In this episode of The Student of the Game, Brad tackles the challenge of staying focused and productive during the summer months, a season known for its distractions and potential to derail progress. He explores the idea of keeping “one oar in the water,” a metaphor for maintaining forward motion even when family events, vacations, and downtime start to pull you off course.

Midway through the year is the perfect time to pause, reflect, and realign with your goals. Rather than slipping into autopilot, he encourages you to take stock of where you are and where you want to go. 

Summer doesn’t have to be a setback. It can be a setup. 

Timestamps

00:00 - Intro

01:21 - Managing Summertime Distractions

07:08 - Recognizing the Mid-Year Funk

11:50 - Getting Back in the Game: Reconnecting with Your Mission

19:10 - Halftime Reflections and New Beginnings

Noll Team Real Estate

SINCE 2003, Noll Team Real Estate HAS BEEN HELPING PEOPLE IN THE FORT WAYNE AREA FIND THE FREEDOM TO LIVE THE LIFESTYLE THEY WANT.

DESPITE CHANGING MARKETS AND BUSINESS TACTICS, WE HAVE REMAINED TRUE TO THIS BETTER AND IMPROVED BUSINESS MODEL BY FOCUSING ON BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS AND SERVING OTHERS IN EVERYTHING WE DO.

WHATEVER STAGE OF LIFE YOU ARE IN, OUR GOAL IS TO PROVIDE YOU WITH THE WISDOM AND TOOLS NECESSARY WHEN BUYING OR SELLING A HOME. WE PUT YOU FIRST TO ENSURE AN ENJOYABLE AND PROFITABLE EXPERIENCE.

Welcome to Student of the Game podcast, where we help you master the fundamentals, fall in love with practice, and win at the game of life. I'm your host, Brad Knoll. Welcome to the classroom. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Student of the Game. It's halftime.

We are recording this midsummer. We just hit July 4th. What a great holiday. Felt the energy, celebrating America and our country and the freedoms that we have.

So we just thank you for. For everybody that participates in allowing us the freedoms to. To do this, to do a podcast, to. To run your own business. So a lot of energy.

But with mid summer comes this feeling. I don't know about you. Maybe I'm just recording this for me today, so if it's for me, just let me rant.

If it's for my team, they're going to listen to this, hopefully my kids. But. But I'm hoping. I'm hoping you take something out of this, but this is the summertime madness. And how do you keep one oar in the water?

All right, if you're. If you're like me, if you're. If you're living a life like me, where you got some kids, you got business, there are plenty of distractions.

I think right now, half of our team is in different states, whether it's kids activities or vacations. AAU volleyball, basketball. One of our agents, her daughter just went to the Navy. Thank you, A.J.

this episode is going to be about how do you manage this summertime madness and keeping one oar in the water. If you've hit that midsummer wall, usually you're feeling either burnt out, you're bored, you're bored with the fundamentals.

You're halfway through the year. You're asking yourselves, is it time to rest? Is it time to reset? Is it time to refocus? Can the kids go back to school yet?

A lot of these feelings aren't going to reignite your business. And if we want to reignite your business, we have to take a look at halftime. This is halftime.

I've got some coaches in my corner, and they asked me, they said, hey, Brad, what was it like when you play basketball? Like what. What was the. What was the vibe when you came out of halftime? And I'll tell you what happens in college basketball.

In college basketball, there's two halves in men's and women's. I know there's quarters, but halftime regardless is the same thing.

And when you come out of the locker room at halftime, the only thing that matters is you win the first four minutes. All right? You win the first four minutes because at the 16 minute mark, the first dead ball, there is a media timeout.

And it is very important that if you want to create momentum in the second half, you have to win those first four minutes. It's. It's vital. And so whether you're behind your goals right now or you're ahead of your goals, I think it's.

It's fair to say these next four weeks are critical. These next four weeks are critical. Are you going to win the second half of this year? Are you feeling behind? We just had her firstborn.

Graduate college or graduate high school? Excuse me? She graduated high school, she had her high school graduation party, and she's getting ready to go to college.

So if that's not in a distraction by itself, we renovated part of the house, we got ready for the party, we made the list, we invited everybody. What do you have that is a huge distraction? Are you planning, like, your biggest family vacation ever? Are you traveling with sports, with the kids?

What are you doing that is taking you away from. And when I say taking you away. This is a business podcast for small business owners here.

What's taking you away from what you set out to do this year? You know, your goals. My coaches remind me all the time, it's not about goals all the time. It's about your priority. What's your priority?

Well, my priority is balancing my work and my family, spending enough time with my family that I'm building relationships, and spending enough time in my work that we're doing great things and we're serving a lot of people. But that graduation party, the graduation itself, hosting family coming in from out of town, it was a distraction.

And I think right now it's okay to give yourself the gift of realignment. That's what we're going to talk about today. Not just rest, but like a reset. Not just halftime. Halftime. Everybody rests, right?

There's two times you rest in a game. It's when the game's over, and it's also halftime. And so it's a rest. It's okay to rest.

We had family, and for the Fourth of July, we rested, we went to the lake, we hung out, we went boating, we went, you know, tubing, and we swam and, you know, we got on the inner tubes and just floated, and it was awesome. And we rested. And now we have to go win those first four minutes of the game.

You have to go win these first four minutes of the second half of the year. And so here's the reality the reality is there's a. There's a slowdown in the summer.

There's a slowdown of production, Typically, there's a slowdown of tracking. If you're in business, you know how important tracking is. If you have health goals, you know how important tracking is.

You know, what gets measured, gets accomplished. I believe that. And so there's vacations, there's slower sales. Your clients are on vacation. You know, think about that.

We've had plenty of people wanting to buy and sell homes where they're like, hey, this isn't the right time for me. Awesome. My family's on vacation. Great. Go. Have a good time.

Just the message today, somebody wants to buy something, and I reached out to them like, hey, I got something for you. And they say, I'm on vacation. I'm like, that's great. I hope it's available when you get back. But our team's out of rhythm, right?

I mean, we've postponed some team meetings. Our team is out of communication. We're out of rhythm. We're allowing people to have this space to be themselves this summer, and that's okay.

Most small business owners enter the summer thinking that they'll catch their breath and end up losing their momentum. Have you ever been consistent at something only to have a vacation, a travel, or an illness rock your momentum? This happens a lot with diets.

This happens a lot with sales. I remember vividly, I think I did close to 90 days of yoga. This was, I would say, eight, eight, nine years ago.

I was on this kick yoga with Adrian on YouTube. I was on this kick doing yoga, stretching.

I was wanting to keep playing basketball into my 30s, mid-30s, and getting older and knowing I need to stretch. So I'm doing yoga with Adrian for, you know, 90 days straight. And then what do I do?

I go out to San Diego, California, up to Anaheim to do a real estate conference, and it broke my streak. And did I get back on the saddle? No, I didn't. I didn't. I should have. And so there's a lot of momentum that.

That, you know, gets kind of stalled right now. So. So these distractions in the summer, they're good distractions, right? Like, I love watching my kids play sports.

I love, you know, going to events with the family. I love hosting and having people over. That's great. But. But you got to figure out, how do you. How do you not lose your momentum?

I. I also don't believe burnout is always overwork. You know, I don't believe burnout is overwork. I I believe a lot of times burnout comes from being disconnected from our purpose.

You know, I think burnout sometimes is a lack of measurable wins. You know, when, when your chest hits the ribbon on the finish line, you feel that victory.

But when, when you're kind of just, you're, you're drifting, which is kind of what we're talking about here. We're drifting through the summer. You got to keep one or in the water. I think drift is the most dangerous place there is.

I think, I think if you tell me I'm giving up this year, that's more noble than drifting and doing nothing and hoping you get amazing results. There's. I kind of look at this as there's three signs that you're in a mid year funk.

And when I say you're in a mid year funk, there's three signs that I'm in a mid year funk. You're dreading Mondays. You know, you're not prepared for Mondays. Maybe not dreading them. I actually love Mondays.

But you're just not prepared for them. And this is, this has been me, maybe here recently is just not being prepared. Planning the week. It's all about planning the week. Your weekly plan.

I've had this said to me. Your weekly plan is the most important commitment you can make to yourself.

I believe as a self employed person, I've heard it said that your boss is the person who was thinking clearly when they planned the week. Hear that again. As a self employed person, your boss was the person who was thinking clearly when they planned the week.

All right, if you're self employed, we don't have a boss.

You don't have to listen to anybody, but you need to listen to that person who was thinking clearly at the beginning of the week who still has big goals. All right, that's something that I believe. You're in a mid year funk if you're not planning your week. We talked about this with the team.

People have weddings, people have vacations, people have all this stuff. That's great. Well, you know, we track our connections, we track the introductions we get.

And if you're going to have a shortened week, you got to double up. Just because you have a shortened week doesn't mean you don't have to do those activities.

Whatever activities you're doing in your business, whatever activities in your health goals. Just because you have a vacation doesn't mean you skip out on 10,000 steps a day. You know, you go to the lake, walk 10,000 steps around the lake.

I think another thing that Kind of shows that you're in a mid year funk is you stop tracking. You stop tracking the numbers that you feel like are vital to your business. How do you know the health?

You know, Lindsay's a former nurse and we talk about this all the time. One of the things that she did great was check vital signs.

Anytime a patient would come in the room after, after a surgery or operation, she worked on the med surg floor and she would always check the vitals. That's what she did for her entire shift, checking vital signs, making sure people are healthy. What are the vital signs in your business?

How do you know your business is healthy? Should we check blood pressure, heart rate, color your skin?

Sometimes the noises people make, you know, they have a lot of phlegm, you know, are they congested? There's a lot of different vital signs that are out there. What are your vital signs? What are your vital signs for your business?

And when you stop tracking the numbers, you're saying that I'm done checking my vital signs. This is the thing that you can look back on and you can see on one sheet of paper how healthy your business is.

Student of the Game is brought to you by Knoll Team Real Estate. Our mission is to eradicate mediocre real estate transactions. On your largest financial purchase, you shouldn't have to deal with average.

We do this by helping you save time, reduce your stress and helping you keep as much money in your pocket as we can.

You can help us out by introducing us to your friends, friends or family who want to make confident real estate decisions, whether buying, selling, building or investing. At Noel Team Real Estate, we are connected to a group of realtors who sell one in every eight homes in North America.

If you know someone moving out of your area, there's a great chance we can connect them to somebody we know like and trust. Remember, relationships win. Now back to the show. Another. Another sign that shows you're kind of in a mid year funk.

Is is you're busy, but you're really not building anything meaningful. You're doing a bunch of busy work. I'm cleaning out the attic, I'm painting the house, I'm running some errands. Right, like you're busy.

Your calendar is full, but it's not proactive, it's not intentional, and you're not building anything meaningful. I've heard this phrase once. It says, if the devil can't get you bad, he'll get you busy. If the devil can't get you bad, he'll get you busy.

You know and you could be a great person living a great life and, you know, helping a lot of people out. But sometimes just being busy is a distraction from being productive. It's also a distraction from your purpose.

One of the best quotes ever, I think this is a Navy SEAL quote, but also James Clear from Atomic Habits said, we don't rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems. We don't rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of your systems. And your systems are part of your tracking mechanisms.

What are you tracking in your health? What are you tracking in your business, in your finances? You know, there's offense and defense. You got to play both.

Offense is going and collecting some revenue, and defense is keeping track of your expenses. You got to do both of them. And in different seasons, I'm better than one than the other.

I always believe as an athlete, I'm just going to outscore you. You can't do that in life. Can't do that with your health, can't do that with your finances. Can't do that with. With your business.

Eventually, it catches up to you. All right, so what's the advice to get back in the game? All right, it's the second half.

We talked about winning the first four minutes and how vital that is. Winning these next four weeks for you and your business, how vital that is. It'll set your second half of the year up. So.

So what are the three steps to getting back what it is you need to win this second half? First step, reconnect with your mission. Reread your vision, your word of the year. Your why? Reread your goals.

Set new goals, set quarterly goals, set monthly goals. Like this is being recorded in July. What do you want to do in August? Let's start there in August. I need to re qualify my database in August.

I need to connect with everybody who has purchased from me this year, whatever that is, set that goal. Elevate was my word of the year. And our phrase was whoever elevates himself will be humbled. Those who humble themselves will be elevated.

My job this year is to help other people win. And when I'm distracted, I'm focused on myself.

When I'm distracted, I'm focused on what I need to do, what my to do list is like, and I need to start helping more people. That's what I'm gonna get back to. Here's something to ask yourself.

Would the January version of yourself be proud of the July version of yourself or the June? Fill in the blank. Where are we at with our goals?

Would the person in January or late December, early January, with the person that wrote down the goals and the mission and the vision and the. And the why statements and the word of the year, would that person be proud of where you're at today? Ask yourself that and don't beat yourself up.

Just had a little conversation with one of my kids today. Let's just say there wasn't a great decision that was made. We didn't make a big deal about it.

And I just reframed it and I said, here's the cool part about affirmations. One of my affirmations, I think you've heard me say before, is today I begin new Life. That's an A.G. mendino statement in the Ten Scrolls.

But today I begin a new life. Yesterday there was a mistake that was made, and instead of dwelling on it, I said, you know what the cool part is?

When you believe that today I begin a new life, it means you get to start over every single day. So if you're beating yourself up because you're not where you want to be this year, today I begin a new life. This month I begin a new month.

This quarter, I begin a new quarter. Train yourself that there is a start and a finish line. And if you didn't win the first half, you still get the second half.

If you didn't win the first month, you get the second month. If you didn't win today, Lord willing, hopefully you get tomorrow. And so I want you to reconnect with your mission.

I want you to build micro wins, those small wins. I want you to build little wins. What are the daily non negotiables? Whether there's three phone calls or it's creating content, it's.

It's connecting with clients. Go back through your relationships, go back to your relationships.

Try to figure out like where are you at in the relationships win framework that we talk about all the time? Connect, Conversations, introductions. Do you need to connect with more people? Build out some micro wins? Do you need to have more conversations?

Do you need to have more coffee appointments? Do you need to schedule lunch? Set it up, have two a week, three a week, one. Whatever it is, have some little wins, those little at bats.

There's somebody today I have not talked to in a while and one of my all time favorite clients, I don't have favorite clients. This is one of my all time favorite experiences.

Older lady, during COVID when we're all trying to figure out how to make this work, she bought a Villa. I've stayed in touch with her. Not as much as I would like to, but I reached out to her today, said, hey, you need anything? She needed a plumber.

I'm like, great, let me help you. Let me help you win. And her first reaction was, I don't want to move. I don't need to move. Thanks so much.

I'm coming back to you guys when I'm ready to sell. Brad, you know, I tell everybody about you, and I said, I do know that. Thank you so much.

But don't ever forget, I'm here to make you and help you become a confident homeowner. That's part of my mission.

And so those little micro winds of reaching out to those people go deep into your database, connect with more people, focus on those. Momentum can be a cure for burnout. I always believe it's easier to keep momentum than it is to create it. It's hard to create momentum.

And then, like we said, drift is a silent killer. Momentum is a cure, and drift is a killer. Stop drifting. Get back in the game. Micro wins, and then recast the vision.

Go back to the vision you set at the beginning of the year and commit to that. If you have a team, have a little halftime huddle.

My team doesn't know this yet, but we're gonna have a little team bonding here in the third quarter. We're gonna get back together. Most of us are in similar stages of life, and so it's a little. Little crazy this summer.

And we've had some team meetings. We're gonna get back together. We're gonna have some fun. We're gonna revisit our goals. We're gonna have some fun in our meeting, shake things up. Not.

Not do you know, the status quo. And then I think you just have to. You get to remind people why they started. We have to showcase the wins.

We have to highlight people that are winning. Right. When you have a team, it's like a mutual fund. There's always going to be winners and losers.

There's going to be people who are struggling and people who are ahead, but we've got to raise the bar for everybody involved. And maybe we're just talking about your family right now. Maybe you have some family members that are struggling. Maybe you have some that are winning.

That's an interesting dynamic when everybody's together. But how do we raise the average? How do we raise everybody together? I think you just got to keep reminding people why they got started. It's tough.

It's tough. I'm sure a Personal story. And I want to use this as an analogy so that you can relate to this.

But a personal story is spent time with my brother in law and sister in law from Pasadena, California this last week and great people. So my wife's twin sister and my brother in law and they have a real estate business out there.

And you know, in talking with them, they said it's been one of their better years from a sales standpoint, but it's been their absolutely hardest year ever. It's been their hardest year ever. And here's why. I don't know if you remember, but there were fires out in Pasadena, California.

The Eaton fires went through Pasadena. Many people lost their homes. It's displaced many people.

And my brother in law told me, he said, you know, what's not obvious but is always there is the repercussion of these fires. Everybody's dealing with these fires. Some families, maybe their parents had to move away because they lost their home.

One of their friends runs their business out of their home, lost their home, so they lost all their inventory. They're going to rent a place and there's trying to be rent control but there's price gouging.

And so people can't rent a place because it's too expensive. And so he said, you know, we're having a pretty good year from a sales standpoint.

But the hardest part is every conversation, every conversation people are dealing with the fires still. And so what does that mean for you and I? I think it means to be kind, Work hard and be kind. Be, be kind.

Because everybody's dealing with their own fire. Everybody's dealing with their own challenge. Everybody's dealing with their own circumstance. People on our team, we have a lot of life going on.

Yeah, you have a lot of life going on. Work hard and be kind. And I think that's important to understand. Our conversations are heavy these days, but it's halftime.

And today I begin a new life. I hope you take that with you. You're not behind. I really don't believe you're behind. I believe you just maybe stop making some progress.

Let's get back to tracking. Let's get back to reminding ourselves of why we started reminding ourselves of our word of the year.

And remember that our boss is the person at the beginning of the week that told you what to do because that person was thinking clearly. And if you're a recovering free spirit like me, you still don't want to listen to that person. But that's where true growth comes.

That's where growth happens where it comes from, and that's where confidence gets built. I hope you reflect on the first half of this year. I'll go back to what my coaches said. They said, what happened in college when you had halftime?

I said, well, it was a time of rest. The coaches looked at the stats. They looked at what happened in the first half.

If we were winning, we would maybe make some adjustments so that we can continue to win. If we were behind, we definitely made some adjustments so that we could stop the opponent.

But every single game, no matter if we were ahead or behind, the first four minutes after halftime were the most critical four minutes of the game.

And I hope you realize that these next four weeks might be the most important four weeks of your life, of your year, of the season that you're in and that you're proactive and go do something about it. You know what we say on here. In the game of life, relationships win. In your faith, relationships win. In your family, relationships win.

In your finances, relationships win. In your business, relationships win. And in your personal life, whether it's mind and body, at the end of the day, people you know can help you win.

Thanks for listening to Student of the Game podcast. Whatever game you are playing, I'm cheering for you. See you in the next class.