Stop Overthinking: How Speed and Action Drive True Real Estate Success

0:00Welcome to Next Level Agents, the podcast that's all about breaking barriers and building empires. I'm Kevin Kaufman and together with Mike Fru, bring you straight up fire. Interviews with top tier agents, game changing thinkers, plus the strategies and mindset shifts to dominate and real estate. Whether it's personal growth, leadership packs or next level tactics, we've got you covered. So tell me, what does the next level look like for you? Well, I'm going to talk about the next level of the game. You know what I think is one of the biggest business killers right now that I see happening? Not lack of information or lack of opportunity. It's not even like a lack of talent. But I think this is one of the biggest killers in business today. And it's this simple word that you've heard before overthinking. And what's crazy is overthinking disguises itself as intelligence. Because when you think things through, you feel responsible.

1:03It feels thoughtful. It feels strategic. But meanwhile, what you were thinking and thinking and rethinking. And by the way, I say this is someone who's a serial thinker. I go on walks every day so I can think I schedule time in my calendar for thinking time. So I just want to know I'm talking to myself here just as much as I'm talking to you. But meanwhile, somebody else made a decision in six minutes that you've been sitting on for six months. And they're already on version 10. Well, you're still trying to perfect like launch. I think a lot of people listening to this right now do not need another podcast episode. Though I would appreciate it if you held on for the next seven to ten minutes and listened all the way through. But you don't need another YouTube video either. You don't need another strategy session. You probably need fewer meetings with yourself. Today I want to talk about something I think is massively underrated in entrepreneurship, leadership, real estate. And I got this word from one of my best friends, Dustin Rundin.

2:04You've heard me mention him on the podcast many times. You've heard him on the podcast many times. And he likes to say under thinking, I underthink things. There's a lot of power in under thinking things. And I'm not talking about being reckless or careless, but I'm just talking about reducing the amount of thinking required before you take action. Because I started to believe that momentum solves problems that thinking just can't. All right, guys, you know what show this is? It's the next level agent. I'm Kevin Kaufman and today I'm just sharing this concept with you that just came up again in a conversation. This idea of under thinking. And listen, I know at like first glance or first, first time you hear that phrase, can sound irresponsible, especially because most of us have spent our entire lives being told to think it through. Be careful. Don't, don't rush. Make sure you have a plan. Now, obviously there's, there's wisdom in preparation, right? And there's a ton of wisdom in thinking.

3:06There's wisdom in strategy, but I also think there's a point where thinking stops being useful and starts becoming emotional self protection. And in our industry, especially, I think there are a lot of incredibly intelligent people who are completely stuck because they confuse analysis with progress. So today I want to unpack why overthinking is dangerous. Why actually taking action creates clarity. I want to talk about why speed matters more than perfection and where some of the biggest breakthroughs in your business may come from thinking a little bit less and moving a little bit faster. I said this before, but overthinking disguises itself as intelligence. That's one of the main reasons it's so dangerous is because it feels smart overthinking feels smart. But nobody says I'm procrastinating. And instead we use words like I'm evaluating this. So I'm researching, researching is like definitely the most popular one or processing, and trying to make the right decision and look sometimes that's true.

4:08But a lot of times overthinking is just fear. That's it. It's just fear. Fear dressed up as responsibility or fear dressed up as intelligence or fear dressed up as strategy. And I think it's especially true in real estate because our industry rewards information gathering. Right. We're constantly consuming market updates, scripts, social media strategies, recruiting models, systems, what are the newest AI tools? What's the best CRM? What's the best paper click? What is the best way to convert leads? Right. We have more access to information than any generation of agents in history. And yet most agents are not suffering from lack of information. They're suffering from lack of execution. As again, information feels productive, thinking feels productive, planning things out, feels productive. But movement is actually what changes your business. And movement is uncomfortable because movement exposes truth, thinking protects your ego,

5:09action exposes your gaps, action tells you whether the script actually works, whether the presentation actually connects, whether the content resonates with your audience, whether the market cares about your market update. And a lot of people would rather stay in theoretical intelligence than in practical exposure. One of the biggest lessons that entrepreneurship teaches you is that clarity actually comes after movement, not before. Most people think like, once I feel confident, I'll do X. But confidence rarely, if ever comes first, confidence is usually the result of reps. Like you got to take reps, you act first, then you adjust, then you improve, then your confidence starts to grow. You do not think you're way into confidence. You act your way into confidence. And I've seen this over and over again with agents. They overthink the video content. They're recruiting conversations. How to hire people who to hire? What am I going to have them do?

6:09What's my branding? This is one of the most popular ones, my branding. What about events or investing or social media, right? Even what they're really waiting for is emotional certainty. But business does not reward certainty, it rewards adaptation. I heard somebody say once, you can drive across the country at night, even though your headlights only show 200 feet ahead, right? So you can be driving all the way across the country. You're only going to be able to see so far ahead. That's kind of what business is like. You don't need the whole roadmap. You don't need to see everything. You need enough visibility for the next move, for the next step, for that next mile. That's it. But most people want to guarantee before they make a move, before they jump. And the problem is, guarantees don't exist in entrepreneurship. And guarantees don't exist in real estate. You have to move before you feel like you're fully ready.

7:12And speed is just a massive competitive advantage. Right, it's one of the most underrated advantages in business today. And I'm not talking about frantic energy. I'm talking about reducing delay, reducing emotional drag, reducing the amount of time between idea and execution. You've heard this one before. If you listened to the podcast last week, you've heard this, right? Reducing the amount of time between idea and execution. See, the people winning right now, they're not always the smartest people. They're often the people who just, they publish faster. They follow up faster. They post faster. They decide faster. They recover from failure faster. They adapt faster. And the reason why speed matters so much is because speed compounds learning. If you make 10 attempts, well, somebody else is still planning their first attempt, you're going to gain experience and data and feedback exponentially faster. This is why underthinkers outperform overthinkers. Not because they're more intelligent, but because they accumulate more reps faster. So they learn faster.

8:13They gather real world feedback faster. I think about this like with content creation all the time, somebody spent three weeks trying to make the perfect video. Meanwhile, somebody else goes out and posts 40 or 50 imperfect videos in a 40 or 50 days span and like they're blowing up. Like not only are they blowing up, they're improving faster. They're learning the platform faster. They're developing their confidence faster. Because again, the market rewards the volume of attempts. This is true in nearly everything recruiting sales, leadership, content, systems, networking, presentations, reps matter, overthinking, slows, reps down. See, and then our business most decisions are reversible. That realization changed a lot for me, right? Because when I realize that most business decisions are not permanent, but we treat them like sometimes like their life or death choices. People act like every higher is permanent or every post is permanent.

9:14Every brand decision is permanent. Most decisions are adjustable, right? You can pivot, you can change, you could refine, improve, you could apologize, you can relaunch, you can, you can course correct along the way, but overthinkers tend to emotionally inflate the consequences of decisions. Everything just feels heavy and massive and final. Everything feels dangerous because of that belt. They hesitate even more. Meanwhile, the operators understand something important. The cost of delay is often greater than the cost of imperfection or mistakes. And that's a huge realization. While you're waiting for like the perfect moment or the perfect market, the market's moving, it's doing what it's doing, right? And your competition is iterating. Other people are out there learning. Your competition is building momentum and momentum definitely matters because that creates energy, which creates confidence, which creates more opportunities. Right? Think about the GPS in your car or your phone.

10:17It can't reroute you and correct you until you start moving. That's true in business too. I've also noticed that overthinking sometimes is often just like ego protection. And that it's uncomfortable to say that, to hear that, but I think it's true. I think sometimes overthinking is not wisdom. Sometimes it's identity protection. Because if I never fully commit, then I never truly fail. If I stay in planning mode forever, I can preserve the fantasy version of myself, the hypothetical version, the version that could have, but see action creates accountability, action forces reality and at the conversation. And reality can bruise the ego. I think this is why some people stay in preparation mode forever because preparation feels safe. And at some point preparation becomes avoidance. And I think a lot of agents needed to hear this.

11:18You probably already know enough. And you probably already know the calls you need to make, the conversations you need to have, the content you should be posting, the standard that you're not holding that you need to raise, a person you need to hire or fire, that distraction you need to eliminate. Again, the issue usually is an information. It's hesitation. So what are some practical ways you can underthink things more? I can't you actually apply this number one, start shortening the gap between idea and execution. You have an idea for content just post faster. If you need to call someone, call sooner. If you know the event should happen, pick the date, train yourself to reduce the delay. Number two, separate reversible decisions from irreversible decisions. Right? Most decisions are reversible. Treat them accordingly. Not every choice deserves a month of emotional energy. Step three, stop worshiping perfect timing. Perfect timing is fiction.

12:20Action creates timing. Movement creates opportunities. Step four, value reps over your image. Value taking reps over image. A lot of people are trying to protect looking like they're inexperienced. Like they don't want to they don't want to know that they're inexperienced. But the faster you learners usually look messy early, that's totally normal. Number five, remember that momentum is emotional few. Action creates energy in action drains energy. And a lot of anxiety disappears the moment you finally take action. As my friend Chris Bowers says, action alleviates anxiety. I really believe this. I want to say one more time. You don't need a new strategy. You need a shorter runway between thoughts and actions. You need less hesitation, fewer internal board meetings. Because overthinking feels productive, but momentum is what changes lives.

13:21And maybe the next breakthrough in your business does not come from working harder. Maybe it comes from posting that piece of content before you feel ready. Making that call launching that thing starting in perfectly. Because clarity often follows action, not the other way around. And maybe the people who win this next season are not the people with the best ideas. Maybe they're the people willing to execute before they feel fully ready. Thanks for listening to next level agents. This episode here with you, do me a favor share it with someone. Leave us a review if you've never left us a review. And thanks for spending some time with me today. Appreciate it. That's a wrap for this episode of the next level agents. I'm Kevin Kaufman and we've just drawn some serious heat with my crew to level up your real estate game. What does the next level look like for you? Subscribe to the podcast now so you don't miss a single strategy. And head over to nextlevelagents.com. Check out our events tab so you can find out all the information on our next virtual

14:21and in-person mastermind calendar. Let's keep this momentum rolling. See you next time.