Empire Building

Oscar Wilde said “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” Being genuine is key to building rapport. Empire Builders are often naturally good at building rapport, but that’s not always the case—and it’s so important. Whether you could use some improvement in this field or someone on your team needs the help, we’re going to share eight easy ways for you to get better at building rapport. Conne...

Most empires and organizations have a separate sales force and operations team. One makes all the promises to clients and customers, and the other team has to fulfill them. But getting these two teams unified is harder than it seems. We have six steps you can follow to help unify these essential teams and get them working synchronously. Connect on Instagram: Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp Vija...

Are you hitting the ceiling in any areas of your life? Many times when things are going well for you, something else happens to drag you back down—almost as if we’re hitting some invisible peak. This may be, as Gay Hendricks calls it, an “upper limit problem.” We’re going to explore this concept, help you identify where it may be cropping up in your life, and share with you what to do about it. Co...

The economy is changing fast, and we may be on the cusp of a recession. That means us Empire Builders may need to pivot, and managing your expenses becomes more important than ever before. We’re going to talk about everything you need to keep in mind when making a shift, especially when revenue is declining. Connect on Instagram: Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp Vija Williams: @viavija Sarah Reyn...

One feeling is very real as you build your empire: Fear. Whether that comes from anxiety or fear of the unknown, it can show up in a number of ways. Fear itself isn’t a bad thing—it serves an important function in helping us survive. But it’s what we do about that fear that really sets us apart. We’re going to offer three steps you can rely on as a leader to take action in the midst of fear. Conne...

Making sure you’re giving your customers the best service possible is important when building an empire. But as a person, your time is equally as important. How do you manage to give world-class customer service without sacrificing all of your time? We’re going to give some tactical tips for giving five-star service and creating raving fans—all while protecting your time. Connect on Instagram: Sey...

Building a big business is hard enough work on its own. And it only gets harder when coupled with one of the most difficult jobs a person can have: Parenting. It’s possible to do both well, but it isn’t easy. We’re going to share six tips for balancing both and show you how it’s done, while still being real about how hard it can be. Connect on Instagram: Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp Vija Will...

In uncertain times, many people don’t want to be honest about what’s going on—even to themselves. They bury their heads in the sand and just hope someone else magically figures it out for them. The truth is that in uncertain times, you must be ready to save yourself. Or, at the very least, you need to take a couple of key things first. That’s what we’re going to discuss today. Connect on Instagram...

In Brené Brown’s book Dare to Lead , she says “The number one cause of shame at work is fear of irrelevance. The number one cause of fear of irrelevance is change.” Sometimes as we build our empires, our success can unearth a deep-buried fear we have: That our own business will outgrow us. We’re going to tackle some of the thoughts around that fear, especially for any organization that is growing...

Building empires is hard work, and oftentimes the work ethic that makes it all possible is passed down to us from our parents. As working parents, we constantly worry about whether our kids are being raised right. And when you’re very financially stable, it can be hard for kids to grow up understanding the value of a dollar. We’re going to share eight things you can do to help your kids not only b...

Every empire builder is going to go through hard times. We’ve had our share of them, and over the last few years of the pandemic we’ve heard from many of you who have reached out as well. Today, we’re going to tell you that you’re not alone and give an inspirational pep talk, because you can do hard things. Connect on Instagram: Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp Vija Williams: @viavija Sarah Reyno...

In real estate, you spend a large amount of time chasing leads. When one of those leads turns out to be a dead end it can feel like a lot of time wasted. Today, we’re going to share tips for you to prequalify your leads, saving you time in the long run. While our examples will revolve around prequalifying a real estate lead, these tactics can be applied to any sales industry. Connect on Instagram:...

Time is our most valuable, precious, and limited asset. So let’s talk about managing it using a framework known as “The 4 ‘D’s of Time Management.” It’s the best way to help separate the fake urgent tasks from the highly important ones. Listen and gain control of your time. Connect on Instagram: Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp Vija Williams: @viavija Sarah Reynolds: @sarahreynoldsoji Wendy Papas...

Being a parent is hard even in the best of times. Throw in a pandemic, homeschooling, and trying to build an empire on top of that? Good luck! Parenting fails are bound to happen – we all have them. In honor of Mother’s Day, we’re going to share some of our biggest fails as moms, and hopefully, make you feel better about yours. Connect on Instagram: Send your parenting fails to empirebuildingpodca...

Last week we told you why holding weekly accountability meetings with your key staff was so important. Today, we’re sharing the nitty gritty details of how to actually hold them, down to what you talk about, how to keep things on track, and what to do if an employee keeps missing their accountability markers. Connect on Instagram: Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp Vija Williams: @viavija Sarah Rey...

Accountability is key to any successful empire. Everyone needs to be on the same page about the company’s goals and drive in the same direction in order to make progress. The 4-1-1 is a powerful tool for setting goals, both for you and for the key people in your company. We’re going to teach you how to have productive accountability meetings with your team, and why doing so is important. There’s s...

Being an entrepreneur can make it difficult to make – and keep – close friendships. You get so focused on your business that the people you used to spend time with start filling that time with other people. This can be painful because, although you may love your work, you don’t want it to be at the cost of your friendships. We’re going to give five tips on how to maintain and grow healthy friendsh...

Elizabeth Faircloth and Andresa Guidelli are the hosts of The Real Estate InvestHER Show. They have 27 years of combined experience and a portfolio of over $130 million. When they wanted to find a group of supportive women to build community with, they found that such a thing didn’t really exist… yet – so, like any good entrepreneurs, they created it themselves. We talk about making mistakes, futu...

Ineffective meetings waste an estimated $37 billion a year for businesses. We tend to focus on efficiency in every other aspect of our business, but culturally, meetings are seen as an accepted waste of bandwidth. But we say no time wasted is an acceptable amount of time wasted. We share five steps towards making your meetings effective and productive uses of everyone’s time. Connect on Instagram:...

Compensation and pay structure can determine whether or not the business you’re building not only survives but grows. Pay will determine behavior. If you want to get the best behavior out of your team, look at how (and how much) you pay them. We’re going to discuss the best way to handle pay structure to ensure that a company can thrive. Connect on Instagram: Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp Vija...

Today, we’re going to talk about the one habit that’s guaranteed to make you rich. We’re just going to come out and say it: tracking your net worth. Most of us focus on how much money we’re making, but that’s not what really matters when you’re building an empire. We’re going to share exactly what net worth is (just in case you don’t know), how to track it, and why it has such a huge impact on you...

As an empire builder, rest is important, but it’s also very difficult to step away from a busy business and completely detach in order to give yourself the break you need from time to time. We’re going to discuss why taking an actual vacation away from work is so important, how to manage the guilt that it can bring, and three things you need to do to prepare. Connect on Instagram: Seychelle Van Po...

Many of us were recently at the largest real estate conference in the country, Family Reunion. It’s our first big event in two years, and so much has changed in that time. We’re going to share what it was like preparing for the event, how best to manage your time in order to get the most out of a conference, and our biggest takeaways. Connect on Instagram: Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp Vija Wi...

Finding the right talent will determine if your business succeeds or fails. Every Empire Builder needs to recruit talent to grow their business – some even rely on it as a business model. Many people treat recruitment as an event, but it’s actually better thought of as a process. It should be adopted as a part of your business process. We’re going to share our 3 ‘P’s recruiting framework: Problem,...

It’s really hard to build an empire without a plan. Having a goal, keeping up with the market, and learning to scale are all vital parts. We’re going to talk about what goes into building a strategic business plan, from identifying your ideal customer, to knowing your end goals, to performing a full SWOT analysis. Connect on Instagram: Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp Vija Williams: @viavija Sara...