18 May A Day in the Life of an ICONIC Broker
Real Estate is my passion. For close to 20 years, I have tweaked my lifestyle to enhance my performance as a professional. Each day presents different opportunities to convert information into income for our clients and ultimately our firm. Years of fine tuning and establishing my routine, enforcing my commitments and strengthening my relationships with my word enables me to not only be successful in my craft, but provides the foundation for ICONIC and its team members success.
In this week’s post I’m sharing a peek into the way I structure my days for optimal performance. I’d be very interested to hear from you about your routine, special elixirs and witchcraft that make you a superman or woman, email me here.
Rest
Setting up for ideal rest, is your best chance for a productive day, otherwise you start off at a disadvantage. I NEVER sleep near my phone. As an entrepreneur, I need to be on my A game at all times. This is not always easy with 3 kids under 3; they have a fun way of throwing a wrench in your ideal work set up. Generally, I keep my phone in the kitchen, and try to leave it there when I walk in from work, and keep it there until I head to the office. I am not always successful, but being present in the task at hand is fundamental to preforming optimally. Peak performance is not limited to the office, being the father and husband I want to be to my family requires giving them my all when I am with them, the way I give my work my all when I am with it.
Rise and Shine
My mornings typically start around 5 AM, I do not use an alarm clock, I just naturally rise. If I am lucky, the house is still quiet and I use the next 15-20 minutes, to review my thoughts, create the intentions, and begin to set priorities for the day. I often add meditation to my routine and have recently enlisted the Headspace app to help me with this. Before getting in the shower I have about a 10 minute workout to get my blood flowing, push-ups, squats and planks in a cycle. After dressing, the balance of the time spent prior to the family awakening is consumed voraciously digesting news articles from various sources; I love the Flipboard app to do so. It creates a virtual magazine of topics and sources I follow, such as Business of Fashion, Eater, Forbes, NYT, WSJ, Detroit News, Freep, Crain’s and the like, with a Nespresso double shot.
Dad mode engaged
I help my wife get the kids fed; diapers changed, dressed and start their morning. If you have kids, you likely know how much they appreciate structure throughout the day, I would assert us adults benefit dramatically from it as well.
Commute
On the commute I take on a variety of tasks. I always check in with my ICONIC partner, Jacob, to make sure we’re on the same page. After we touch base, I turn on the news to catch up on local and national stories and the stock markets. Once in the 8 AM hour I return missed calls and make calls to keep deals and projects on track. I will often schedule one or two coffee meetings before 9 AM to catch up with folks and start the day off with variety.
Office Arrival
On a perfect day when I arrive at ICONIC’s office in the Ford Building, I open my calendar to a few key things that I like to keep at the top of my head:
- I Create Opportunities Now (through) Intentional Collaboration
- Always Serve and Provide Value
- Manage my heath, design my future
- What am I giving?
- Communicate
- Where can I push
Before embarking on my calls, emails, and meetings I like to read these values, keep them at my core, and push them through everything I do.
I review my appointments; make sure there are no surprises and make certain I am prepared for any meeting or upcoming calls. I log into our customer relationship management (CRM) system where I start to tackle my task lists, take detailed notes and schedule my follow up activities. I try to compartmentalize the different attributes of my business and tackle them one at time until complete: emails, new calls, call backs, active deals, prospecting, research, team, mentoring, ICONIC operations and marketing are several of my buckets.
When it comes to eating out, I do my fair share, there is an old saying in brokerage, “never eat alone.” The concept being, everyone you meet, or eat with, could be your next deal. That said, time management is the top priority of any productive broker; coffee or tea, a quick walk around the block, a workout, are all great ways to keep meeting with your centers of influence, hear about deals, and find ways to make them happen. I try to take a quarter hour break a couple times a day for a coffee or a short walk with someone to refresh my focus and keep a variety of people on my horizon.
Digital 24/7
Over the past decade, technology has completely changed the way brokers operate. Not only are we able to store our progress and data points in CRM systems, but we’re able to reach prospects via email, social media and text messaging in addition to the traditional phone. This requires near 24/7 digital attention in order to properly engage and communicate with the right people. Letting your clients know that you have them on your mind and you are working on opportunities for them is an important part of what we do. The advent of the smart phone empowers brokers in so many ways, one of the most useful for me is being able to log notes on conversations at any time or place.
Continuing Education and Certifications
As with any profession, real estate brokers need to keep up on the industry, certifications and market information. The state requires brokers to earn continuing education credits in order to maintain a valid real estate license each year. However this is only a small piece of staying on top of the industry. Empty buckets of time are easily filled with research and project development. Participating in events that gather industry experts is equally important, like the ULI Spring Meeting earlier this month or next week’s International Council of Shopping Centers RE-Con event in Las Vegas are valuable pieces of being successful in our industry.
The beauty of being a commercial real estate broker are the infinite possibilities and the daily variety. Each and every conversation, chance encounter, and business you frequent are opportunities waiting to be created. While I strive for structure and consistency to yield my highest output, I also have a ton of fun, meet the most interesting people and interface with amazing businesses all of whom I get to provide value to in some capacity, while designing my future.
Kees Janeway is the managing partner at ICONIC Real Estate and has over a decade of experience as a commercial real estate professional. If you’re interested in getting superb mentorship and working at ICONIC contact Kees to learn more about current job