Do What Only You Can Do — Your $1,000/Hour Love Zone
(Chapters 16–17, 80/20 Sales & Marketing)
Real estate is full of jokes about agents being “CEOs of everything.” You’re the photographer, the copywriter, the marketer, the transaction manager, the therapist, the appraiser, the taxi driver, the janitor, and occasionally a licensed real estate professional.
Perry Marshall has a simple, almost rude, way of describing this:
“You can’t make $1,000 an hour if 80% of your day is spent doing $10 work.”
Chapters 16 and 17 of 80/20 Sales & Marketing are the moment Perry stops being subtle. He walks you straight to the mirror, wipes off the steam, and asks:
Which version of you do you want running your business?
The $10/hour version, or the $1,000/hour one?
The answer determines whether you grow or grind. Think long and hard about about this one. I’ve heard too many agents refuse to utilize services like “Transaction Management” because they say they have to “control the paperwork”.
It’s ludicrous.
❤️ The Work You Love Is the Work That Pays
(Chapter 16: Make $1,000/hr Doing What You Love)
Perry makes a controversial claim: Your highest income comes from doing the work you genuinely love — not the work you tolerate.
Why? Because love creates skill. Skill creates confidence. Confidence creates conversion. Conversion creates referrals. Referrals create more work you love.
In real estate, the “love zones” are almost always the same:
Listing consultations
Negotiation
Pricing strategy
Problem-solving under pressure
Advising clients through chaos
Helping sellers maximize their outcome
Filming videos and teaching your audience
Inspiring someone to take meaningful action
When you're doing the work you love, you move faster, you feel sharper, and your clients feel it.
Perry would say:
“Love is an economic advantage.”
And he’s right.
⚙️ Escape the Grind: Replace Your Worst Hours With Someone Else’s Best Hours
(Chapter 16 + 17)
Every agent has a list of tasks they secretly (or loudly) despise:
Uploading documents to Dotloop/Skyslope
Tweaking the MLS listing description
Creating a flyer in Canva
Resizing photos
Scheduling showings
Updating the CRM
Sending follow-up texts
Formatting a newsletter
Running paperwork from A to B
This is the work that drags you out of your love zone into $10/hour gravity. Yet so many agents still do it. They refuse to hire someone and waste/spend HOURS of their own time doing work that someone else could do better for less money.
Perry’s instruction is absolute:
“Delegate everything except the work that only you can do.”
To many agents, the thought of this is terrifying.
Because here’s the real magic: Other people LOVE the work you hate. Read that again.
Some people love organizing chaos.
Others love details and checklists.
Others love creative design.
Others love writing, filming, editing.
Some love systems, data, or operations.
Your $10/hour energy is someone else’s $100/hour superpower. I know many of you fight me on this… and you KNOW it’s true!
And when their brilliance replaces your burnout, everyone wins.
You just have to be willing to let go.
🎭 80/20 Hiring: It’s Not an Interview — It’s an Audition
(Chapter 17)
Agents hire backwards. They interview first, test later. Perry says flip it:
“Never hire without an audition. Talking is cheap. Performance is priceless.”
If you need a marketing assistant:
Have them write a Just Listed description.
Have them edit a Reel.
Have them create a CMA cover.
Have them outline a drip campaign.
If you need admin support:
Give them a real contract packet.
Give them buyer instructions.
Give them a messy inbox to sort.
See if they think ahead or just complete tasks.
In 72 hours, you’ll know everything you need. No personality quiz required.
This is completely the opposite of how I hired my first full-time assistant. It did work out for me, but the odds were stacked against me.
And it didn’t work out well to start. There was a lot of training and it’s a lot to be in charge of someone else… and if you want to grow, this is unavoidable. The sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll find that person that will help you to launch your business.
Not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. Most people are happy to help you launch as long as they get a regular paycheck. You have to get over that fear.
🧠 The Law of Elevation: Every Task You Release Lifts the Value of the Task You Keep
Every time you delegate something small, the work you keep becomes bigger. This is how you grow without adding hours.
When you stop:
Editing your own photos
Writing your own listing templates
Doing social content in Canva
Managing your own transactions
Formatting your own marketing
Researching your own comps
Re-keying your own CRM data
…you create space for your $1,000/hour love-zone activities.
You create space for:
Negotiating deals
Winning listings
Building relationships
Filming weekly videos
Finding new opportunities
Growing the business
The ceiling lifts when the floor rises. Delegation raises the floor.
🧭 Challenge of the Week
1️⃣ Write down everything you did in the last 48 hours. Circle the things you enjoyed and everything you dreaded. The enjoyed list is your genius zone. The dreaded list is your delegation list.
2️⃣ Pick one item to hire out or hand off this week. Just one. Momentum will do the rest. Don’t get stuck thinking about if you can find someone willing to do that work… because you will. There are plenty of people looking for extra work, even if you only hire for specific tasks.
3️⃣ Replace that reclaimed hour with:
A call to your top referrers
A listing presentation
A CMA walkthrough
A negotiation
A follow-up video
A content piece that positions you as an expert
The work you love is the work that earns. The work you hate is the work someone else will crush for you.
Stop grinding. Start ascending.
