KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Work-Life Balance Strategies for Real Estate Pros

Episode Date: February 26, 2026

Summary:This episode provides actionable strategies for real estate agents to maintain a healthy work-life balance and avoid burnout. It focuses on the importance of setting and communicating clear boundaries with clients, leveraging technology for automation, and delegating tasks to free up time for high-leverage activities. The content offers a tactical framework for building a business that supports a sustainable and fulfilling personal life, emphasizing that success in the long term requires both productivity and personal well-being.

It is a welcome, a huge warm welcome to everybody and to another part of elite masterminds. A session where I have on board two of our top agents and they're going to experience certain things that they experience in their real estate careers as well as in their personal careers. And that's giving a bit of a hint of the topic that we're going to be discussing today, which is balancing that work and personal life. It's so difficult as an entrepreneur in this real estate space. But before I get into it, I like to share the different levels of agents that we work with here at EXP. And most people only are recognizing two levels. But in my view, I actually recognize four different levels of agents that are working with EXP. You see, at level one agents, we like to give full recognition to somebody that's newly onboarded.

It's somebody new to the team. It's always great to come into a company and organization and actually get that warm feeling of being recognized in joining. So for me, that is a level one. And I really love that recognition of new people that join in. We then level up to level two. And level two, well, it's when you start doing deals. As a productivity coach, I am so driven to know that agents who are actually entrepreneurs in the real estate space are actually making a life by design. They are selling properties, they're earning commission, and they're growing.

So at level two, it's the recognition of every single deal that gets done. And that is so important. I remember as an agent doing a deal, ringing that bell, getting that recognition. It gives that nice warm feeling inside that you want to go out and you want to do another one. So it's so, so important. Then we get to our level three recognitions in my book. A level three is an agent that. that has now exceeded the standard productivity,

and they've become a cap agent. You see, as a cap agent, they're earning that 100% commission, you heard me right, 100% commission, less the 4% transactional fee. And that is how you start living a life by design, because where else can you earn 96% commission for a very small cloud monthly fee?

That changes everything in your particular life. And then we get to our most elite of actual levels. And that's our level four in my books. And that's our icon agents. You see, as an icon agent, you earn just more than anything else. You more than just the recognition of becoming an icon agent. You actually, that 150,000 ran that goes towards your capping when you're about to cap, you actually receive that back in EXPI shares.

And that comes from the company. In this and essence, you actually get all your money that you've paid in, you actually get it all back. How do you achieve that status? Well, you'll see an icon agent, 35 transactions or more, 3 million or more in gross commission. That is an agent that's really excelled in their particular business. So we've got those four levels, and that's why I like to do these elite masterminds, because I pick the best of the best, to talk about things that are really down to earth. And today, I really want to start digging into the balancing that work and that personal life.

Because so too often we can start at 6 in the morning. We go until 10 at night. We do that seven days a week. We forget about our family, but it's the family that is so important. It's the reason why we do everything. So joining me today, I've got two of our top agents. I've got Alet and Badin. And Alet, I want to start with yourself.

Give us a quick introduction. How long have you been in real estate? How long have you been with EXP? And I know that you've got a very unique story because you travel all over the country in a caravan, which is a story that we'd all love to do a specific session on. So, Alet, how are you doing today and give us a little background of who you are? Thank you very much, Stuart. It is a privilege to be part of this group. Yes, I started my real estate journey in 2015 and then only when the kids were out of school, I went full-time into real estate, and that was in 2019. And I joined EXP when they opened in South Africa. I joined in December 2020. And I really loved, oh, I still love our journey with EXP. And then since 2022, we started traveling full-time.

So we normally spend about 30 days in a town or at a spot, and then we move on. to the next. And yes, it takes a lot of self-discipline and being working organized to be able to still run your business while you are kind of on holiday all the time. And last year we've spent five months in the USA and while we were still working. And that's part of why I love this model so much because you can still work no matter where you are located where in the country or even outside of the country. And I also, as an agent, I've grown a lot. So we do training, coaching and mentoring for other agents as well. And last year, we were privileged enough to, together with all the mentoring agents, I closed 42 deals for the year, which was quite something

that I'm proud of. And that is what we've done while traveling, but we are very focused on working while it's time to work and enjoying life when it's not time to work. That's fantastic. And that's why we call you the touring property practitioner, because you're literally living the touring space and traveling from town to town every 30 days and still managing to do all that productivity. That's why we've got you on the session. So thanks for joining us today.

But Dean, I want to jump over to yourself. And I know that your story actually has quite a strong history in giving confidence to young individuals to really give themselves that exposure in life. And that's really come through in the conversations that I've had with you. So give us a bit of a background. How long have you been in a real estate? How long you've been with EXB? And anything that's really highlighted in your career. Thank you so much, Stuart.

It's as I let's say, a really big. big privilege to be here yeah well i've got a story of to tell i am not long in real estate um i was in office of termations but i must tell you guys there's a lot a big difference between selling a switchboard that you know your product and it's your own product than selling a property that is not your product at all i mean you have to sell property that you don't believe in something sometimes. So it makes it more difficult. And I was in public speaking. I did speeches for children, high school and primary school, for the Arctic of fear. And then I was a modeling coach. We specialized in international performances and then a little bit of

photographic modeling, magazine, TV, that kind of thing. So it's quite very, very, very different where I come from. I'm about three and a little bit more than three and a half years in the real estate industry. And I am a very big, I analyze a lot of things. So I'm still in the process. I'm really a privilege to cap. My first year was the dates was a little bit out. But according to my I was capping and the second year and the third year. I really hope that 2020 for five will be another capping year for me and I read a lot of books. I love to have a lot of wisdom about everything. I want to know it in big detail why, what, when, where and that kind of thing. So this topic is very special for me as well. Steer. Thank you so much. And I want to

share with you just two books that I have a little bit of knowledge on. It's the Atomic Habits of James Clea and of course the 80-20 manager from Richard Schaach. So yeah, that is who I am and I hope that we're going to have an awesome session today. Absolutely. And two amazing books, read both of them and really set those foundations of who, you are as an individual. And I find that knowledge without knowledge just creates levels of fear. So more knowledge you have, you reduce that fear. But the reason why we've got these two top agents with us is for many times, as an agent's, your diary is almost at a level of desperation.

And I say that, inverted commas, why? Well, you're desperate to close those deals. You're desperate to earn that particular commission. So what do you do? You start putting in those extra hours. You see, there was somewhere in this world, someone said, the harder you work, the more money you make. And unfortunately, that hard work that you're starting to put in actually has a negative effect on your personal life, whether it's your health or your family. So it's so important to actually understand it's not about working harder. It's about working smarter to earn the money. And that's what defines the difference between a lot of agents in the industry. Now, when it comes down to the strategies that get used, because I know for myself when I was an agent,

I got wrapped into, hey, I've got to do this appointment at 7 p.m. It's 8 p.m. It's 10 p.m. And you just get hooked into this time, which you just can't get out of. So, Alex, I want to jump onto yourself, because with you touring, you've got to have very high levels of discipline to make sure that, one, you're not doing too much of the holiday. side because some of the venues that you go to, we are totally jealous about. And it could be easier for you to spend more time in the personal space than in the business space. So what strategies do you use to make sure that you maintain that work-life balance? I think one of the main things that we do is our planning. We have a list of things that have to happen every day or

every week or may sometimes every second week. So we first slot that into our diary and then we also slot in our personal time. So depending on where we are traveling to and what activities is available, we try and fit that into our calendar so that when we work, we focus on work and when we relax, we don't have to worry about the work because you know that everything that you have to get done has got is slotted into your diary and you will get to that. So let's let's run a little scenario because you're on day 30 of the month. You're actually ready to pack up and move to another destination.

But in the same breath, you've got three, four clients that's breathing down your neck. And they are wanting to close a deal. They want to get into a house, get those keys, etc. And that can be a bit of a juggle because one, you've got a venue that you've got to get out of. And two, you've got to deal with those particular clients. Now, I know that you've experienced this many, many times over the years. What is the strategy that you use when you're starting to get pressure from both a personal perspective and a professional perspective at the same time?

How do you prioritize them so that everything just comes? out so much smoother? I think it comes down to planning again and setting expectations. So sometimes if you just communicate well with your clients and tell them when to expect what from you, they won't suddenly decide to phone you this morning and want things from you if you have either told them that you will get it by Monday or whatever the scenario is. And I mean it's true that things don't always work out the way that you plan it and um i mean i've done meetings we've done offer to purchases while we are traveling so um as long as you've got your system set up and you have accessible everything is accessible to you and like i said setting that expectation

from your client um so that they know when to expect what from you that is i think what we do most to make sure that we don't get overwhelmed on a specific stage in our life with personal and business stuff. Absolutely. And expectations is actually one of the keys in communication to alleviate any kind of stresses. Now, I want to take this expectation just to a higher level. When you're setting an expectation with a client,

is it something where it's just a basic message, an email, a phone call? How do you set that expectation with those clients so they understand the boundaries? and know exactly what's going to happen at this. So is it a message? Is it an email? Is it a phone call?

Is it a combination of all of those? Well, normally, my main platform that I use to communicate with my clients is WhatsApp. So most of the time it will be a message. And when you set that expectation, always give yourself some time so that you can act faster than what the expectation is that you. you've set. So if you set your client, I should be able to send it to you by Monday, try and get it to them over the weekend and then maybe do a follow up with a phone call or something. At the end, you want to make sure that your client feel special because you went out of your way to help them get what they want and without putting yourself under too much pressure to be able to, you have to do

something now or leave something that is important to you to get this thing done. Perfect. So I summarize that up, rather over-deliver and under-promise, because that's not going to put any kind of expectation that you can actually over-deliver on something that you just can't deliver on, especially when you know and you've got your timelines. And thank you. I'm going to come back to you. So, Bedin, I want to jump to yourself.

You know, you've had this experience being in different industries. It has different levels of pressure. Now that you came into the real estate game where one, the product isn't your product. You don't really like it or you might love it. You've got a different level of stress because you need to market, you need to sell it. So you need to make it at your own. But how do you actually set your expectations or set that communication with your clients so that you can say to them, hey by the way, at 5 p.m. it's family time. What do you do with your particular clients to make sure that

those boundaries are set? Thank you, Stuart. I think to be honest with you, nobody can be 100% perfect on timing. You can't. We are all human beings. So I think the most important thing that we must remember, if we can just change 1% of our habits in a positive way, it means that you can grow as interest grow, you know? Interest grow and your habits or the small habits that you grow for the future is going to make a lot of change. So if clients wants to view all they want to use my private time, I'm not very good in that specific thing because I always put the client first. You won't believe it at night. I negotiate sometimes, but I know it's very, very important to, you know, my husband is coming to me and say, you know what, but it's enough. You know what time it is? it's enough. And then I would take my phone, I will put it on silent or and I will just say

emergency calls only. Because we don't do that, you're going to overwork yourself. And if you do that, you're going to have a problem with that as well. So yes, it's very difficult to do that, but I think it's also important to make sure that your physical health and mental health is also important. I want to expand on that little point of yours where I know what it's like. I remember sitting at 10 o'clock at night and my wife saying to me, do you really have to make that phone call now? And my response was, yes, I have to because I thought that was the most important thing in

my life. I want to find out from you to expand it. How important is the support of your husband through this particular process to make sure that you have that work life balance for yourself, Berdine. How important is that for your husband? I think it's very, it's very, very, very important. You know what? If you work and you have your laptop in front of you and you see that little square thing in front of you, you do not look left, you do not look right, you do not see the sun going down coming up. If there is not a partner next to you to say, hi, Badin, just look at your watch. Do you realize where?

you are now because if you're very passionate in what you're doing you don't feel things around you you are always in a hurry just to give service and to help people because i believe and you won't believe it i actually wrote myself a prayer steward i want you to to give me time for this because i think this is a very important thing um that i think is i don't know where it's it is but I always prayer every day yeah I've got it that I always say I'm the instrument to provide homes and business and spaces for people and just for a safe place and letting your love and light shine through me bringing glory to your name and I market these properties manage them build them do the administration I believe that the Lord will bless me with a

their reward. So if I live with that and I have the help with God and I have the help of my husband and I prioritize and I grow only 1% of my habits. By the end of the year I'm going to grow 12% and I think all of that makes a very strong group and that will make you successful. That's what I believe. And I love that you bring all of that in together because one of the areas, you know, using mantras and affirmations and prayers, they all fall into that category meditation. It's to get your mindset to that positive space because in a negative mindset, you actually lose your focus. You lose your path when you're actually going forward. So it's very important. And I want to circle back just to the very last little point of that, which is that

1%. You know, James Clear makes it very, very strong comment in his particular book. Just do 1% better. every day. Just change one habit, one percent every single day. And my question to you is, what is your 1% that you're focusing on the moment? What is that 1% that's making you the better individual to take those steps going forward? Stuart, there's a very important thing that I learn the models internationally because the preparations for the goals to go internationally is big. I mean, it's more than between 80 and 120 countries that came together and they have to be perfect, 24-7, may have to be prepared. And there's a saying that I always say to them, what you are is God's gift to you. But what you become is your gift to God.

And it's very difficult to grow 1% every day because yesterday you didn't even accomplish that 1% and maybe. tomorrow you are not even ready for it if you can grow only one percent per month it will make you 12 percent further and every second of your life is very very important if you can say to yourself what did i do the last 60 seconds of my life to grow or to grow into my business into my personality into my prayer, into my beliefs, into my meditation, in everything that I do, what will you answer yourself? And everybody that's on the meeting today, if you can have only 1% per month and you use your every 60 seconds of your life productively, where do you think you will be in one or two months from now? Absolutely. And what are the key?

areas here that you're speaking about Burdina is when you're in control of the path that you're going forward, you're actually able to make a choice. The choice is, am I going to be focusing on my professional goals, which is that personal space? Am I going to be focusing on my personal space? And this is when you're in control. When you're out of control, well, then you're going to be at the demands of your particular clients or of your family that will control you in your path. Aletta, I want to jump onto yourself because with you traveling all over the place, you're not doing this alone. And you've got an extremely strong support structure. And Paul's probably sitting in the distant background listening into this particular session.

How important is Paul and your family in this journey that you're going through? Paul is very important to me. and I think because I've got such a passion for what I do, it's part of the reason why he joined me in real estate. And it's absolutely a privilege to be able to share what we do with him and to work together because it's kind of we're on the same page now and working towards the same goal. So I really love having him by my side and working together on the same projects.

every day. And I could actually hear the emotion in your voice because it actually comes from such an authentic place. So, Alet, I'm staying with yourself. We work hard. We spend our time focusing and setting those expectations for our clients, making sure that we actually fulfill that business objective. And everyone has a goal. Your goal will be different to somebody else's. but I really want to ask you the question towards your personal side. What is the personal goals that you are doing this for? What is the reason why you're working so hard becoming a top producing agent? What is it for your personal life?

What is that goal for you? And Paul? For me personally, it is, well, I want to make a difference in the lives of the people that I meet. And obviously, we want to get to a point where we, have financial freedom so that we have enough money to give away for whatever we want to and make a difference in that way but also have time available so that we can spend it with friends and family and that brings me back to that kind of where do you get the line from its personal time now and not and something very small that you can do is like set up a WhatsApp greeting message or

an away message where you put your working hours or tell your client when they can expect to hear from you. So when you are spending time with your family, you can be fully present with your family, not have to check your phone because you received a message. Because in your automatic reply, it will tell your client when they can expect feedback from you. So small things that you can implement in your business can help you to make sure that you've got that balance and that when you spend time with your family or your friends, you are fully present there, but when you work, you are also fully present there. So if I heard you correctly, you've actually set office hours. What time you start, what time you

finish, I'm not working at 7 p.m. at nights, I'm not working on a Sunday morning. You've got these office hours that is actually presented like a business. Am I hearing you correctly? That is correct, Stuart. And even, I mean, when we travel to the US, you are in transit for two days where you do not really have connection. You cannot communicate with your clients. So every time if something like that happens, we just set up that message in such a way that our client can understand, this is what is happening in my life. And that is why you will have to wait two days before I get back to you.

And you would be surprised at how welcoming people are just when you are. open and honest about what is going on. I mean, it happens when when you get an inquiry and somehow it got lost between the noise and two weeks later you came across this message and you never replied. Just picking up the phone and talking to that client and telling them this and I'm very sorry. I don't know how I missed it but I did. I'm sorry for that. Can I still help you? So I think being open and honest is something that can really go very far. as long as you practice that in your business. And yes, like setting that expectation so that they know why you are not replying immediately.

And I mean, you can still decide if it's like after hours, your client did get that message, but you can still go look at your WhatsApp and decide whether you want to engage now or not. And something else that I use a lot is WhatsApp labels, because once you've read that, at WhatsApp, the message is read. You don't, you can easily forget about it. So I would set, put a label on it. Let's say follow up or this one needs to a feedback or even when clients wants to view a property, I never ever jump on the phone and arrange the viewing there and then. I always tell them, when are you available? I will confirm. And that gives me time to go speak to, because I need to arrange with another agent as well to get that viewing organized.

So I speak to the buyer, I speak to the seller and another agent. And that gives me time to go and make sure everything is in order. Everyone has got everyone's number. They've got the address, all of that. It doesn't need to happen in between while you're, let's say, doing shopping or busy with another viewing, you are trying to arrange this. Just tell your client you will confirm. And then I've got a time slot in my diary where I arrange.

arrange the viewings. So when I do that, I focus on that and I make sure everything is right. So I think you give a better service because you get, give proper information when you do that. It's not somewhere in between and you maybe forget to send the address or things like that. Fantastic. So thank you, Alet. So it shows that Alet is definitely not a robot. She is a human being. She does from time to time miss a message, but she has a system in place to help. her. She's not just relying on memory. And being that human factor is so, so important, because that's what brings you down to ground. That's what brings you to that point of knowing why you're doing things every single day. Bedid, I want to jump onto you and just ask you

the question, why. You know, we're going through in our business world. We're making the money. We're doing that. You're now coming on to third. You're going to be a cap agent this year. I know that for a fact. We've had those conversations. So you've got my support. And I'm believe in you that you're going to do that. But there's got to be a reason why you're actually doing that. And most of the time, it is connected onto our personal space, which gives us that balance and that life. What is your reason for being so productive? What is your reason for wanting to become a cap agent for the fourth time? What is your reason behind that? Stuart, that is a really very personal question, but I love to answer that because I think

everybody in life has got a purpose and my purpose is I really want to be debt free. I want my property to be paid up and then I want to go out in life and make a bigger difference. You know, you do make a difference and you're passionate about the difference and that kind of And remember, if you walk your life path and you turn around and you see that footstep, sometimes alone, sometimes not, you know the whole story. Then you think by yourself, you know, how many houses that I sell? How many lives did I change? And it's not about a house.

It's about their life journey. And that is what my prayer is all about, is your change. by changing the people where they're living is going to change their life path. And that is my passion. That is why I want to make a difference in everybody's life that I meet in my life. And it's important that they will see me as a person that is a life-changing opportunity for them to grow and to live their life journeys. And thank you so much for sharing that video. And I know that it's personal because a why statement is a personal statement.

It is something, the reason why we get up in the morning. But what I really want each and of you one of you to take away from this particular session is our top performing agents are not robots. They're human beings. They set expectations. They know why they do it. But one area that's absolutely key, they're not chasing the money. Neither of them said that they're chasing only the money so that they can have the international holidays and live life that's lavish. Yes, pay off debts, but when you look at paying off debts, that supports your personal life.

That gives your family, that freedom to live the life by design. You know, a statement that was a quote that was shared to me many, many years ago, and to this day, I still believe in it. It's not about the money. It's about being the best that you can be. And when you start to look at that and you start to explore what you can actually do, you'll actually start seeing this work-life balance in a different picture. You see, work is important. It pays the bills.

But the personal side, the family is actually probably even more important. Because as we experience through our lives, as you start going through, people move from job to job, from industry to industry. but families remain. Families stick together. And when you find that you lose the family, you actually get to a point in your life, well, why?

Why am I doing this? And you'll start getting lost. So it's so important for you to have this work-life balance, using the strategies that have been shared today to help you grow in your particular business. So, Badin, Alet, I want to thank both of you for coming on to today. And Alet, just a closing comment.

Any final thought or comment that you'd like to add in, just so that it's a parting words. Yes, Stuart, something else that I just want to mention is to prioritize tasks, decide what is important. And I've heard that there isn't something like procrastination. It's only about priority. If something is important to you, you'll find time to do that. and then batching your activities. So when you look at emails, look at emails.

When you're looking at your messages, look at your messages. Try and put the similar tasks together, and you will be surprised at how much time you can save if you focus on one thing at a time. And just by setting realistic goals and breaking them down into smaller tasks, that will help you to get to where you want to be. And like you said, we're not robots and we're human and life happens. But if you've got a plan, you can always go back to that plan.

And that plan will always change and always continue to grow. But if you've got something that will help you to stay focused, that will definitely help you on working smarter and not harder. Absolutely. Thank you, Alet, for those wise words. And, Bedeen, anything from yourself, any final comments will thought that you'd like to share in the closing yes steward i think if we can get rid of the waste time that we spend and spend time more productively we must remember we are on a normal job i know with expe you all have your own business you just work under the umbrella of expe which is

awesome it's absolutely fantastic but if you are a real estate agent you must remember member, you have an eight to five job actually, even more than that. And use every second and minute that you can very productively. And you have to prioritize which is more important than something else. If you are busy with CPD points, for instance, but there is a call coming in, you know that that client is really waiting a long time to view. Stop what you're doing. Prioritize what is important and not important and say to yourself okay that's the most important thing that's the second that's the third and then take it from there i think that is the most important thing that you have to do and do not you you can have your time off but decide beforehand which day am i going to take off

one day a week i think it's enough maybe if you're going away for a while because an estate agent have to have once a month just to break out of your whole area and just see something else be in a different environment around you and then get back fully and go on and i just want to say that following that is very important is don't wait for something to happen let it happen and to let it happen you have to be productive in your time that is the big big rule for a successful estate agent Fantastic. Thank you so much, Burdine. So wise word from two of our top elites mastermind agents, really giving you the insight to get that work-life balance so that you're in control of your life so that the stress, the anxiety can start to reduce. You start to becoming more productive. You start becoming one of our level three, I cap agents or level four icon agents where you can actually work towards. So again, I want to thank you so much, both of you. you, Burdine and Alet, for coming on to this particular session. This is Elite Masterminds where I bring on our top performing agents, have these discussions with them. So look out for future sessions

where we're going to be talking about other topics, topics that's really going to help you in your particular business. So from ourselves, Stuart, I want to thank you for coming on. Until next time, it's been an absolute honor and privilege. So cheers for now.