I have no clue if this post will be of any value but I would like to share my experience of being an agent over the past year. I want to say that being an agent can be very hard. I was not aware of how many different ways you could go about building your business. I also think it is important to understand that you are VERY MUCH building your own business. What does that mean? 

1. You have to show up and be ready to learn. How you do business is more important than how much business you do. Preparation, planning, and learning are vital. I have made a ton of mistakes, from how I handled conversations with clients and agents, to not being disciplined in the day-to-day. Prospecting, follow-up, and business organization are all massive components of the business that could and should be broken down into manageable daily tasks. Door knocking, cold calling, social media, etc. None of these business builders mean anything if you can't commit some kind of time to implement, fail, adjust, and implement again. At least that has been my experience.

2. The Dunning-Kruger effect is very real. My first deal is in the top 5 most stressful processes I have ever been through. I did a terrible job of setting expectations, I missed issues that could and should have been addressed early, and I generally thought I knew more than I did. My point is that podcasts and reading books help with the learning curve but they don't make you an expert. I will die on this hill, and if you don't agree, that is fine with me. Experience will always be more important than book knowledge. Please do not misunderstand what I am trying to say, knowledge is powerful but only when you combine it with action. Just be self-aware enough to accept you won't have everything ironed out. 

3. You can only control what you can control. It sounds so dumb when I say that out loud but I believe this to be true. I spent too many hours stressing about stuff I had ZERO control over. I was worried about things like my client's finances and what the other agent was doing. Are they making the best financial choice? Why won't they answer my phone calls? Did I do something wrong? Do they want to back out of the deal? I would go on and on about different scenarios that never happened. Do what you can to the best of your ability and address things ahead of time if you can. Other than that, pieces will fall where they fall. 

I may not be qualified to give advice but these are some of the takeaways from my first year as an agent. Do with this information what you want. I know the market has drastically changed since I got licensed but I look forward to my second full year. I imagine I am going to learn just as much, if not more than I did this past year.