficiencies around your work and it makes you feel better and you can actually feel good at the end of the day, like, okay, I got something done and when then when you move into your second and third shift as a parent or, you know, with a family member or spouse or whatever it is you're doing on your second and third shifts of life, you can show paid.
Mike
For it, right? Unpaid, by the way.
Jen
Unpaid.
Mike
Unpaid. Second shift.
Jen
Yes, exactly. Listen, I had I come apart at home. I was telling you guys about it on my family because because they were being energy vampires. And they were. Yeah, they were. They were sucking the lightning.
Mike
Which was.
Jen
They were sucking all of them. All three of them. She's like, at recess and the dogs. So eight, eight animals were sucking the life out of me. And I was like, What the heck? I was feeling. My work life balance was was not great. And I had a moment with them. And then I walked away and I came back and I said, I'm looking to them to make me feel better or to recharge my battery when really I need to look at other things in my life that will recharge my battery for myself.
Jen
And I think, Leah, you know, for you, you know, you mentioned these other things. You have these passions. Author you have your family, your kids, all those things and you have your work. I think figuring out your, your day so that you maximize efficiencies around that. So then when you are with your family, when you are doing your passion project as an author, which we have additional questions about that, then you are able to be all in on those things.
Jen
When you have the time, like your rich heart, you're getting energy back from that, right? Mike, what are your thoughts?
Mike
Well, I have thoughts I always think about like the question behind the question. And then when she says things like achieve balance. Single mom, author, online sales. You know, I look at all those things and I go, Yeah, we only have so many cognitive cycles in a day. So what are we assigning the energy in the brain space to that?
Mike
And something's, something's got to give. What's going to give? You can rehome a dog or a kid. I guess you can send a kid somewhere else. Wow. You can. You can put the passion project on hold or the side hustle on hold. You know, I have thoughts about side hustles. I'm not saying that's what this is, but it's you're asking a lot out of out of yourself.
Mike
And I know some people are high achiever. I know she's a high achiever. You know, I think she follows Tony Robbins on LinkedIn. You know, I don't know. That's actually she wants to achieve a lot. And those high achievers go I just can't seem to find balance. And it's like, yeah, but you're also trying to do everything. And so realizing what we tell ourselves all the time, like being a mom is hard.
Mike
Being a single mom is even like harder. So trying to do that and maintain this and then add something else in and then maybe deal with other stuff that creates a lot of agenda around life. And so simplification and efficiency, like make look at 2024 and say, what do I need and what is absolutely necessary and what gives me the best return on my time investment.
Mike
And again, if being an author fills up your cup and doing that as a creative outlet, by all means doing it. But if I'm trying to achieve something else, potentially, you know, you always got to watch out for those things. But hey, online sales is like a job and a half on its own.
Jen
When you say yes to something, you're saying no to something else. So be really be really clear on what you're saying. Yes to me. Be really intentional on what you're saying yes to. And you might need to Marie Kondo some things out of your life. Love. Yeah. Thank you. I got to have. Yes, you've been great. But you know what?
Jen
I no longer have a purpose for you in my life, so.
Mike
Well, and even the. I guess the final thing on this one, which was awesome. I love the video mailbag section. So great. I love that people send people don't even send in questions, but they're sending them video emails.
Jen
They want that gift card.
Mike
They want that. They want that stuffed animal right. You know, kind of that same note, Janov even saying, yes, the things are doing things that are good. Like they're like, okay, well, this was good or yeah, it could be taking the place of things that could be great. So it's like I feel like I'm good at that or that was a good thing or I was that was mid as the kids say it can be.
Mike
Tsuji is not.
Jen
Using that correct. Okay That's cap. Okay. That's okay. All right. It's time for Skills Check, because you better check yourself before you wreck yourself, which listen, first step right out your goals. Okay, So take what we've talked about. You know, look at your metrics. If you don't know them, go figure out what they are. Do your skills assessment, write it out.
Jen
Put it out into the universe. Meaning meet with your manager, meet with an accountability partner or mentor, coach, whatever, and then revisit these in 90 days, right. This is not just a first of the year type of thing. Like you need to continue to revisit. You need to check yourself, you know, check back in on yourself after 90 days and reevaluate your goals.
Jen
Jesse and I had a classic case of this when we said we were going to run a half marathon, right? We mapped it all out like we were going to do this or whatever, and then like two weeks and I was like, I hate running. Like, you know, we had a we were like, okay, what do we do?
Jen
What are we doing? Like, that's okay. We could have been defeated, but we just said we don't like, well, I'm speaking for myself. I don't like running long distances, so I'm just going to reevaluate my goal, to say I'm going to run, you know, three miles instead of trying to do five miles or 13 miles of craziness. So you reevaluate, you reassess.
Jessie
And I cited that to Jeff. If you are meeting your goals, like don't stay stagnant, like you need to up yourself because that's where we're going.
Jen
To get uncomfortable.
Jessie
On the same thing the gym is talking about. You know, I we did that half marathon thing and I'm like, Jen, this is the worst thing. I don't ever want to do this again. And now here I am and I have this month doing it again because I actually did the things that I was supposed to do to get there.
Jessie
So it's just I'm not going backwards. I'm not going to.
Jen
Remember that time we said we were going to run on Fridays during lunch. Now we did it.
Mike
I I'm so glad you guys are athletes. There's some real athletes.
Jen
Here, so.
Jessie
You should see us.
Jen
You should see us on.
Jessie
The pickleball court. You just saying, Hmm.
Jen
Wow. Okay. Challenge accepted. Jessie, pickleball. Next time we're together. Okay, let's go. Now. All right, folks, thank you so much for listening. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Jessie. Holiday edition. That's a wrap. Oh, last question. That last question. Mike are you down with the OPT?
Mike
That's a wrap.
Jen
Wait. No, you're supposed to say.
Jessie
You know me.
Mike
Yeah, you know me. Then you're going back to the archives.
Jen
Naughty by nature.
Mike
Naughty by nature. Sorry. I was wrong. I was thinking of I get them all mixed up. Jan, you are so cool. I just want you to know that
Jen
That's Cap.
Mike
You are you guys are so cool. You guys are cool!
Jen
Hey, and we're going to end on that!
Mike
Merry Christmas. Merry Rizzmas
Jessie
No, no.
