Signs Online Studying Is Right for You

Hi there everyone! I'm jumping on the blog again to talk study strategies for aspiring real estate agents. As you may remember, I chose to study for my real estate licensing exam entirely online. But you also have the option of taking a live class. Both are legitimate. Both have impressive exam pass rates to recommend them. So, how do you know which one is right for you? Here are a few signs that online is best choice for you.

You Know how to design an effective study schedule and you know you will stick to it without outside supervision/structure. You can break down the large amount of content into manageable pieces, without getting overwhelmed by the whole. You are confident that you can accurately estimate how long each piece will take and then extrapolate that to determine a realistic target exam date.

You will show up for your studying shifts even if no one else knows you did. You know how to dig deeper on concepts or terms that you don't understand, and find the information you need online or in your textbooks. But you also know when you need to ask for help from an expert, how to do that, and aren't afraid to do so.

You Want to Go at Your Own Pace. Which, by the way, could be quicker or more slowly than an in-person class is likely to go. You don't want to be rushed through lessons that challenge you (for me that was Real Estate Math!), and you don't want to be held back on sections that you find easier. It would frustrate you equally to sit in a class and have to listen to concepts you already understand explained multiple times; or to feel like the only person in the room who was struggling with a concept and have the instructor move on before you were ready.

You Have an Accountability Partner Already. You have someone who has agreed to check-in with you regularly. Someone who knows the study goals (hours and exam date) you've set for yourself. Someone to whom you will have to confess if you don't reach them. Someone who will call you on it if your target exam date comes and goes and you're still re-reading lesson 5 from the Fundamentals course.

You Need Flexibility. Whether it's because of your work schedule, family or other obligations, you can't commit to being in a classroom on the same night every week for an extended period of time.

You're Comfortable with Technology. You're comfortable with computers and navigating online course formats. You know how to pace yourself so that you give your eyes a break from the screen. The idea of sitting in front of a computer for 90 hours over the course of a couple of months studying this stuff doesn't make you shudder.

You Don't Need Face-to-Face Time. It doesn't help you to discuss concepts with classmates, and/or you have people in your life who are happy to listen to you talk about what you're learning so that you can cement the concepts in your brain. You are okay with hours of independent work and you don't crave a sense of camaraderie in this process.

There Aren't Any Live Courses Available/The Timeframe of Live Courses Isn't Convenient. This one is pretty self-explanatory.

I want to close by saying that none of the qualities I've listed above are objectively better or worse than their opposites. They're just different. Different people work best in different environments, but it's not a value judgement. The idea really is to be honest with yourself about yourself and then pick strategies that will set you up for success.

If you have study tips or if you have questions please share them in the space below and we'll do our best to respond. Thanks!

Who Do We Want to Be?

This week is the week of sharing, apparently, because I'm popping back onto the blog to share another article with you. Click the link below to read it. It's a quick read, but an amazing story. Keller Williams Realty Greater Des Moines RISES ABOVE Unethical Business Practices.

This story represents who Keller Williams is as a company, in more ways than one, so I wanted to make sure as many people read it as possible. Companies draft mission statements and belief systems all the time. But when faced with a choice between living those principles and making a profit--well, there are plenty of stories about companies who choose the latter. I love this story because it's a great example of trusting that by doing the right thing, good things will come to you.

And if you read it and say, "that is the kind of company I want to work for," call or email me today.

The Story of Strings

Just stopping by the blog quickly today to share something I thought you all would appreciate. It's about the power of sequential mastery, which is a really interesting concept and the focus of Gary Keller's (yep, the "Keller" in Keller Williams) bestselling book, The One Thing. I'd highly recommend you read the book, but in the meantime, you can check out this quick video.

Click the link below to purchase The One Thingthrough Amazon. (In the interest of full disclosure, if you use this link I do receive a small commission on the sale.)

Adding One More Thing Into an Already Full Life

The older I get the more difficult it seems to take on new adventures. Not because I don't want to. Not because I'm lazier than I was before. Not because I'm not as smart or dedicated as I used to be. Not because my work ethic has changed. So, why is it so much harder now to do this whole real estate thing than it would have felt a decade ago? What's changed, if it's not me?

I think it's because the rest of my life is already full. And I mean that practically, not emotionally. I have a job. Well, two jobs, technically. I have family commitments. Social commitments. Financial commitments.

I'm tired at the end of every day. I go from one thing right into the next, often only knowing where I'm supposed to be because my day planner tells me. If you have kids, I can't even begin to imagine how impossible it might feel to add in: One. More. Thing.

I don't claim to have the answers that will work for everyone or make this experience easy. But, I can share some ideas. And maybe one of those ideas will help you. Or maybe it will spark another idea that will be the difference between whether this whole thing seems like a pipe dream or whether it starts to look so achievable that you can see your name on that real estate license.

I think one of the big keys is to be realistic about how much time you can devote to studying. This is dense stuff. And if you're going into it with little or no knowledge of the ins and outs of the real estate biz (I did!), it's going to be a lot of information to cram into your brain. Maybe it will take months instead of weeks for you to get through the material. Better to spend one or two hours on it a day, than to try to cram in two or three times that in order to finish in a few weeks. Whatever it is, I would emphasize taking that number and then figuring out how long it will take you complete the requisite study hours. Having a target date to work toward helps you stay accountable, but it also reminds you that this won't last forever! A refrain I've repeated to myself many times over the weeks I've been studying.

Give something else up, temporarily. There are only so many hours in the day. If you've got a full schedule already, chances are something is going to have to give in the short-term so you can find those hours to study. You could get up an hour early and spend that time with a cup of coffee and your study materials. (Make sure you're still getting your 7-9 hours though!) Or maybe you sacrifice your lunch hour at work a couple of times a week. Or maybe TV time has to go and you use an hour of that for studying. That's what I did some days. (There are some studies that suggest that information we learn before bed sticks with us better than information we learn earlier in the day anyway.)

No matter how many hours you do, be consistent. Working on it a little every day (or over several days) is way better than trying to hit your 10 hour/week goal on one day.

Write down your study time goals on a calendar or in a journal and then cross off the hours as you complete them. I don't know about you, but I need visual representations of progress to stay motivated. Crossing off one study session was really gratifying. I also set rewards for myself each week. If I met my study goal that week, then I got to go to a movie, or buy new music for my iPod. One reward at the very end was a spa day. Whatever little or big things would be nice rewards for you, plan some of those regularly.

Be sneaky with studying. Take some flash cards with key terms or concepts everywhere you go. Keep them in your coat pocket, your car, your purse, or the bag you take to work. When you find yourself with time on your hands--say sitting in a waiting room or waiting for a friend to show up for a coffee date--break out your cards and do a few minutes of studying. It all adds up!

Give yourself permission to say "no," and then do it. You will inevitably be invited to something or asked for help on a day and at a time that conflicts with studying. It's okay to say "no." And you're probably going to have to in order to save your sanity. There are obvious exceptions--work requirements, family commitments, etc.--that aren't really voluntary. But don't spread yourself too thin by agreeing to optional activities if you're already managing a jam-packed life and study schedule.

As always, please share any tips you have for fitting studying in to a busy life below. Thanks!

How to Succeed at the Studying Game

(Originally Written in September 2017)

Last week FedEx delivered a small box to my front porch. I had started on the Rockwell courses online several days before and was feeling pretty good about myself. I was moving through the lessons, taking notes, and thinking I ought to be ready to take the exam in a few weeks. No problem. And then... This cardboard box thudded onto my doorstep. And it was full of books.

Heavy books.

Dense books.

Books heavy and dense not just with paper and ink and words.

But heavy with reality. Heavy with responsibility. Heavy with the realization that I wasn't going to skate my way through this in a couple of weeks.

Before the books arrived I wouldn't have told you that I was taking this process lightly. At all. I knew it was a big deal. I knew it was important. I knew those things in theory. But in practice--well, that was another matter.

And that's where I found myself last Friday--vacating the land of theory and thrown headfirst into the land of practice.

I'm not going to say I freaked out about it. That wouldn't be accurate. But I did think, "holy moly, how do I do this?"

Do I read the books and then do the online lessons?

Do I do the online lessons first and then read the chapters?

Do I figure that with a multiple choice exam I have a 25% chance of guessing the right answer, and just cross my fingers?

When I emailed Rebecca I don't think I sounded panicked, but I think she got the gist because she emailed me back and said, "let's talk." So, we did. And she gave me a path to follow for studying, which I'm going to share with you now.

The Method. I'm doing  all the online coursework first. Working through each lesson, taking all of the pop quizzes and chapter tests. Saving the books for later, if I need them.

Rockwell has a feature called, The Cram with Sample Exams. So, now I'm working through that and then reading the chapters in the book that correspond to the areas of information that I don't have as strong of a grasp on.

Here's my advice for structuring this process, outside of how you approach the material.

Set Realistic, Time-Bound Goals. Take the total study time in hours and then look at your schedule. Figure out how many hours per week you can realistically devote to studying. If you have a full-time job it's probably less than if you are working part-time or not working at all. If you have children or other family commitments, that probably decreases your study time too. In my case, I decided I could do 20 hours per week. Then I literally penciled into my calendar the hours each day when I would be studying. I made it an appointment and didn't schedule anything else during those periods.

Identify the actual hours on the actual days you'll be studying. Picking 20 hours a week as a goal is useless if there's no way you can realistically complete that many hours.

Set an Exam Date. I couldn't actually schedule my exam until I finished my required study hours. But, I counted out how many weeks it would take me to work through the material, given the weekly goals I set for myself, and then picked a week when I planned to take the exam. And I wrote it on my calendar and told my accountability coach (see below) what it was.

Track Your Time. I noted in an Excel spreadsheet when I clocked in for studying and when I clocked out. I also made note of the lesson I worked on that day and if it was particularly difficult or if I scored lower on the final quiz, I made a note to study that topic more in the book or revisit it online during my review period.

Create External Accountability. Find someone who will serve as a check on your adherence to your study plan. I email Rebecca every Friday afternoon and tell her whether I met my study goal for the week. It's really easy to skip a study session if there's no one who will know if you do.

Leave Time for Review. But Not Too Much. I built in a week and a half after I finished working through the requisite hours for general review, and for concentrated review of those sections that particularly challenged me. But I also know that I'm a perfectionist, so if I didn't limit my review time I'd keep studying for months and maybe never feel ready to take the exam.