Happy Agent Co. - Real Estate Agent Podcast for Women - Hosted by Lindsay Dreyer, Real Estate Coach

The August Audit: Clean Up Your Business Before Fall Hits

• Lindsay Dreyer • Season 1 • Episode 36

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August in real estate is… weird. You’re either slammed with last-minute buyers or staring at your inbox while eating watermelon in your car. Either way, it’s the perfect time for a mid-year reset before Q4 comes in hot.

In this episode, I walk you through a full August Audit to help you clean up your real estate business—without burning it down or starting over.

We’re doing a thoughtful edit, not an overhaul.

You’ll walk away with clear, doable actions in four essential areas of your business:

✅ Your CRM + client experience
✅ Your marketing + lead generation strategy
✅ Your money + expenses (no spreadsheets required)
✅ Your mindset + energy levels

Because let’s be real—your business shouldn’t feel like a junk drawer full of Go-Gurt tubes, broken pens, and expired leads. It should feel aligned, intentional, and ready to run smoothly through the rest of the year.

🎯 Plus, I’ll give you one quick win in each area so you can feel like the organized, confident, in-control CEO that you are—without waiting for January to do it.

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Speaker 1:

Hey friends, I am Lindsay Dreyer, real estate coach and brokerage owner, as well as mom of three littles. Yes, busy, busy life. For those of you that are new here, welcome, I'm so glad you're here. Hit subscribe if you'd like to come back and find me, and for those of you who are returning, I would love it if you could write a review. I also love, love, love getting messages from you on Instagram, so find me lindsaydryer or happyagentco. Today we are going to dive into a topic that is going to help you hopefully hit the ground running come fall.

Speaker 1:

August is a weird month in real estate, I think, no matter where you are, whether you are slammed with last minute buyers or everyone goes on vacation in your market and you are just sit scrolling the MLS while maybe you're eating a little bit of watermelon in your car, which I want to do. I also think it is the perfect moment to pause before Q4 hits like crazy and we all are like, oh shoot, I got to get my shit together. So let's clean up what's been collecting dust, maybe over the past couple of months, maybe past couple of years, no judgment here but I want you to get intentional about cleaning up your business. So it is a more well-oiled machine and will help shepherd you through success, through the end of the year and into the new year, which what the heck, I can't believe we're like really over halfway in 2025. This year has been going by so fast. Here's what we're going to be walking through today your CRM, if you have one. If you don't, you're going to want to get one. Your marketing slash, lead generation, your money yes, honey, we're talking money and your mindset, which obviously is so important.

Speaker 1:

So this isn't about just like scrapping everything and starting from scratch. It's about doing a thoughtful edit and we're going to keep what works, toss what doesn't and maybe organize what's low-key, stressing you out or just not serving you anymore. I want you to think of it as like a summer cleaning Maybe it's like a spring cleaning, actually just in your flip-flops or Crocs Again, love me some Crocs. Or it's just about doing little, small tweaks and not massive overhauls in your business, and I think a lot of times we think we have to burn it down and rebuild it, when we really don't. We just have to do some editing and dive in and really just get intentional about how we can make things a little bit better. Okay, diving into the first area that we are going to clean up, which is your CRM and client experience.

Speaker 1:

So let's get in wherever your leads are living, and that is probably your CRM If you don't have one. If you do, let's get into it. You probably have names in there from people from I don't know 2018, who still think that interest rates are 3%, and I think it's probably time to sit for a refresh. So I am a firm believer in your CRM should feel like a well-organized pantry, not the junk drawer in your kitchen where you keep your batteries, your coupons, your broken pens and for some reason, like I don't know, go-gurt containers always end up in mind, like those little Go-Gurt tubes. I'm like are you kidding me? Like what is going on people? It's not the trash can. So these are some audit questions for you. Do I know who's hot, warm and cold? And if you do not have a way to track that, you should probably get on it.

Speaker 1:

I am a huge fan of Follow Up. Boss. It is my favorite CRM. We've been using it forever and ever and ever, and we have stages that we use for hot, warm and cold. Again, every CRM pretty much has some way to classify people, whether it's stages or tags or buckets or groups or whatever. So just having a way to classify who's hot, warm and cold because you want to be able to focus on your hot and your warm list Very important. The next thing to ask yourself is are you following up consistently or just when you remember? And if you are not consistent on your follow-up, it is time to put some systems in place. Maybe it's a task, maybe it's a action plan or a drip campaign or something, but finding a way to make sure that you are following up consistently is crucial. Now let's dive into a little bit more of the client experience side, which is do you have an onboarding checklist or follow-up templates in place for new clients when they do become clients? So figuring out and diving into your client experience can be really helpful.

Speaker 1:

I am all about some quick wins, so here are a few. You can delete your old or duplicate contacts. That's a big one and I know so many of you are scared to delete contacts, but like it feels really good. Again, going back to our pantry analogy having a well-organized pantry. We do not keep the food that's expired. We do not keep the food we're never going to eat. We just keep the things that are like we're going to eat and we want it to be organized and we're like good to go. The other thing is you could update your tags and your stages and your pipeline. We've already talked about that. But that is an easy quick win. Just go through, refresh, make sure they're good to go. And another quick win could be adding one new nurture sequence that fits your client's current needs. So you could just go in, create a new action plan or a nurture series, and that is a amazing way to nurture your CRM and your client experience. If you want to go above and beyond, take a look at your buyer presentation and your listing presentation, because I am going to tell you you probably need to update it. All right, so that covers CRM and client experience.

Speaker 1:

So let's dive into the next thing, which is marketing and visibility, aka lead generation. So if your marketing, or lack of, makes you want to crawl under a blanket, you are either doing too much or doing things that you actually don't want to do or don't feel like you. I recently, in a client call you're probably listening I was like, do you actually want to do this? Like, check in with your heart, check in with your gut, like what are they telling you? And she was like it's not a hell, yes. And I was like then it is a no. And I really do believe that if you have marketing that just is cringy and you don't want to do it, you're not going to build a sustainable, successful real estate business. So I do not think you need more content. I think that you need more clarity on what is going to move the needle in your business, what is effective.

Speaker 1:

So the first thing when it comes to your marketing and visibility audit is check what has worked for you. I love a good look back. So look back over the past six to 12 months. Where have your clients been coming from? That is a key as to what is working and what is not. Did any of them come from Instagram or Facebook? Did any of them? And that is usually a no for a lot of agents. And I'm not harping on social media. I think it can be an effective tool for clients, for sure, but I think so often we are not looking at what is actually driving business. We are just looking at what everyone else is doing. So take a look at your six to 12 months and where do those people come from? That is a key as to what you should be doing for the next 12 months.

Speaker 1:

The next question is are you consistent? Are you executing a top of mind plan consistently? Are you executing your social media strategy consistently? Do you have an events strategy? Are you consistent? And most of the time, agents are like no, I am not. So consistency whether that is monthly, daily, weekly you get to choose what that means, but it means that you're doing it on a regular basis. So, for example, our newsletter goes out once a month. It is the first half of the month, typically the second Tuesday, and then we have our postcard that goes out the fourth week of the month. So that is, without fail, happening every single month. So I know that that's on autopilot. That's just going, and it takes a lot of stress off of me when things get busy, because I know that I have the systems and the support in place and the plan in place. That is keeping me consistent.

Speaker 1:

The next thing on your marketing and visibility audit is does your audience know what you offer and how to work with you, and do you make it easy for them to get in touch with you, I'm a huge fan of Calendly. If you would like the one-time version Calendly knockoff, it basically is a one-time fee, try TidyCal. That is a great one and it is a one-time fee and basically the same thing. But I love being able to have people book calls or consultations on their terms. I think that is genius. Also, it's like your email signature taking a look at all of your marketing templates, like making sure anything that is visible. So also, let's dive into your Zillow profile, your Google for business page. If you're on Yelp, all your social media profiles, anywhere that you are visible. Just auditing it. Take a look at it. Is it accurate? Or do you have your broker from two years ago on there? Because that's embarrassing. You need to update that.

Speaker 1:

And then the third thing is is everything that you are putting out aligned with who you are now and the type of clients that you are trying to attract? This is a big one. So maybe you're like, oh, you know I need. I'm really attracting more move up buyers now and a lot of my content is is targeted to first timers. So that's a misalignment that you probably need to fix. So just figuring out where you can tighten up some of the content or the things that you're putting out to match the version of you and the clients you want to attract. That's a big one. So, if you know me, I love a good quick win. So let's go through a few you could do here. First, choose one thing that you haven't been doing consistently and start doing it consistently. Set up the support that you need, whether it's an accountability partner, whether it's a mentor, whether it's a marketing admin, whatever you need. Maybe you're outsourcing it, but just doing that one thing consistently Setting up or reviewing all of your online profiles, make sure they're accurate. And the other quick win is set up a Calendly. I really think that they are the best. Put in your email signature, put on your social media Like just people are used to using them and they are excellent tools to get people to engage with you and book appointments, which is what we want.

Speaker 1:

All right, diving into our third area we are auditing this August, which is your money and profit. Oh, I know, deep breath, it's fine. We're heading into the finance zone. I promise this is not scary. You don't need to be a CFO, but I think it is really important to be tracking what's coming in and what's going out in your business. I do not need you to be a spreadsheet queen, although if you want to be, that's great. I am personally a freak in the spreadsheets, but I find so many real estate agents just don't know their financials. So here is what I need you to pull I want you to figure out what have you actually earned and what did you keep. So we're going to be doing your profit loss. So this is how much income came in and how many expenses were paid out of that income. So it's just income minus expenses. So figure that out. Could be year to date. I think that that's a good one for you.

Speaker 1:

The next is what are you paying for that isn't giving you a return on your investment? And, trust me, you probably have a subscription or something that you are paying for that is not giving you a return on your investment. If it is not generating income or clients, it needs to go. And this is not just like a hope and a dream, like you need to stick with what is actually working for you and we can go back to your look back on this, which is like where are my clients coming from and what am I spending money on supporting that. And then take a look at what do my expenses look like for the rest of the year. So I know some are seasonal. Some hit for me like subscription-wise, like in the beginning of the year. So, just taking a look at what do the next three to six-ish months of expenses look like for you? Three to six-ish months of expenses look like for you. Quick wins under money are cancel one subscription that you're not using. Honestly, easiest thing to do.

Speaker 1:

The next is forecast your income for the next 90 days. So take a look at your hot and warm list that we took care of in the CRM section and figure out who is probably going to be under contract or closing. Figure it out it could be for the next 90 days, it could be through the end of the year, whatever you want to do. And then the other is set a small savings goal, even if it's just like 50 bucks a week, like start saving money. I think that's always a good thing, I love it, just like putting it away in my retirement account, because then I can't touch it and I don't even see it. So automate some kind of small savings goal because, honestly, that's what this is all about. We're building wealth through real estate and that's what's up and honestly, I saved the best for last. I love, love, love this last audit, which is your mindset and your energy audit.

Speaker 1:

So let's talk about how you feel in your business, because mindset isn't just a bunch of BS. It's not. It really isn't. It's the lens through which you do everything else. If your energy is trash, the best strategy does not matter, and if your belief in yourself is so low, your results are going to suck too Like. That's just the real facts.

Speaker 1:

So let's ask ourselves some questions. Do I feel excited or exhausted by my business? If you're excited, excellent, you're in a good spot. If you're exhausted, tease that apart. Why are you feeling so tired? Is it because you don't like what you're doing? Is it because you don't like the clients? Is the work boring, like, really dig into? Why are you exhausted right now you're doing? Is it because you don't like the clients? Is the work boring, like, really dig into? Why are you exhausted right now? And a lot of times it has to do with you're doing too much. You're just doing it all. So this is good information.

Speaker 1:

Our feelings are absolutely keys to what's going on with us and how to make things better. The next question is are you creating or are you just reacting all the time? Because if you are just reacting all the time, you are not intentional and I really find that a lot of agents get into that mode. So we have to find a way to get you out of reactivity and into creation mode, which is a much more fun and joyful place to be. And the last question is what am I believing about myself and what's possible? How are we talking to ourselves? I think really digging into that, and so often it's just we're in go, go, go mode that we don't take the time to just sit quiet the mind, be intentional and ask ourselves what's going on. So here's some quick wins.

Speaker 1:

I think that a journal prompt or journal entry would be great. So what would the next level version of me stop tolerating, like what am I putting up with that I shouldn't be putting up with? Or what does my dream business look like? I also want you to redefine what success means to you right now, in this season of your life, not five years from now, not two years from now. What does success look like to you right now, in the here and now?

Speaker 1:

And then I want you to create a weekly ritual that resets your energy. So I know, for me that's my brain dump. I do a brain dump every week. I plan my week, I plan everything that is going to fill my cup, all my non-negotiables, and then everything else kind of gets slotted in between. So creating a ritual every single week that resets your energy and your mindset because it is a challenge, like I think being a real estate agent is really hard. It's hard to maintain a positive, magnetic, high vibe, mindset and energy because a lot of things pop up throughout our days that try to hijack that. So just know that it's okay, like it happens to all of us. All of us get into a funk. Just know that it's okay, it happens to all of us. All of us get into a funk, but knowing how to get out of it and just realizing that you are in one can go such a long way. So there you have it.

Speaker 1:

That's your August audit, and I really don't believe that you need a complete business overhaul. I mean, if you do, hit me up because we should probably do some coaching, which I would love to do Oftentimes we just need a little cleanup, which I also do with clients. So, hey, august is a great time to do it, because you are not necessarily super busy in fall mode yet and you have the ability to just like get it done, and especially if you're a parent, when kids get back in school it's like go time, right. So let's recap we covered your CRM, we covered your marketing, your money and your mindset. So choose one thing, choose one quick win from each category, and that is your August audit.

Speaker 1:

You do not have to wait for the fall to like reset. We don't have to wait till business planning season at the end of the year. You get to feel grounded and happy about your business right now, like you can reset at any time, and I really do believe that you get to choose to run a business that supports your life, not one that drains it. We should all be running businesses that support our lives. If you have an agent who needs to hear this or maybe needs a little reboot, please share it with them. Also, if you are so kind to leave a review, that'd be so amazing. And definitely connect on Instagram if you are interested lindsaydryer or happyagentco. I love hearing from you and getting any thoughts or feedback or episode ideas that would be helpful for you. Until next time, I hope that you stay happy.

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Lindsay Dreyer

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