On My Mind: To Office Day or Not To Office Day?

Thoughts from Coach Rob Shore about the art, science and lifestyle of wholesaling, for wholesalers and their leaders.

Episode #6: To Office Day or Not To Office Day?

Survey results: The Results: Wholesaler Office Days

7 Ideas For More Productive Wholesaler Office Days

What’s on your mind? Email me at rob[at]wholesalermasterminds.com

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Transcription:

Welcome to this episode of On My Mind.

I get something in my head, and I want to tell you about it, and ask you what’s on your mind?

I’m talking to a client yesterday, coaching a client about office days. And he said that he never takes office days.

And anytime I hear that, I kind of shudder.

When I was raised in this business, a couple of decades ago, I was informed that four days a week you’re out in the field, and one day a week is your office day, and the office day is critically important, because it allows you to catch up on your administrative work, it allows you to make scheduling calls, it allows you to do your outbound marketing, it allows you to connect on a more meaningful basis with your internal partner.

They’re really meaningful days.

And this particular wholesaler didn’t take them.

Well, as I began to dig around as to why he didn’t take them, a couple of things came to light. First thing came to light was his office environment at home was not conducive to having an office day, so he chose not to take one.

He had a few kids, and his wife was great in terms of being a stay-at-home mom, but understandably having a couple of kids with an office in the house, that can lead to some interruptions. And he was getting interrupted constantly, so he just figured, well, it’s easier for me not to take office days, which I think is the wrong answer completely.

I was talking to a wholesaler a few years ago, and he basically said to me, “If I’m in my office, I don’t feel like I’m working”.

Which is also the wrong answer as far as I’m concerned.

Now, this isn’t necessarily completely prevalent, but boy oh boy, I wonder if office days aren’t as frequent as they should be to make sure your practice is humming along in the right effective and efficient fashion.

We did a survey back in 2014 at Wholesaler Masterminds, and we asked 227 respondents how often do you take dedicated office days?

And here, it was 63% said once per week, two to three times per month was 23%, and then maybe I take one monthly was 8%, and 6% never. 14% of folks maybe or never took office days, and 23% took them only two to three times per month.

Part of the problem is you may not be feeling that you’re getting a lot done in your office day.

How many times do you walk into an office day, you put yourself down in your chair at 7:00 a.m., you walk out at 6:00 p.m., and you look around and go, “What the hell just happened? I don’t even know what I did today.”

I think one of the secrets that more wholesalers need to know about, and need to practice with religion, is time blocking your day, making sure that your day inside your office is on your calendar by time block.

7:30 to 8:00 o’clock I’m going to do an email.

From 8:00 to 8:30, there’s my divisional call.

From 9:00 to 9:30, I’m going to wrap up my weekly expenses.

9:00 to 10:00 prime-time, I’m going to making calls to advisors. I’ve got thank you calls and big ticket calls and first ticket calls and outstanding issue calls.

10:00 to 10:30, I’ll open up email again.

Oh, and by the way, during of this, you need to have all of your alerts off. If it dings, if it buzzes, if it pops up, if it slides in, get rid of all that crap. All that is a complete distraction.

10:30 to 10:45, I’m going to take a break. Yes, a scheduled break.

10:45 to 11:30, I’ll make more advisor calls. I’m going to pound it out. Thank you calls, big ticket, first ticket, outstanding issues, etc.

11:30 to 12:30, I’m going to schedule for future appointments, because I’ve been forward scheduling, so I don’t necessarily have that many appointments I need to call for three weeks out.

12:30 to 1:00, I’m going to eat, I’m going to stretch, I’m going to walk, I’m going to drink a glass of water, I’m going to make sure my body’s being taken care of.

1:00 to 1:30, I’m going to do my next email session. That’s going back to my inbox rather than letting my inbox control me.

1:30 to 3:30, I’m going to prep for the week ahead, this includes advisor reconnaissance, ordering materials, making your travel plans, etc.

From 3:00 to 3:45, I’m taking another break. I’m going to drink some more water. I’m going to get up. I’m going to stretch.

3:45 to 4:15 is a weekly team meeting. This is going to be my internal wholesaler, my scheduler, my admin, etc.

4:15 to 4:45 is my email session number four, going back to that dreaded place called my inbox.

4:45 to 5:00, I’m going to clean up, get my last-minute items done.

At 5:00 o’clock, I’m going to get up, I’m going to leave the office, and I’m really going to get up, walk out, close the door behind me, and hopefully not come back.

You’ve got to set expectations with family and friends about an office day is really an office day. You’re not home. It’s an office day.

And if you need to, you really should look at an offsite location. That’s what I talked to this gentleman about whose kids, though again stay-at-home mom was doing the best job possible, kids will be kids, interruptions will be interruptions, dogs will be dogs.

If you need to go find an offsite location. Go find a Wework location. Go find a co-working location where you can actually be productive. And no, Starbucks doesn’t count in my humble opinion, too many interruptions, too many distractions.

Office days are a vital part of having a vital wholesaling practice.

That’s what’s on my mind. What’s on yours? Email me, Rob[at]wholesalermasterminds.com.