In this episode, Marina dives deep into the reality behind her streamlined, successful lifestyle that allows her to work just 4 hours a day while managing multiple businesses and homeschooling. Recorded from the car during a hectic week, Marina shares her journey from experiencing burnout to creating a balanced work-life dynamic. She provides insights and actionable steps on how to delegate effectively, prioritize tasks, and focus on what truly drives her business forward. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a busy parent, or both, this episode is packed with valuable tips to help you reverse engineer your current routine to achieve your ideal work-life balance. Tune in and discover how you can start working smarter, not harder!

Marina Tolentino

https://www.marinatolentino.com/

IG: @marinattolentino_

YT: @marinatolentino

Newsletter: https://marinatolentino.myflodesk.com/worklikeamother

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Transcript:

Marina [00:00:00]:

I felt the first experience of burnout that I was like, oh, my gosh, this is too much. And I actually lost my love for the business. Let me actually look back at my business and reflect on what's actually working. And that was like a huge aha moment. And that has been one of the most freeing things I think I've ever experienced. But if you can find that happy ideal, at least you have a compass. We are recording today's episode from the car because it's one of those weeks. It's a marathon week.

Marina [00:00:34]:

We're not home in front of the desk anymore. So here we go. I think really, this episode, it's funny, actually, that this topic today is about doing a four hour workday. Yeah. It's during a marathon week. So that just shows you right there, there's no such thing as normal. But really, what I wanted to talk to you is about how I have built a business that allows me, on average, to work about 4 hours a day. And I would even say or less on average.

Marina [00:01:04]:

That being said, obviously life happens. Events pop up, people come into town, whatever, and, like, sometimes that's not going to be your every week. But if I looked at an average of four weeks a month, I would say I'm working about 4 hours a day. And the reason why I really wanted to record this is because the number one question I'm asked all the time is, Marina, how do you do it all? How do you run multiple businesses? How do you homeschool? How do you have time to do all these things? You're a crazy person, basically. Like, I can see it in their eyes. I just want to have to start. And the first thing I say is, I don't. That is the biggest misconception is that I am doing all of these things by myself without any help.

Marina [00:01:45]:

Like, number one misconception. So let's break it down today in a shorty commute episode for you just to get real. And I think, hopefully set some clarity and perspective for you so that wherever you are at in business, in life, in motherhood, you can kind of determine, well, what do I want to do in two years or one year? If I had a one year goal about how I was spending my time, what would that look like? And could I reverse engineer what I'm doing today to get me there in the future? And it could happen sooner. Right. So let's kind of dive into this. So the first thing I want to talk about is that it wasn't always this way. Like, duh, that's a no brainer. But for reference, I have spent the last 14 years, almost, oh, my gosh.

Marina [00:02:28]:

14 years in the entrepreneurship world where I was wedding planning, man. I've done network marketing. I've been a natural salesperson. But it wasn't truly, I don't think, until we opened, not even our honey company, but when we opened our furniture rental company, that shit got real, and it got really hard. And I felt the first experience of burnout because there was so much physical labor in addition to marketing, in addition to just, like, ever rising expenses and paying for storage and all this stuff that I was like, oh, my gosh, this is too much. And I actually lost my love for the business, for what we were doing with our clients. It became more about me and my misery than it was about the joy of serving someone.

Marina [00:03:16]:

Hey, ladies, real quick. If you are looking for a mentor, I just wanted to remind you that I offer mentorship to entrepreneurs. So if you're someone who has a never ending to do list and you're spiling out of control and feel like your business doesn't have a track plan, I want to work with you every single week for a month at a time. It's super simple, but I come from over ten years of experience doing this myself, and now I'm willing to give that information back to people. So I've mentored real estate agents, I've mentored wedding photographers, I've mentored other business owners, and they've come from a place of overwhelm, mostly. And they really just needed clarity and a couple of action steps to move the needle. And we've seen gigantom leaps and bounds in their business. Like, I can't even tell you.

Marina [00:03:57]:

So if you're interested and you want.

Marina [00:03:59]:

To know what that looks like, I want you to go to marinatolentino.com, and there's a calendly link there to do a 15 minutes discovery call with me just to see if we're a good vibe check to make sure we're on the same page. And I would love to work with you one on one to really boost your business to the next level. Let's dive back in.

Marina [00:04:14]:

So, taking that back like there are, there was a season of life in 20, I'll say 2017 to 2020, where we were grinding, and we had little children. Our son at that time was three to five years old. Well, three to three to four, right? And it was the baby phases. And we worked through that whole period feeling like we had to work like that to survive. Like, it literally came from a survival ambition more than it did of, like, the joy of pursuing a passion, I would say. Because in Hawaii, it's so expensive to live here that you had to have multiple streams of income to make it work or. So that that's what I thought. That was the narrative that I was living.

Marina [00:04:58]:

And so because I believe that that's the life that I lived. Well, fast forward, I got my real estate license in 2020, right? Like, a lot of you guys know this story, but again, I went into grind mode, right, because that's what I thought I had to do. I had everyone telling me that was my mentors and my coach and my team lead saying, you have to work above and beyond and put your head down and grind, and it's going to take you three to four years until you actually start to breathe. And so I believe that. And that's the life I lived. And it's because I was spraying a fire hose at freaking everything. Even though I knew some other things, like, because my circle around me told me that I had to do all these things, I did it. So I was cold calling, I was chasing people.

Marina [00:05:43]:

I was, like, door knocking. I was doing so many different marketing tactics and building a social media following and starting YouTube and just like, the grind. And it was also drinking from a fire hose because it was pandemic when I started. So there was so many buyers all at once and not enough listings, and it was just like, a crazy time. So fast forward, 2023. Last year, I started to catch my breath a little bit, and maybe this was a prayer relief from the market having slowed down due to high interest rates. But I got to catch my breath where there was like a month or two that it wasn't as busy. I was like, oh, my gosh, this is craziness.

Marina [00:06:21]:

Let me actually look back at my business and reflect on what's actually working. And this is also thanks to my husband, who's the numbers guy, who was always like, what are you spending money on? And what's actually worth it? Like, are you just spending money to spend money? Like, where is your expenses going? So he had me make a report of where most of my business is coming from and how much it cost me per lead to convert a lead into a sale. And so that seems like common sense when you think about it from a business perspective. But I can tell you, as a visionary and as a creative, that is the last thing on my mind. I'm just on to the next thing, all the other ideas and shiny object syndrome, and I never actually slow down to look at results and data. Like, that is a flaw of mine that I know of. It's a weakness. So having him do that for me was super eye opening.

Marina [00:07:06]:

And I realized, actually, even though I was on a team, 80% to 90% of my business was coming from my own social media efforts. And out of all the money that I'm spending, it was all coming from YouTube. And so I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. So you need to tell me that if I can do 70% less of this busy air quotes, busy time, busy work, chasing leads, and just go all in on one thing, that I could have a more stable income and more time for my family. And that was, like, a huge aha moment. So if you're listening to this, I want you to, like, really think granularly about all the things that you're doing, because you're probably doing what I was doing in the beginning as a not fearful, but, like, worried newer entrepreneur thinking you have to do all the things because something's got to stick, but you don't know what it is yet, so you're just doing everything, and in the meantime, you're feeling like a frazzled, crazy person. So you got to stop that.

Marina [00:08:03]:

You got to step back, analyze what's actually working. Like, where did your last three best clients come from? And do you spend any money to get them? And if you did, how much did it take? Like, how many pieces of content, for example, in my business did it take to actually get them to convert? And so you can do this, and let me tell you, it is so eye opening. So do that first. And then I realized, okay, 2024, new year, new Marina. We're going to do this differently. And I stopped all outbound energy in my business. I am not calling anyone cold. I'm not mailing anyone right now.

Marina [00:08:40]:

I'm not even door knocking or circle prospecting my listings after they close. I am solely in a position of just working on being magnetic online. And people are coming to me already having known me, liked me, trust me, through my content that I don't have to sell at all. Like, I literally, when we're on a consultation or a call, they're already raving fans. And that has been one of the most freeing things I think I've ever experienced. And there's so much permission to be you once you start to get these things and, like, it starts to happen on a consistent basis. But in the beginning, you're totally mind f ing yourself to think that it's like a fake out, a juke. Like, these people online must be talking some fantasy, and it's for them, and it's not for you.

Marina [00:09:25]:

And there's just, like, so many excuses I went through, and I want to tell you it's real. So today, in my business in June 2024, I work, on average, about 4 hours a day, utilizing the time and the talent of my part time assistant. So she works about 20 hours a week, I would say, on average, which seems like a lot, but it is. She's basically also my full time marketing assistant, if you think of it that way. So all my job is now in this stage of my career, having been four years into the real estate industry, owning a honey company, starting a nonprofit, and being able to homeschool my third grader. My job is to communicate with her clearly, which we do so through slack. So first thing in the day, I'm checking my slack messages, and I'm skimming my email. Sometimes I don't actually get to my inbox until halfway through the day.

Marina [00:10:13]:

And it's only if it's like, urgent, transactional things that I'm responding to. Usually, out of a five day work week, I'm probably in front of my computer, like at a desk two or three days out of the week. The rest of that time is, like, in and out, running errands, doing things with Roman. Like, we're not necessarily in an office scenario. Right. And so I'm not always available on email. Like, email is not a high priority in this phase of business. What is a high priority is content creation.

Marina [00:10:41]:

And I will say that we have created a system now where one day a month I spend a four hour time block of just creating YouTube videos. So I did this today. I met with my videographer, who we hire, and we busted out for short term. Well, I guess they're long term. They're like five minutes to ten minute YouTube videos around the island. And I do have drive time associated with that. So that's an hour driving there, an hour driving back. So, in all, it's about a five hour work wait, 4 hours, plus two hour, six hour workday, if I account from the time away from home to get those four videos out.

Marina [00:11:17]:

Hey, I'm sorry to interrupt, and I.

Marina [00:11:18]:

Hope you're enjoying this episode of the work like a mother podcast real quick. I just want to remind you guys, if you are worried about missing an episode, you don't have to worry anymore, because we are creating a weekly email that's going to go out automatically every single time there's a brand new episode and this email is going to have everything you need to know about this week's featured guests. It's going to have all of the links and the resources that we're going to talk about in this episode so you don't have to go around and fumble through the show notes. But it's be served in your inbox every single week. So if you guys want that access, be sure to to click below one time in the show notes today, sign up for that email and then you'll never have to worry about it in the future. And bonus, if you really love this, we'd love it if you share this with a friend, give us a review on whatever platform you're listening to and we'll continue to bring new episodes and new information that's going to help you level up your life every single week.

Marina [00:12:07]:

Now, I don't touch those videos after I film them. After I remove my microphone and give it back to my videographer, I go home and I don't think about it because I've set up a system and trained my team to do this for me. So now the videographer will send that off to the editors who will get that back in a timely manner. We have a posting schedule, we will see it for review. That's the next time I see it is after it's been edited. I usually just watch it through one time, and to be honest, sometimes I don't even watch it all the way through because my assistant is also watching it and catching any minor things that need to be like tweaked into fine tuned. And then after that, my assistant then runs it through cast magic and like some other AI technology to create SEO optimized title. The description which we fine tune to our voice and we always edit it.

Marina [00:12:59]:

We don't ever just copy paste, we're making sure it's true. And then we're also creating a thumbnail. She creates a couple of thumbnail options for me, which I literally she'll slack it to me and it takes me less than 30 seconds to look at what she's drafted and give her a thumbs up, a thumbs down, or create an alternate that I'd like instead for each of those options. Okay, then the assistant is also uploading that YouTube and scheduling it and adding it to my weekly newsletter that goes out every Friday. So myself, as the content creator, most of my time is just spent in the creation, not in the post production. And I'm able to do this because I've put all of my energy. Not all, but, like, 80% of my leads are coming from this one source. So I'm willing to dedicate more resources to make this efficient.

Marina [00:13:45]:

Okay, let's talk about the podcast. Same thing I usually set aside, or my assistant, I should say, sets aside time in my calendar for me to record three to four episodes within a day, ideally, but lately, there's been a bunch of reschedules with our guests. So we're doing, like, I think we did two in the last week, and then I'm gonna record two solo episodes, which, literally, I'm recording this for my car. So, podcast doesn't have to be super complicated, but if I can, in the ideal world, we're doing this in a four hour time block, maybe a break or two in between, but it's done in one day, and then same thing. After I record it, it gets added to a Dropbox link, and my editors take it away, and the assistant does all of the post production and scheduling, and it gets on the Internet, okay. With each of those, with every vlog, with every or every video and every podcast, it's also being added to my website by my assistant, which she is then automatically, this is a feature in squarespace. It can automatically turn into a Pinterest post, which is awesome. And the one thing that I need to work on is taking this content that I'm creating two organic pieces of content, each podcast and each video, and turning that into social media content.

Marina [00:14:52]:

So sometimes I'll post it, sometimes I don't. I'm just out of habit of doing it. But this is the whole content diamond that Larissa and I talked about a couple episodes ago. Every content you create, every piece should then replicate about five to six other websites content in different forms of it, whether that's a written form, a video form, a text form, whatever. There is so many ways to multipurpose every piece of organic content so that you shouldn't feel like you have to create new content every day. But going back to the four day work schedule. So, yes, I do have transactions. Yes, I do have client consultations.

Marina [00:15:26]:

Sometimes a Zoom call can be 45 minutes to an hour with a brand new client, which is part of the process. But on average, if I'm only taking on five to eight new clients a month, like, it's not that many meetings. It's like the initial call and then a couple of showings, and then we're in contract, and then my transaction coordinator flies with it. Like, I don't have to be a part of every single step of any process anymore. I have removed myself and replaced it and delegated it to someone who is more talented and has more time capacity than I do. And I have built this team in this system so that it operates without me. Like, essentially, all I have to do is show up for a couple of meetings, show up for a couple of recordings, and then my business runs on its own. And once you realize that that's possible, because so many of us have so many walls up about letting go of control in our business, it will change your life.

Marina [00:16:20]:

So there's been days where I'm bored, guys. I'm literally like, I don't have anything in the calendar. What am I going to do today? I guess I'll play 30 to 45 minutes of piano, or I guess we'll go to the beach. There's been a couple times this spring, like, a couple weeks, I should say, where I'm just like, escrows are good. My lead flow is good. Like, we don't have to do anything. And it's. I never thought I would get to this business.

Marina [00:16:48]:

I always thought that you would have to push to make something happen, and you don't. You literally just have to be consistent with a couple of key pillars of your business, and it can work for you. And the best thing about content is it's evergreen. It keeps working while you're sleeping. Someone in Korea is watching my content while I'm sleeping. Like, it literally is so crazy. And they will binge hours and hours and hours of you talking on a video if you have the balls to show up on video and serve your audience with value. So I am going to create another solo pod, solo podcast episode just specifically about content creation that converts, because just recently, I've reinvigorated my TikTok after giving it a break.

Marina [00:17:33]:

And in the last three weeks, I've been posting not consistently, like, the experts say I should, like, air quote experts where I'm posting three times a day, but I am probably posting, I mean, like, four to eight new TikToks a week, you know, which is anywhere from, like, three TikToks in a day to one every other day. And it just kind of varies based on my schedule and how I feel. But through that, I've already gotten one buyer client, and I've gotten an agent that wants to mentor with me, and she's from Nashville, and I'm in Hawaii. So TikTok does work, and it can work very fast. Like, it can turn your business around if you take it serious. And I believe that's the same with any platform. Like, I have heard of stories of people who have blown up their business on Instagram today, starting from scratch or reinvigorating it if you have the capacity to be consistent with it. So I.

Marina [00:18:22]:

If I'm being honest with my time right now, I would say an hour a day, minimum. I'm on social media apps, just engaging with people or getting inspiration or actually creating new content. And I'm probably spending 15 to 20 minutes on email a day. And then I spend maybe an hour on education and like some trainings and courses that I'm a part of. Like, yeah, they're like group coaching stuff, and that's like twice a week. And then sometimes I'm spending time on canva, I'm editing my buyer or not my buyer's guide, I'm creating a guide to Oahu. So that's taking some time. We are working on the website, so that's taking some time.

Marina [00:19:05]:

But really, it's not like appointment working or pushing for business. It's more like creative projects on the back end that can work out over time. Like, that's really where my time is going. So it is realistic to have a four hour workday. And then I recognize that if I'm going to grow my business, or if I'm going to put more energy towards this nonprofit or towards the honey company, that's going to add to my plate. So something's got to give. There is a cost to everything. And we go through seasons, so right now it's a very manageable season for me.

Marina [00:19:36]:

But maybe come July, things are going to be very different. And let's say the farm stuff starts picking up all of a sudden, or we have a project we gotta get done. Or for example, I'm sitting two. I'm gonna be at two markets selling honey in June. That takes more time. I'm gonna have to spend some time bottling, packaging, marketing, all that good stuff. Getting supplies, running errands. Like, it just kinda swings.

Marina [00:19:59]:

But if you can find that happy ideal, at least you have a compass, and at least you can tell, yes, I'm off, or no, I'm off. And when you do your Sunday calendar reset, you're gonna know, hey, I need to, like, restructure how this is going, or maybe I need to say no to more people or whatever that is, but I just wanna encourage you guys. Like, it is so doable, and you can make multiple six figures doing it plus and not have to spend a bajillion dollars on stupid online leads. Okay, so I'm gonna wrap this up. Cause it's starting to get into ramble, but it's been on my mind, it's been on my heart. And I just feel like there's so much misbelief and negative talk that you're going through that I want to encourage you. It is possible. It takes delegating.

Marina [00:20:43]:

It takes sacrifice. It takes risk. Everything has a risk. Everything good comes with a risk. But if you believe in it and if you really want it, it is possible. And as a reminder, I know I've got these ad spots in here about mentorship, but that is literally what I do for you, is we will meet once a week, one on one on a Zoom call, and say, what's working this week, what's not working? Great on the not working. Let's do less of that and more of the thing that is working, and then really just identify some of the pain points you have and maybe overcome some hurdles. And sometimes you just need that person, aka me, to say, I believe in you.

Marina [00:21:19]:

Let's do this. Check on you a couple times. And by next week, you have done the thing. I'm your accountability partner, and I'm rooting you on like your biggest cheerleader in your corner. So I just want to encourage you guys. If that's you, definitely go to the website marinatolentino.com. schedule the discovery call. It takes ten minutes.

Marina [00:21:37]:

It says five minutes on my calendly. But realistically, we're going to talk probably ten to 15 minutes. Just a deep dive into what you're struggling with and see if I'm a good fit. And if I am, we're going to have so much fun and you're going to, like, really transform your life and your business. And if I'm not, I wish you all the best, and it's. I can probably recommend you to someone else. To be honest, I have some really great contacts. So I hope you guys have an amazing week.

Marina [00:21:59]:

I hope this encouraged you to just try. Try get clear with yourself with what you really want and freaking go for it. I'll see you next week.