CEO Energy vs. Employee Energy — Which One is Running Your Business?

Are you running your real estate business—or is it running you?

In this episode, Lindsay breaks down the difference between CEO energy and employee energy, and why this shift is non-negotiable if you want a real estate business that actually feels good to run. Whether you’re a seasoned REALTOR® or a newer real estate agent trying to get out of survival mode, this conversation will help you lead with more clarity, confidence, and alignment.

If your days are packed but your progress feels stuck, this one’s for you.

What You’ll Learn:

• The key differences between CEO energy and employee energy (and why it matters for real estate professionals)
• How to spot when you’re stuck in reactive mode
• Practical ways for agents to reclaim time, power, and vision
• Simple mindset shifts to lead your real estate business with intention
• One question that can change how you show up every day as a REALTOR®

You don’t need more hustle—you need to think like a CEO.

Because the most successful (and happy) agents? They lead their business on purpose.

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Chapters

• 1:08 Workshop Invitation: Aligned AF
• 2:12 CEO Energy vs Employee Energy
• 4:07 Defining Employee Energy
• 5:17 What CEO Energy Looks Like
• 7:26 Red Flags You’re Stuck Reacting
• 9:20 Shifting Into CEO Mode
• 11:30 Weekly CEO Block: What to Do
• 13:50 Ask Bigger, CEO-Level Questions
• 15:56 One Bold Decision to Reset
• 17:34 Systems and Delegation That Scale
• 19:54 Manage Money Like a CEO

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:34

Quick pause. I have something really special for you. On Thursday, November 20th from 1 to 3 p.m. Eastern, I am hosting Aligned AF, a workshop that is going to help you get organized your business and your life for 2026. This is a two-hour guided workshop where we will look at what worked in 2025 and design a life and business you actually want in 2026. We will get aligned on what your business goals are along with your personal goals. We will dream bigger and also get practical on how we are going to make things happen. Think of it as your intentional kickoff to the new year that's done before the holiday crazy hits. Seats are limited. This is an intimate 15-person session. So grab yours now at happyagent.link slash 2026. Again, that's happyagent.link slash 2026. And link is also in the show notes. I cannot wait to plan with you. I am a real estate coach, mom of three, and brokerage owner. And I love bringing you clear, actionable advice. Today we are diving into CEO energy versus employee energy. So which one is running your real estate business? Question for you. When was the last time that you made a decision in your business? Because you actually wanted to, not because a client asked for something, a lender was late, or your phone dinged, or you just felt guilty and like you had to do it. If your days feel like a blur of to-do lists, emails, just when we're showing, you are not alone. This is so typical of real estate agents. We get stuck in employee energy. I get stuck in employee energy. Everyone does. What is really crucial is being aware of when you are operating in employee energy and when you are operating as a CEO of your business. If you are not operating as the CEO of your business, you are going to love this episode. And hopefully, for those of you who are great at being a CEO, this will be a really good reminder. We are going to be digging deep into the difference between CEO energy and employee energy. So this is all about how do you get your power back, even if today has already been a crazy fire drill, because we know that that happens. Things that I hope you will take away from this episode. You will know how to tell the difference between the two energies. Hopefully, you have some simple, realistic ways to shift, even if your life is bananas. Hello, bananas life here. And you will walk away with a game plan to lead your business, not just react to it. So let's dive into defining the two energies because I think this is a really important point. Here's what employee energy looks like. Let me just get through today. Oh, how many of us have been there? You're just reacting. You are reacting to emails coming in, you're reacting to phone calls, you're reacting to texts, you just literally are reacting to things that are coming at you. Doing versus deciding. So this is like you're just focused on tasks versus strategy and deciding, making decisions in your business. Maybe you're feeling overwhelmed, but really underfulfilled. This is a really good one where you're just not operating from your zone of genius or where you drive the most value in your business. You're just feeling overwhelmed, underfulfilled, underappreciated. You might also be feeling busy, but not like you're building anything. That is another really big sign of operating from employee energy. And lastly, you're just driven by fear. You are driven by urgency and you're driven by what's right in front of you. You are so focused on the little pieces of your business that you are not looking at the big picture. So you can probably guess CEO energy looks like the opposite of this. So here's what CEO energy looks like: it is intentional time, even in a full schedule. It is saying to yourself, what do I want to create this week? It is looking at the bigger picture. It's making decisions based on your vision, not just on pressure to perform or guilt. It's also building the machine that you are operating. Instead of being the machine, so these are your systems. It could be your delegation. And leading into that, it really is about delegating, deciding, and designing your business. So this is where you are building this machine that supports you to do your best work. And CEO energy is also driven by alignment. It is driven by clarity, being clear on what you want your life and business to look like. And it also is more long-term thinking. I'll be honest, it is quote unquote easier to operate an employee energy because it really is just reactive. It's just dealing with what's coming up in front of you or what's immediate. CEO energy is so much harder because it is a longer-term thing. It's like I'm building something for the next two, three, four, five, six, ten years. And this is about what kind of life and business you want to have long term. And it does require uncomfortable decisions. So I just want you to know employee energy isn't wrong. We all operate from that mode at some point or another. It's just how it is. It's human nature, right? We get like in those zones. But it's important to be aware of what's going on because we all have to show homes, we all have to write offers. But honestly, if that's all you're doing, it's just those reactive activities, your business is going to become a hamster wheel. And that's when you get tired, that's when you burned out. And CEO energy is what builds you the off-ramp to that hamster wheel. I want to dive into some signs that you're stuck in employee energy. So here's some red flags for you. You can't remember the last time that you worked on your business. Now, a lot of times you're working in your business, but when was the last time you took a beat and you really looked at the financials? You looked at your systems, you looked at what staff you need or what support that you need. Another red flag is that your calendar is so full, but your goals are really blurry, or you're really not understanding the impact that all of this busyness is having on your life. This is a really big one for me. If you feel resentful of your business or like everything is urgent, this is probably the most important red flag that you're stuck in employee energy, is that you are really resentful and that you feel like everything is urgent. This is like the biggest one that you need, you need help and you need to start operating in your CEO zone. The other is that you're constantly waiting. So you're waiting for clients, you're waiting for leads, you're waiting for money. And lastly, you're just busy, but you feel stagnant or you feel stuck. If you've been in real estate long enough, and I have over two decades under my belt, like I have been here, trust me, and I'm sure that you have too. I know this feeling, and I know that you know this feeling. But it is like you're juggling everything and you're still wondering, where is this going? Like, what am I doing? I can't do this forever. And that is the trap of task-based thinking is that there is always more to do. And honestly, this isn't your fault, but this is your problem to solve. Because if your business feels like it's feels like it's happening to you instead of because of you, this is a crucial shift that you have to make. So, how do we get into CEO energy? And this is like one of my favorite topics because it's not natural. It isn't our natural inclination as real estate professionals because it is really all about the doing. It is really all about the closings, the contracts, the listing appointments, the like signing deals. So, my favorite and probably easiest way to shift into CEO energy is to create a weekly CEO block. This can be an hour, it can be two hours, but this is your time to take that 30,000-foot view of your business and really look at things from the bigger picture. This can be reviewing your goals, reviewing your income, your profit loss, just checking out your financials, looking at trends, seeing where your business is going, how are you doing year over year? This can also be auditing your calendar for alignment, like looking back on the past week or the past month and saying, like, all right, this week looked exceptionally busy. And here's how it played out. I felt like garbage that week. How could I build in some support to really help me not feel like I'm a chicken with my head cut off? Delegation, cleaning up, batching tasks, really looking for those opportunities to be more efficient, maybe build in some systems. So you may want to be just looking at the previous week or looking at the previous month as a whole. The other is mapping out your marketing. Um, so this could be like all of your marketing for the month. It could also be your client flow. So, how are you staying in touch with people? Um, but I really believe that this is such a powerful tool. And you don't have to do the same thing every week. Like maybe one week is marketing CEO date because we do wear so many hats. Maybe one week is your financial CEO date, maybe one is systems, uh, maybe one's client experience. So you can really just focus on the aspect of your business that you feel like needs the most attention in that time. I personally like doing these on Monday morning before the week gets away from me. That's typically when I have the most energy. Um, and so that really is like it doesn't have to be that time, but whatever works for you when you can really be in a good headspace to focus on the bigger picture in your business. The most successful real estate agents and the ones that like their business the most do something like this. Now, if you don't have the like time or you need accountability, this is where business coach can come into play. And this is what I do with a lot of my clients is we're really looking at how do we solve the bigger picture problems in their business. Now, the next tip I have for shifting into your CEO energy is to ask CEO level questions. So let's swap out what do I need to do today, because that is employee energy, to what outcome do I want to create this week? Or what outcome do I want to create this month? Another question is where am I avoiding a decision or where am I avoiding delegation? This usually is going to show you where the bottlenecks are in your business. The other is what does my business need for me this week? What do you like, what does it need? And honestly, we all know what those answers are. We just a lot of times don't even like think of them because we don't create that intentional space. So CEO energy starts in your questions. And if you're asking small questions, you're going to get small results and you're going to be stuck in that employee energy. I also challenge you to just make one brave decision, like one big level decision. It could be raising your buyer consultation standards and really getting a buyer agency agreement signed and committed to before you start working with a buyer. And I know legally we're supposed to, but I know there's so many agents out there that are not doing that. It could be that you really want to work on shifting your minimum price point. You really want to start attacking a bigger price point in a more luxury market. It could be that you're cutting a platform or a tool or a client that's draining you. And it also could be just redefining what working hours actually mean for you. So one big bold decision, and honestly, it doesn't even have to be bold, but it has to be a CEO-level decision, can shift that momentum from employee energy to CEO energy. And CEO energy really is the cure for decision fatigue. Just being able to make decisions from a place of empowerment is so good and valuable for your business. Now I know some of you are thinking, ugh, delegation, ugh, and I get that. But building a business that works without you is 100% part of CEO energy. CEOs build systems, and employee energy is the actual system itself. So you can start small with your systems. It doesn't have to be anything crazy elaborate. It could be just you have all your email templates queued up for your buyer and seller process. It could be that you have your CRM dialed in, you have a follow-up plan with tasks and things like that. So it could be automated, could not be, but you at least have that plugged into your systems. Could be your client touch point that is like calendared out. So it could be like your quarterly touch point for your clients. It could be you have your themes for your marketing for the month completed, but really it's about having those systems in place. Now, I'd be remiss if I did not talk about delegation. Now, delegation is something that I know makes a lot of agents uncomfortable, but there's so many different ways to delegate. It does not mean you have to go out and hire staff. It could mean that your kids help you. It could mean that you find a college student to be your intern. You could find a TC that you pay at closing, could be a junior agent at your office who can help you with showings or scheduling. But it really is what can you outsource and where can you step away from your business without impacting your client experience? Because it is really valuable to understand that you don't have to do it all, but you do have to decide it all. And that's really what it's about is CEO energy is about the deciding, not necessarily the doing. I also want to dive in briefly to managing your money like a CEO. Now, I know, I know, money is scary for a lot of people, but you can create a system so you are good with money. I do not accept that, and I do not like I just don't buy that people are bad with money. I think they just haven't been taught how to deal with it. So managing your money like a CEO is really important. And you can start really small. Now, this does not mean you have to go out and create an LLC or an S Corp or any of that, but it is really good practice to separate your business and your personal accounts, have a separate bank account, have a separate credit card, and really start treating your business like a business. I also like to create a simple commission breakdown system. So you're allocating a set part of your commission, every commission that comes in to your taxes, to your operating expenses, and then to your profit. So that's like very simple. And you can even have three separate bank accounts for that. The other thing is just know your numbers. I know so many agents don't even track this. You don't have a spreadsheet or a way to track your pipeline, your expenses, what your profit is. And it does not have to be complicated. This could be as simple as a Google spreadsheet, or it could be like QuickBooks or Zero, depending on where you're at. Like I know for me when I first started, I was just using an Excel spreadsheet, and it was that was simple. Money in, money out, and that was it. And then you just have to decide like how does each commission check support your goal? So are you in a zone where you have bills to pay and that profit needs to be paid, needs to go out to support your life? Or are you in a zone where you're able to reinvest in your business? I do like to hold my money accountable. So if I'm spending money on something, you need to check the return on that investment. So if you are sending out magazines monthly to your sphere, are you getting a return on that? Are you getting conversations? And it's not always a return like as in a closing, but are you at least getting quality conversations from those efforts? So that is something you can also look at on your CEO day is am I getting a return on my marketing spend and my sphere marketing spend? Because that is something that a lot of agents just spend so much money on, but they don't hold that money accountable. As an agent, you don't just make money, but you also need to make decisions about your money. So really being intentional about that is a hundred percent CEO energy. Here's the deal: you can buy the best planner, you can join every coaching program, you can subscribe to a new CRM or new email marketing software. But if you are still waking up every day in employee energy, you're going to stay stuck, especially in the weeds of the tasks. This is honestly not about being a quote unquote bus babe. It's about being a builder of your business. And we have to be builders of our business, even on the hard days, even on the days when we have a lot to do. And I just want you to know you don't have to have it all together, but you do have to start thinking like a CEO because your business doesn't need more tasks. It needs you, it needs more leadership. And that's honestly what CEO energy is all about. So to close this out, I have a question for you. Where are you operating in employee energy right now? And if you were operating from CEO energy, what would that look like instead? It's a powerful question. Happy agents are successful ones, and honestly, the happiest ones are CEOs of their business. Thank you for tuning in to this episode. You guys rock. If you have not left a review, it honestly helps me reach more agents like you and help more people build businesses they actually enjoy, which is honestly my mission in life. Until next time, stay happy.