Former Pilot, Nick McLean Builds Huge Real Estate Business Using Checklists

The world moves fast and the landscape of business never stops changing along with it. 

As entrepreneurs, we’re constantly fighting to stay ahead of a beast that moves rapidly, and it’s impossible without the right systems and processes.

In the fast-paced world of aviation, high standards are maintained by leaning on order and awareness of the resources that matter. Now imagine if that same mind frame was applied to real estate, and how unstoppable it could make us. 

Nick McLean brings a whole new meaning to the term “well-oiled” machine. After working as a pilot he entered real estate with the goal of running his business the same way pilots are trained and planes are flown. His aviation-inspired philosophy touches every part of a business, from training to processing transactions and leadership. 

What are the core principles we can learn from the world of jets and planes? How do we apply it to our own procedures and decisions? 

Real estate entrepreneur and former pilot, Nick McLean shared with us the timeless, foundational principles that drive the most successful businesses in the world. 

Highlight Quote 

If you can take ownership in the responsibility of others you will make more money. -Nick McClean  

5 Things We Learned from Nick Mclean 

“In business, as you improve and get ahead, the landscape will continue to follow you.”   

Digital marketing is not always going to be this cheap, the mediums are going to change, and if we’re not constantly shifting too, we’ll get overrun. If you have the copywriting skill, you’ll always be able to compete no matter what that landscape of marketing and business looks like. 

“The best checklists aren’t made for you, they are made for someone else to check your work.”

A checklist isn’t a to-do list, it’s something that can be repeated to get the same result.

It’s a way for agents to check each other’s work. This can help us find errors and holes in the system that we can apply to improve our operations. 

“I had the vision to start a real estate team based on the philosophies and concepts of an aviation company.” 

In aviation, CRM stands for crew resource management, and Nick’s philosophy of managing the resource first came from his flying days. The process is to figure out the aircraft and from there, you can expand your awareness beyond the aircraft because of your foundational skills. In real estate, we need to get a foundation of skills, and then we can expand our awareness. 

“The best captains ask to be held accountable” 

The more experience you have, the more you’re a risk and a liability because you’ll get complacent and skip steps. The higher you climb in business, the more experienced you are, the more you need someone to look after you and hold you accountable.  

“You cannot delegate and expect it to go well the first time, you need to expect the need for feedback, some improvement on the process.”

Many people don’t delegate because they think it’s passing the buck but it isn’t.  Delegation is not a copout, it’s critical if we want to turn our real estate business into a thriving business. This is how to delegate effectively. 

Step 1: Assign it 

Step 2: Brief you on it 

Step 3: Set a deadline 

Step 4: Report back to the deadline, check back and close the loop 

Step 5: Give feedback 

Summary 

On this episode we discussed;

• Why copywriting is the one business skill that will never get outrun by marketing trends.   
• The importance of starting with the foundational skill and then building awareness on top of it. 
• The difference between a checklist and a to-do list and the true purpose of a checklist. 
• Why more experience and skill requires more accountability not less. 
• Nick’s high value and high-level delegation process. 

Guest Info

Nick is an entrepreneur, coach and founder/CEO of the Nick McLean Real Estate Group. The former pilot uses knowledge in systems pilot and applying the same techniques he learned from the aviation industry to build a successful real estate business. 

Website: http://mcleancoaching.com/ 

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Book The War of Art by Steven Pressfield